011: The Biggest Misconception About Small Business Marketing
Taking Back Joy Podcast • Episode #011:
The Biggest Misconception About Small Business Marketing
Do you catastrophize your marketing to-do list?
I see many small business owners get wrapped up in the 'I have to do it all and I have to do it right'. They get so bogged down into the nuts and bolts stuff of marketing that it stops them from actually getting started as they think it looks all too hard, too confusing or it's just too much.
I wanted to tell you that there is an 80% of what you should be focusing on with your marketing - and it is not the likes/shares/comments you might think. I'm going to bust the biggest misconception I see small business owners having when it comes to small business marketing and give you the tools you focused and putting your energy where it’s needed. And guess what - you already have everything you need to nail it!
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Show Notes: Links & resources mentioned in this episode
Create your Ideal Client Persona
Episode Transcript
Download: Episode Synopsis (PDF) | Episode Content (PDF)
Synopsis
Meredith Paige 00:00
If you feel like your marketing to-do list is one laundry pile, dumpster fire, I-don't-want-to-get-that started to-do list, then this episode is perfect for you.
Meredith Paige 00:12
I see so many small business owners get wrapped up in the 'I have to get reels right' and 'I haven't posted on Instagram' and 'I haven't sent an email out of my database in a month'. And 'it's all too much, my websites all over the shop'; they get so bogged down into the nuts and bolts stuff of marketing that it stops them from actually getting started as they think it looks all too hard, too confusing or it's just too much.
Meredith Paige 00:35
I wanted to tell you that there is an 80% of what you should be focusing on with your marketing - and it is none of that. It's none of the likes, shares, comments, links, clicks, it's none of that stuff. I'm going to be busting the biggest misconception I see small business owners having when it comes to this small business marketing, because it stops them from actually getting started, where you need to be focused, where you need to be putting most of your energy and thought; the 80% is actually free and you already have everything inside you in order to really nail it.
Meredith Paige 01:08
Curious? let's jump in.
Episode Content
Meredith Paige 00:01
Here's a curly question for you guys: Do you catastrophize your marketing to do list? Now, what do I mean by catastrophize? I catch myself doing this all the time with my general to do list where and you can probably relate because I guarantee a lot of us in small business ownership land share brain. That you think about everything that you've got to do that on your to-do lists, everything that needs doing today and you very quickly catastrophize it in your brain, You think, 'Oh, it's so much! I've got so much to do oh, where am I going to start?'
Meredith Paige 00:13
I think we spend more time and energy in that state than in actually getting stuff done. I see a lot of this happening in marketing as well, where we'll think about marketing as small businesses, as this whopping great to do list where we'll sort of sit there and go, 'Well, we have to be on Facebook, and probably should be on Instagram, and I need to get email, haven't sent an email to my database in ages and on my website, how to get a new page on my website first, and I've got no, it's really, it's a really mess. That's a massive mess there and my logo files really small and I can't edit...'
Meredith Paige 00:48
We very quickly talk ourselves out of getting anything done. We allow ourselves and our kind of small business rabbit-brain to jump around like crazy, create a massive to do list before we even got started. And so very quickly, we get to the point where it's like, oh, this is all too much. I wanted to use this episode to alleviate some of that pressure and actually give you a bit of behind the scenes look about what marketing fundamentally is and needs to be in order to get going. It's actually a lot more simple and a lot more straightforward than people think. And this applies to a lot of micro aspects of marketing, as well as marketing as a whole. If you listen to episode number nine, where I spoke to one of my good client and business buddies, Jill n=Noble. She introduced a podcast into her farming business. So she runs a beautiful farm in the Holston Valley in Victoria. And through talking to her, we both agree that podcasting is actually a really slick, quick thing you can do to market your business with fantastic results. But a lot of people will look at that and go, 'Oh, that's a massive drop, I can't think of all these ideas, and then record it and then edit the recording because I'll say like 'Um' and I'll stumble and I'll be all over the place'.
Meredith Paige 02:04
That episode was a really classic example of what it means to, rather than catastrophize a job, actually have a look at the nuts and bolts of it to realise that it's a lot more achievable than you might have actually first thought. So that principle does really apply more broadly to marketing. And I feel like if you can get your head around the principle of what is marketing and what do I really need to worry about and do? You realise that it's a lot more straightforward and a lot easier to get started than you might think. Rather than looking at it as this monolith job that you don't know where to start, I always use the analogy of from when we were kids, and your mom would send you to go clean your room? And you just remember standing in the doorway, looking at the shit heap created over the last three weeks and go, 'Well, this is too much, I don't know where to start so I'm just going to not'. Or you're just keep all your shit under your bed, and hope she doesn't look under them when she comes and checks you work.
Meredith Paige 02:55
That, to me reminds me so much of what sometimes going into marketing can feel like if you don't have a system, and you don't have an understanding of what the fundamentals that are really important are. So let's stop kicking the shit under our bed. Let's stop hiding the mess from Mum. And let's actually talk about what's really important in marketing. And what you really do need to be concerned with and its not actually as hard or as stressful as you think. So I've been saying this for years, and it continues to ring true every time I sit down to work with either a marketing coaching clients or a website client that it doesn't really matter what you're doing via marketing, step one is always the same. And it's nothing to do with tech, or buttons or reels or engagement. It's none of that stuff.
Meredith Paige 03:39
I'll tell you right now that what I'm about to tell you is about 80% of it, 20% of it is 'okay, what do these buttons do?' That's really what it breaks down to. 80% of your marketing is having a really clear understanding of who it is that is most likely to do business with you. That is the biggest thing you need to think about in your marketing: who is most likely to do business with me or conversely, of the customers I have now, which ones would I love to fill my day with and why. And by starting here, we fulfil a large number of needs within the context of our marketing. So what we do is we actually get focused on the correct goal. So often when we dump into social media land a we put all our eggs into the Facebook and Instagram basket. We become so obsessed with likes, followers, shares, metrics and things like that, when really that's all just a byproduct of what the real result should be, which is connection with potential customers and sales, because we're not in the business of like shares and comments.
Meredith Paige 04:40
We're in the business of making sales, because that's what keeps the business happening. So when we a step back from all the nuts and bolts and buttons and crap, and we actually focus on the who, that's one thing that's been consistent in the small business space long before the internet and all that, because you customers, or business isn't a business unless you have customers. So if we're focusing on those guys, it's then very easy to reverse engineer how we communicate with them based on who they are. So you want to think about them in like three kind of spheres first is like basic demographics like, where do they live? How old are they? Do typically serve men or women? Is it a mix of both? Do they have families? What kind of educational background do they have? What do they do for a living? All this kind of paints a really good picture as to the kind of person that you're most likely to do business with. And what the reason I phrase it like that, it's not necessarily the low hanging fruit but it's about thinking logically. Who is it that's the path of least resistance between me and sales? Who is it that makes the most sense that I work with, who am I best equipped to serve, and who is most likely to want what it is that I'm good at?
Meredith Paige 05:55
So to give you sort of my example, those most likely to do business with me (sometimes called your target market or your ideal client) the person most likely to do business with me and whom I feel best suited to serve is small business owners. They're either solopreneurs, or trades people or they run small teams in regional and rural areas. And because that's very specific, because I have a very good appreciation of what that dynamic means, and what they need when they're in that space. So typically, someone who identifies a mum and dad business, or you know, there might be a case of one does the doing and one does the books, they typically, but not always, are growing a young family, they might be running a number of businesses or wearing a number of hats. They're also very entrenched in their community, they like being present at like sporting events, and fundraisers and things like that; they're very connected with their community, very connected with their customers. And they're often still also on the coalface of their business as well. So they're not sitting in a head office somewhere, while someone else does the doing.
Meredith Paige 07:00
They're very typically the ones that are still serving their customers that are still delivering the product and delivering the service. So they're also really invested in the end result. So they're very passionate about what they do, they're still very connected to why they do it. And they're ultimately working towards independence and security and freedom for their growing family or just for the lifestyle that they want. So because I can be very clear and very specific on who I'm speaking to, it's then easier to paint the picture as to where they're going to be looking that I can make sure we cross paths when it comes to my marketing. And then it also makes it really easy to create content for your social media channels, that's going to really grab their attention and engage with them, because you understand who they are, you understand what they're struggling with, you understand what they want to achieve, their goals. What does a silver bullet look like? What do they tend to object to? Or question? What do you typically need to explain to them in a bit more detail? What do they like to know? And like, just ultimately, what do they want? So it is this process of reverse engineering? How you market yourself for much greater clarity and efficiency? Because when we stay focused on the people element, it's a lot easier to then go okay, what do these people want to know, hear, see, do or understand before they do business with me? And how can that filter through to my marketing? And so what this does is it turns almost have perceptions of marketing on its head, because rather than going, how can I make the Instagram algorithm work for me? It's 'how can I say something of value to the people most likely to do business with me?'
Meredith Paige 08:29
And then once you've got that core message, that core theme that you want to get across to them, then we look at what's the best way to say that on Instagram? What's the best way to say it on Facebook? How could that live on my website? So apart from being a theoretical practice, it's also really good at helping you get the nuts and bolts of marketing, right. Once you do have that key concept, it is then a matter of how many times can you rinse and repeat that on all the channels you own? So if you do interviews with local radio, can that be what you discuss this week? If you run ads on local radio, can that be what you mention? If you have a blog, can that be on your website? Can it be a social media post? Could it be a Facebook or Instagram Live? Could it be a chat that you give exclusively the people who are part of a Facebook group which you run that's associated with your business.
Meredith Paige 09:17
Before you sort of think oh, yeah, but that's just plagiarising yourself. We have to remember with all our marketing that not everyone is going to see everything. Not everyone is going to get every Facebook post, Instagram post or hear your ad; they're not going to say it all. But even if they did, all it does is just further solidify your expertise, your intent and why you're the best business for them. So think about how many times you get bombarded with marketing messages. And quite often it's the ones that are the most persistent that you actually appreciate and pay attention to. So no one out there is complaining that 'I'm sick of hearing this message from you. Honestly, l wish you just go on to something else.' No one is saying that because we are so overwhelmed with marketing content at the moment, that I think it's up around the 22 touch points before someone will actually pay attention to what it is that you're saying in your marketing.
Meredith Paige 10:07
So don't for a minute think that this rinsing and repeating process is going to hold you back. All it's going to do is make you more consistent, more clear, it's going to help further cement the idea with potential customers. And it's going to make your life a hell of a lot easier when it comes to trying to talk about your business because you don't feel like you have to say one thing on Facebook, one thing on Instagram, one thing an email, put something on your website, every so often, you won't feel like you're constantly starting from scratch every time you take your business to market. If you have an overarching concept of who it is you want to do business with. And then you have consistent themes about what you want to talk about designed, very easy to then go up. I'm talking about this this week. So that can just live in a podcast episode, it can just live in an Instagram Live.
Meredith Paige 10:51
And finally, the reason why focusing on the people and not the platform is so important in marketing is it also does it also stops you from being platform dependent. So I've had a lot of businesses I've worked with. And farming and rural businesses are a really classic example for this, I've had a number of them that would sell livestock and meat and farming products through, say Facebook marketplace. And then I don't remember exactly when it was but a while ago, Facebook actually changed their rules and you were no longer allowed to sell live animals. And I believe it's animal by-products, i.e meat, you weren't allowed to sell those through Facebook marketplace. And for some businesses, it really punched a hole in their pipeline, because they were so dependent on that as an avenue for customers. And so when we think about our customers more broadly and who we speak to more broadly, and if we spread ourselves across multiple communication channels, it means that our businesses aren't going to live and die by what Facebook shareholders want Facebook to do, or by an algorithm update on Instagram. We're not going to live and die by these platforms means if one disappears in the ether, well, that's fine, you have a number of others in place, you have a really healthy emailing list. So you're emailing your audience once a week or once a month.
Meredith Paige 12:07
So if Facebook was to go down, you can still email them all and go 'look guys, um, for whatever reason, my Facebook page isn't working anymore. So you just head over here. And here's where you can find me instead.' I mean, there's a number of other apps that are very community specific. There's a few that you can Google where it actually takes the Facebook group concept and puts it on its own app. Telegram is becoming really popular now. So if you've got your WHO and your message sorted, then it allows you to be really adaptable and flexible when these platforms come and go and change. And some may work better for you than others and others not so much. So if you wanted to take action off the back of this episode, the first thing I recommend you do, she sit down and you create what's called an 'ideal client persona'. Now, if you like I have this set up as a downloadable over my website under 'free resources'; you can find that on my website under 'get started for free'. Download my ideal client persona exercise and walk yourself through the process of identifying what your ideal customer looks like. And then once you've done that, then it's very easy, like I said, to unpack everything you can say to that person on a regular basis. And then from there, it's just a matter of rinsing and repeating it across all the platforms you're currently using.
Meredith Paige 13:18
I really hope this helps give you some clarity around what you should be focusing on in your marketing and what your step one should be. Please don't get locked bogged down in like shares, comments, reels, whatever! That, like I said is the 20% that sits on top of the 80%, which is having a really good, rock solid understanding of the people most likely to do business with you. Because that way, when you go to to start tipping energy into your marketing, you're going to have this big picture mentality as well. So you're not going to care if one post only gets a couple of likes. You're not going to care if only if 10 people watch your reel. Because big picture, you know that you're on the right track because you're talking to people you're the people that are most likely to do business with you. And you know that you're saying what they need to hear in order to move the needle forward for themselves.
Meredith Paige 14:06
I really hope this has brought you some clarity and a bit of peace of mind guys and reduce some of the overwhelm you might be experiencing around your small business marketing. If this episode has helped you, I'd love to hear from you. Otherwise, I'll see you next week and take it easy.