There’s nothing like a global pandemic and businesses grinding to a halt that makes you evaluate where you are at with your business. If you’ve been evaluating all areas of your business and found yourself looking at your marketing thinking “well this could be working a lot better” or just a straight, “this just isn’t working” analysis, then it’s time to do something about it. So let’s look at the most common pitfalls when it comes to marketing.
You start out strong but it’s inconsistent
We are all guilty of this in some way, shape or form in our lives. We start something with hiss and a roar, only for it to fizzle out a short time later. We get busy, other priorities arise, we lose our enthusiasm, motivation or even our confidence. Sometimes we start with a level of activity that quite simply isn’t maintainable. Marketing is easy when you have no clients, there is all the time in the world… but when it’s working and you’ve got orders, clients and many things to juggle, it starts slipping. OR you feel like what you are doing is not working so you get disheartened and give up.
What to do about it: Do not beat yourself up about it. Gyms actually rely on the fact that not everyone will use their gym memberships with the same gusto they start out. Find a level of “minimum” that is maintainable. Batch content so you do things in bursts and schedule things in, so you do not have to always find the motivation to do what you need to do, it feels like it’s on semi-auto pilot. This minimum activity delivered consistently will do wonders for your marketing. This forms the part of the flow and makes sure you never turn the tap off! And remember, we ALL experience this!
You’re in a state of planning paralysis
You download every lead magnet of the proclaimed experts, you attend every webinar, you have all the tools you could shake a stick at. You have stellar ideas and low and behold you may even have a marketing strategy and plan. But… nothing is actually out there in the world getting your brand awareness up, bringing in clients and making sales.
What to do about it: Go for the path of least resistance, and highest impact. Pick one idea and get it rolling out. You will find that once you start momentum in one area, you are compelled (or inspired) to do the same in other places. Or if you are someone who thrives on pressure, the pressure of people starting to move through your marketing funnel will give you all the motivation you need to keep building the next part of your marketing. Aim for progress over perfection. And aim for progress over scattered
You’re everywhere but none of it works
It’s all about action here, you don’t have a plan you are just getting content out there and doing ALL OF THE THINGS! You keep up this level of activity hoping that something will finally stick, but there’s little traction, those social media likes are not converting to sales and you are starting to get disheartened but may be too scared to stop. We call this “the scattergun” or the “spray and pray” – you are taking shots everywhere, in the hope that sheer activity and effort will eventually result in sales.
What to do about it: Do not stop your activity. Review your activity and check that you have clear call’s to action on what you are saying. Is it clear what the next step is? Have you told your audience what you want them to do? Methodically go through each platform and use the information you have available to you (i.e. analytics, insights etc.) and see what is really happening. From there you have some more information to make informed decisions about the platform.
You’ve got no audience
This issue could be two-fold. You could be new to the game (we all have to start somewhere, so don’t be disheartened), or you have not had a focus on building a group of people you can directly communicate with. This has left you in a position where you feel there’s no audience. But, you always have an audience!
What to do about it: You’re a human, with relationships with other humans, who know others… so none of us are starting from absolute scratch. The key here is to start list building today. Concentrate on direct relationships, email addresses, personal links. Anything that builds direct links to people to build conversation and relationship. Talk to your friends, family, old colleagues, ask them to introduce you to someone or ask them to share your content to their friends/connections. Then don’t abuse this! DO NOT immediately try and sell to these people, build up the relationship capital, add value, be of service and business will happen as the natural progression. The key here is to focus on the relationship, it’s not just “a list”.
You tried it once and it didn’t work
This is my favourite of all the marketing excuses. Whatever “it” may be… a customer email, a Facebook post or an ad. There are just so many elements to getting something working effectively, you can’t expect to fire out something once and for it produce magical results. If you manage this, you have landed a unicorn because this is not the norm! Marketing is about consistency, and just because you’ve built it, does not mean they will come.
What to do about it: Don’t be disheartened and do not throw in the towel. Stick at something and get consistent at it. Tweak small elements (and not all at once!) – the messaging, the call to action, the imagery, the platform, the timing, the frequency, or many other options. Tweak, measure, tweak measure. Once you have thoroughly exhausted and thoroughly tested every option, it might be time to re-evaluate it as an option. Or get an expert involved – you are not the expert at everything, but I can guarantee there is someone who is an expert at what you are trying to do. Hire them, their knowledge and experience is worth their weight in gold. Whether it’s an ads specialist or a copy specialist and everything in between, they can work miracles because they are incredible at what they do.
The fact of the matter is, we have all experienced one or more (or all) of these before. You are definitely not alone if you found yourself nodding along to these points. The good news is, you are completely in control of what you do about it next.
If you need to get your marketing more intentional and set yourself up with marketing that is easy to consistently execute and generate results, then we need to talk. Book a free marketing clarity session to find out where your blocks and pitfalls are and let’s get your marketing working