Make Marketing Suck Less

Michelle Mazur [00:00:00]: Here's something we don't talk about enough when it comes to marketing.

What does effective marketing look like for your business?

What does marketing that work look like for your business?

I know what the web celebs will say. They'll say, “Marketing works when you're booked out with clients for months on end!” or “When your post goes viral and you grow your following by tens of thousands of people overnight!” Then that is success.

Yeah. But is it effective? And who is it effective for? And are you the person it's effective for?

So today on the pod, I want to give you a process to think about what effective marketing looks like for your specific business. Because, if you don't know what effective marketing looks like, you're never going to know if marketing is really paying off.

So let's do this.

Michelle Mazur [00:01:11}

Welcome to Make Marketing Suck Less. The podcast that knows marketing is freaking hard, especially when you're a solo business owner trying to juggle it all.

I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, author of the 3 Word Rebellion and founder of the Expert Up Club.

Forget the latest marketing fads and tactics promising social media stardom. I'm here with research-backed strategies to help you clarify your message and get twice as effective with your marketing.

And while I can't promise you'll ever love marketing ,I'm here. to make you hate it a tiny bit less.

Michelle Mazur [00:01:51]: I'm a big believer that you want to begin with the end in mind. I know it's a Stephen Covey principle. And it is one that has served me well over the years. So anytime you're thinking about your marketing or your marketing strategy, you have to know what do you want a specific marketing strategy or tactic to do for your business.

And spoiler alert, most people don't know how the marketing they are doing ladders up to their bigger business goals.

Now here's a conversation that I have with clients and Expert Up Club members about marketing all the time. Let's say, someone is on Instagram. And I will ask, well, how is Instagram working? They usually say something like, “I don't know. My following is growing, but it's growing slowly. And I don't really know if it's working.”

So then I always ask the follow-up, “well, what are you on Instagram for? Like, what do you want Instagram to do for your business?” And then they'll say something like,

“Oh, I just need more followers or I'm going to get clients on Instagram.”

Okay. Cool. So how has Instagram helped you to get clients since you've been doing this? And then they'll say something like, “It really hasn't, but it's my fault. I haven't been as consistent as I wanted to be with it.”

And that might be true, but also it seems like they're not very clear on what success on Instagram looks like for their business.

So let's talk about what does effective marketing look like for you? And I'm going to give you five steps to work through.

So, the first step is we're going to do a little self audit here and evaluate your current marketing approach, identify its purpose and how it contributes to your goals.

The first thing I want you to do is to grab a piece of paper and a pen. And write all the things that you're doing to market your business. And I even want you to write down the things that you're not doing consistently that you're shoulding all over yourself about doing. You want to be doing this marketing tactic, maybe it's LinkedIn or SEO or writing your newsletter consistently. Doesn't matter what it is.

Just write it all down.

You can pause me and come back and then we'll move to step two.

Step number two is understanding your goals for each of the different channels of your marketing. So I want you to look at your list and think about why. What job is this particular tactic doing for my business? And how is it helping me get to my business goals?

So let me just demonstrate from my own marketing strategy how I approach this? So one of the things that I'm doing in my business is I am posting and interacting on LinkedIn. Which is fine. But the reason why I'm doing that is because I want to grow the Make Marketing Suck Less newsletter which by the way, you can always sign up for at drmichellemazur.com/newsletter if you want more marketing goodness.

And when people sign up for the newsletter, yes, they are going to get one actionable insight or idea that is backed in research and not opinion that helps make marketing suck less, but also they'll hear about what's on this very podcast. And my goal is by reading the newsletter, they'll be interested in checking the podcast and the podcast starts growing.

And as my email community grows and the podcast grows, this will start helping me reach my goal of having one hundred members in the Expert Up Club. So do you see, I am on LinkedIn because I wanted to grow my email community.

Michelle Mazur [00:06:58]: And that helps me grow this podcast And it overall helps me grow the Expert Up Club. So I am very clear on the reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing. Right? That's one aspect of my overall strategy. And I can test and see if it's working. I can see if posting on LinkedIn Is growing my newsletter. And if it's not, I can always change because that's not effective for me.

Always know how what you're doing marketing wise relates back to your revenue and your business growth. So look at that list in front of you and now move on to step three after you've asked yourself the question, “Why am I doing this?”

Step three, if you don't know the answer to why you're doing something, and especially if you don't like doing a certain marketing tactic, quit ineffective methods. If a marketing tactic doesn't clearly contribute to your goal or you don't enjoy doing it, just stop. Just stop!

So look at your list, strike anything that you're not really clear on how it's helping you reach your business goals. You have my permission to strike it, just ditch it. Let go of the things that you are shoulding on yourself about. Don't do that. We're not gonna do that anymore.

One of my core beliefs about marketing is that you should not be doing marketing you hate. Like if you don't like TikTok and you're on TikTok, get your butt off of it. It is a waste of your time, energy, and focus, And you have such a precious limited amount of that. So don't do marketing you hate and don't do things that are not working for your business.

So hopefully, you've taken a deep breath, you've given yourself some permission to stop doing certain things.

And then you can move on to step number four. Define what success looks like for each of those marketing tactics. What does effective look like for you? Is it conversion into becoming clients? Is it an increased audience? Is it more engagement? Is it getting you on podcast like increasing your reach that way?

Michelle Mazur [00:09:51]: And the way that you define success or how you know something is or how you know something is working is very individual. I can tell you what effective marketing looks like for me.

So obviously, podcasting because this is Meta is one of my marketing channels. And when somebody comes to me and they say like, “Oh, I've been binging your podcast and I am so ready to work with you, what you say makes so much sense.” I know the podcast is working. I had a few people join the Expert Up Club from the last launch who will listen to this podcast. And they said, “Oh, I got so excited about the club from the podcast.”

To me, that's a hallmark of effective marketing, that this podcast is doing the job I need it to, to bring new clients.

Now the second area I want you to think about is building brand awareness, growing your audience. Because here's the deal, people need to know you exist in order to do business with you.

They just do, right? They need to know you exist. So you need to think about how you're getting in front of new people and what does audience growth look like for you. Then defining for yourself like, why do you need an audience?

Because I can guarantee some of you don't need an audience, if you need just a handful of clients a year, you don't need a huge audience. You need relationships.

A couple of months ago, I did a podcast about how big of an audience do you actually need and we will hook that up in the show notes. It's an excellent listen if you're trying to figure out this for yourself.

Once you know like how big of an audience you need, you can define your marketing strategy and the tactics that you're using in order to reach that goal. So if anything in your marketing strategy doesn't make sense, it's not working in the way you thought It was working, then it's okay to let it go or to tweak and evolve it or maybe try something else. And once again, I just wanna reiterate, don't do marketing you hate. If something feels like it's a drag on your energy, it needs to go.

And then the final step is prioritize marketing that makes a meaningful difference in your business. You've done this audit, so choose thesStrategies and tactics that align with your goals and that you enjoy doing because that is going to make marketing less of a chore, you understand the reason why you're doing a certain marketing tactic and how it's going to lead you to results.

So with that, I want you to answer for yourself. What does effective marketing look like for me? And how do I know when my marketing works?

Because there is not a one-size-fits-all all answer to this. It really depends. And once you know what success looks like, you can figure out your own marketing strategy that works for you.

Michelle Mazur [00:13:44]: And that's important because as solo business owners or maybe you have 1 or 2 people helping you out, you have a lot on your plate. And marketing should not be a drag on your energy and time.

Now I can't promise you're ever going to love marketing, but I can promise that if you know what success looks like, if you know why you're doing something that you're doing, it's going to make marketing a lot more purposeful, meaningful, and easier in your business.

Michelle Mazur [00:14:53]: If the Make Marketing Suck Less pod is making your marketing more effective so that your clients can find and hire you, please share the show with a friend.

The easiest way to do that is through podlink. You can find the show at pod.link/rebel, and that page will allow anyone you share the show with to subscribe and start listening in their favorite podcast player.

That's pod.link/rebel.

The Make Marketing Suck Less podcast is a production of Communication Rebel. Our production coordinator is Jessica Gulley-Ward. The podcast is edited by Steven Mills, our executive producer is me, Dr. Michelle Mazur.

The make marketing suck less podcast is recorded on the unseated traditional lands of the coast salish peoples, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish people, original stewards of the land, past, and present.