When I tell people that I’m a Marketing Consultant and my job is to help your business generate more revenue, I get mixed reactions. The reactions are usually positive in a sense that the person I’m talking to understands how important it is to effectively market their business but at the same time they don’t necessarily know where to start.

“I really need help with my marketing, that’s the one thing I don’t get.”

“I made sure my business is on social media but I’m not sure how it works.” 

“I definitely need to start marketing my business more to get new customers.”

Do any of these lines sound familiar to you? If the answer is yes, read on. Marketing is one of the most important elements in growing your business and generating more revenue, yet it’s also one that gets the least attention.  What if marketing your business was fun? What if you could make a direct correlation between your marketing activity and impact on your bottom line? What if your marketing efforts automatically made more customers seek you out and want to work with you? Once you start seeing the positive results with your marketing, your attitude about this dreaded activity will change. You’ll stop making excuses and you’ll grow to love marketing your business.  I’m going to discuss the top 3 excuses business owners and entrepreneurs give for not marketing their business and ways to overcome these objections. After each solution I list a specific action item that you can do today to start accelerating your marketing efforts.

EXCUSE #1–  I’m too overwhelmed with all of the marketing tools out there, I don’t know where to start. Digital technology can be both a blessing and a curse. With all of the new apps, programs and social media sites out there, it can be very difficult to know what will work for your business. It’s very easy to just ignore everything we see and hear about how we need to use the latest app/site/program but it’s even easier to understand what tools to use to start making money for our business.

SOLUTION- First, let’s take a step back. Rather than focus on what tools we need to use, it’s important understand the measurable goals you want to reach.  Feeling overwhelmed with your marketing is often a result of not knowing what you’re measuring. Therefore your efforts may feel like a waste of time because you don’t know how to track your success or figure out which activities to cut out that aren’t providing value.  Set SPECIFIC and measurable goals to track your marketing activities. I promise this will help with the “overwhelming” feeling you’re getting.

Examples of measurable goals 

• Sign up 30 new members each month over the course of 6 months (180 new members total).
• Generate $100,000 in donations to our charity over the next year.
• Sell 200 packages over the course of 6 months (1200 packages total).

Examples of goals that aren’t measurable 

• Get more visibility for our business.
• Get new customers to sign up for our programs.
• Spread the word about our new product.

Once you know what goals you want to reach, you can figure out how to incorporate your goals into your marketing activities. If you want to get new members, make sure you’re promoting your membership program when you’re out at an event. Make sure you mention membership benefits on your social media updates and emails.

ACTION ITEM– Write out 1-2 measurable goals for your business. Take a look at the current things you’re doing in your marking strategy and see if they connect back to your goals. 

EXCUSE #2-  I don’t have the time to focus on marketing right now. This is a popular excuse because most business owners feel like they’re doing many random marketing activities that aren’t adding up to new business. If this is the case, I certainly wouldn’t have time for marketing either because I would associate it with wasting time. Let’s focus on making sure our marketing efforts are reaching the right audience who will turn into customers. Otherwise we will waste a lot of time marketing to people who will never turn into customers. 

SOLUTION- Understanding your audience will provide you with a solid foundation for marketing your business. You’ll know the behaviors of your audience, which will help you narrow down which tools to start with. For example, if you’re marketing to teenagers, perhaps you know they’re into the “Selfie” craze so you may want to use Instagram for a Selfie promotion. If you’re marketing to stay at home moms and know that there is a big blogger community for moms, you can write a guest post on some popular mom blogs.  Think of who your audience is and where you will find them, then make sure you’re there too. This will save you a lot of time, make your marketing efforts more efficient and you’ll find that you have more time because you’re generating more revenue.

ACTION ITEM– Create a profile for your ideal target audience. Don’t just say “moms” or “men between the ages of 25-49”. “Moms” is still broad because a  mom can have a grown adult child or a toddler. Here’s an example of being more specific “I am targeting moms who have children between the ages of 6-12 years old. These moms have a household income of at least 150K per year. They are tech savvy and manage most of the activity planning for their children.” You can even be more specific by listing out some of the hobbies these moms might have or some of their family values.  Now that you have a profile for your target audience you’ll spend less time marketing to the wrong people and more time connecting with people who will become customers.

Excuse #3- I don’t have enough money to invest into my marketing–  You don’t need a lot of money to start marketing, but you do need to market your business to make money. There are many free marketing resources that you can take advantage of if you understand how to use them properly. The ultimate goal is for your marketing activities to make you more money than you spend. Soon you will feel comfortable with having a mindset that money spent on marketing is an investment in your business to generate even more revenue. 

SOLUTION– Stop looking at every dollar you invest into marketing as a waste and start seeing it as an opportunity to grow. This requires some due diligence on your end to learn about which tools are free but also learning how to use them properly. Just because a tool is free tool doesn’t always mean it’s a good idea. You still need to invest time into creating content. You will save a lot of money by only focusing on the marketing channels that help you reach your goals and only marketing to the right audience (This is why overcoming excuse #1 and #2 are so important.

ACTION ITEM- Write a list of as many free marketing tools you can think of. Many of these tools will be social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, review websites, etc. Choose 1 tool to focus on. Figure out ideas on how you can create content to reach your measurable goals and connect with your target audience.

My intention is to teach every business owner how to love marketing their business. I promise you’ll enjoy marketing if you can make more money from your efforts. If you enjoyed learning how to over come these common marketing excuses, I want to help you even more. I am currently offering complimentary 30 minute marketing consultations. You’ll have 30 minutes to speak one on one directly with me to get all of your tough marketing questions answers. I will also give you more action items you can implement immediately.  If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, I need to get to know you first so I can figure out the best way to help you during our consultation. Fill out the form below so I can get to know you. After your submit the form, I’ll contact you to set up a time start working together. Good luck and happy marketing!

CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED WITH A COMPLIMENTARY MARKETING CONSULTATION. You have no excuse not to start!