When we are just beginning to venture into something new, especially with us entrepreneurs, we tend to skip the little things and rush everything, thinking that it’s the right way to go… but it’s actually not. Bit by bit, we end up crumbling away. For a clear and super hilarious visual presentation about what we mean, check out this funny yet super spot on cartoon here. Raise your hands if you can very much relate to this . We know even the best of us have experienced this.
So for today’s Social Media Marketing Happy Hour podcast, we’d like to share with you a few simple, yet very essential elements that are sometimes overlooked in creating an effective digital marketing strategy.
We’ve been seeing this trend on a regular basis in both our individual businesses and in Social Media Marketing Happy Hour, and even with our clients and other entrepreneurs we know. What is it? There’s actually a missing piece or a leak somewhere in the marketing strategy. And we all know that if there’s a leaky spot in your business, you'll definitely lose profit if you don't fix it.
Why is there a leak?
Most budding entrepreneurs have this notion that it’s easy to market their business. All they have to do is simply post on social media and run a few ads and this translates to profit! They think it will automatically attract new leads that turn into sales or new clients. Here’s a reality check, it doesn’t work that way.
It’s good to be excited when you start your business, but when you get too excited, you start without even making sure that everything is setup right. Don’t succumb to the Shiny Object Syndrome. Many business owners and entrepreneurs hastily shift gears because they feel a little bit of success trickling in, and they haven’t even gotten the base set up. Always start with the basics or else, you’ll end up spending money on ads to run traffic and find leads without really knowing what your end goal is and more so, how to achieve it.
What is your ultimate marketing goal as an entrepreneur?
First of all, you have to know what your goal is and make a plan to reach that goal. The end game of brand awareness is to get people to come deeper into your sales funnel. If you’re offering services, it’s about getting people to pick you among all the other competition. If you’re selling goods or if you're a brick and mortar business, it should be about getting people to walk into your actual store. The goal is simple — it's ultimately about getting the sale.
How do you start?
Here are a few simple things you can do that will get you much closer to creating a marketing machine that can run in the background.
- Ask a REAL Expert
We need to make sure that before you run any traffic to your business, that you have your auto-responders set up, your email follow-ups set up, your facebook pixels, retargeting set up and so much more. If you don’t know what to do, you should ask an expert. Just a warning, there are a lot of people out there who consider themselves experts in a particular field, although they may or may not have the experience and qualifications to be deemed an expert. Just make sure you’re asking the right people, those who are also doing what you’re planning to do and those that have a good track record to show for it.
- Utilize Lucidcharts
Lucidchart is an online software where you can create flow charts. Both of us personally use this for our businesses and find it very helpful. It gives you a visual representation of the process and allows you to map out the direction in which you are going. Take time to sit down and map out what your current system is and see if you really do you have an actual process working. If not, this tool will make it easier to do that. This is a crucial step and implementing it will surely make you more profitable, not to mention save your precious time too!
- More Tips
We know you might be feeling overwhelmed right now listening to all of this, but doesn't have to be complicated. If you're just getting started and you don't know how to set up all of these stuff, get yourself a lead capture page. On the thank you page offer a private consultation. You can do something really simple but with a strong call to action that can help move your business forward.
Here’s another added bonus for our Happy Hour listeners! We will take time for people who want to do a business diagnostic session with us so we can take a look at the current process you have in place. Go ahead and apply for a complimentary business diagnostic session at https://happyhourhangouts.com/coaching.
There’s so much we want to share about this topic, but we can only provide so much here on our podcast. We tackle these things heavily in our inner circle. Aside from all the great resources we provide there, it’s also a wicked awesome place to get encouragement and positivity from a diverse group of people who are more or less on the same path and are working towards a common goal. We can’t stress enough how important it is to have a community when it comes to building your business. If you're ready to become a part of the Happy Hour Inner Circle, visit https://happyhourhangouts.com/innercircle.
Stay tuned for the next episode!
