How to Successfully Market Your Business
Follow These 4 Mental Keys for Marketing Success
If you have a great product, it should just sell, right?
Most of us feel this while navigating the wild west of business building. We hope sales will come organically and through word of mouth. But sometimes we stall out after we have tapped out our family and friends. We are left wondering, Will this business be a success? Will I sell anything? Am I destined to be among the 50-65% of start-ups that fail within five years?
Those questions are what business nightmares are made of, and if you are fortunate to not have an overactive imagination, you are in the minority of small business owners who frequently experience these fears based on statistics and business closure stories.
We know there is no guarantee of a successful business. There are, however, some pretty clear indicators of whether you can nail it with your marketing, starting with your mindset. That’s right, it is not all about spreadsheets. Ask yourself: Are you following these four keys to success in your mental marketing game?
Success Strategy #1 Set Realistic Expectations
We all have the fantasy that our business will take off within the first three months. Aside from success feeling good, this fantasy may be encouraged by the pressure of watching our bank accounts dwindle while we sacrifice to build a business. Another reason for short-term projection of business take-off? Our ego may be playing a role.
Unrealistic expectations can arise from many factors, and not just the need for cash flow. Our perception of our product may be inflated, or we may be struggling with feeling like we deserve to be successful. But in business, no more dangerous word than deserve has ever been spoken. Feeling like we deserve success moves our responsibility away from ourselves and onto an unforeseen force that owes us. Believing that success is made through consistency and work will set our expectations aright and pave the way to success in our marketing endeavors.
Why? Because marketing takes times. Marketing involves risk and at times, it means low return until we find the right approach. No one owes us a sale. Success can be one of those “slowly and then suddenly” kind of things.
Putting in the time, day after day, without accolades is an ego hit but it is business. Do you know a highly successful person (who wasn’t a scammer) who built their business in days? Recently, I heard Chris Williamson from Modern Wisdom Podcast say that it took three years of content (marketing) to finally take off. Three years to wonder if you are talking to anyone…Three years of numerous free content that felt unnoticed or unappreciated. That is dedication to the process.
And marketing is a process. It involves strategy, trial and error, and risk. Psychologically, customers need points of contact to follow through with a sale. Typically, a customer will interact with your business in differing ways six times before making a purchase. Those six points of contact could be word of mouth, fliers, website, social media, search engines and more. Understanding that you are wooing your customer will alter your expectations for a timeline.
It can be uncomfortable, but as business owners we need to check in with ourselves. Do we feel people owe us and should buy our product? Are we expecting customers to come to us because we make a few social media posts?
If you are struggling with unmet expectations, flip the script in your mind: You are here to solve the customer’s problem. They don’t owe you anything. It’s your job to convince them that you have what they need.
Success Strategy #2 Stay Open to Feedback
Is the feedback you received from customers to help or to harm you? I first heard this question when I was struggling with the delivery of feedback I received in a job. I could not tell if the person was doing it to help me (like they claimed) or harm me (like it felt). Sometimes, it is a fine line to decipher.
We can’t know customer motives in their feedback, but we can mentally filter how the feedback affects us. First, we need to be open to feedback in general knowing that collaboration- including from customer critics- can make us better. Businesses that have poor customer service and do not accept feedback either die or are blacklisted by high quality customers.
Second, what is a good lens to view feedback? Some questions we can ask ourselves is whether the feedback can make us better, whether the feedback came from a successful person or a reliable customer, and whether the feedback was about solutions.
If you receive feedback that simply says, “I hate your kitchen products,” that does not give you much to go on. Discard. If the feedback says, “I hate your kitchen oven mitten product because I got a second degree burn when picking up a pan,” this person is telling you valuable information. Feelings aside on how hard you worked on the design, stay curious.
Always strive to make it better. That is a key to successful businesses- always looking for ways to improve instead of insisting the customer accept flaws and errors. Again, you are here to solve the customer’s problem.
Maybe you can’t tell if feedback is here to help or to harm. A helpful tactic is to create two columns on a piece of paper. Investigate what could be helpful in their feedback and write this down under “Areas to Improve.” Is there anything harmful in their feedback (unrelated personal insult, for example)? Write it in the second column under, “Unhelpful Distractions.”
Some feedback is like 7th grade math word problems. You have to navigate around the non-useful information to mine for the key content that will solve the problem.
Success Strategy #3 Don’t Try to Serve Everyone: Narrow Down Your Marketing Avenues
We may think that we have to appeal to everyone. This is a trap and can derail your marketing. This pressure may come from a desire to be helpful, or less productive, a desire to be liked. You really just need a loyal following in a niche area that solves a problem. If your product is great and you speak their branding language, you do not need everyone to buy it for you to succeed.
Feeling pressure to use all digital platforms (because, aren’t we supposed to?) can be time draining and disheartening. Is social media worth it? Maybe. Maybe not. Understanding your customer will save you wasted time on marketing techniques that prove unprofitable for your company.
You may have to try different approaches (success strategy #1), but your website will give you business analytics you can use so you are not simply guessing in the dark. For example, on Squarespace you can see where your customers are coming from. If you notice a lot of traffic from social media, you can know those platforms are helpful even if your ‘likes’ aren’t what you would like them to be. You can mentally be less affected by what feels like ignored content.
Search Engine Optimization and email marketing are still supreme for leading in customers. SEO provides a way for your ideal customer to seek you out when entering keywords in a search engine. Many business owners feel SEO is less discouraging than social media, which is really you asking people to like your products. Social media is a fantastic free branding tool, but many business owners feel the mind game of followers, likes, and shares is too overwhelming. A great, simple website with excellent SEO can do a lot for your marketing!
Before you feel discouraged, determine through your analytics where your customers are coming from, what they are buying, and where they are spending time while on your website. Stay curious. Pivot when needed. We live in an amazing age for data and we can use it to proceed towards success.
Success Strategy #4 Have a Clear Marketing Plan
Maybe you have made headway into your business, but you are feeling like there are too many pieces to marketing and mental chaos is consuming you. Overwhelm can bury a business owner when they have just started!
Without clarity in your mission, vision, story, customer, and goals, it is natural to be buckshot in your marketing. Your marketing plan starts with a clear mind. Why did you want to build this business? Who does it serve? How can it make their life better?
Having a plan can relieve mysterious anxiety you may be feeling. Have you ever written down three steps in a process before a task, and suddenly the procrastination and anxiety were gone? That is what a marketing plan can do for your business.
Most of us do not need one hundred steps to success. We need simple and clear ways to direct our marketing, freeing our minds to capitalize on why we were passionate about the business when we started!
Are you feeling a bit lost? Your business may be telling you, “It’s not you, it’s me…” It could be time to clarify your business and marketing direction. My blog provides free resources to do this. I also offer Brand Strategy sessions specific to your company, creating an identity to influence how your ideal buyer perceives you, connects to you, and moves to action. These Five Brand Strategy Sessions are personalized Marketing 101 for your business, and you will walk away with these five elements clarified:
Brand Mission, Vision, Story, Ideal Customer, and Goals.
Brand Personality: Logo Concept*, Colors, Tone, and Keywords.
Website Sales Funnel and Email Marketing.
Data Analysis, SEO, and Pinterest.
Social Media Brand Marketing and Connecting with your Customer.
Need some support? My goal is to get you out of the mental weeds and on the pathway to success. Schedule a Consult Today for stronger mental clarity in your marketing. Clarity brings success!
Kind regards,
Shelley Ritter
*Logo concept is narrowing down your brand personality for a design so a graphic designer can create what you really want in your logo.