I hear it all the time. You’ve tried to build your own website, played around with social media channels and even Facebook ads, you’ve heard of SEO but have no idea what it is or why you need it. You love running your small business but the thought of actually marketing it drains the life from your day.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all the tech stuff. What is a pixel or a cookie anyway!
I totally get it. We all feel overwhelmed sometimes and the fact that marketing and the various ways we can promote our talents is getting more various and more complex all the time just makes us shy away. We run from the things that can actually help our businesses reach and help more people.
That’s what it’s all about, right? If you can’t reach and communicate with your audience your talents won’t be shared with people who need them and your business and confidence will suffer.
Marketing is all about communicating with people who want and need you and it’s essential! What’s more, you are totally able to do this for yourself and your business.
Since I deal with this a lot when I’m helping people with websites and online visibility, I’ve got some top tips to help you stop the overwhelm and deal with your tech anxiety.
1. Change your marketing mindset
You’re probably telling yourself you can’t do it. Stop. It’s fine not to know everything, it’s fine to have strengths that serve your business and for that not to be tech.
There are plenty of ways to get a basic understanding of marketing that is enough to support and grow your business. Instead of feeling defeated, look at the things you can do to get ahead and for the rest adopt a ‘I’m working it out’ attitude.
2. One thing at a time
If you must do everything yourself then focus on one thing at a time and work to master it. If you try to do all the things at once you’ll be on a very steep learning curve and not able to devote enough attention to really get to grips with it.
Once you’ve allowed yourself to master one marketing thing, whether that be updating your website or getting your Facebook page or group doing what it should, you can move on to the next thing without letting that slip.
Most things can be automated and content can be created in bulk and scheduled to your blog or social channels. Take the time to invest in learning how to do that one thing better and faster so that you can feel more on top of it.
3. Make a plan, break it down
Now that you’ve given yourself a better mindset you’ll be free to make a plan and make that plan work for you without the anxiety.
Start with a goal, something more specific than just getting more clients or making more money. For example, you may need to update your website or be consistent with your social media.
Break your goal into manageable steps, write them down and focus on one thing at a time.
This might be:
- create a content ideas list for social media
- create text for posts
- create graphics for posts
- schedule posts for the month – schedule a post a week and then if you have more, schedule a second post each week, this means there’s always content going out and you’ll have some breathing room
- make time for this task again next month
4. Imperfect action
If you’re not making progress with your marketing it’s probably because you’re not finishing stuff. Trying to do too much and get it all perfect is going to stand in the way of actually promoting your business.
Set time aside to do something, do it as best you can within that time and then hit the publish/launch/send button.
Trying to be perfect in everything you do is going to lead you to put things off if you’re unsure of all the details.
Those perfect actions, leave those for serving your clients. When it comes to marketing, getting the word out is much more important than the details. Sure we’d love every post and email and piece of content to be perfect but if you’re publishing nothing because of this then that’s way more dangerous than the odd typo (by the way you can install Grammarly on your browser to help you avoid those niggling typos!)
5. Be uniquely you
It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed when your competition is posting every day on social, has adverts, an email list, a funnel and seems to be doing all the things they should be. Remember, you have no idea how long it’s taken for them to get where they are, if they have help or are being inspired by a business coach.
The most important thing about your marketing is to be authentically you. People want to connect with YOU and showing them the real ways you help people and WHY you do it the way you do is going to get you bookings or sales.
Remember point 4, don’t be too much of a perfectionist, share what’s real, share real stories about you and your clients and do it consistently whether that’s through your email list, social media or website.
6. Think about hiring someone
Saying you’re figuring it out instead of failing is great but what if your marketing efforts are getting in the way of what you love to do? That’s totally fine, you don’t have to love marketing or running a business but it is something you need to do.
Work out what things take you the most time, what things you enjoy doing the least and what it will be possible to outsource within your budget. Remember, these things should provide a return on your investment. So whether it’s getting help with website development or hiring a VA to take on some administrative tasks and social media, don’t be afraid to get the help you need.
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