Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 269 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.
Thanks for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!
Before we start, I just wanted to update you – my book is currently on the freight truck and heading my way! YIKES! Watch my socials for that truck video! Thank you to everyone who has already pre-ordered, I can’t wait to get your to you. If you want a signed, first edition copy, head to my website and get it from there. www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au
Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/269
Did you have a listen to last week’s episode? My special guest was Janine Hunter and we talked about her thoughts, ideas and experiences when it came to networking. It was a great convo, if you haven’t already listened in, to and do so after this podcast! www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/268
So this week we are talking 2024. I am already gearing up for 2024, thinking about my marketing, my leads, my business model, my income streams and what assets I need to create to make it all happen.
My business, right now, is going through an overhaul in the background. I am building things like courses and new lead magnets, I am retiring programs and old lead magnets, I am attempting a rebrand – but not necessarily one you might notice, but one that I will and you will too, eventually – it’ll just sneak up on you (!) and so much else.
You might be with me and starting to wind down over the next 6 weeks or so, or you might be totally the opposite and 100% winding up for the next 10 weeks or so over summer. Either way, I would love to encourage you, if just not for the next 10-15 minutes of this podcast, to think about what 2024 is going to look like for you.
Of course, if you want to dig deeper on this – the planning of next year, I have my 2 hour virtual planning session next Tuesday 21st November that you are so welcome to join in on. It’s only $37 a ticket and you get 2 hours, not just with me, but with yourself to plan out 2024. Times like that, spending time on your business, is invaluable. You can get your ticket by going to https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/product/2024-virtual-planning-day/
So, why think about 2024 already. There’s a few compelling reasons really. The first of which, and I think I need to do a live stream (webinar-ish) session on this – so watch for that in coming weeks, 2024 is going to be a different, and I’ll say it, difficult year. I think if you’re the type of business owner who has “swanned” your way through business until now, without a plan, without strategic marketing, without building your community as you go, next year will be rough – potentially, real rough.
We have the AI freight train heading our way, which will change the way we do business. It will change the way we show up and interact with our community and it will change the way our customers interact with us – potentially whether they buy from us or not.
Just with the whole AI thing – I cannot recommend highly enough that you register for Tracy Sheen’s free webinar on AI and You in 2024 – I’ll put the link the show notes. It’s on Thursday 7th December. https://www.facebook.com/TracyTheDigitalGuide/posts/pfbid03WWE1YmXXX9xDk7MRgRsj7TpFiCytdVc3b7cF1E4rxEaHKaG8FZYrWA4UfZhNpsBl or just go to Tracy Sheen the Digital Guide on Facebook and register – it’s free and I think it would be awesome for you all to watch and listen in. And yes, it’s recorded!
So, with Ai changing the way we potentially do business, potentially make sales, potentially show up, again it’s important to know and to plan.
Secondly, because it’s going to be a rough year for some/most, it’s time to really double down on your marketing. I’m serious. When times are tough the absolute worst thing you can do is take your foot off the marketing throttle. In fact, you should push your foot harder and do more.
I am involved in many Facebook groups and I often find myself yelling at the screen when people talk about business going bad. Now, I’m not talking ALL people, clearly – but some/most. I guess I’m a little curious when someone writes into a Facebook group, “this is my worst month yet, sales are down, I don’t know how I am going to survive the year out” – to which they get a lot of suggestions, sympathy and empathy – because there’s a lot of people in that same boat. So, curiosity makes me do some digging. I stalk them to find out what their business is, I go to their socials and have a look, I join their mailing list and see what comes out and I have a look at their transparency part of Facebook where you can see what adds they are running. I’ll also get out google shopping and their google presence. Side note – I don’t do this for everyone, just the ones that peek my curiosity when I have time.
And I can tell you, hands down, without a shadow of a doubt that they are not marketing their business with much gusto at all. Bearly a social media post, and if it is, it’s always a sales strategy – not other strategies employed, they are mostly on Instagram – the worst platform for driving traffic to your website in my opinion, sometimes they don’t have a website, just socials, they’ve never run a paid ad, their google presence is hard to find and again, almost always, I have no idea who the business owner is or their name or what they stand for or anything.
They are not marketing themselves.
I sounds really harsh, and I do kind of apologise for that, but the reality is, if business is tough, it’s time to get serious about your marketing. It’s time to double down. But so many go completely the other way and simply expect, perhaps as they always have, the traffic to find them and the sales to come in. I see it all the time with bricks and mortar stores, who have their doors open, but that’s about it.
Now I haven’t taken into consideration someone’s mindset here and when the going gets tough, it’s tough to pull yourself out, brush yourself off and try again or try something different. But in 2024 if you aren’t brushing yourself off, you aren’t prepared to do something different – that is with your marketing, because nothing changes if nothing changes, then you will find the year tough.
Marketing – it’s not just something that I talk about because I think it works – it’s something I yell from the top of mountains because I KNOW it works.
So, it’s time to get serious about marketing.
Thirdly, and it probably relates to both my points above, if you continue to chase the “next sale” in 2024 and not remarket to past customers, past visitors to your website or socials and not build a community around you, 2024 will be painful.
First, I’d say get serious about marketing in 2024 and secondly, I’d say get serious about building a community. Stop thinking about an audience. An audience is something you talk AT – no one wants that. People want to feel thing belong, that you care, that you appreciate them – so it’s time to build a community. A community that not only surrounds you but interacts with each other, gets value from someone else other than you (as well as you, of course!).
When I say 2024 is going to be tough – I am not telling you anything new and I am not telling you to scare or panic you. What I want you to see is the opportunities that lay ahead. The opportunities you have to look back this time next year and say, I smashed 2024.
It’s starts with investing in yourself and your business. This year I have invested more than $30K into myself, my learning and my business and I will do it all again in 2024. How much have you invested in yourself?
From investing in your business and in yourself, it then comes down to your marketing. To get from where you are today to where you want to be, it’s going to take marketing. Strategic marketing. Not necessarily LOTS of marketing, just again, strategic marketing.
It’s going to take you being clear on what you want, what income streams you need, have or need to develop to reach your goals. It’s going to take you being clear also on what you don’t want and be willing to let that go or outsource the task(s) if possible – again invest.
Whether you join me on Tuesday 21st November or set aside some time another day, you MUST plan. Like I said at the start, those businesses who have failed to plan until now, will go into 2024 at a disadvantage and find the year more difficult than it should be or could be with a plan.
So, action steps from this podcast, set aside some time to plan (or join me for my virtual planning day), check out Tracy Sheen’s free webinar on AI and You in 2024, embrace marketing because it is what is going to be you thrive next year and work out your income streams and all that comes from that.
Of all the things you can be as a business owner, be an ACTION TAKER.
Okay, that’s it for episode 269. If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening. One more goal of mine is to reach more people with this podcast, and you can help me achieve that, by leaving me a review! Thanks in advance.
See you next week on the podcast for episode 270! There is only 6 to go until the end of 2023 – yikes!
You can get your ticket to my virtual planning day, by going to https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/product/2024-virtual-planning-day/ – it’s the best $37 you might spend all November!
But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.
But whatever you do,
……..remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!
0 Comments