Have you ever found yourself saying things like... "My business is too small, I am not in the place where I need to be worrying about that right now, because I've got referrals coming in."
Or maybe you think it's too expensive and it's not a place that you want to be putting investments right now, so you're just gonna hold off on it.
Or maybe you think that marketing is annoying because you see other people doing it, and you think that you have to be like them in order to be marketing your products, your services, your offerings.
I'm Jamie DuBose, founder of www.ZenplicityNow.com, and today I want to talk about five marketing misconceptions that I see and hear people talking about that are holding them back from having a profitable and sustainable business online.
1. "My business is too small. I'm not in a place where I can really devote time and energy to that and I don't have a big enough team to support a big marketing plan."
Here's the truth guys. Every single business needs a marketing strategy. Whether you are just starting out or whether you are a thriving company, everybody needs to have a strategy in place for bringing in new leads, and prospects, and selling their services and finding repeat customers and repeat advocates, so that they can spread the word even farther.
So it's not necessarily about the size of your business, or the size of your team, you can find ways to incorporate simple marketing strategies that don't have to take up a lot of time and that you can go ahead and start doing right away.
2. "It is so complicated. I do not have time to learn all of the marketing techniques, tools and software that I need in order to deploy a marketing campaign."
Here's the truth guys. Start simple. Don't feel like you have to do everything all at once. In order to start marketing your business choose one channel or one area and focus on that first.
So maybe this looks like showing up on social media, putting yourself out there and building relationships with people that are already in your friend circle. Use that as an opportunity to go ahead and start talking about your business and finding ways to infuse value for people like that, that will eventually hopefully be... To become customers for you the... You can start to add another layer to that. So you're not taking a multi-marketing layer approach which never really works. It's kind of like multitasking. Everybody thinks it's a great idea, but there's really no such thing. So keep it simple and keep it focused and then start to build on other layers as you're ready to build.
3. "It is too expensive. I don't have the revenue to put behind my marketing efforts."
Again, guys, there is a million free ways that you can start marketing your business. Social media is totally free.
No, you do not have to be using paid advertising, in order to be marketing your business online content marketing is free.
There is no cost for writing blog posts and publishing valuable content on your website so that people can find you. Show up and find value in what you're having to say.
The fourth, and probably one of my favorite marketing misconception is that:
4. "I'm not focused on marketing right now because I'm focused on selling instead."
This kind of like putting the cart before the horse just a little bit. In order to do our best with selling, we need to take a step back and we need to be building relationships with prospects first in order to make more sales. I guarantee you, if you are starting small, even simply with marketing instead of only focused on selling you will have better results.
5. "I see other people doing it and they are annoying. I don't want to be annoying."
Folks, they're doing their own thing. Don't worry about the marketing strategies that they're using for their business because that's not necessarily going to be congruent with how you should be showing up for your people.
Don't think that your perceptions of their marketing will be the same for everyone else who has seen you show up to be yourself. Be authentic. Choose a strategy that works for you, and don't worry about what other people are doing online.
Yeah, sure, you can find ideas and you can find inspiration, but do not make the mistake of thinking that just because somebody else is doing something that you find annoying that other people would find you annoying as well. I guarantee that's not the case and your people will show up for you, your people will find you, you will start to build your own community of dedicated followers, fans, prospects, and ultimately customers.
I hope that you've enjoyed me dispelling these five marketing misconceptions.
If you've ever thought or felt one of these have no fear, that is totally fine. It is a totally normal thing. Just know that there is truth and there are different ways that you can dispel these marketing misconceptions. You can continue to build your business online through a tried and true strategy of building relationships first with your prospects in order to sell more.
Let me know if you have any questions! I would love to hear other marketing misconceptions you have, and we can help dispel those as well.
