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Transcript

Why You’re Doing Too Much Marketing (and What to Do Instead) · Values-First Marketing

• 0:00
  Unknown: Welcome to the copywriting for coaches podcast.
• 0:02
  Unknown: My name is Megan catchin, and I am obsessed with having your brand actually sound like you on the internet. We help you write all the things that you've been trying to articulate about your business but have never been able to put into copy. We're going to go deep to up level your business without adding more to your already full plate.
• 0:18
  Unknown: We'll keep it simple and sustainable. Sound like a breath of relief. Let's dive in. There are five specific signs that you are doing too much marketing and more marketing is not always better. If you have ever felt like you are constantly marketing, posting, launching, creating, engaging, yet somehow still not seeing the results that you want. This episode is for you, it's easy to believe that the more marketing you do, the more success you'll have.
• 0:47
  Unknown: Post more, show up, More, Sell every day. We've heard it all.
• 0:51
  Unknown: But here's the truth, doing more marketing doesn't automatically mean you'll get more clients, more revenue or more impact, in fact, over marketing can't actually hurt your business more on that a little bit later, if you are always creating content but never feeling caught up marketing on every platform, but struggling to see traction, feeling burned out from constantly launching or seeing diminishing returns despite all of your effort, then it's time to stop doing More and start doing better. In this episode, I'm walking you through the five signs you're doing too much marketing, and what you need to do instead to make your marketing actually work for you and on much less time. So let's dive in. Sign number one is you feel like you are on the never ending content treadmill. I hear this all the time. You are exhausted from producing daily Instagram Stories, multiple reels per week, weekly email newsletters, a podcast or YouTube episode, or maybe repurposing both, then you need the blog, blog posts for SEO, and you're trying to show up on threads or x or blue sky or whatever it is now, and you're doing you're not doing this because you want to. You feel like you have to the algorithm demands it. Other people in your space seem to be doing it all, or you're afraid that slowing down means losing momentum. But here's what's actually happening. You're creating so much content that you're not able to step back and see what is actually working. You're not enjoying it as much anymore, so it's harder to connect with your audience, and you're burning out trying to satisfy an algorithm that never stops changing.
• 2:33
  Unknown: You're trapped in marketing survival mode turning out content without a clear strategy that is keeping you so focused on keeping up that you are not making real human connections.
• 2:44
  Unknown: So what you can do instead, stop prioritizing more content and start prioritizing better content. Spoiler alert, this often starts with a deep dive into your brand messaging, fleshing out your brand messaging guide, maybe revisiting that if you haven't dusted it off in a while, or creating one, if it's currently just living in your head, I promise so much clarity will come by putting it down on paper. Then I would also focus more on high impact messaging that actually moves your audience to action, because more of the wrong messaging isn't getting you anywhere. We need to pause, reflect, look at the data and see, okay, what is actually working, or what makes sense to test next based on the data, so we can get closer and closer to what is actually going to move the needle. And then I would also repurpose and optimize what is already working, instead of constantly reinventing the wheel, because your audience does not need more posts that might just be adding to the noise, what they really need is more clarity. Okay. Sign number two is that you are marketing everywhere, but it feels like nothing is actually working, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, podcast, YouTube, email, you are doing all the things, yet somehow nothing feels like it is working as it should. I once worked with a wellness coach who was convinced that she had to be on Instagram all the time to grow her business. She spent hours and even hired help curating the perfect feed with stunning visuals, writing thoughtful captions and engaging with followers. Her Instagram was amazing. She would but she would start her mornings scrolling through comments and DMS, making sure to reply to every question or response between her client calls she'd hop back on to check her notifications, liking and commenting on posts from potential clients, past clients, and industry peers, trying to stay top of mind during her lunch or a break she would take, she would record a quick Instagram story, sharing a behind the scenes look at her day, maybe a tip about something she realized, something she learned that day, or a poll asking her audience what kind of content they wanted next. Uh, none of those things are bad in themselves, but she'd spend so much time responding to reactions, answering follow up questions, sending voice notes, all in this attempt to build stronger connections. And it felt like this full time job, but it wasn't actually moving the needle in her business compared to the amount of hours she spent on the platform. And again, that doesn't mean I'm saying that Instagram is not a platform anyone should be on ever like it is great to have a presence on Instagram as a business, but I'm saying in this particular example, Instagram was actually not the highest source of traffic for her, and that was the problem. Her biggest clients were not even coming from Instagram, so she was confusing visibility with effectiveness. Visibility for visibility sake isn't actually moving the needle for you. And she felt drained from trying to do it all rather than focusing on what she actually loved the most, which was coaching her people transforming their health. Her results she got were incredible. One of her clients wrote a book, and like mentioned the impact that she had on her health journey and the way, even just the way she viewed herself and her body, like it was that deeply impactful for her. So she is doing amazing, amazing work.
• 6:19
  Unknown: So when I checked her analytics and looked at the data, we realized that her primary sources of traffic were actually one, her podcast where she could have deep, meaningful conversations with other industry leaders, and two, through celebrity partnerships that she was getting, which brought in massive credibility and visibility with the right people. So instead of forcing herself to keep up with Instagram, she still has a presence on there, but she doesn't put nearly as much effort into it as she did back then. So she doubled down on what did actually work. So she focused on nurturing her podcast audience with thoughtful, high value conversations. She leveraged those partnerships to expand her reach in a way that felt truly aligned and let it.
• 7:07
  Unknown: She let go of the pressure to have this perfectly curated social media presence. She was able to show up just more thoroughly, more raw, more authentic, and it felt good without having to do all of the things, the result was so much less stress, more joy and way better results. Don't get so caught up in these marketing trends that you forget about your marketing strategy. What is actually working. And I know so many of you are such visionaries that you don't like it doesn't make sense for you to necessarily be in the back weeds of like your email service provider looking at your open rates, or click through rates, or, you know, looking at those analytics. But hire someone who does that for you and presents the analytics to you, that is part of my process of what I do.
• 8:02
  Unknown: When you hire me on retainer as a fractional marketing director, at the end of every month, I am sending you a report on here's what I'm seeing on the data.
• 8:14
  Unknown: Here's how I'm interpreting it.
• 8:14
  Unknown: Here are my suggestions of what to do next as a result. And then we agree upon a plan based on that. Okay, so other things you can do, identify where your best fit clients actually hang out and double down on those platforms. Spreading yourself too thin is not serving anybody.
• 8:36
  Unknown: It's not serving your potential clients, and it is not serving you. Yet that is such an easy trap to fall into. And then, like I said, look at your analytics. Which marketing efforts are actually driving sales. Do more of that. It sounds so simple, yet so many are not actually doing it. So block the time in your calendar to take a look right now, build out the SOP for someone on your team to do it for you, or to send it to your inbox or a place that you will see it. Or maybe we need to have a conversation about what it might look like to have me as a marketing partner on retainer on your team, so that we can have those regular conversations and really make sure that all your marketing efforts are actually working for you, because you do not necessarily need more platforms, more to do's you need the right platforms and the right to do's Okay. Sign number three is you are burned out from constantly launching. So if your business feels like one, never ending launch cycle. The last launch cycle ends. You debrief. The next launch cycle begins, or you're starting to prep for it.
• 9:46
  Unknown: One offer ends, and suddenly you have to start selling again.
• 9:50
  Unknown: It's exhausting. Am I right? I know I'm right. I hear it from you all the time, and honestly, it's not sustainable, and many of you know that. And if you're listening to. This, you're probably on that verge of burnout. And I get it so many people have come to me in in that exact state. So let me so that is kind of like the surface level of what we see happening, but when we go underneath that surface level level, what is really happening, what's real, the real problem, the root underneath the visible symptoms that we see, the root is that you don't have a marketing system that nurtures and converts consistently. We need to systematize it. Second is that you may likely be relying on urgency and promotions instead of long term trust building. I did a whole nother podcast on urgency and scarcity, and that is linked in the show notes. The bottom line is that the science proves that, yes, urgency and scarcity does give you more conversions. And there can be a time and a place where honest urgency and honest scarcity, like literally there are, I can only accept this capacity. You know, for my event, before we reach capacity, there's definitely a time and a place for that. And at the same time, we cannot forget, we cannot rely on that solely. We have to remember the long term trust building as well. It's both and okay, and then third, like under the surface, what's really happening is your audience feels like that they're always being sold to, which can lead to fatigue and disengagement. So to fix that, we need to build a marketing system that sells for you in the background, so you are not constantly in launch mode or content creation mode. You can use evergreen content to nurture leads so that when they are ready to so that they're ready to buy when the time is right for them. And these are things that you can put on autopilot to still have that personal touch and give you the time, energy and capacity available to be present, to have those sales conversations, and to be the visionary, to steer the ship, to lead your business, okay? And then I would say, focus on values driven marketing, instead of just sales driven marketing.
• 12:14
  Unknown: I'm going to do a whole series on exactly what I mean by that.
• 12:17
  Unknown: But essentially, when we say we want to be authentic in our marketing. What that really boils down to is we want to be true to our values in our marketing. Because when we share our values, and you don't have to explicitly say, my value is belonging, my value is simplicity, but like when you demonstrate those values in your marketing, it's going to draw people who have those same values, and when you share the same values, you share the same beliefs. There is no convincing that you have to do in your marketing because you already agree with each other. There is no persuasion that needs to happen in your marketing because you are already on the same team. You have the same foundation. And now it's just a matter of saying, here could be the next logical, best step for you to take, if you are you know, this person looking for this result. Okay, so more on that to come. I'm very excited about it. But let's continue on with the fourth out of our five signs that you are doing too much marketing, and that is that your messaging feels scattered and inconsistent. I had another client who came to me frustrated because she was selling group program, launching a new course, offering a VIP day, testing out a membership, and she could not understand why her audience was not buying. So when we dug into it, she realized she didn't even recognize how many offers she was promoting at once again, she was trying to do all the things, and it wasn't until we had the conversation, I was like, Okay, send me all the stuff. And it was like, Oh my gosh, this is a lot of stuff. So she was just experimenting to see what stuck.
• 14:17
  Unknown: Which, you know, is fine, because marketing is an experiment, but it can be a smart and strategic experiment.
• 14:23
  Unknown: So when you're experimenting and you are throwing spaying against the wall, seeing what sticks to your audience, you need to know that that can feel scattered, so that needs to be maybe limited to a certain time and space to do the testing, so that it doesn't feel scattered. So the audience didn't know what offer was right for them, if one offer was still valid. One week, she was talking about one thing, the next week, she shifted gears entirely, and the audience is confused and confused. People don't buy as we know. So what's really happening is, if you are testing a ton of different offers and unintentionally, maybe without even you realizing, it confusing your audience, what really is happening is that you're not clear on your core marketing message. Again, that goes back to that messaging brand get.
• 15:22
  Unknown: Slide that we talked about earlier on in this episode, that is going to help you get so much more clear on that, and that is the foundation that is going to inform everything else. Okay, another common mistake here is trying to appeal to everyone instead of speaking directly to your best fit clients. I know you can help so many people, but who are the dreamiest people that are going to actually benefit the absolute most and dream you the least? Who are the ones who are going to truly light you up so that you have more energy to serve in your highest and best capacity? That is who we need to speak to.
• 16:01
  Unknown: You're not going to leave anybody behind. Okay? And then the last thing there is your marketing may lack a clear through line, and this is very difficult to see for yourself because of the whole like you cannot see the forest through the trees, kind of the thing. So what we need to do instead is pause and get strategic before launching something new, define your core brand message and make sure every piece of content reinforces it. It might feel repetitive, and that is a good thing. As a former high school teacher, let me tell you how repetitive I felt saying the same things over and over and over again, but repetition is a memory tool. Thank you to my master's in education for that.
• 16:46
  Unknown: Okay, so pause and to get strategic before launching something new. Define your core brand message and make sure every piece of content and reinforces it gets super clear on your core offer. Not every offer has to be forward, facing right, and make sure your understand your audience understands why it is the best solution for them, what uniquely sets you apart and makes this different, and develop a messaging framework so that your marketing stays consistent across platforms. Because when you focus on consistency, then your audience will know exactly how and when to buy from you, because clarity equals conversions, all right. And last sign number five is that your marketing feels like busy work, not a strategy. You are doing so much marketing, but when you step back and ask, is this actually working? You don't know your marketing feels like a full time job, but you're not seeing the ROI, so something's off, and you have likely invested in courses, templates, maybe even hired freelance help, but you're still spending late nights working and stressing, and your revenue does not reflect all this effort that you're putting in, and despite all the engagement, the likes, the comments, they're not translating into paying, paying clients, your inbox might be full of I love this, and so inspiring, but not how can I work with you? That is what we need to change. So if that is happening, it is no wonder you are feeling drained. That would be a very normal and human response. You're constantly doing, but never really gaining or moving the needle. So here's what's really happening. The thing underneath the thing that's really happening. The root issue here is that we're focusing on activity instead of outcomes. You don't have clear marketing goals or KPIs that are unique to you. Like, how do you actually define success and spending on time on things that are not actually moving the needle? So instead, we can set clear marketing goals that actually align with revenue growth. And we have a great episode on this from Frenchie, my pal, Frenchie, I have linked that in the show notes about money making activities. The five money making activities you can do to stay close to the money. It is so powerful. Go give it a listen. Or go real.
• 19:12
  Unknown: Listen to it. If you've listened to it already, that's it's that good. Okay. Next Track, what is working and eliminate what is not. I know it is so hard for us to let go, even when the data shows us that it is not our best source of traffic or clients, because what if, what if a client does come from there, don't, don't focus on the What If? Focus on what is working?
• 19:37
  Unknown: Because the truth is that we are humans, we have limited capacity. So let's simplify things and eliminate what is not working. Okay? So, yeah, simplify your marketing efforts so you are doing only what truly matters, what is moving the needle most for you. Because marketing is not always about doing the most. It's about doing what works. So we can be smart about this. So how do you fix this over marketing without just like disappearing altogether?
• 20:05
  Unknown: Because I know sometimes it could be tempting just to delete Instagram or social media in general forever and be done with it. Well, to fix this problem without just disappearing and getting off the map is well, you could hire me to. You create a marketing system that works for you on one hour per month of your time. You heard me correctly. I take just one hour per month of your time. We batch out the next month's content plan tweaks based on the data from the last month or the last quarter, and go from there and whether you want to hire me or continue to DIY, or if you have someone else on your team doing it, here are the things that I would focus on, whether it's me or not me doing it. One is to say more with less. Prioritize that high impact messaging over Constant Content. Two, I would focus on the right platforms, stop marketing everywhere and go all in on where it really counts for you. It takes looking at the data to know that. Step three, I would build a sustainable marketing system, automate and streamline your strategy so it works for you, so it doesn't remove the personalization from your brand and the humanness from your brand, but it allows you to show up fully present in the places where you really need to show up fully present, whether that is on the coaching calls with your clients, your family, because your business is running without you to the prospective clients who are Considering your program that is where your full heart, brain, mind and presence needs to be okay, and a system allows you to do that, okay, then I would keep your messaging clear and consistent. That means being repetitive, and that's okay, because that means you are crystal clear on the transformation that you provide, and that people the best people blah, and that the people who are best suited to work with you, they're super clear on that too. And lastly, number five, I would measure what matters, track your marketing success based on actual results, not just the activity. Because when you stop doing more and start doing better, your marketing stops feeling like this job that you never wanted in the first place, and it starts working like a system. Your marketing should be a well oiled machine so that you are just greasing it one hour per month and it's working for you. That is what I help you do. So you don't need more content, more platforms, more launches, to be honest, that just sounds exhausting.
• 22:45
  Unknown: What you actually need to do more with less is better messaging, a stronger strategy and a system that works without overworking you. If your marketing feels like too much, it's not because you're failing.
• 23:03
  Unknown: It's because the strategy likely needs to shift. So I'm leaving you with an action step here.
• 23:06
  Unknown: Look at your data and answer this question right now, or based on the data that you last looked at, answer this question in your head right now. What marketing task can I let go of to double down more on what is working? Okay, that's not a rhetorical question. Literally answer it right now. Do it? Say it out loud. Talk in your car, talk on your walk, talk to your laundry, wherever you're listening to this. Say it out loud to make it more accountable. Or if you want, go ahead and message me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever you want to find me and tell me again. Make it real.
• 23:39
  Unknown: What marketing task can you let go of and what are you going to double down more on? What is working for you? Okay? And if you I ask you that, and you're just like, well, shoot, I don't know. I have no idea. So if you're not sure, start with my free audit that is linked for you in the show notes. This will make your existing marketing work better for you, and it's the best place to start, and is based on the hundreds of audits that I've done for my multi, six and seven figure clients over the past several years. It is exactly what I'm I feel like I'm always saying to them, you know, no matter what industry so get started with that, and then we can have a conversation from there if need be. So download the free audit in the show notes. The link is in the show notes, and I will see you next week. Thank you for tuning in to the copywriting for coaches podcast. If you've been enjoying these episodes, let me know that you're listening and what you love about it by clicking on the copywriting for coaches show in Apple podcasts and leaving me a review. Be sure to subscribe while you're there. So it's easy to catch new episodes every week if you want digital resources to finish that copy project you've been working on, the links are all waiting for you at copywriting for coaches podcast.com