If there were ever a time to need a simplified marketing strategy, it’d be right now.
Because in a matter of hours, your time and brain space to devote to marketing and running your business was severely reduced.
Your kids are at home with you.
Your spouse is at home with you.
There are so many things to clean.
There are so many things to remember to do and not to do.
And even if the above items aren’t true for you, there’s just a lot of anxiety and distraction happening all around us, if not within us.
You need a simplified marketing strategy.
You don’t have the time, energy, or attention you used to for your marketing strategy.
So, what do you do?
Just forget about marketing altogether?
I mean, you could forget about marketing altogether.
I don’t know your specific situation. If you don’t feel like you can show up for any marketing efforts right now at all, then don’t. Seriously. I’m not here to shame you into marketing your business right now.
What I am here to do is to help you SIMPLIFY your marketing strategy so it’s doable for you in the weeks and months to come.
Because here’s the deal – people still need your stuff.
People still need what you’re selling.
People still want to buy from you.
And let’s face it – you can’t just stop making money.
And money comes from sales.
And sales come from marketing.
Sooooo.
You have to market your stuff right now if you want to sell it.
But let’s not lose our ever-loving minds while marketing. Cool? Because we don’t have to. There’s definitely a simpler way.
Here’s how to simplify your marketing strategy in three steps:
- Don’t do anything new right now. Stick to what you’ve done and have experience with. You don’t have time for the learning curve that comes with trying something new. I found Rachel Hollis’s perspective on this truly helpful:
“No New Things – At any given moment at Hollis Co we’re developing at least 10 ideas or products or lines of business. Some are on the small scale (like new merchandise for the shop) and some are high dollar projects (like our upcoming app) but in a time like this we pause EVERYTHING. Because cash is everything we circle the wagons around our core business and work as a team to make sure that we’re pushing those forward. The cool new shiny things? We’ll pick those up again later but for now, we don’t want to be distracted from the core mission.“
– Rachel Hollis, LinkedIn Article, We survived 2008, we’ll survive this too… - Stop putting energy into marketing efforts that feel complicated, difficult, fake, salesy, or “too much.”
Here’s how to do this one well:
Make a list of all the things you were doing to market your business before COVID-19 hit. Everything. Write it down right now.
Then identify the things on that list that are just too much right now. They drain your energy, rather than restore it. To those energy-suckers, draw a big fat line through them. For the next few weeks, you’re simply not doing them. *Ahhh sign of relief* - Double down on what feels good. With what’s left on your list – the things that feel easy and good to you – focus your limited time and attention there. Yes, that will be enough to attract the right people to your offers and keep your business going and growing. Because…
WHEN I FEEL GOOD, MY AUDIENCE FEELS GOOD.
Need help identifying what will feel good for you to do right now? Lean on your Marketing Personality Type results.
The funny thing is, that short list of feel-good marketing things to do? That’s all you need at any given time. You just had so much time before that you didn’t know you could make things so simple.
Thanks, COVID-19, for showing me what I no longer have to pour myself into. #blessit
But what if…
But what if the thing that feels damn-near-impossible right now is something you’ve always done? I mean, what if you’ve always published a new podcast episode every single week for the past 5 years, but getting on the mic right now feels impossible?
My honest answer – take a break from podcasting until you can bring feel-good energy to it. Your listeners will understand. You don’t even need to explain yourself. You have other things to attend to right now and it’s not going to tank your business to not publish a new podcast for a few weeks.
And that goes for ANYTHING in your marketing. A new podcast episode, a new blog post, showing up on Instagram, recording a new video for YouTube, hosting that webinar you planned months ago.
It. is. oh. kay. to drop those things so you can fully pick up the marketing tactics that feel right for you right now.
Because if you don’t? You’re just going to drop everything.
Maybe you already have.
And that’s okay.
We are all struggling and there is zero shame in that.
And now, as you move forward, you want to bring in money, you want to make sales, and therefore, you want to market your offers well.
Do it simply by showing up for the things that feel good and leaving the things that don’t.
Rooting for you.
B