You Can’t Make Me Market My Business

YOU CAN’T MAKE ME MARKET MY BUSINESS

“You must mar­ket your busi­ness.” “You must post on social media.” “Video mar­ket­ing gets more atten­tion.”  We hear this, we even believe it, but we are just not gonna do it. 

Mar­ket­ing experts tell us how to mar­ket effec­tive­ly to strive for the best Return on Our Effort, ROE.  The num­bers don’t lie and still we cross our arm, dig our heels in and refuse.  We stick with our way of social inter­act­ing.  We “Like” oth­er people’s posts and put out a newslet­ter crammed with three months’ worth of infor­ma­tion. The result is typ­i­cal­ly a low open rate because no one is inter­est­ed except your Moth­er.  (and she prob­a­bly doesn’t real­ly read it)

It’s just not mar­ket­ing either, there are oth­er things we know are good for us and yet…we put it off. For exam­ple, going to the den­tist is the right thing for our den­tal health and yet we often put it off.  After all, it’s scary and could hurt.  But let’s be hon­est, once you fol­low through, you feel bet­ter and are glad you did what need­ed to be done.

Today we have many mar­ket­ing options at our fin­ger­tips and even bet­ter, many are free. This is part of what caus­es the overwhelm…which path should you fol­low to get your best ROE? It starts with doing your home­work by stay­ing cur­rent on today’s best prac­tices in social media…which can change tomor­row. Just look back at the Face­book cycle. We began with a Per­son­al page, which led to a Busi­ness Page, than a Face­book group, which segued into Face­book Lives, plus videos, post, boost….OMG!

Here are the most impor­tant things you should do to max­i­mize your mar­ket­ing efforts.

1. Cre­ate Short Videos- edu­cate, demon­strate, offer tips, and be real so your poten­tial clients can relate.  Your phone is your best friend…use it often. Once you cre­ate the video, share every­where, includ­ing all your social media plat­forms, blog, and fel­low blog­gers and posters. Cross mar­ket­ing is smart marketing.
2. Con­sis­ten­cy-Cre­ate con­sis­tent dates that you blog, vlog, post, go Live or what­ev­er is your bag of tricks.  Show­ing up is part of your brand promise. Yes, that means have a date to con­nect with your audi­ence.  The length of the con­tent doesn’t matter…it is the con­sis­ten­cy. Cre­ate a social media and con­tent cal­en­dar and fol­low it.  Set a day aside and cre­ate con­tent that can be post­ed or shared on the days your cal­en­dar dic­tates. If not, just like a den­tist appointment…don’t show up and you will get a “no-show charge.” 
3. Open your Mouth-Pub­lic Speak­ing and Net­work­ing are the best way to build your cred­i­bil­i­ty and vis­i­bil­i­ty. You need to get in front of poten­tial clients. They will see your pas­sion, get ques­tions answered in real time, and hope­ful­ly be inter­est­ed in know­ing more by check­ing out your blog, web­site and posts. If you are ner­vous, use that cam­era or an hon­est friend to practice.
4. Cre­ate a Killer web­site with a:
   1. Clear Mes­sage
   2. Call to Action
   3. Easy to navigate

Now that I told you EXACTLY what to do, what’s stop­ping you? After all, would it be safe to say you want your busi­ness to grow, make more mon­ey, and help your clients? We see it again and again; you know what to do but you don’t. Let’s have a quick Mar­ket­ing Ther­a­py ses­sion and iden­ti­fy com­mon stum­bling blocks. 

1. Too Afraid, Too Shy – We all want to stay safe in our Com­fort Zone. We all pre­fer to stay “safe” but isn’t being an entre­pre­neur about step­ping out and tak­ing a chance.  Fight­ing the fear will take you to new places.
2. Lack of Knowl­edge –We can get so hung up in try­ing to be per­fect!  Is my video, post, blog, pho­tos, etc. pro­fes­sion­al enough?  Don’t wait to be perfect…the world loves real.  While you are at it…there is a PHD in any­thing you want to know wait­ing for you on YouTube, Google search­es, Tech Savvy Teenagers, and more.
3. Image Con­trol ‑I’m hav­ing a bad hair day, I wish I weighed less, my wrin­kles show, I get hung up on my words, and on and on. We are so crit­i­cal of our­selves. But if you wait until you are perfect…well quite frankly, you nev­er will be. Besides, per­fect peo­ple are bor­ing. Look at the Real Dec­o­ra­tors and Stagers Face­book Group to see prime exam­ples of indus­try experts, San­dra Racz and JoAnne Lenart-Weary, shar­ing edu­ca­tion­al tips all while keep­ing it real. From messy hair to live mishaps, they do it all and keep on talking.
4. Mon­ey– Lucky for you most of the mar­ket­ing big­gies are free.  You can’t use this excuse. 

Ther­a­py is over now… get up off the couch and mar­ket like a boss.  Begin by cre­at­ing a Social Media Con­tent Cal­en­dar.  Need some help, down­load a free Social Media Con­tent Cal­en­dar at the Real Dec­o­ra­tors and Stagers Face­book Group page.  Click here.