I talk to fellow business owners all the time, who are either clients, friends, or partners. After reflecting on these conversations, I'm seeing two common themes affecting their morale and, eventually, the quality of their content marketing.
As a marketer and brand strategist, I love what I do. If you plan on doing your own marketing for your biz, you have to love what you're doing too, or else the experience is going to be like watching reruns of your least favorite T.V. show for hours every week.
I talk about the first significant mistake in the video below. If videos (or me talking) isn't your thing, I also included quick summaries for you to read through.
Happy watching and reading!
Mistake 1: You want to do everything RIGHT NOW.
Right now, google anything to do with marketing or branding, and you're going to get pages and pages of results telling you what you should be doing, how often you should be doing it, and what you need to be saying.
It can get intense.
I want to remind you that YOU, my friend, are the owner of your business, and only YOU know what your priorities are. If you're like many small business owners out there, you're juggling family life and self-care with growing your business. Take in and reflect upon all the information at your disposal, make conscious decisions about how you want to tackle marketing tasks and make sure the process aligns with your priorities.
It's more important to create inspiring content that will, in turn, inspire your audience into action rather than doing something do it, thus producing a lackluster final product. You'll only waste time and brain calories that you could have invested in a different task to enjoy and move the needle for your business.
Now, I am not saying to purposefully not do a vital marketing campaign or task because you'd instead go shopping or binge-watch The Mandalorian. I mean, you need to be strategic with your marketing plan and your time. To avoid burnout, you need to focus on the platforms "your people" (a.k.a. your target audience) are frequenting and create a plan of attack where you are present on the platform with great content and building relationships.
Don't change your marketing plan spontaneously because someone or something told you this is the new "it" platform or "it" thing to do. Remember, if you can't do something RIGHT NOW, plug it into your plan later and be strategic about your execution.
Be conscious of the time you do have and make it meaningful.
Mistake 2: You aren't willing to ask for help.
As small business owners, we wear many hats, but this doesn't mean we have to wear 50 of them. You can get help to focus your time and energy on tasks you enjoy and projects that move your business forward.
This post isn't a plug for my marketing company, as I've told several folks that they can also find someone from their team, a family member, or a part-time virtual assistant at a few hours per week to help with marketing.
If you need an expert's help with a strategy, go for it. Think about it. How many hours have you spent researching on your own, taking courses, etc., and you're still lost about what to do next or feel burned out from all the researching to take action?
Those hours you spent learning or executing tasks that you don't want to do could have been spent on other things that you enjoy and help elevate your business!
Time is precious, and you don't need me to tell you that our time earth is finite, so make sure you use that time well and ask for help when you need it.
You're stressed out, or your mind is a jumbled mess with to-do lists and unchecked boxes of tasks, and it's simply not worth it. You could use your brain calories to create great content or build relationships with your clients and customers instead.
Remember, you produce inspired content, if you are inspired. Refusing to take care of YOU is a barrier to true creativity. With a plan and support, you can do anything, especially when it comes to DIY marketing your business.
With Gratitude,
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