Make Marketing Suck Less

I think we often overlook the real purpose of marketing and messaging. The real purpose of it is to lead people through the content you create and the conversations you create. So for instance, someone hears you on a podcast, and they sign up for your email community. You then have the opportunity to lead them to the next step. 

You have a unique role in helping them make a decision, a decision about if you're the person for them, if you can help them with a problem they're having in their business or their life and get them to some type of result. To me, that's all about leadership. Even though I hate the word “lead gen,” what I love about the word is that it has the word lead in it. And I like to remind myself that that's what I'm really doing -- is creating these conversations, nurturing people and leading them to a decision to work with me or not.

But what happens when your lead generation efforts just stall out? What happens when people stop raising their hand to say yes, I am interested in the problem you solve and how you solve it? What can you do about it? And what are the questions you need to ask yourself to figure out what is really going on and why your lead generation has stalled out?

That is exactly what we're going to be talking about on today's podcast. So let’s dive in.

You’re listening to the Rebel Uprising podcast. This podcast is dedicated to helping passionate business owners become recognized leaders who make more money and impact the world by turning their messy, complicated ideas into thriving thought leadership businesses.

I’m your host Dr. Michelle Mazur, and I’ll be your no-BS guide in the art of building a business that gets noticed. Each week I share strategies, tools, and insights into how to turn your complicated ideas into great messaging and solid business structure.

Are you ready to create an uprising in your industry? Let’s do this.

On the last episode of the pod, we talked about how audience growth stalls out and what to do about it. Particularly, we talked about how to get people who don't know you yet, they don't know you exist, how do we get their attention? How do we make them curious about their message and to stop their scroll so that they can decide if they want to follow you or not.

But once you get someone's attention, they've stopped their scroll, they've decided like, “Ooh, this person is interesting. I want to learn more.” What the heck do you do with that attention? Well, you nurture them. And you nurture them with the goal of having them raise their hand and say, “Yes, yes! I want to know more about what you do!” And this is essentially what lead generation is. 

And I think what's important to remember about lead gen is that it's more than a numbers game. Leads are people. They are human beings with worries and doubts and cares and struggles and triumphs and successes. So it's more than just the number we're collecting. Because marketing is all about one person communicating with another person. Or a group of people in most cases.

So what is going on in your business when you stop getting leads? When you get people's attention and they are not joining your list or wanting to get on the phone to talk with you about what you offer? Well, that has to do with how you're nurturing these people or the conversations that you want to create. So we're going to laser focus in on creating conversations and how that relates to solving a lead generation problem.

Alright. Once you've captured someone's attention, they're curious to know more, the second mission of your message and marketing begins -- it's time to create conversation, human conversation. Because when people decide to pay attention to us, what they do next is they have to start making decisions. This person starts evaluating if you're the leader for them, if you're the person she can follow, if you're the person she can trust, if she has the problem you solve. And if your solution is for her. 

So if you're struggling with lead generation -- AKA another person raising their hand and saying, “Yes, I have the problem” --  if you're struggling with that, the conversations, your CRE aiding through your social email, social, the conversations you're creating through your social media, email marketing and blogs may be the issue. 

What I find a lot and online business is this phenomenon happens that my friend Michelle Evans calls random acts of marketing. That we approach marketing our business with no real intention behind it. It comes from this place of like, “Ooh, I haven't posted on Instagram for a while, or I haven't done my blog for a while. What should I talk about?” Instead of strategically thinking about what is going to lead people to work with me, what is actually going to bring revenue into your business?

Now, when I work with people, I call this the client journey and I look at different marks that they need to hit in order for people to make decisions about whether they want to go further on in this journey, whether or not they want to raise their hand, get on a phone call. So the quick tip here is if your messaging and marketing is not hitting the mark and you're stalling out on lead gen, it's most likely because the content you're creating is not a conversation that is priming people for the sale. It's not helping people get ready for you.

So you can see that there is this level of intention and strategy that sits above, you know, like your day-to-day posting on Instagram or your weekly blog post or podcast, but it's really thinking about how am I creating a conversation that leads people to working with me.

So if you're finding that you're stalling out with lead generation, the first thing to ask yourself is how intentional are you being in creating those conversations that lead people to the destination they want to go, right?

If you are committing random acts of marketing, if you aren't thinking about your overall marketing and messaging strategy, this could be the problem because you are not saying what your people need to hear to take the next step. So let's say you are being super intentional. You have a mapped out content calendar. You think you know what conversations and content to create in order to get the result of people signing up for your email list or signing up for a sales conversation with you. 

Then what's really going on if you have the intention, you have the strategy, it's probably the strategy that's the problem. The “what” you're saying, or the message your relaying and your marketing is missing the mark. So then it's time to go in and really evaluate like, Is this what people need to know in order to take the next step. 

So if you're not intentional, it's time to take a step back and think about the question. What do you need to say to move people closer to saying yes to you and your business in an intentional way? What is that message that you're relaying in your marketing? And if you are being intentional and things aren't working, it's time to look at what you've been sharing to figure out what's the missing piece, because there's something between what the audience needs to hear and what they know and what you're saying that is off and needs to be tweaked and needs to be optimized.

So when we are generating people to talk to about what it is we do, it's very important to do it with intent and making sure we're saying the things that people most need to hear, answering their questions for them in order for them to take the next step. And as my friend, Michelle Evans always says, random acts of marketing DO not work.

So today we've talked about nurturing and generating leads and how to figure out like what's going on if that stalls out, next week we're going to talk about the final stall sales and conversion. And one thing to look at in particular that may be causing your sales engine to stall out.

And, hey, if you've realized that you're not creating conversations that resonate with your audience, you're missing the mark somehow, then I'd love to talk to you about creating a message that powers your marketing and sales, messaging that hits the mark and moves people to become your clients faster than ever before. I invite you to request a chat with me about the three word rebellion messaging intensive, and whether it's right for your business.

This year, I am on a mission to help more amazing business owners who do transformative work -- and that is you -- spread the word about that work so they can sell and serve more. So let's talk. You can get all the details about working with me and request a chat at drmichellemazur.com/talk.

And until next time, be intentional. Show up to market your business with leadership in mind. And lead your audience to working with you.  

Thank you for listening all the way to the end of the show. You’re support means the world to me. Did you know the Rebel Uprising podcast has a quiz that can help you pinpoint your number one way to create an audience of superfans while staying true to your unique personality? We do! It’s called What’s Your Rebel Roadmap to Exponential impact and Influence and you can take it at therebelquiz.com.

If you’re loving the podcast, do us a favor and rate and leave us a quick 5-star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Until next time, remember, your ideas matter. And now get back out there and cause an uprising in your industry. You’ve got this!