It is so easy to invest in loads of ‘stuff’ as a small business owner - new shiny offers that claim to earn gazillions within 3 months. From online courses, subscriptions to marketing tools, workshops, networking, branding, social ads, and more, there are so many.
Likewise, investing your precious time in developing content to promote your services but seeing no engagement or immediate rush of sales inquiries from all that time spent is a common moan I hear.
All this means it is then too easy to lose momentum, or never make the most of anything you have invested your precious budget in!
What seems like a great deal cost-wise then gets no return because there’s too much else on your to-do list. Or, before you know it, the trial is up, the course is no longer available, the content is out of date, or the membership is up for renewal, and you’ve never made the most of it.
And I’ll admit – I have been guilty of this. I have wasted money, signing up for courses that I never completed and when I had the time, the course was out of date. Another regular investment pre covid when everything was face to face was booking to attend networking events and being too busy to do so!
I know all too well that client work takes priority for small business owners or solopreneurs as we all have to generate an income. Also, if your business is just you, or you don’t have anyone in-house who takes ownership of your marketing, there is never enough time to fully implement something new, even harder to accomplish if it’s completely out of your comfort zone!
There is all too often a lack of clarity for many around what marketing to invest in that will be sustainable for you to manage and give you a return too. There is so much choice and many are swayed by the dreaded FOMO so you jump on everything and then pay it lip service in terms of focus. After a while, you then wonder why it’s not generating any new client enquiries. A case in point is social media – lots of channels to be active on, no cost if you DIY. I know many feel they need to get a profile created on them all and then get totally overwhelmed because it takes so much time to manage or becomes costly to outsource.
Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, read on......
Recently I’ve hosted the education section for several networking meetings. Each was focused on what I teach and encourage for my own clients on how to best use their precious time and budget when it comes to their marketing.
A key message from this education session is to keep it simple! For example, choose just 1 social media platform and really get to know it and fully use all that it offers!
Yes, that’s right, no more than 1!
This allows you time to consistently show up and engage, every single day, without it having to take up hours of your time. It allows you space and focus to invest some money in training to really master your chosen platform as this will give you the knowledge and confidence to start to see traction on your investment.
It doesn't have to be social media of course; it should be the marketing channels that are going to get you noticed and build rapport with your specific ideal customers. Social media is a good example as it can be a cost-effective way to market your services. The caveat to cost effective is that you need to manage it and ensure you consistently show up – splitting your precious time equally between sharing content and engaging and growing your community.
What you cannot do is ignore any investment in marketing at all.
However, a word of caution here. Make sure you have a defined strategy and a plan first, or choose to outsource to someone who can work with you on these critical elements of your marketing. Either way, you need to be crystal clear on who your audience is, where they are and the messages you need to be using in your marketing content to resonate with them, so they want to know more about your services and buy from you. If thiis is out of your comfort zone - this could be worth investing in because its a critical part of growing your business.
If you choose to merrily invest in outsourcing your social media or any other aspect of your marketing without a strategy and some goals in place, then I can guarantee you will be wasting your money!
Why?
Because marketing is not about huge follower numbers or friends in the thousands or posting random unrelated content when you remember. Your goal with any marketing is to create interest and engagement from a specific audience who are best suited for the services you offer through consistent and targeted outbound content combined with engagement and follow-up. You are looking to invite them to join your 'know, like and trust' journey which is a key part of them becoming ready to work with you.
If that resonates with you then let’s have a chat.