The MondayMorning Marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA group, bringingpremiere online promotion to your business.
And Melanie of Stump Social Media training, who empowersbusiness owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Welcomeback to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today we'retalking about marketing and how it only works when you... Okay, so lots ofthings to dive into here, but first...
Yeah. So marketing only works when you do what?
Well, everything. I was talking to somebody the other dayand they said, because they're a solopreneur, then they have to do everythingin their business. They are the marketer, they are the image creator. So theyare everything in their business when it comes to marketing. They are the adsmanager, they are the brand ambassador, they are the logo designer, etc. But that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about what you have todo to make marketing work for your brand. So give us an example.
Well, I think if you're intending to market yourself, it's much... A lot of people think, Well, I just need to tell everybody what I doand how I do it and where I do it, and that should be enough. But basically,you're spamming people if you're just generalising like that, which is funnybecause I'm a generalist and so are you pretty much. But it's so much easier totalk about direct and specific aspects of support or guidance or a product or aservice than it is to say, I help you with marketing. That's not enough. If yousay, I help you with LinkedIn marketing, I help you find good and appropriateconnections and that stuff. So be more specific, I think, as marketing onlyworks when you are specific.
It does. It also only works when you are consistent. So ifyou only post once a month or once every six months, you're not beingconsistent. I'm not saying you have to post every single day. I'm just sayingpost when you have something to talk about and post it consistently. So ifevery Monday, like us, we have our podcast that goes out every Monday. So wepost every Monday about our podcast. So that's us being consistent. We throw upthe podcast. We have it all ready for you guys to listen to so that your Mondayis off to a consistent start by listening to our marketing podcast. So find away that works for you. If it is only once a month, then fine, but make sureit's on the same day and time each month. So your followers know that's whenyou're going to do it.
I think marketing also only works when you set aside adeliberate marketing budget and don't just go, Oh, I've got an extra 100 quidthis week, this month or whatever. Because I think people generally feel, Well,if I feel I've got the money in the account, I'll do it. But I think you've gotto really set aside, and it doesn't have to be sizable, but you have to setaside a smallish budget whilst you're being consistent, of course. Yeah,absolutely. You've just got to be realistic. You've got to pay for these thingsthese days. You've got to pay to play.
Yes, unfortunately. That doesn't matter what platform you'reon, which is another thing we're going to talk about. Your marketing only workswhen you're on the correct platform for you. It doesn't work when you're on theplatform that you like best necessarily. It only works for your audience's. Soif they're on a different platform than you are, you need to get on thatplatform and use the correct media on that platform. So if you're on Instagram,use images visually lovely and inviting images. If you're on TikTok, obviouslyit's videos and with or without music, with audio, obviously, subtitles alsohelp think of your audience. Marketing only works when you study youranalytics. I know, here I go again talking about the numbers and the boring bitabout... Sorry to keep you awake on a Monday morning, or maybe even driftingyou off to sleep on a Monday morning. But your analytics tell you everythingyou need to know. How many people are on the platform? How many people haveliked your post, forwarded your post, shared your post, bookmarked your post,used that post to go to your website. Everything that you need to know is onthat.
Although I was reminded that some people could bescreenshotting your posts. So don't get disheartened if there's only two likes.Also, there are glitches in the system and it could tell you there's 345 likesand comments, but only 123 people were reached. So these things happen. Don'tget disheartened.
You're looking at me again.
Because it's your turn again. See this ping pong thing we'redoing here, Melanie? No?
Okay, right. Sorry, yes. So marketing only works when you'vegot a plan for who's going to be doing what and when. So my suggestion to youis stop being a headless chicken. It doesn't serve you any purpose at all. Wetypically outsource our accounts. We typically outsource our getting our carfixed, that thing. I think if you were being really honest with yourself,there's probably the other stuff that you can outsource as well. It could bedesigning graphics. It could be updating your website. It could be updatingyour website, it could be copywriting, it could be product photography. Whyshould you be the one to do it all when somebody else can do it probablyfaster, probably better? And if you were doing stuff that you were actuallymuch better at, you'd probably earn more money as well.
Absolutely. Which brings me to my point, which is it onlyworks when you have a strategy. Again, without a strategy, you're a headlesschicken, like Melanie just said, and you're not fulfilling any of yourmarketing goals. Unless you have a strategy written down, and I do mean writtendown, not just in your head, as to where you want to be, who you want to reach,how many sales you want to make using your marketing. And we're not justtalking here about social media marketing, guys. Marketing is everything.Marketing is going to the networking meetings. Marketing is word of mouth.Marketing is updating your website. Like Melanie said.
If.
You don't have a strategy in place, nothing will get done.And this time next year, you'll be in exactly the same position. So get yourstrategy. And it doesn't have to be, oh, well, today I have to sit down andwrite my strategy, and this is the strategy I'm going to follow for the nextyear. It can be on a month to month basis, week to week basis, as long as youhave an end point in mind that by the end of the year, you want to have 100sales, 1,000 sales, whatever it is that will keep your business ticking over,keep you with your head above water, keep you with a roof of your head,whatever it is that you need, then have that strategy in place.
Okay, my turn. Marketing only works when you stop getting inyour own way.
Amen to that sister.
Amen to that. We all make excuses for poor results, for notdoing something, for not being ready or prepared, and we all get impostersyndrome, even us. If you feel you are getting in your own way, then pleasestop it. Because no one else is going to make this business that you'rerunning, any more successful than you can. It's your business, it's your baby.So mistakes happen and sometimes you can get in your own way in all sorts ofdifferent ways. We all need to have a good sensible work life balance. I completelyagree. But something has to give. And sometimes it's, I need more time to spendwith my family, so I need to outsource stuff so that I can do the work I needto do in my business and still spend time with my family. So stop getting inyour own way. I think that's a big one because especially as solo printers, wetend to do it an awful lot.
Absolutely. And I think that's a good one to end on becausethere's so many things that we can say about marketing, whether it's digitalmarketing, print marketing, word of mouth marketing. There's so many differentways that marketing can work for you, but you do need to let it work for you. Soif you're holding yourself back, you're not doing yourself or your family orthe people around you, your clients especially, you're not doing them anyfavors. So with that in mind, get in touch, let us know what other waysmarketing works for you, and we'll be back next week with more Monday morningmarketing. Until then, bye bye.
Bye guys. You know that's going to need some seriousediting, don't you? Yeah. Are you going to keep them as bloopers? Why not? Whynot? You're going to keep them in? Are you serious?
No, not. If it was a video, maybe, with me looking at youfunny, going, what now?
But you do realise that if they've really been edited, people are going to wonder what the heck we're talking about now? We keep themguessing. Answer it in the postcard.