Show Notes

Either business owners dive in head first and they start doing all the things that they’ve heard work, without a strategy, or they don’t do anything at all.

I want to get back to the basics of marketing on this episode about what you should know BEFORE marketing your business.

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Hey there. Thanks for listening and welcome to the marketing matchmaker podcast. If you're looking to grow your business, increase your revenue and scale your impact all while staying true to who you are and the people you serve. This is the show for you. I'm Jennifer Tamborski, digital marketing strategists, fractional CMO, and founder of Virtual Marketing Experts. My team and I work with six and seven figure coaches, consultants, and online entrepreneurs who are tired of playing the guru game of one size fits all marketing. They're ready to create a business and marketing strategy that actually builds relationships with their ideal clients creates massive shifts in their business and rapidly increases their revenue. As your marketing matchmaker, I'm going to help you find the perfect marketing match for you. This show will teach you how to reach your ideal client, connect with your audience, build that perfect relationship and generate more revenue. All through a process I like to call dating your ideal client. Now let's go have some fun!

Hey there, welcome back to Marketing Matchmaker. So this year I started out the year really going back to basics. Hey, and we've gone through a lot of different pieces of the basics of marketing over the last couple of months in this podcast. And as we're wrapping up the first quarter, I kind of wanted to swing back to that idea; let's get back to basics. What is it that what we should be doing, or we should know, or what kind of information should you have before you start marketing your business?

Reality is, is that a lot of people jump right into marketing their business or they don't market it at all one or the other, right? Either, either business owners dive in head first and they start doing all of the things that they've heard work without a strategy in place without any kind of follow up in place without any kind of really idea of what it is, their specific marketing campaigns are going to accomplish, or they don't do anything at all.

And they go into what we lovely refer as entrepreneur witness protection program, where they have a business, but they don't actually let anyone know they have a business. If you are on either end of those spectrums, I'd encourage you to pull back for a second and listen to some of these basic ideas that you wanna have in place before you jump out there into the whole marketing world.

First make sure that you really understand your customers, that you can connect with them on a basic foundational level. And what I mean by that is a lot of business owners, I've heard it before, especially in the coaching industry where they say things like, you know, my product, service, or solution can help everyone. And I love working with all of these different types of people doing all of these things. Here's the thing when you're trying to market with, to everyone, nobody is actually going to hear you.

So becoming really clear about who you're marketing to. So who is your ideal client, knowing everything about them. And I've said this in many, many episodes of Marketing Matchmaker, before that you really, really get to come dive in really deep learning all of their problems, all of what is keeping them stuck, how you can move them through that.

Two, the second part of that is really niching down into what it is you're selling, especially as a coach. As coaches, business coaches, life coaches, health coaches, sometimes we get into this mindset of all of the things are what I wanna do. Like I wanna help everybody just get to that next level, whatever that level is. And we have so many ideas that we're trying to sell them all. Again, the problem with that is that confused audiences never buy.

So being really clear about what you sell and who you sell it to is step one in your marketing. Having these two foundational pieces will really make it much easier to create and craft a, a marketing strategy and a marketing plan that will help you be successful and profitable, and really be able to grow your business. Also, keep in mind that you want your brand to be able to relate to your audience, or let me reverse that, you want your audience to be able to relate to your brand.

Your brand, your message, your business has to be relatable to who your audience is. So if your audience, if you're targeting let's say moms who are in the, I don't know, 50 to a hundred thousand dollars income level range, you kind of wanna make sure that your brand isn't trying to sell Louis Vuitton right, because that's not a relatable item for most people in that audience.

When you target, keep your brand in mind. If you are targeting a really high end product, service, or solution, you also need to be targeting people who can afford those high end solutions and your brand needs to be consistent with that high end field. Which means that you need to have a really smooth process of going from introduction to commitment, and most importantly, keeping the romance alive. Without that smooth process, that customer experience becomes difficult for your audience to relate to you as a high quality brand, a high end brand.

If your target market is someone who is maybe not looking for that high end brand, maybe, maybe you're targeting that brand new entrepreneur who while they would love to get to the high end stage isn't ready yet. So you wanna make sure that while all of your things, all of the, the process is really high end and connects with your audience that your brand also does that.

So what is your messaging to these people? And does it speak to who they are now? Always keep in mind, our goal with marketing is to meet them where they are to take them where they want to go. That means that your message has to meet them in the place they are right now. If your messaging gets a little too far outside of where they are right now, they can't see it. They can't hear it. They can't feel it. And without those connections to you, they can't buy it. So make sure the, that your brand relates to your audience and that your audience can relate to your brand.

Here's something that I think a lot of coaches, especially in the early stages of business, and I think sometimes a lot of entrepreneurs in general, whether you're in the coaching industry or any other industry, I think this hits an issue with almost everyone. And that's really knowing your worth in the market. Understanding that there are market averages when it comes to a business, right? And knowing where your positioning is within that, are you at the low end, the medium end, the high end?

Here's what I find most business owners, especially coaches who are getting ready to scale their business, started out at a low cost price point. Totally awesome and fine. That's where they started. And there comes a point in your business when you get to look at it and go, is the value that I add worth more than what I'm charging. I would say 99% of the time yes, yes it is. And we get to overcome that imposter syndrome that tends to rear its ugly head.

When we're charging under what market value is, you are never going to win customers on price. That's just, that's just a fact. You may win them for the short term, but you will not win them for the long term. They may buy your $12 item, but they won't stick with you because of price, especially in the coaching industry. In the coaching industry, it is all about the value you provide. If you, if your whole marketing message is based on, I am the cheapest. Well, is the cheapest always the best? Because that's what we're looking for when we, when we buy things or I would hope.

I often will I buy a cheaper pair of jeans, one from another depends on where I'm at in my life. Sometimes I will, but if I want something that's really going to change my life. If I want that pair of jeans that makes my butt look like amazing. I'm not gonna buy the cheap one. I'm going to buy the best one. And that especially is true in the service based industry.

So whether you are the cheap cheapest is not going to end up getting you to the point in your business that you want to get to. Because when you are the cheapest, if you can sell on volume, you're gonna win. But if you are the cheapest and you can't sell volume, you're never going to make those six and seven figures. It's just not possible. If you are the cheapest widget, you know, if everyone else in, in the world sells this widget for $20 and you sell it for $10, you can actually compete on volume for that on price for that, because you can sell by volume.

But if you're in the service based industry, if you are a coach, a consultant or any other type of service provider, you cannot grow a business and scale based on price. You can't be the cheapest and expect to grow. And most likely people aren't looking for the cheapest. They are really looking for the value you can provide, who is going to be best in the industry.

One of the things that I know people run into, a little issue, is really cost of marketing, right? They see it as an expense. Here's the thing. Marketing really should be an investment in your business. There are, there is a really good breakdown of where you should be spending your money. I don't know if you've ever read profit first or, or if you've ever looked at a business breakdown of, of where your money should go. But on average, you should be investing 30% minimum of your revenue in marketing and sales.

And just on a little bit of a side note there marketing, not sales, they are two different things. Marketing informs your audience of who you are, what you do, who you serve. And it warms them up to get them to the sales point. But marketing is not sales. It is the way to get your customers into your sales cycle. They are two different things that work together and work hand in hand.

When we look at that, our marketing and sales budget is, should be around 30% of your revenue should be reinvested in your business in that. So you can continue to grow and scale. It should be an dependent piece of your business. You want to avoid marketing, being the last thing you do on your list. Because if you're not marketing, people don't know you're there. If they don't know you're there, they can't buy from you.

If they're not buying from you, you can't grow and scale your business. So always keep in mind that marketing is an independent piece of your business and should be looked at it from that perspective. When you are marketing your business, make sure that you are transparent and authentic, and you are who you are and that you love what you do. I will be honest. I get on these videos and these, this podcast every week, and just present myself as who I am. And I'm really authentic to who, what I do. And if you haven't learned by now, I love talking about marketing.

So if you can come to your marketing from that area of this is who I am. I love me. I love helping other people do whatever it is you do. It is going to make your marketing so much easier. It really will. It'll make it feel less like a job, less overwhelming, and more of just a piece of something I do to help me grow my business on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Always be yourself when it comes to your marketing.

One of the things that I know that we've gone over a couple of times in the last couple of months, actually the last year, I guess, is your data in your marketing and why you need to be aware of it. So when you are aware of what is working in your marketing, by using your data, you are able to capitalize on it. You can really focus more of your time, attention and money on what's working and start dropping off those things that aren't.

Make sure that while you're marketing your business, that you are being aware of these pieces, that you're capitalizing on what is working so that you can allow your business, the ability to adjust and pivot based on positive numbers, rather than guessing at what's going on in your business. And your marketing numbers are incredibly important when it comes to your business. It's beyond just marketing numbers. There are a lot of other KPIs that go into it. Keep in mind though that when you're marketing, you really need to be aware of those numbers and where everything is going. That piece will really help you to grow and scale in a way that you may not have thought of in the past.

When it comes to the basics of your marketing, the most important thing, the top number one thing to ever do when it comes to your marketing is getting started. If you are not marketing your business, if you are in that witness protection program where people are not aware of who you are, your business will never succeed. If you really want your business to be successful, if you want to have all of the benefits of having a six and seven figure business, marketing is the key.

It is step one of growing a business.

It's not an afterthought.

It is the primary thing you should be doing to, to those high six and seven figures. If you are struggling with your marketing and maybe getting started, I would love to hop on a call, head over to yourmarketingmatchmaker.com and let's schedule a free consult call to learn more about you and help you to get to that point where you are ready to scale to those high six and seven figures.

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 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 yourmarketingmatchmaker.com. I look forward to hearing from you.