Today I have a question for you.
Have you ever found yourself answering a question from a business coach, mentor, business friend or business advisor with the words:
“Yeah, but my business is different”.
Put your hand up if you have – be honest.
As a coach and mentor to small businesses I can talk strategy, marketing, sales, goals and growth until you hear the cows, and so often, especially from people new to me or new to business the answer is “Yes, Jenn, I understand, but my business is different ….”, and then they follow up with something like:
- It’s a retail business
- It’s in the country
- It’s in the city
- It’s service-based
- It’s an online business only
- It’s a bricks and mortar only
Oh, don’t worry, I have heard most of them!
And honestly, there are probably nuances that have elements of difference but at the end of the day all businesses need:
- Customers or Clients
- Sales
- Repeat customers or clients
- Repeat sales
So what has this to do with how you run your business?
I’ll tell you – every business, and I mean EVERY business is therefore in the business of marketing.
Whether you hang your hat on being a good marketer or not, you are a marketer. You are in the business of marketing.
No matter what your business does, without marketing it will do less than it should or could!
Marketing is everything.
Everything you say and do says something about you, your business and your brand, regardless of whether you meant it to or not.
I’ll repeat that.
Everything you say and do says something about you, your business and your brand, regardless of whether you meant it to or not.
So, I encourage you to do a self-examination
How much time do you spend marketing your business?
My guess is you are pretty good at what you do in your business. You are in business for a reason, so you clearly are pretty good at it!
But my other guess is that you are better at what you do than marketing what you do.
Am I right?
So how do you get better at marketing? Fabulous question.
- MAKE MARKETING A PRIORITY!
Firstly, marketing your business HAS to become a priority. Just has to. If you wait for time to do marketing, it will just never come – there’s seriously no free time with marketing marked on it. You have to make the time, block it out in your calendar, stick to it and make it happen!
A top tip of mine for creating my marketing content is to BATCH CREATE.
One day I might spend hours in Canva making up posts, reels, short videos, stories – just one after the other. I am normally super inspired and creative at this time so I need to let myself go, even though I know there’s other things, other money making activities to do, I just need to let myself be creative when it strikes.
And because I have a strategy and plan – I know what posts I need, approximately how many, so it’s not just a “canva template day” but a canva template with strategy day!
- HAVE A STRATEGY!
If you need help with your strategy, you know exactly where to find me! I’d love to help you get your marketing strategy ducks-in-a-row!
Most people I talk to who are over marketing, find it stressful and time consuming, don’t have a plan or a strategy and therefore they tire easier – (a) because what marketing they do doesn’t yield results – because it can’t, there’s no strategy and (b) give up on the whole marketing content quicker.
So, make it a priority and get yourself a strategy.
- USE YOUR DATA!
The third thing to help you get better at marketing is to look at your data. Your digital analytic data. This data can tell you what’s working, and what’s not and can help you find trends.
Digital marketing is GOLD – don’t ignore the gold!
- GET EXPERT HELP!
And the final thing I will leave you with to help you be as good at marketing as you are at whatever your business is – is to follow, like, engage and maybe even pay people who can help you!
I’ve been paying a mentor and coach for business for over 10 years now. I’m not perfect. I need pushing, challenging, nudging, and someone to celebrate with too!
So if you are struggling putting your marketing strategy together, then it might be time to book in with a marketing or content expert to help take away some of the stress!
There you have it – my top for tips for making marketing a priority in your business.
- Make Marketing A Priority
- Have A Strategy
- Use Your Data
- Get Expert Help
And the reason I’m so passionate about this with you, is that your business really isn’t different to any other – and you ARE in the business of marketing.
So next time you see an Instagram Reel or read a blog or watch a webinar with help, advice or examples of business, don’t say “but my business is different – that won’t work”. Sit on it. Mull over it and let yourself see that there’s probably a really fabulous way you could do something similar in your business because it’s not different – it’s a business in the business of marketing too!
And I would love to continue the conversation about this over in in my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group – you can join on Facebook if you haven’t already!
Oh and talking about my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group – I have some amazing guests coming in there to do lives with me this year. I am super excited by this. From finance experts to PR and marketing experts (besides me) to Law experts – they are all coming on to give you their time and do some Q&As with the group.
Another amazing reason to come and join that community!
CONTACT JENN:
Do you need some extra assistance with your business marketing strategy, and some tailored advice to make marketing your business less stressful? Then I would love it if you would book a discovery call with me here!
And again, don’t forget to join my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group. It is a great place to get ideas, seek feedback and generally get some awesome support! The business owners in the group are so great with sharing their expertise with others, it’s such a wonderful community of supportive people!
Or you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au
I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta People, on which I conduct my business today and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this blog post today.
About the Author:
Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia. Jenn’s a coach and mentor from rural NSW and is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world. The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans! H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn’s online community is over 320,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 351,000 members and still growing every day. She’s the major of her own little online city!
Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au
On Instagram – @jenndonovan_
On Facebook – Jenn Donovan
Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan
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