Be Awesome: 3 Steps to a Better Marketing Plan
Are you ready for a better marketing plan? Do you ever feel like your marketing efforts aren’t getting you anywhere? Like they're more of a chore or perhaps even something you dread? Like, no matter what you are doing to promote your thing, no one seems to really take notice? Maybe people don’t care about your products because you don’t care about your marketing strategy. Maybe you don’t care about your strategies because they are boring… because they're not "you"… because everyone else is doing them… because you think you are supposed to do them. There are so many strategies you can employ to market your business:Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, advertising, PR, newsletters, blogs, guest posting, podcasts, referrals, word-of-mouth, loyalty programs, contests, giveaways, goody bags, collaborations, demonstrations, catalogues, flyers, brochures…. well, you get the idea. The list goes on and on. But NONE of these marketing strategies will work if you add them to your plan just ‘because’. Instead: 1. Do what you love2. Do it your way3. Do it with awesomeness
1. DO WHAT YOU LOVE
If you aren’t sure what you love, think about what it is that got you excited about starting your business in the first place. What tasks do you LOVE doing, what gets you too excited to sleep at night, what do you love talking to people about when you share about your business? Find a way to apply what you love to your marketing strategy.
2. DO IT YOUR WAY
If you aren’t sure what your way is, stop following what ‘everyone else’ is doing for awhile. Spend some time thinking about your brand message, what it is you are really selling, what makes your business different.
3. DO IT WITH AWESOMENESS
Allow yourself to question the rules, to do things differently, to be a little bit badass. Adjust your marketing to fit your business, instead of the other way around. If you aren’t sure what kind of awesomeness you have to offer, consider your own personality and enthusiasm. You are the most unique part of your business. Be you! Stand out, make up words (like awesomeness), do things that are quirky and different. Rock people’s worlds with even the simplest things you do to market your business. Marketing is only boring if you are boring. If your business is boring. If your product is boring. Stop being boring and start being awesome. • Stop posting the same boring things on your Facebook page. Make your page so awesome that people love hanging out there. • Stop sending out the same boring newsletters to your customers. Make your newsletter so awesome that subscribers do a dance when they see it in their inbox. • Stop writing boring articles for your blog or other blogs/publications. Make each article so awesome that people want to print them out and pin them to their wall. • Stop handing out boring flyers, brochures and business cards. Find a way to make them just as awesome as the stuff you sell. (Warning: you might feel foolish making up awesome words or scared of doing things differently or nervous if you don’t do jump on the band wagon. That’s ok. Suck it up and keep marching on.) Once you give yourself permission to do what you love and to do things your own way, promoting your business will be fun again. It's actually quite liberating to question the rules! And when everything you are putting into this world has that injection of awesomeness, you will attract the right people to your business, the ones that actually care about what you are selling. Do what you love. Question the rules. Be awesome.
Do you know a business that really does things their way and injects awesomeness in everything they do? Please share, we'd love the inspiration.