Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 212 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast. 

Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love you to take a screenshot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/212

Before I get started on today’s episode – how did you go with last week’s episode? Episode 211? Is blogging dead?  I’ve had some great conversations about it in my inbox and DMs and in some networking groups – what did you think?  I’d love to know.  If you didn’t listen into that one – then once you are finished here – slip back there for even more small business made simple GOLD!

But onto today’s episode.

And today might be a little controversial for you.  You might even think I’m being a little harsh.

But let me start with a story!

So, I saw a post in a Facebook group this week that said something like, “Just wondering if anyone sells on eBay and what it’s like – I need more sales and wondered if eBay is the place to be?”

Now my initial thought – because I know this business person, they are far from a friend, in fact, they are a rather nasty person, but they are in my sphere, so to speak, and my initial thought was, “no, you just need to stop looking for the silver bullet and marketing yourself better”.

Now, there’s a lot of privilege in what I thought to myself – I am a marketer and therefore know how to market – although always learning, my business is serving me well and is profitable.

But, it’s definitely a question – do you need to DO MORE or just be BETTER at it?

Is doing MORE really the answer?  More posts, more blogs, more products, more emails – it really is NOT the answer.

No one is going to save you.  No platform, no Facebook group, no single external factor – what will save you is looking at what’s working and what’s not and making some really, sometimes hard, strategic decisions.

The answer is getting better at what you do.

The answer is having a marketing strategy, a marketing plan rather than just posting buy this, buy this, buy this all the time.

I am ALL for, don’t get me wrong, going where your starving audience is.  If you aren’t sure what a starving audience is, listen to episode 131 of the podcast – it’s a great one too!  www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/131

I am all for multi-channel marketing.  Not just expecting people to find you but being on other people’s platforms – a platform where your audience is already but adding more and more of them – that is what I am saying is a no, and frankly, you need to STOP and think about your marketing.  Get some help.  Get someone else to give you some tips, tricks, and help.  And not just general “follow them on Instagram and practice their general advice” but someone in your business to look at your business and your marketing specifically.

This person who asked this question, I know, is on at least 3 other channels for sales, and I know that adding another isn’t going to help bring in more sales because the thing that is broken isn’t reaching more people – it’s the marketing.

If you are posting on social media consistently, and emailing consistently – if you are on other platforms such as Etsy, Spend With Us, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon and so on, and you are not making sales, it is NOT the audience.  You have the reach.  Your audience is there – they have to be – they are the biggest platforms in the world.  They just perhaps can’t find you because it’s so noisy and you are standing out from the crowd.

And if you are doing all the things, posting, emailing etc, BUT everything I read from you is BUY THIS NOW, I am no longer interested. 

You can’t shout at people to buy from you all the time.  It doesn’t work like that.

And, just for good measure, if you are crap at customer service, then your ability to have repeat customers (what really makes a business thrive) is very very low to probably non-existent because who loves crap service?

So, what’s the solution if it’s not doing more of everything?  What’s the solution if there’s no silver bullet in business?

Again, there’s no one solution.

But here’s a good start:

• Know who your customer is
• Know where that customer hangs out (because that’s where you need to be marketing)
• Know what you want to be famous for
• Have a wholesale marketing strategy – a strategy that encompasses growth, lead generation, sales, engagement and brand awareness – not just BUY this now
• Get some help – help specifically to you and your business.
• Audit what you are doing – what’s working and what’s not and make decisions based on what you find. But, and this is a big but, if something is not working, you cannot blame external factors.  For example, if posting into a Facebook group isn’t working – it’s not Facebook’s fault, it’s not the group admin’s fault, it’s not the few hundred thousand people in that group’s fault – it’s not the algorithm, it’s not the economy, etc etc – really really think what’s at fault – why isn’t the marketing working?  Is it because you have used the same photo and the same script for 2 years and people just scroll by?  Maybe it’s a combination of everything I have just mentioned, but still, what can YOU change – test, measure, polish, repeat to help yourself – because, again, and I am sorry, no one is coming to save you.

For some, admittedly, getting 1:1 coaching seems out of reach.  There’s just not the money in the budget for it, and I get that, I’m not cheap – other great coaches aren’t cheap.  But there are often cheaper solutions if you look.

For instance, I work for Melbourne Innovation Centre as a contractor – as a mentor for small business owners.  They have the Digital Solutions Program, and for $44.00 you can get 3 hours of professional business mentoring by over 50 mentors – and I am one of them!  So, for $44 you can get 3 hours of my time.  You have to live in Victoria for this program – but there’s other programs in other states that offer the same, and I am sure there are mentors that are just as great in those states.

Just do some googling and see what’s available.

A $44 investment in a professional business mentor that can help you in your business, and give you specific advice to where you are and what you need, is a much better use of your time than scrolling TikTok or Instagram and learning to dance, sing and point!

Of course, I’d love you to work with me – even not through a program and if you would like to discuss what I can do for you, then reach out.

But the purpose of this episode is to help you see that doing MORE will not always help you GROW or be more profitable.

In fact, doing less and doing less strategically could be what you need.

A well-planned out marketing strategy is perhaps what you need.  And can I just add here a well-planned out marketing strategy can’t be done in an afternoon – a draft can, but it does take work, and it’s a liquid document – meaning that it’s never actually done?  It’s done to a point of test and measure, but then it’s time to polish, reset, measure and put it back out there for some more polishing, testing and measuring!

And if you are screaming at me right now saying, “Jenn, I just don’t have time”, then I am afraid you won’t like my answer because if your marketing isn’t working, your business isn’t growing or supporting you in the way you want it to – it’s your responsibility to find that time.

It’s time to work ON your business and not IN your business.

4 out of 5 small businesses, they say, fail in the first five years, but honestly, no one fails in business.  They simply burn out.  They burn out because they didn’t have a marketing strategy, and therefore they couldn’t get enough customers to come through the doors or enough repeat customers to make being in business profitable or worth it – so they close up shop and enter the workforce as an employee.

So, if you are struggling in business, (a) get help and (b) don’t just do more, thinking that more is the answer when a strategy is the answer.

I seriously do not want anyone, especially you, to be a small business statistic, I am a lover and dreamer of small business, and that’s why I have a marketplace that supports rural and regional small businesses for rates cheaper than the big guys and why I work with programs such as the Digital Solutions program I mentioned above.  And of course, why I have amazing private coaching clients who are ready to play a bigger game.

I feel so passionately about this that I am not sure exactly how to end this podcast other than to say, YOU DO HAVE THIS – small business isn’t easy; otherwise, everyone would do it, but it should be simple or at least simpler – hence where this podcast got its name!

If you want to chat about a marketing strategy or if you have one and want it to work better for you in your funnels or nurture sequences, then let’s chat.  Book a discovery call with me http://bit.ly/Discoverwithjenn, and let’s get your marketing humming today – why wait any longer?

Otherwise, let’s chat in my Facebook group – Like Minded Business Owners.  If you’re not a member, come join!

See you next week on the podcast for episode 213!

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.

Oh and before I go, do you have a subject you’d like me to chat about on the podcast or a guest I should interview?  Please get in touch – DM me, or email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au – thank you!

But whatever you do,

…..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!