When Your Marketing Feels Hard ~ Try This
Here’s why your marketing is a struggle, & how to fix it.
When your marketing feels like a total slog… it’s DEMORALISING.
The endless hamster wheel of content creation while you feel like you’re shouting into an empty void.
If you’re marketing feels HARD right now. Like it’s a struggle to get it… working. You’re NOT on your own.
And it’s NOT your fault.
There’s all this messaging that tells you…
You should have a podcast
You should send 5 emails a week
Make sure you jump on trending reels
You must be on Pinterest.
It’s exhausting…
…and when you follow alllll the advice… you end up in a bit of a marketing pickle.
In my conversations with clients, online friends and people in my DMs, I’m noticing a verrrry common trend in marketing that’s making it hard work for people.
I don’t want you to fall into the same trap!
If you’re finding it hard to…
Grow your audience
Get traction with your content
Or make sales
(or all of the above).
I made this post for you…
First up… let’s recap on what marketing even is
Marketing, is simply a process of taking your ideal clients along the buyer’s journey.
The buyer’s journey:
DISCOVER - discovering your brand exists and KNOWING it’s for them
NURTURE - getting to know like and trust your brand
SELL - buying from your brand, investing in your services, becoming a client
Your marketing needs to be doing all of the three jobs… simultaneously.
And that’s your marketing strategy in a nutshell. Having a plan to ATTRACT, NURTURE & SELL to your audience.
Sounds like a lot right! It doesn’t need to be. In fact there are tons of ways you can repurpose your content so it’s doing multiple jobs in one go.
If your marketing feels hard right now… chances are, you have a gap in one of those areas… making it hard to grow your audience and drive sales.
If you're struggling to GROW your audience...
One of the biggest pitfalls I’m seeing business owners fall into at the moment is spending too much time on NURTURING and SELLING to their audience…
And NOT enough time GROWING their audience.
You can get away with it… for a while.
But before long, if you’re not growing your audience and the top end of your marketing funnel, you’re going to start struggling to drive consistent sales.
You might even get stuck in… the launch cycle. A place you definitely don’t want to be.
So… what are you doing to ATTRACT your ideal clients and GROW your audience?
I hear from A LOT (like almost alllll) business owners that thier audience building tool is… Instagram. 😬
And that sets off alarm bells 🚨 for me because…
Sure once upon a time Instagram was GREAT for getting in front of new people and growing your audinecde.
Hashtags helped you get in front of new people. And generally if you hit post, most of your followers would see it…
Fast forward to now and, for the last couple of years you’ve probably seen your Instagram reach falling and falling.
Here's what happened to my client's Instagram reach over the last 12-months... This is from across the board of clients with 250k -3k subscribers - it’s happening to us ALL!
Unless of course you’re playing the reels game and dancing to the tune of the algorithm. 😴
Instagram is not the discover marketing platform it once was.
Its a great place to nurture people, so they can get to know like trust. But it’s no longer a great discover platform.
If you’re relying on Instagram to grow your audience… and it’s happening at a snail’s pace…
You need to find a new way to grow your audience.
Great DISCOVER marketing channels
Outreach - Speaking on people’s podcasts, guest posting on blogs, collaborations with people who reach your ideal audience.
SEO & Blogging - Where people can discover you through google search. Think of this as passive marketing, you create a post once and there’s no limit to the volume of traffic it can drive over time.
Ads - Paying for reach on social media, Google and across other platforms.
If you're struggling to get TRACTION with your marketing content...
Once someone has discovered you and come into your world ~ you need to NURTURE them so they get to know, like and trust you.
Because until someone knows, likes and trusts you, they aren’t going to buy from you.
So this is an important part of your marketing strategy.
The good news is… This is usually where I see business owners have it covered.
Maybe you share a weekly podcast
Perhaps you’ve got a weekly YouTube video series
Maybe you’re showing up daily on Instagram.
In the nurture stage of your marketing strategy is where Instagram can really come through for you. So if you like creating social media content and you love the interactions - this is where you want to be for your nurture marketing.
Great ways to get more TRACTION with your NURTURE marketing
If you’re regularly sharing NURTURE marketing content but it’s a lil’ bit… tumbleweed… the chances are it’s just not connecting with your audience in the way you want it to.
While you DON’T want to get hung up on the vanity metrics ~ traction (engagement, comments, shares, saves, likes, replies) are an indication of how your audience are connecting with your content.
If you’re not getting much of those things right now you probably need to get to know your audience on a deeper level to understand what kind of content they want and need from you.
I’m NOT talking about how old they are, where they live and what car they drive. Snore 🥱
I’m talking about understanding your audience on an emotional level.
When you understand your audience’s struggles, challenges and frustrations as well as their goals, dreams wants and needs - it UNLOCKS all the answers about what you need to talk about in your content.
If you're struggling to drive SALES with your marketing...
The other gap I tend to see in business owner’s marketing strategies is at the SALES stage.
I get it, sales can feel uncomfortable and hard. It’s a process to start feeling totally confident about sales.
But if you’re not selling, you don’t have a business. Soz for the tough love 🤎
This is where I tend to get a bit prescriptive and evangelical about… EMAIL. And that’s because…
In a study, when compared to social media and other marketing channels - email had the highest sales conversion rate - Data & Marketing Association.
And it makes sense because…
You’re not having to fight with an algorithm. If you’re sending decent emails it’s unlikely they’re going to junk. So you can pretty much guarentee when you send an email it’s going to land in your subscriber’s inbox.
When someone subscribes to your emails, they likely already know, like and trust you. In other words they’re ready to learn more about how you can help them and your paid offers.
I see allll too many business owners missing out on the HUGE sales-opportunity that email offers. They tend to fit into two camps…
ONE: I’m building a mailing list but I’m not sending emails. It feels overwhelming to create email content.
The issue here is obvious… you’re building a mailing list… but not emailing your subscribers.
I know you’re overwhelmed by writing emails, but here’s the thing…
If you’re writing instagram captions, you’re writing emails.
Your emails don’t need to be war and peace length sagas.
Figure out a name and tagline for your emails (to help you get more subscribers on your list and form a theme or topic for them that helps you write them), and start sending emails weekly.
You can start by repurposing some of your most popular Instagram posts into emails.
Don’t forget to include a sales message.
TWO: I’m sending emails but they’re sporadic, because I don’t want to bombard people. And I’m not selling in them, partly because I’m nervous about unsubscribes.
Here’s what I’d say…
Define bombard.
I’m subscribed to a coupe of mailing lists that email me multiple times a week, and I get excited about reading them!
Truth is, if you’re sending good emails ~ your audience are going to be excited to receive them - even if that’s multiple times a week.
And don’t forget that when people join your mailing list, they already know, like and trust you enough to hand over their email address to you. That means they probably want to know more about how they can work with you too.
So don’t miss selling in your emails. That’s step one of how to make more sales from email.
If people unsubscribe - that’s OK! It means they weren’t a great fit for your mailing list. AND it means they were unlikely to ever buy from you… and reminder, your email list is there as a nurture & sales channel for your business.
If you’re doing everything you need to ATTRACT new ideal clients into your world and NURTURE then so they know, like and trust you, don’t let a gap in this last part of your marketing strategy be the reason you’re not making sales.
Keep flexing that sales muscle and before long it’ll just be habit to make regular sales, and regular sales emails part of your marketing strategy.
Get ready to see the sales roll in. 🤎
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