Marketing Tips to Stop Wasting Your Time

Okay, every business needs a steady flow of leads to nurture and turn a portion of them into paying clients or customers. The problem is, a lot of people approach their marketing with a lot less planning and effort than the rest of their business.

So today, I'm gonna give you three really important marketing tips so that you can stop wasting your time.

Hey, I'm Rodger with RodgerandMelissa.com. And first, let me just say that we've all been there thinking,

"How do I get more people interested "in what I have to offer?"

And the answer is not always that clear-cut. I mean, the best marketing for you is based on a lot of different things. The type of business model you have, the product or service you offer. Your audience, what they need, where they hang out. Not to mention, your existing skill set, which we'll get to more on that in just a minute.

But even though the best marketing for you might have lots of dependencies, I'm pretty sure that if you fall into one of these three categories, you're probably not having a lot of success with your marketing, and I would venture to say, you're wasting your time.

First, are you a dabbler? 

Do you try a little bit of this and a little bit of that, never really committing to any specific strategy, hoping that something is suddenly just going to spike and one day take off?

Second, do you have shiny object syndrome? 

Whoa! Do you repeatedly get excited about the next best thing that some expert said is the end-all be-all to all forms of marketing? You then, of course, now look down on that current dabbling strategy you're using. You toss that one out, and you try the new shiny one, only to repeat that the next time a Facebook ad grabs your attention.

And third, are you relatively new to the marketing game, and have the belief that I call, the online fantasy?

You just know that if you can get just a portion of the 30 gajillion people that are online to see your stuff, you'll be well on your way to booking that private lagoon getaway in Fiji, five times a year. (That would be nice.)

Well, if any of those three hit a little too close to home for you, it's okay. If we're honest, we've all been there to some extent. But that also means you probably need to make a change. So here are our top three marketing tips to keep you from wasting your time.

Tip number one. Make a high level decision on whether your primary marketing strategy should be an online or an offline model.

Now, I'm obviously going to throw in a little of my opinion here, but first, very objectively. I'll say that the way to make this decision is to be honest with yourself about your skill set, the budget you have, and how quickly you're wanting results. If you're in place where you can pay experts to do what they do best, great! Leveraging other's expertise is very powerful, and it's an efficient way to get things done.

But I'm gonna continue with this, assuming you don't have a really big budget, and your current situation may still require a good bit of DIY on your part. With that said, I'm gonna go on record and say that for most people, not everyone, but for most people, an online approach as your primary marketing strategy, is going to be a little tough.

Look, I've been there. Online marketing just isn't easy. There are people out there tugging at your fantasy strings, and there is mega potential, but it's not for the faint of heart. And the leads don't just roll in unless you get a lot of things right.

Now, of course, I can't talk specifics about every type of online marketing, but again, do an inventory. Are you a good copywriter? Do you have design skills? Do you know how to run an effective Facebook ads campaign? Do you have the budget to do enough ads to test and see what works? Do you have the time to post three to five to seven times a week on social media? Can you blog one to three times per week? Can you produce good videos every week? And let's not forget about having the skills to make all the tech stuff work together.

You don't have to do all of what I just said to be successful online, but you've gotta do a lot of it. This is also where we see the most dabblers and shiny object victims wasting their time. It sounded good at the time, but when it gets hard, it's easy to move onto the next promising technique. Also keep in mind, that the online marketing space is extremely crowded. Probably because, again, there's lots of potential. Nevertheless, lots of competition for your audience's attention.

It sounds like I'm really down on online marketing, but hey, as long as you have the time and energy to develop the skill set and create the content required, it can be massively effective as a primary strategy.

Let's talk about a primary strategy that is offline. And I'll tell you right up front that Melissa and I strongly believe in offline strategies for the smaller business, because that's the way we built ours, and it's the way we've helped others to grow theirs.  I'm not talking about offline print marketing, but rather face-to-face marketing, namely professional networking and growing your influence through speaking.

Think about it. When you're face-to-face with people, you have the opportunity to find out what the other person's needs are, to draw out the needed transformation that maybe you can provide to benefit others, either with your own expertise or connecting them with someone else.

Throw speaking into the mix, and now you're using a stage, or front of the room, or a virtual conference to reach lots more people all at once. You have no competition while you're talking, you let them get to know you, the person, and the expertise you already possess, and position yourself as an authority, which is exactly what you want from your marketing.

Oh, and did I mention, that none of that really costs you anything.

Yes, it does take learning how to network and speak effectively, but compared to the online skill requirements, for most people, the offline learning curve is much less steep, is much less expensive, and can have a much more immediate return in the way of leads and prospects.

Whatever your skill set, your budget, and your timeline, decide and commit on a primary strategy.

Which leads us to tip number two. Stay committed to your defined strategy for at least six to nine months of continuous marketing efforts, pivoting where needed.

If you're a dabbler, you're going to get a dabbler's results. I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't sound good. Marketing strategies take commitment. They're typically not a short-term game, and they require consistency as a main ingredient for success.

If you're a content marketer, grind it out and keep creating. If you're a speaker, keep reaching out for opportunities to give your message. Then, as you being to notice where you're having success reaching your audience, or the types of things they wanna hear about, pivot, or adjust, your strategy to better align with what the market is telling you to do, and do more of what's working and less of what's not.

Make adjustments instead of hopping to another shiny object.

And tip number three, use a blended marketing approach. So, in tip number one, while I was advocating offline strategies, you might've thought, "Well, that's a little ironic, Rodger, "because I'm watching a video of you "on your YouTube channel." Well, that's what we call a blended approach.

Offline speaking and networking is our primary strategy. As you begin to get clarity on what's working and where your primary strategy could use some support, bring in secondary avenues to scale up your lead generation even more.

If anyone ever says that online or offline marketing is the only way to go, turn and walk the other way, because absolutes like that really have no place in the marketing space. Good offline strategies can be extremely effective supporting a primary online strategy, and vice versa. For instance, maybe you speak at networking or industry events and you generate leads by offering a download for your audience to learn more.  Then a good online marketing automation setup to deliver the download, and then automatically follow up and nurture the new lead over time, can be extremely effective in leading to conversions at scale.

Or, maybe you're a content creator that supports your brand by using networking or speaking to point people to the value you provide in your online community.

Or, you connect with others offline, building a network that allows for opportunities to collaborate with other online content creators.

Look, marketing isn't easy, but it is necessary. Have a plan based on the needs and the abilities of you and your business, follow these three tips, and you can avoid simply wasting your time and money.

Before you go, if you received some value, go ahead and give us a like and subscribe if you haven't already. And if you're into marketing, be sure to check out this video to see how you could use meetup.com as an organizer to grow your business.

And as always, reach out if we can help. Take care.