How To Super Charge Your Marketing
In my line of work, as a public speaking coach, and someone helping women to find their WHY, I see many of my clients struggling with marketing. And they are not alone.
There are many thousands of small businesses out there who are super brilliant at what they do, but they don’t do as well as their competitors – who are frankly not as good. And the reason is almost always – poor or inconsistent marketing.
Sometimes it stops the business from growing as it should, it can even close their business down, and it always negatively affects the bottom line. So why does this happen?
The Difficulties of Marketing as a Small Business
Well, there are a number of factors that impact how well a business markets itself.
Often (incredibly) marketing is the last thing a small business owner thinks about.
It makes sense if you think about it. Most people start a business doing something for themselves that they previously did for someone else. They were very good at it, and they knew they could outperform their previous employer because they could be more agile, they could put right all the things they thought was wrong with their previous business or at the very least – they could undercut others because they wouldn’t have the overheads.
And so – they start a business. They maybe have one or two clients already lined up. And because they are very good at what they do, the word soon spreads and they get some more customers. In fact, they often get so many customers through word of mouth that they struggle to deal with them all, and the last thing they think they need is marketing which would get them even more clients.
However, they are wrong. And here’s why.
They struggle on until they decide they HAVE to hire someone to do some of the work (employed or contractor). And here lies the first problem. They don’t have time to train that person, so they hire someone they think can already do the job. That may or may not turn out to be true – certainly, they won’t be doing it the same way as the owner. But even if they do an OK job – they are an expense the owner can’t really afford.
So, they need more work. They now HAVE to market themselves.
They don’t really have a lot of time – hence not training the person they brought in to help. And they certainly don’t have much money – because they are paying for their expensive hire. And so they try and do something on the cheap. They may try Social Media – because that is what everyone does nowadays right?
The problem is they are looking at things in a short term “me-focused” way, and get right on with trying to sell their stuff on social media. This is probably not going to work because:-
- They don’t have a plan, they are not being strategic.
- People don’t want to be sold to on Social Media – the clue is in the name!
- They are inconsistent so the algorithms work against them
- If they try advertising – they don’t know what they are doing and are trying it on a whim.
- When it doesn’t work – they stop doing it, blaming “social media” rather than realising that nothing worthwhile happens overnight or without cost or knowledge. A bit like going on a diet for a week and stopping because ‘it doesn’t work’ as you haven’t lost a stone in the last 7 days.
- Even if they do a reasonable job on their marketing, they fail to stand out, because of all the noise.
This last point (and the first) are really key to the problems small businesses have with marketing. You have to know why you are doing it and what the end game is – otherwise your marketing will be all over the place and have no cohesion.
And you have to stand out.
How Do You Stand Out In Your Marketing?
One of the best ways I know is to have a product, service or even just a Story – which is different from everyone else. What do I mean by that? Let me explain.
So – at the beginning of the pandemic, as people switched to an “at home” world, many coaches began interviewing people on zoom. Now everybody is doing it. So, we are not. We are interviewing people face to face – LIVE. (in a socially distanced manner of course).
People switched to doing presentations to screen – even TED talks were (and are) presented from your front room or bedroom. So we have reversed that and switched to hosting LIVE talks (again in a safe and socially distanced way), that are professionally recorded at a level much higher than your average laptop or PC camera.
During lockdown everyone thought about writing a book….and then realised how difficult that is. So we decided to write books FOR people (approved/edited by them of course) so that they could fulfil their dream of being a published author.
Making Marketing Easy
And now our marketing is easy. Our product is unique and therefore stands out from the crowd. There is no one else with a product like the Live, Love, Laugh, LIVES. Where women can not only get coached on how to present like a pro, but also get the platform to present on, captured live by a professional videographer, AND get a professionally shot LIVE interview with me, promoting their business. AND not only all of that, but have their talks, their stories, turned into a professionally edited and published book.
Of course, it helps if you have a professional and expert social media company creating and publishing your posts and blogs. I strongly believe that the only way you can grow your business is to recognise what your area of genius is and to outsource everything else. That’s why we have hire experts!
If you recognise that you are not an expert in marketing, blog writing and social media, then I highly recommend you speak to Carole Fossey and her team at Strategy Social Media who have supported us for the last 4 years. She has a free group called Grow Your Business With Marketing and Social Media (I wonder what that’s about? Lol) click here to join it.
How Can You – Live Love Laugh LIVE and Stand Out From The Crowd?
Our current event on April 23rd is full at the time of writing. We were looking for 6 people and have actually squeezed in 9, but that’s it, I’m afraid. Sorry if you wanted to get involved this time and haven’t been able to – but fear not! Our next date has now been confirmed for July 16th. So please email me at cheryl@cheryl-chapman.com if you need some more info or if you know you want to reserve one of the places for that day.
Our first book, full of our amazing speakers from previous events is out on May 6th – you may have seen the posts about it, but watch out on my social media for more info about that. And if you want to get involved and improve your speaking skills but you are not yet ready to get live in front of the (real) camera then come and join me in my free Facebook Group – How To Speak With….
In this group, I go live on a regular basis and share tips and tactics for speaking – whether that is on FB live, in front of a camera or on stage.
Whatever you do – keep on Being Seen, Being Heard and Being YOU!