How to Simplify Your Marketing Strategy

A few weeks ago, as I was stepping back into my business full-time, I kept noticing something peculiar. In the span of about four days, I had several encounters with people where I left thinking, “They are wayyy overcomplicating this. There’s got to be a simpler way.”

It seemed like everyone around me was overcomplicating evvvvverrryyyttthhiinngg.

• My business friend was overcomplicating the pricing structure of her new offerings. 
• Someone I follow on Instagram (who I suspect is an ISFP) was overcomplicating her launch plan by following Jeff Walker’s ever-complicated Product Launch Formula.
• A client I consult with was overcomplicating their membership funnel with way too many upsells and downsells and cross-sells. 
• My mortgage lender needed (still needs, in fact) three more random documents to quote an interest rate after already having more than what she needs from me. 
• The renovation of my spare room (soon-to-be nursery) was supposed to be pretty straightforward and then became a full gut-job. 
• Don’t even get me started on the complexities of COVID protocols.

And finally, after days of these complications popping up everywhere, I sat back and realized… 

No one was overcomplicating anything. 

I was projecting overcomplication into my reality. I was the one with the problem. I was the one judging the situations as “overcomplicated” and therefore, I had some of my very own overcomplications to deal with. 

Because that’s how it works—the moment you judge something in someone else is also the moment you get to realize you have that within yourself. 

You judge someone as “fat,” deep down inside you judge yourself as “fat.”
You judge someone as “selfish,” deep down inside you judge yourself as “selfish.”
You judge a situation as “complicated,” deep down inside you judge your own situation as “complicated.” 

See what I’m saying?

So, after four days, I finally realized what I was doing—projecting my own complications onto others. 

And obviously, since I was judging others’ complications negatively, my own complications were also a negative influence in my own life.

They didn’t need to simplify. Again—I can’t stress this enough—my friend, the ISFP on Instagram, the client, the mortgage lender, the spare room, they weren’t overcomplicating anything. 

I was the one who needed to simplify. 

Oh, and COVID protocols? They’re still over-complicated. Not backing down on that one. Also not going down that rabbit hole right now. 

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Why Simple Matters

Now taking a closer look, you might wonder, “But why did you need to simplify?”

Why does “simple” matter?

I needed to simplify because my own complications and complexities, especially in business, were holding me back. 

Here’s the thing—as I was stepping back into my business, I stepped back into my old systems of running this business. What I needed to do each month, each week, each day to grow this thing. 

While I had been “gone,” away from the business, I had kept the “lights on,” still selling Full Reports and allowing my passive income funnel to work as was intended, but there wasn’t attention or time or effort put into actually growing anything. 

Then, as I stepped back in, some things that I used to do felt great to get back to, while other things… not so much. 

Some things didn’t feel good to me anymore. I thought they were too complicated, which led me to feel tired just thinking about them. And then, as you might’ve guessed, I procrastinated those tiring, complicated tasks and little to no progress was made on them. 

For those of you familiar with Brooke Castillo’s Self-Coaching Model, it looked like this:
Circumstance – Previous marketing systems
Thought – Complicated
Feeling – Tired
Action – Procrastination
Result – Little to no progress

Sound like a familiar cycle?

 “Complexity is the enemy of execution.”

I heard Ed Mylett say this on his podcast the other day and it was like lightbulbs and fireworks going off in my head. YUP, THAT’S IT.

Once I realized it was the complexities in my own system that were holding me back from executing, I knew what I needed to do—I needed to simplify. 

But how?

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How to Simplify Your Marketing Strategy (and Business and Life)

It’s as simple (wink wink) as answering these three questions.

#1 What feels complicated right now?

My first step to simplifying my marketing strategy (and business and life) was to get a clear picture of what felt complicated to me. Not anyone else’s life, but my own. 

If you haven’t yet found out what your Marketing Personality Type is, that’ll help you simplify basically everything that’s weighing you down in your marketing right now. 

And yet, even those who know and implement their Marketing Personality Type (my hand is raised), still get off track when we let little complications flood our systems (still raised). 

My own personal example of these 3 steps is below. Keep reading to see this in action. 

#2 Why does it feel complicated?

Next, I considered everything on my Feels-Complicated List and asked WHY? What is the core reason this feels complicated?

I’ve found the WHY to be one of four reasons:

• I’ve taken on “shoulds” that don’t feel good to me. 
• I feel I need to learn more about this topic in order to execute properly. 
• I’ve taken on too much. 
• I’m being too hard on myself.

You might have other reasons. These are usually mine.

#3 What stays? And what goes?

Now that I have a clear understanding of what feels complicated and why, I can make clear decisions about which complexities stay, which go, and which need to be tweaked in order to feel better to me. 

This is the real action you must take in order to simplify. And subsequently, it might be the hardest step. It’s at this point in the process when your egoic mind will come in with all the reasons why you can’t possibly let go of these things—because “Everyone does it this way though!” and “This could ruin your progress!” and “Business is hard and this is hard so maybe you’re onto something here!” 

Ignore, reject, delete that BS. Simplify. 

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How I Simplified My Own Marketing Strategy

Here’s a look at how I simplified my own marketing strategy using those three steps above. 

#1 What feels complicated right now?

• Content calendar
• Podcasting
• Instagram
• Launching
• Next Offer

The biggest ah-hah I had here was that my actual customer journey didn’t feel complicated. That thing is rocking and rolling and it worked brilliantly the entire time I was out for the past few months. 

Again, structuring your marketing strategy based on your Marketing Personality Type inherently helps you avoid the most common complicated pitfall in marketing—an overcomplicated funnel.

The real complications were happening in the details of how I was executing my marketing strategy. 

#2 Why does it feel complicated?

• Content calendar – I’m being too hard on myself. I used to thrive with a super structured, hyper-scheduled content calendar and that doesn’t feel good anymore. 
• Podcasting – I’ve taken on “shoulds.” Almost all podcasts are edited with an intro and outro. My own podcast was professionally edited and produced for three years! But that feels unnecessary now. 
• Instagram – I’ve taken on “shoulds.” I feel like my Instagram presence should be polished and aesthetically consistent but that stresses me out. 
• Launching – I’ve taken on too much. The way I have my launch planned is quite simple, really. It’s just happening while a lot of other things are happening, making my plate feel too full. 
• Next Offer – I’ve taken on “shoulds.” There’s a typical way I see people offering what I’m about to offer and their way feels too complicated. 

#3 What stays? And what goes?

• Content Calendar 
  • STAYS: Creating content when I’m inspired to, no matter how long it has been since I last published something. (Kind of like this blog post that hit me at 4:44am this morning during my early morning bathroom run and is now slated to be published by 8am.)
  • GOES: Planning out content weeks in advance, a strict schedule of always publishing on Thursdays.
• Podcasting
  • STAYS: Recording and publishing great, helpful content for my listeners.
  • GOES: Professional editing, the intro and outro, strict publishing schedule. 
• Instagram
  • STAYS: Sharing when it feels fun. 
  • GOES: Overthinking what my feed and stories look like. 
• Launching
  • STAYS: Prioritizing this launch. 
  • GOES: Other projects that aren’t as important as the launch. 
• Next Offer
  • STAYS: Simple, straightforward deliverables, accessible price point. 
  • GOES: Packing too much into the offer so the customer is left confused. 

From a Marketing Personality Type perspective, I see now that I was trying a little too hard to operate like an Intuitive Thinker, rather than what I am—an Intuitive Feeler. (I’m an ENFJ, for those of you who are new around here.)

Now that I’m stripping away many of the reasons I find myself overTHINKing from day to day, I can sink into my most feel-good Intuitive Feeling self. 

And since first implementing these simplifications a few weeks ago, I have to say—it’s working.

I no longer stress about my content calendar and publishing schedule. I love just hitting record on my mic, uploading the raw audio to Libsyn, and letting y’all hear it uncut. I’m letting myself play on Instagram, which feels so fun and right to me right now. It took me a little time to sort out how to really prioritize this upcoming launch, amidst all the other things going on right now, but with the help of my coach and continued commitment to myself and to YOU, it’s happening. And it’s so freaking simple. Wait til you see it. And I feel really good about keeping my next offer super simple and getting it into your hands ASAP.

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Now, it’s your turn. 

Do you need to simplify your marketing strategy (and business and life)? 

Follow the steps:

#1 What feels complicated right now?
#2 Why does it feel complicated?
#3 What stays? And what goes?

And simplify in the name of execution, progress, and GROWTH.