How to do less marketing and get better results - have you got entrepreneur marketing ADD?
Tell me if this sounds familiar? You are running your own independent business.
You want to get some customers, so you decide you need to do some marketing.
You start one thing, maybe create a Facebook page, then get the Instagram handle, then Twitter, ooh and then you book a Pinterest course, and sign up to learn about creating an Amazon shop.
Suddenly you find yourself running 6 different social network accounts, writing a blog, running events in the real world, networking, sending emails, trying to understand SEO and wondering if you should start to get your head around paid Facebook adverts.
Before you know it you are running a million marketing channels single-handedly
You are attempting to do the tasks of a full corporate brand and marketing department and you are just a one-man-band trying to run a business that is intended to give you more freedom?!
Hang on a minute. This is no fun at all.
Consistency is king. Yawn.
Especially when you add the advice that you should be consistent. Post regularly. Consistently. And create original useful, timely, entertaining content for our audience to enjoy. Must. Keep. Going.
It gets too much. Then your channels fall dormant
Was your last social post three months ago?
Are your accounts dwindling?
Are you spending lots of time feeling stressed and overwhelmed that you are getting nowhere?
Are you starting to think of another way of trying to convert customers?
Then, I’d appeal to you to stop right there.
That is a clear channel of entrepreneur marketing A.D.D.
Entrepreneur Marketing A.D.D. = when a business owner gets bored of one marketing channel and decides to start another because it looks [easier/more fun/everyone says you should*].
*delete as appropriate.
The problem is that too many channels = poor performance.
Unless you are a ninja social media manager, you will have to learn each platform. This is hard work. Facebook works in a completely different way to LinkedIn. Pinterest is totally different from Snapchat. PPC (paid search ads on Google) is a totally different ball game completely. Understanding each channel and how your content behaves in that space takes time. The time you do not have when you need to be making money.
The purpose of all marketing is to drive people towards your product/service
Every piece of marketing should aim to move your target customer through a decision-making process to purchase. When you see people talking about “the funnel”, “build your funnel”, this is what they are talking about.
The classic AIDA model, developed back in 1898 by E. St. Elmo Lewis, forms the basic process of advertising/marketing. Although it's now been adapted to the modern-day, its core is still true. As business owners, we must take our potential customers on a journey with us to influence their behaviour. As the business owner, you need to create the most effective journey.
Awareness (they have seen your message in some way and have now heard of you)
Interest (they show some interest in your brand )
Desire (they decide they want to purchase from you)
Action (they take the leap and part with their £)
To be effective and convert leads into customers, you need to develop the experience and messages at each stage of the customer journey. AND get good at it.
If you are running too many channels at the top of the funnel, it's likely you are missing some key learnings on how to improve your awareness, traffic volume and your conversion to get people to take action.
Lewis made his model simple and the world was more simple back in 1898. The complexity of online has thrown in so many more options, than just having a simple shop in your town with a sign outside.
Although our online world is incredibly complex, I would encourage you to consider that your marketing strategy can be simple too.
The Rule of Five Ones
I would like to share with you a new way of thinking about your startup marketing strategy. It’s called the rule of five ones. Clay Collins, CEO and Founder of Lead Pages, who built a 7 figure business from his blog shared his secret to his success was the rule of Five Ones.
Collins followed this strategy to build his audience, convert that audience and then scale. Here it is...
The rule of five ones.
You should limit yourself to selling ONE PRODUCT, whatever your flag side product is.
You should limit yourself to ONE CONVERSION MECHANISM.
This would vary depending on what you are selling. That's either a website page, a webinar, pitch meeting, or sales video.
Then have ONE TRAFFIC SOURCE that sends people to your conversion mechanism.
This could be Facebook ads, blogging, SEO, Google ads, Instagram ads
You then have one product, one conversion mechanism and one traffic source.
Essentially it's like going back to the basics of the shop in your town with a sign outside.
You have your handbags (product). You have your shop on the high street with a sales assistant (your conversion mechanism). And you have your sign outside (your traffic source).
Nowadays the joys of the internet have given us so much choice that the combinations of conversion method and traffic source are endless. It is then super hard to pinpoint what is working for you and what you should refine. Collins’ recommendation is to remove the combinations and focus on ONE of each.
You need ONE year to find the right combination.
This may seem like a long time, but building something that is sustainable and can scale is worth the investment of time. Collins believes that by finding the right combination you should be able to get to £7-8k a month revenue. That is £100,000 a year. Not bad. If you are able to find this formula and be confident that it is working and not a fluke, you can inject more resources/budget and scale.
ONE million. After steps 1-4 are cracked.
After you have found the right combination by being brutally focused and hitting a regular £7-8k a month, now you can scale. You know the formula, so this is possible. This is the formula that Collins followed to turn his blog into a $7 million dollar business.
He states the secret to doing this is a focus. Not to get A.D.D. and be wooed by all the wonderful opportunities/tools/channels/excitement out there.
He is basically saying, if you get wooed, you’ll be screwed. As a solo-entrepreneur or a tiny startup don’t spread yourself too thin.
To support the rule of five ones, there are also five commandments. The commandments must be committed to in order for the five ones to work.
I’ve been working this week with a client on her five commandments. It is amazing what clarity they can provide.
The five commandments:
Thou shalt only have one business. If you are going to have a second business, you need to shut down the first. Maybe down the road, you may have more when you are more advanced. But to make your current startup or independent business work, thou shalt only have one.
Thou shalt only have one offer. Simple, single-minded, clear.
Thou shalt not spend more than one day a month creating products after you’ve launched. Before launch, you’ll spend more time on this but after you’ve launched, you can’t spend more than one day per month on product creation. You need to focus on selling your product, not on continually making it better or thinking that if you refine module three of your product for the 20th time, that that will be the one thing that gets people to buy.
Thou shalt not spend more than one day per month on content marketing unless content marketing is your one traffic source. Your time is more precious and it can overwhelm your business.
Thou shalt find beauty in-depth, rather than breadth. Focus deeply on a few areas and become an expert. By understanding the nuances you will see results.
When starting out it is so easy to get pulled in a million marketing directions and get into a lot of ADD-like behaviour. For a solo entrepreneur or startup, this can be really detrimental.
What I encourage you to do is to find beauty in going deep rather than wide. Follow the rule of five ones. One product, one source of traffic, one conversion mechanism.
Choose the one traffic source that interests you the most, is it LinkedIn? is it blogging? is it events? Go deep here, find the nuances and subtleties of it, track everything and see how your tiny tweaks and pivots affect the results.
Focus on getting one marketing channel right. Really right. You don’t need to do all the sexy stuff just because everyone else is.
If you have multiple channels and would like to reduce the effort and overwhelm, get in touch to discuss your marketing strategy for your startup or independent business. If you are interested in seeing how coaching can help you pivot towards more happiness and growth, I offer a limited amount of free pivot consultations each month.
Liz Ward is Founder and Coach at Slick Pivot. Slick Pivot helps new and seasoned entrepreneurs get good at change. Supporting your pivot journey through one to one coaching, bespoke team workshops, and events to help you find more happiness and growth in your work, whether that is quitting your 9-5, starting and growing that business or developing the right mindset for success.
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