Hi š there, ,
Are you a startup founder, creator, blogger, digital nomad, or even a new-age small business trying to figure out how to make Instagram work for you?
If yes, did you ever try to explain what you do to your granny?
Letās assume you did move the mountains and successfully explain what you do. Further, letās assume she understood (minus the jargon ā like conversions, analytics, backlinks, and tracking).
But because your Facebook campaigns donāt seem to work while burning cash; no one reads your blog. You got ā0+ā subscribers on your list.
Nothing seems to work. So then, you ask her for advice.
Like, āWith all this happening online, How do I do Marketing?ā
You know what sheās likely to say? Read on:
Tryst with My Granny
I push it one day. I asked my granny. Sheās like:
āWhy just blog blog blog when you can do Twitter, Pitter, Patter, and Teek Taak?ā
Why do you put all that effort into making videos ā like that girl who keeps doing makeup with the camera on ā when no oneās watching?
What should you do to make your ads work better? Are you even writing your ads properly. Check for spelling mistakes. I know how careless you are.
Landing ā¦what? Salesā¦what? God, what is this world coming to?
I said all this stuff works. I cried that there are many who make it work.
But before I go on to bore her about how some startups do it, or how some bloggers do it, or how that girl who does makeup makes money on YouTubeā¦andā¦.
Finally, she said this.
There are just too many moving parts hereā¦
The āaha momentā.
I got the gist. I also understood where the problem lies today: too many channels, too many moving parts, and way too much for us to do.
Which leads us to run down alleyways. You know? Those supposedly little ā but promising ā super channel pathways that promise the rainbows. Like Facebook Ads. Or Google Ads. Or Quora Ads. Or SEO. Or YouTube. Or whatever.
No one channel should be too important for your business. Ever.
Marketing Channels & The Issues
Paid ads - āNo one wants to see, click, or view. Plus, it costs money, there are ad blocker issues, and just much more cash do we have to burn?ā
Landing pages & sales funnels ā āToo hard to visualize & create. Why the heck do we have to create even more pages? What happened to the darned website?ā
Blogging, Content Marketing, SEO - āTakes too long & Who wants to write forever? Plus, I donāt understand anything that Backlinko guy writes about. Whatās a Skyscraper doing on my website, anyway?ā
Analytics & Tracking ā āDonāt even get started with thatā
Marketing tech ā āToo many options. Decision-paralysis can kill.ā
The more you pontificate about each aspect of digital marketing; the more time you lose. In the world of digital marketing, a day lost is like a year or two in the real world.
We also lose our ability to focus. To get some work done. To promote. To get leads.
Some of us, at least, pick one thing that seems to work and never get off the brand new hamster wheel.
We are creatures of habit. If we like it, we stick with it. Been doing it for too long, youāll start believing that itās the only thing the world spins around.
Going Off the Tangent
I now find that thereās a disturbing trend. Small business owners (includes startup founders, bloggers, creators, side-hustle heroes) ā tend to go off various tangents; dancing around to whatever tune they find interesting.
SEO works? Letās do that.
Facebook Ads? Oooh haa.
Google Ads? Ok. Ok.
Itās like chasing whatever comes down that alley (too many alleys as well, like we just established above. My granny gets it).
We must get off the chase.
Each channel has its ups and downs. Facebook, Teek Taak, Boo Boo, See See, SEO, whatever. Itās time to embrace marketing with an Umbrella approach.
You know? Everything it takes to keep leads, revenue, and profits coming in sustainably.
No glitches. No hiccups. No stopping.
Marketing cannot stop. You canāt let yourself fade. You canāt lose momentum.
Have a business? Then:
- Build a website (that actually gets you results), loads fast, and is easy for people to navigate
- Blog regularly, with a publishing velocity (like 1,3,5 posts per week). Itās the #SEO strategy thatās way too boring to make it to the front page of anything.
- Get on social (which means distribute or share your content, make friends, interact, get to know others)
- Start email marketing (even if you have 0 subscribers).
- Run paid ads (where you think your target audience hangs out).
- Connect ads and also any links to landing pages (to focus on the āresultsā part), followed by partly-automated and partly-āI-sat-down-to-write-this).
This missive wonāt make it to the news. Itās boring. Itās not sexy.
No, it wonāt be featured on HackerNoon, TechCrunch, or whatever.
But these are ā minus the gory details ā the basics.
Basics that we forget.
We all owe it to ourselves to do this for our businesses. Even if you just did the basics, you are doing so much better than so many others.
If anything, what stops you from doing any of the above? Tell me about it.
Tweet out to me.
More goodness below š
