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Show Notes

Are you feeling overwhelmed and confused by online marketing? Tired of disappointing results, but unsure why your strategy isn’t working? Then this episode is for YOU! I’m discussing five common mistakes that business owners make when attempting to market their businesses. Learn how avoiding these missteps can really give a boost to achieving the results you want and deserve.

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Are you a coach, consultant, or online course creator who are looking to grow your business, increase your income, and scale your impact? Connect with me at YourMarketingMatchmaker.com I look forward to hearing from you.

Jennifer:

Hey there, welcome back to Marketing Matchmaker, I don’t know about you, but we are diving deep into the holiday season at this point in my household. And it’s amazing to have all three of my kids back home in one place where we can actually interact and have a good time and really just, you know, enjoy each other during this holiday season. So I encourage everyone to enjoy this time of year. And I also know that for some, it can be really stressful.

So if trying to juggle work and business and your family life is becoming kind of hectic for you, my top tip is really go find yourself some time to have some me time, even if it’s just taking an extra long shower or a bubble bath, relax, decompress, step away, this time of year is a great time to really release things that aren’t serving you in your life.

Which kind of leads me into this topic. Now, I love really looking back at my year of how things have gone, what is gone, right, what has not gone right. And really understanding, from my perspective, how I can best get rid of the things that didn’t serve me this year. So I really spent some time around this time of the year, really reflecting on maybe what I didn’t do so well that I can do better next year, and just releasing all of that getting rid of getting rid of that those things that are not serving me.

And I also know, well, there are mistakes that we all make, which honestly is today’s topic. So today we’re talking about marketing mistakes that I see people making all the time.

I know that for a lot of business owners, whether you’re a coach, a consultant, a service provider, that you like the idea of marketing, right, you like the idea of getting out there and being front and center of people, and you may not be fully on board with the whole process of it, or how to really build your online business to be able to scale it.

If that’s you, if you’re struggling with your marketing, it may be that you are making some of these mistakes. So keep listening, because I’m going to give you some five common mistakes I see business owners making all the time in their business that really stops them from growing and scaling to those next levels.

Remember, marketing is key to really growing your business because without marketing, you don’t have leads. And without leads, you don’t have sales and without sales. Well, let’s be honest, you don’t really have a business. So being able to avoid these common mistakes can really help you to accelerate your marketing.

And being online, digital marketing, online marketing, whatever you want to call it is really essential in this day and age 90% of the population is online. They are able to see you and find you and communicate with you and interact with you. So make sure that your digital marketing is avoiding these common reasons of failure.

So the first mistake I want to bring to your attention is the one where you might not be following all the way through on your marketing and really fully executing that customer journey. I know I’ve talked about customer journeys in the past and realistically we can I can do a whole episode on that. Reality is is that most people are really focused on marketing.

As far as visibility goes. They’re thinking about social media and how to get out there and how to be visible. But it kind of stops there for them. Most of them don’t actually follow through they stop when when they really get to that most important parts of it.

All of the things you’re doing, posting on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and writing blog and even podcasts, all of those things that help people find you and raise awareness, that’s the attraction stage or introduction stage, or sometimes flirting depending on where you’re coming from stage of your business.

It’s where customers become aware of who you are. It’s kind of like building a garden with flowers that are colorful and smell great. And they attract the bees and butterflies. But really not going any farther than that. In order for someone to actually become a paying client, your relationship needs to go much further than that. I talk about relationship marketing all the time, the old dating your ideal client is about just that. It needs to be more than just you showing up and being visible. Although, believe me, that is important, too.

And a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with getting beyond visibility. Well, heck, a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with just being visible. That entrepreneur witness protection program isn’t a joke. I mean, it is and it isn’t. People hide all of the time, the stuff that you’re doing that gets you an online attention, and maybe gets people to glance at it, or consume your content.

It’s fleeting, and they’re on to the next big thing. Content creators out there. Yes, they’re making an income at content creation. But they’re not necessarily bringing in clients through content creation. So if your marketing system is not set up to move people beyond that initial cost attraction stage, if you don’t have something that is, is bringing them through your funnel and into your customer journey that deepens that interaction, and that engagement and that relationship with your audience. So that you can build that know, like, and trust, it’s never going to work.

You can post on social media a million times a day, you can create every tick tock video out there. But if you don’t have a follow up system, or the next steps, your marketing is not going to get you where you want it to go.

Mistake number two is something that I’ve talked about, I think in the last three or four podcasts, content. Video content creation.

I know I know, I hear you right now I hear that big groan. The reality is is that people connect with you because they can see you and they can hear you and they can get a feel for who you are before they get on that call.

I know that for a lot of people creating videos or being live or doing podcasts or anything like that can be scary.

However, a video can really create that bond. There is a reason that workshops and webinars and live events and, and five day challenges and those kinds of things are staples in the digital world. It’s because people connect with you better when they can see you and when they can interact with you and when they can connect with you.

So making sure that you have video content in your marketing strategy is essential to really ramping up your marketing in the new year. If you don’t have video content, start small. No one says that you need to go do an hour long video or a podcast, a weekly podcast, but at least begin begin doing some lives or begin pre recording and posting it on your social media.

Get yourself out there get started that is what is going to help you to really engage and connect with your audience. I promise you video doesn’t hurt, it’s not going to melt you you really will be able to connect a whole lot better through video than through any other medium.

Mistake number three. This is a mistake that I actually had a whole episode of and that is confusing selling with marketing.

Most people lump them all into the same basket. And the reality is, is that selling is very different than marketing. Marketing is designed to introduce you to your ideal audience. To connect with them to warm them up to nurture them, to really bring them into your world so that you can sell to them.

However, I see all the time, this idea that you can go direct to sales without any lead up and without any marketing, when we talk about dating your ideal client, that’s kind of like walking into a bar going up to some one you’re attracted to, and immediately asking them to marry you. Number one, it very rarely works, I’m not gonna say it never works.

I know people who have gotten married after five minutes of knowing each other, but it very rarely works. And beyond that, it’s kind of a little creepy to think that somebody is going to invest in you, without any kind of warm up first, right. That’s why we focus on the idea of dating your ideal client. Again, it’s all about building a relationship with them creating that know like, and trust interacting with them engaging with them, creating a bond, so that it makes the sales process easy and effortless.

Really focus on serving your clients and providing value to your client or to your audience and your clients, to your audience through marketing. Marketing allows you a platform that is different than your coaching or training platforms, it’s really allows you a place to connect with in a different way. And also to warm up and nurture the people that you want to work with long term.

Understand that every post can’t be a sales post, it just can’t every video can’t be about selling your product service or solution. There needs to be value in that. So keeping in mind that there is a distinct difference between sales and marketing. And if you do one, well, the other becomes easy.

Mistake number four. Not automating your systems.

I love technology, I am the first person to stand up and say technology is both, well, I think it’s both the best thing and the worst thing that has happened to us depending on the day and how it’s behaving. That being said, when you are able to automate your process your customer journey, you’re able to really engage with and connect with a much wider audience.

If you are trying to do everything, one person at a time, that can become exhausting. I mean, let’s be honest, organic marketing is a heavy lift for people. It is time consuming. It is something that takes hours sometimes out of our day. And if we’re able to really add that automation piece in there, it can save us so much time not only that, it can allow people to connect with us when we’re maybe not available to connect with.

Organic marking is a beautiful thing. And when you add automation to your marketing strategy, it really does allow you to open up to a much larger community and a much larger audience. automation can help you create a customer journey that is seamless and effortless and repeatable. which then makes it easier for you to scale your business.

The last mistake that I see people making all the time is data, not tracking your results.

Here’s the thing. I know that oftentimes data and numbers can be confusing and overwhelming with people. However, if you don’t track what you’re doing, and what is working and what isn’t working, how are you going to know what is working and what isn’t working, you may be spending a ton of time energy and effort creating content that isn’t working or creating a program that doesn’t sell or a lead magnet that isn’t actually bringing in an audience.

All of these things are trackable. Even if it’s just networking, you may be spending a ton of time in a networking group where you’re not getting anything from them, which then makes it a waste of your time. Once you really understand your numbers, you are much more empowered to make the right decisions when it comes to your marketing and your business.

Then, I mean, for me, marketing becomes really fun, because you know what worked and what didn’t. And you can scale back on the things that didn’t work and scale up on the things that did, or refined the ones that didn’t work or just changed them entirely.

It is so much easier for you to really understand what’s going on in your business, when you have those numbers in front of you.

My friend, I promise you data does not have to be overwhelming or scary, it can be enjoyable and fun. Just make sure that you’re consistently tracking it. Track your results!

Okay, so those are my five mistakes that I see business owners making when it comes to digital marketing, or just marketing in general, honestly.

Now, if you’re not making these mistakes, then yay for you, my friend, I am so excited for you, you can give yourself a huge pat on the back or round of applause because that’s awesome. However, if you found any of these mistakes as something that is appearing in your marketing or your business right now, and you know you’re making some of them, my advice to you is to really assess what you’re doing right now, so that you know what your changes you can make in the new year.

You don’t necessarily have to do all of these things at once. Absolutely want to focus on at least one of them and making concerted effort to changing these mistakes.

You don’t have to overhaul your whole online strategy right now. Just make small changes to improve and work on and keep moving forward over time.

Now, I will say if you’re not exactly sure where to start, or if digital marketing is a huge beast, that you’re just completely daunted by and you know that you really want to start doing it in the new year, but you really don’t know where to begin. Then let’s get on the phone and talk about it. You can head over to yourmarketingmatchmaker.com and schedule a marketing exploration call. I love working with my clients to really help them grow their business, increase their revenue, and scale their impact through digital marketing.

OUTRO: Thank you for listening to the marketing matchmaker podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love to hear your feedback. Please head over to Apple iTunes and leave a review so we can hear from you. And if you are a coach, consultant or online course creator who are looking to grow your business, increase your income and scale your impact. Connect with me at your marketing matchmaker.com I look forward to hearing from you.