I know what it’s like to be a business owner, wearing so many different hats—working both on and IN the business—while you’re trying to gain momentum, build a client base and stay sane. Marketing tends to be an afterthought for a lot of us because we are so immersed in the day to day.

Unfortunately, once we’ve built our product, finished creating our courses, established our consultancy-–whatever the case may be-–this hard work could do unnoticed: not attracting the attention it deserves. Conversations with your audience and customers need to happen first and often. Because you know what-–if you build it, they won’t necessarily come! If fact, they may not even know that you’re there.

In this series we are going to assess your goals with the help of a worksheet, review platforms and helpful tools, and touch on audience engagement and inbound marketing techniques.

So let’s consider what we’re dealing with:

There is a seemingly endless list of social channels, platforms and flavors of content that we feel pressure to participate in. It’s enough to send my head spinning and this encapsulates a lot of what I do! The complaints that I hear the most often from our clients are “I don’t know where to start!”. Or “I’m just not social media savvy”. And I completely get it—it’s overwhelming.

However, I want to encourage you all to take a step back, take a nice, deep, restorative breath and listen very carefully: There’s a good chance you’re trying to do it all. You might be spreading yourself too thin and holding yourself to impossible standards. So let’s do a marketing reset together today, simplify your approach and identify the key components that will lead you on a path to success. Because if the messaging doesn’t ring true, or if your marketing feels disingenuous or forced, you’re bound to fight a very unpleasant uphill battle.

Let Go: Embrace the Mess

Let’s start by setting your expectations. If you are a solo-practitioner, or just getting started, it’s important to be kind to yourself and recognize that you simply cannot be everywhere all of the time. I think that many of us look at what’s happening around us (on social channels in particular–where everything is highly curated) and we compare ourselves, feeling the pressure to do it all, perfectly synchronized and lovely and airbrushed with all the filters.

We’re all human and it’s the things that make us different that will allow us to find our tribe, increase our reach and achieve success by helping others achieve their own successes.

But you know what isn’t perfect and beautiful all of the time? Life that’s what! When’s the last time you were inspired to buy something or follow an influencer based solely on perfection? What about when you came across something or someone who was being vulnerable, messy, honest and undeniably human? That strikes a chord doesn’t it? Because we don’t usually trust and forge lasting relationships with businesses and faceless corporations do we? We buy and become brand ambassadors for other humans that we know, like and trust.

So let go of the concept of doing it all, ok? We’re all human and it’s the things that make us different that will allow us to find our tribe, increase our reach and achieve success by helping others achieve their own successes. Because what good is it to echo what everyone else is doing?

A few points to keep in mind:

• Resist the urge to emulate competition
• Be genuine. Your passion and excitement is way more valuable than the status quo.
• Have an opinion! Your audience is tuning in because they want to hear what YOU have to say!
• Concentrate on building HUMAN relationships with your audience. The way you communicate with your customers should not be unlike any other honest relationship.

Stay tuned for next week’s post where we’ll address “What’s the Point of Digital Marketing?”, where we’ll power key marketing components and introduce you to a handy dandy customer avatar!