Your Marketing Plans
When you work on your marketing plans for your small business or blog, it’s always good to remember that it’s not just about the number of followers or the amount of money you want to make. Your marketing plans should include thinking about what pieces of the marketing puzzle that you’re missing and a plan to figure out how you can find some answers.
After all these years of taking the time to write up my marketing plan for the year – and some years, it took me weeks to work through when I’d launch my programs and what I needed to focus on to get everything done – I finally started to GET IT.
I get how this thing works.
I’d spend all this time mapping out launch dates on the calendar, making assessments on how many units I needed to sell or the number of people I could help with my programs. It was all about calendar dates and a bunch of numbers.
Of course I called them ‘goals’ and ‘action steps’ but really I was just writing out all these things that I wanted to happen. I didn’t really think about what I needed to DO to make this happen.
What I really needed to do was to figure out what I need to change and what I need to learn to get me there.
My Marketing Mindshift
If you’ve been following me and reading this blog, you’ve heard me talk about the journey of change that I’ve been on with my business.
{ If you just found me or we just ‘met,’ then let me tell you that I’ve made a whole bunch of changes to not just the way I do things in my business but the way I THINK about how I’m doing things in my business. }
Before I made these changes, I’d spend weeks writing up all these amazing plans only to find myself ending the year making the same amount of money that I did the year before doing the same exact programs. And my recap resembled the one of the year before that one.
And the year before that one.
I knew that something had to change or I would end up in the same place if things didn’t change. I knew that can’t control the Facebook algorithm and how many people saw my posts or how many people clicked on my Instagram photos.
But I knew that I could make changes to myself as an entrepreneur.
I could change my behavior and the steps that I was doing to grow my business. I could change my mindset and how I thought about connecting to my customers. I could change my usual pattern of just hoping that something would happen to reach these goals and change the way I could make things happen.
So that’s what I did.
I went on a journey of change. I wanted to learn what’s missing in my marketing plans and what I needed to learn to fill in those lost pieces to help me grow my business.
I started by looking at the steps it takes to bring people down the path they start on to take their customer journey with me. I immediately started to see where the holes were and how many connections with potential customers I had lost.
Then I began to look for the information to help me fill the holes to ensure that I wouldn’t have a repeat of the repeat of the repeat. Sometimes, I would find an online course that would help me get my answers – keep in mind, I was very protective of my time and money and didn’t just sign up for anything and everything bright and shiny that crossed my path!
And other times, I would connect with new people in my Facebook Groups who would help me learn those important things I needed to help keep me growing.
Most of the time, I couldn’t find what I was looking for to fill in the holes. So I started to do my research and to see what I could figure out myself. And then when I moved through the action steps to put my research to work, I started to see results.
I started to see growth.
How Do You Grow Your Business Online?
You keep learning.
As a business owner, it shouldn’t matter how much information you know or you think that since you’re no longer a kid, you’re done with all this learning stuff. But to assume that you already know all that you need to know means that you’ve basically come to a stand still in your business.
One of the best things you can do for your business is to never stop learning. There’s always something new to learn, tips to try with your social media marketing and programs to try out to help you be more efficient with your day.
When you look at other successful business owners, they openly admit to constantly learning something new every day.
They read books, watch webinars and go to conferences to attend training course by the experts who share their knowledge. The best entrepreneurs know that to be successful, they have to be continuously learning.
If you’re gotten out of the habit of learning, it’s never too late to get started again. Take a look at these FREE workshops to help you learn something new to help you grow your business and blog:
How to be More Focused with Your Planning Process
Do you start each month excited about what you’re going to share on your favorite social site and then by the middle of the month, you’re just struggling to figure out what to blog about?
Or do you feel like you can never come up anything to say online so you just end up posting something … and I mean something like whatever you can find or share?
If you ever find yourself saying, “I don’t know what to post on Facebook { or Pinterest or Instagram or wherever! }” — then log into this interactive workshop and discover how to create your own 30 minute planning process that will save you HOURS every week.
How to Find Customers on Facebook
Facebook continues to change their algorithm. And what does that mean for your Facebook business page? You’ll start to see a significant decrease in organic reach.
Other than spending money on Facebook ads or spending hours trying to figure out how to boost a post, what can you do to connect with more customers on Facebook? You can start learning how to network in Facebook Groups!
If you’ve been struggling to find your focus about what to post to connect with more customers on Facebook, then you need to watch this interactive workshop! Get the tips to learn the one thing you should be doing to connect with people who want to buy your products or pay for your services.
How to REALLY use Pinterest to grow your website traffic
Maybe you’ve heard all that SEO-keyword stuff before from the experts to answer your question. And you’re asking yourself, “Is that all that I can do to keep growing my site’s traffic with Pinterest? Just keep optimizing my stuff on the site?”
In this strategic Pinterest workshop, we’ll talk about how to focus on creating high-traffic content to pin on your boards and group boards. It’s about sharing content that will get clicked on and send more Pinners to your website.
It’s about taking your Pinterest marketing strategy back to the basics.
How to Write Better Pinterest Pin Descriptions to Get More Clicks
Join me on this interactive Pinterest Workshop and I’ll show you easy actionable steps you need to take to make sure your Pinterest pins connect with more people.
Remember, it’s not just about learning how to use Pinterest for your business to grow the traffic to your blog. It’s about getting people to find your pins and content — if I can’t find you, I can’t buy from you!
In this strategic Pinterest workshop, we’ll talk about how to focus on finding and using the best keywords and phrases for your pin descriptions. It’s about making sure that your pins get found in that busy Pinterest feed and using the right words that will get clicked on to grow the traffic to your website.
There you go folks … lots of ideas here to help you grow your business without spending a lot of money.
Don’t let all these options overwhelm you to the point where you decide to not do anything. Pick one or two of these ideas – watch a workshop this week or fill out a worksheet to get more organized with your social media plan.
Just do something.
And make sure that you keep at it. I promise you that over time, you’ll start to see progress because there’s more to building a business online than just using social media.
Ready to take your social media marketing to another level in 2019? It’s time to think about downloading a Social Media Productivity Planner!
The Social Media Productivity Planner is the tool for you when you’re ready to take back control of your minutes. You’re ready to take back control of your schedule. You’re ready to take back the power you feel like you’ve lost to that social game that’s hard to beat.
Download the Social Media Productivity Planner! Grab the one tool you need to consistently getting yourself out there and creating the business that you’ve always wanted.
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