It can feel negative to focus on mistakes. I’m not here to point out all the things that people get wrong, but if you’re at the beginning of your journey into business, and that also means your journey into marketing your business, I thought it would help to talk about some mistakes to avoid. Even better, to show you what works well instead of doing these things.
Because that’s what marketing’s for, right?
Actually no. That might be your end goal, but marketing is about so much more than that. It’s about building awareness for your brand, developing relationships with potential customers … and f you try to sell all of the time, it’s the quickest way to push them away.
Think of how you react if someone tries to sell you something as soon as you meet them. What does that make you do? In the same way, think about the accounts that you like to follow on social media. Do you follow them for the sales posts or for the value that they give you?
It can be tempting to try to be in all of the places, especially if you see that other people are having good results with a particular platform. But in reality, it’s better to show up consistently on a smaller number of channels than to try and post too many types of different content in too many places.
It gets boring if you talk about exactly the same thing all of the time. People will tune out. It’s good to switch around the type of posts that you create so that you keep things interesting. It’s good to be spontaneous when you feel inspired to share.
But ultimately, the posts on your page need to make sense in terms of the message you want to communicate.
If your page or feed is busy with too many messages, it can become confusing and it dilutes your message. Following on from that, it will be harder for you to convince people to take the next steps in terms of interacting with you – because they don’t really know what you do or how you can help them.
If you think of how you react to adverts, it’s not all the same. Some messages make sense to you. Some have no impact on you. Others probably annoy you. In the case of the last group – either they’re really bad attempts at marketing, or you’re just not the right audience for them.
If you don’t have a clear idea of whom you want to serve, it’s going to be really difficult for you to get into the details of how you can help/solve their problem/give them exactly what they’re looking for.
General messages don’t meet specific needs, and in a busy market with lots of people trying to sell similar products and services, there needs to be a clear reason for people to choose yours so that you will stand out in a good and memorable way.
If you’ve identified that you have a knowledge gap in terms of marketing, and many people do because they’ve come from other fields, you start looking for information.
There is no shortage of advice, videos, books, articles, groups, people offering to fix all your marketing problems and meet all of your needs.
It’s good to be open and to get inspiration from different places, but if you try to implement every piece of advice that you see online, all at the same time, it will end in chaos.
Some of it will be bad advice. But even if you narrow it down to the good advice, trying to implement too many strategies at the same time, whilst not having a clear plan, won’t bring you good results. Also, some strategies might be good, but for other types of businesses, other markets, other content creators.
You need to think about your own very specific needs, what you want to achieve, and the people whom you want to reach.
Mistake 6: Not being consistent
Someone posts 7 posts on one day and then nothing for the next 3 weeks. Anyone who was busy that day won’t see any of it!
Someone else posts content about everything vaguely related to their topic, but with no clear message and no continuity. Who was that person again?
It doesn’t mean that you have to post at exactly the same time on exactly the same day each week. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a holiday, or that you can’t post something a bit random just because you thought it was too good not to share.
But it is important for your audience to know who you are, what they can expect from you, and where to find you if they need what you have to offer.
That’s one of the things with marketing. It doesn’t have a deadline in the same way as an order for a client does. It’s easy to say “I’ll do it later”, but sometimes the right time never comes and the marketing tasks slide further and further down the to-do-list.
But marketing, content creation, developing relationships with your audience – all of these things are vital if you want your business to grow. So it’s in your interest to block time out for them.
This is possibly the biggest mistake. Because if you don’t have a plan, and an idea how you want to implement it, you can’t know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.
If this all seems a bit daunting and you want someone to guide and support you through the process, let’s arrange a call to discover whether marketing coaching is right for you!
Writing articles is a great way to share knowledge and provide value for your audience.
It gives you a chance to demonstrate what you know. Also, they give you have social media content that can help you to bring traffic back to your site.
Before you even start thinking about writing the article, it’s good to ask yourself the following questions:
If it’s something that doesn’t interest you or that you know nothing about, it will be hard to write a good article! What do you know about and what will add value to your readers?
This is important because if you know this, it will be easier for you to write in a way that is relevant. If you’re writing for professionals in a specific field, you can assume some prior knowledge. But if the topic is new to them, you may need to explain some concepts first.
Also think about whether the article is for your own audience or for someone else’s. If it’s for your audience, you need to write in a way that is consistent with the rest of your content. If it’s for another audience, do you know enough about them?
If you’re explaining how to do something, a structured plan, in which you list out the steps in a logical order, can work well. It is easy for the reader to follow the steps and complete the task.
If you’re giving information, such as tips or advice, a numbered list can work well.
If you want to present an idea, it’s good to introduce it, explore it, and then write a conclusion so that the text flows in a way that makes sense. Do you have reasons to support your idea or argument? Do you want to explore other points of view or possible objections?
If you want to tell a story, what is the point of the story? Why are you sharing it, and what do you want the reader to take away at the end?
Or maybe you want to combine a story with a point of learning.
Whilst it may be tempting to get all of your ideas down as quickly as possible, it can help to plan out the structure first. You might want to write the headings and then fill in the text that goes under each one. This will make it easier to put things in an order that makes sense and to make sure that you haven’t forgotten anything important.
Think about whether you need to do any research before you start to write.
If you are writing a list, what are the points that you want to make? Writing some bullet points first, even if you don’t use them all in the end, will help you to make sure that your ideas are clearly organised and that you don’t repeat yourself.
At some point you will have to do the work and write the article, but this will be easier if you know what it will be about, who the audience is, and how you want to structure it.
If you struggle with writing, try to block out some time in which to write the article. Put the writing time in your diary and try to make sure that you won’t be disturbed.
It’s ok if you don’t like the first draft, but it is easier to work with words on the page than a blank page! So start writing and you can decide later whether you want to keep all of your ideas, whether what you wrote makes sense, and whether anything is missing. You can always delete sentences, move them around, change them or add to them later.
It can be difficult if you’re working to a tight deadline, but you are unlikely to see mistakes or things that don’t make sense if you read the article immediately after you have written it. Where possible, do something else and come back to it later so that you can check it and make sure that everything is as you would like it to be.
Try reading it aloud. This will also help you to spot anything that isn’t quite right, or where your brain was faster than your fingers and you missed out a word or punctuation mark.
You might want to ask someone else to proofread it for you as well.
Your best or most useful article won’t make any difference if nobody knows it exists! So it’s also important to think about what you will do after you publish it. Where will you share the link? How will you encourage other people to read or engage with it? Do you want to start a discussion? If you want people to comment, make sure that you respond. People are less likely to comment a second time if they feel that their first point was ignored.
Often the hardest step is the first one. Hopefully this guide will give you some ideas so that you can take that first step.
Whilst marketing consulting is a field that has had its fair time in the market, marketing coaching is the new kid on the block. Most people understand what training is, but what is marketing training and how is it different from coaching or consulting?
All of these services can be relevant for a company, but it’s important to understand the differences and benefits, especially if you are considering which one might be most useful for you.
Before we dive into the differences between these different marketing services, I have to drop a spoiler: the conclusion will not be that one is better than another. Depending on the needs of the company and of the entrepreneurs, the stage at which the organisation is, and the business dynamic, one might be more suitable at some point than the other.
A good point to start with is to understand each of these services and their processes, to see which working format you resonate with most. Another key aspect would be to decide how involved you want to be and what objectives you want to work on.
I’ve broken the information down into marketing coaching, marketing consultancy, and marketing training so that I can give you a brief overview of each one. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to help or to chat with you about what you want to achieve and the options available to you.
Gaining knowledge about techniques and processes isn’t enough. The best advice fails if it’s not well implemented.
The marketing coaching process is not just about how to sell better, how to have better ads or how to make a marketing plan. It isn’t even all about a company, but about how you can make the most out of every opportunity, about setting yourself up for success, and building your way to reach your goals.
Marketing Coaching is a guided process, formed of one-on-one or group sessions with me. During these meetings, I take you through a carefully managed learning and self-development process that will help you to increase your knowledge and confidence in using marketing tools relevant for your business and coaching objectives. I select tools, exercises and templates that will best help you to improve results and meet your goals.
Marketing coaching is a mix between the marketing process and coaching techniques. This combination allows you, as an entrepreneur, to develop a lasting solution-oriented mindset and to grow solid business pipelines. With support, you will create the materials and be actively involved in designing a marketing strategy that is tailor-made for your business.
Marketing Consulting is focused more on delivering solutions and much less on transferring knowledge. A consultant is a person who delivers a „blueprint” for the whole plan and process to reach the marketing objectives that a company or entrepreneur has chosen. The result of consulting collaboration, besides the plans and other deliverables, is structure and direction for a team that is ready to do the work.
The best way to make a plan for progress is to think about what is going well, what needs to be improved, and what is missing. However, it’s often hard for those directly involved to be completely objective because they are influenced by their past experiences, their views on the processes already in place, or their place in the hierarchy. An external consultant can be a really useful addition to this process because they are not involved and they can help to evaluate the facts with a fresh pair of eyes.
My sole focus is working with you and your team to find solutions, opportunities and resources. I do this by having meetings with multiple representatives and together developing a strategy with deliverables that are Tailor-made for the company. This is also broken down into practical actions to consolidate and clarify the marketing process and the steps to achieve your company’s goals.
We should never stop learning! This is particularly true in an area such as digital marketing, which is a competitive and constantly evolving field.
In order to get the best value out of any training, companies need to be clear about what they want to achieve and which areas of marketing training are aligned with those goals.
I can provide training on a range of subjects related to digital or offline marketing. They can include areas such as:
I hope the differences and benefits of each service are now clearer. They all work, and I have experience delivering all of them. It just depends where you are on your journey and what you want to achieve.
When you start a new business, it can be overwhelming when you see all the options that are available for your social media content. It’s easy to feel under pressure to be everywhere.
The truth is that you’ll have more success if you:
A. build a strategy that defines what you want to achieve with your social content
B. make informed decisions about what’s likely to bring you the best results
C. use this information to make a clear plan of action.
Let’s clear this up first. In order to be successful, to find new customers, or to get the message out there about your brand, you don’t need to be everywhere. Especially at the beginning, it’s better that you aren’t.
Choose one or two channels that resonate with you and work consistently to build your presence and your audience there.
It’s better to do one or two things well than to do many things (or be in many places) in a half-hearted or inconsistent way.
Nobody wants to post into the void, so do some research first. Think about the demographics of your ideal paying client. Who are they? Where do they live? What age are they? What do they like?
Don’t get into the trap of saying that your brand is for everyone. It might be accessible to everyone, but there will be some groups who are drawn to it more. Once you’ve figured out who they are, it will be easier to talk to them and to find out where they like to spend time online.
Are you selling directly to customers or to other businesses? This will also have an impact on which platform best enables you to communicate with those clients.
Now that you know who your target group is, you can think about what kind of content best resonates with them and which platform is best suited to sharing that content. Do they watch a lot of videos? Will they be attracted by image content that shows off your products? Do they like to be in communities where they can meet others who share their interests? Do they like to read?
If you want to attract young people, don’t go to a platform where there aren’t many young users.
Once you’ve defined your audience, you can then find up-to-date information about trends and demographics for the various platforms.
Also, think about which platforms you enjoy spending time on to consume content or connect with others. If you already like a platform and it fits with your goals, you will automatically be motivated to spend more time there.
It matters what your audience likes, but unless you outsource it all, at least at the beginning, you’ll be the one producing this content. Therefore it makes sense to think about what type of content you want (and know how) to create.
If you like making videos, don’t start a blog! Think about the type and length of your video and where you are most likely to find videos like that now.
If you enjoy writing texts or story marketing, a more visual platform may not be the best place for you.
If you know your social media goals, it will be easier for you to figure out how to achieve them. You’re likely to have more than one goal, but different platforms are good for different things. Do you want to:
These are just a few examples, but understanding your goals means you’ll be able to identify the platforms where you’ll have a higher chance of reaching those goals.
If you already have a social media presence, have a look at where most of your traffic or leads are coming from. This will help you to decide whether you want to increase your activity/try something new on that existing platform or to try something else.
Even if you don’t have any social media channels yet, think about how the clients or leads that you have already first discovered your brand. This might help you to identify some strategies, marketing activities, or types of content that are already working for you.
This also ties in with your social media goals, but try to think about the whole buyer journey and where your social media presence fits in that journey. Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter/click through to your sales page/join a membership somewhere/buy products directly on the platform?
Some platforms give you multiple options such as running a page, opening a community/group, or engaging in other groups.
Some platforms allow you to host events or to run adverts on multiple platforms at the same time.
Try to think creatively and to discover what else you can do with each platform.
You don’t have to copy them, but seeing what’s working for companies who have similar offers can help you to understand what type of content is already resonating well with your target audience.
It’s easy to focus on the big, well-known platforms, but some interest groups also use other lesser-known platforms. Some countries have their own business networking sites. There are sites where people go if they have a particular hobby, or if they are looking for a specific type of product or service.
If you do your research, you might find it will add value to include one of these smaller but more niche-focused platforms.
I wrote about ten intro versions for this article, then I decided to replace them with a straightforward one – I would love March to be about more than postcards, happy wishes, rivers of flowers, retail campaigns, and sunny selfies.
I would love us to be able to talk about women without turning it into a fight or drama of some kind, to confront reality without complaining, to look at each other in admiration, not awe or judgment.
A while ago I asked my niece, who is three years old, what princess would she like to be and loves most. And her answer was „Me!”. She is her favorite princess, but not because she is vain, but because she does not understand why she would need to be or imitate somebody else!
And that was a bit of a surprise for me. I grew up with the poor habit of comparing myself to others and continuously coming second. Others were always better, prettier, more natural, more disciplined, stronger, funnier, etc
That is why I wanted to make this month about more than wishing you a great Spring. I want to bring forward womanhood at its best. I want to share those voices that inspire and support many, pioneer roles, and stand for something greater than themselves every day.
And to start this topic, I want to share a few favorite topics:
Do you remember what you wanted to be as a child? Was it something you truly desired or that somebody told you that would be awesome to be, like a doctor or a policeman?
Moreover, when you decided to do something else, less common in your family or group, how did those around you react? Did you feel support? Did you feel discouraged?
Of course, they did the best they knew and could. This article is not about judging, as I just mentioned above. I respect the work our parents and their parents did for us to get here. What I want to focus on is us, now, our present, our decisions, our reactions. We choose every day to fold under or to rise from our habits, our less helpful beliefs. And we choose every single day if we make them last, or we make them lost.
You might say this is important for parents. But it isn’t. This is vital for humans. All humans, of all genders and on all continents. We all have generations before us that survived helped by stories. As time passes, those stories become legends, traditions, cultural reflexes. So you have to choose every day what you nurture – limits or limitlessness.
We spend so much time running from failure. Have you ever stopped to ponder why? One theory is that we fear failure because we integrated the belief that „failure” = „shame”.
I was talking the other month with a client and friend, who was working herself to exhaustion in order to finish a project she has started. She is a mother, a wife, a (great) friend, a sister, a daughter, a manager on maternity leave, and recently an entrepreneur. Her career was a long and tiring fight not to fail others, not to be less than anybody expected of her. She is truly great, but unfortunately, she is also truly frightened by failure, by critics, by the shame of disappointing. That fear has haunted her and wore her down, despite her constant performance.
In one of our sessions, the subject of making sure everything runs perfectly with her new business came up. She was worried that she might do something wrong. That somebody might not be happy. That she might not have the right visual, the most appealing text, the best targeting. She was worried that she would fail. Somewhere in her list of possible dangers I stopped her and told her:
START FAILING! Do it! Even more, enjoy it! You are so new to this that every mistake you do now is a shortcut to growing. Failing will point out what needs improvement in your brand, your product, or yourself.
Failing can be exciting, and failing constantly will keep you in the area of failing small, exploring, and discovering. Running from failure keeps you in a state of fear, narrows your sight, your mind, and your life. Of course, this doesn’t happen just by reading my advice, the best self-help book, or the best guide in the world. This happens in time, by paying attention to yourself. It takes a lot of kindness to change the perception of mistakes to be pals and not enemies.
Perfection is a lie. We know this and yet, we fall for this. We would love to have the house in the movies that dust never settles in. The perfectly clean white carpets, that kids seem to play on and somehow never put the smallest spot on. The ideal mood of calm and serenity at all hours, with all people, on all topics. We want to be:
This list is endless. No joke. ENDLESS!!!
If these are hopes, aspirations, objectives, it’s great. Especially if they are prioritized and selected from the list, and you don’t aim for everything, every time, all day. However, if you turn them into evaluation (or judgment criteria) then things turn painful very fast. You will feel less for not achieving an impossible goal. And what’s even stranger is that you set those goals for yourself. In other words, you are punishing yourself to be Sisyphus.
I am sure some of these aspects are not new for you. And the point of this article was not to innovate. I wrote it to remind you (and myself) that you always have at least two choices: to do what’s best for you or to just know what that is. What do you choose today?
Planning is for sure the word of the month. Every start of the year makes us set goals, draft deadlines and dream a little.
Besides being a very good incentive to buy notebooks, planning is also a stage that helps our brain prepare and distribute its resources. In order for this stage to have the desired impact, a few criteria need to be met when making a plan, especially one that involves an organization.
Even if you are sure you have the best plan in mind, take a moment to think about your HOWs and what some alternative routes to your destination might be.
Let’s say you want to start your writing career by publishing your first book this year. You have your topic all set and you think the best plan is to simply plan 6 hours of writing every day until you meet your goal.
Now, here are some alternatives. The biggest challenge is probably drawing the characters, context, and plot. After that, the story might grow naturally. So an alternative would be to focus more resources on having the structure ready, then allowing yourself time for inspiration and learning. Let’s say 1 month of full-time writing work, with the following months of less pressure.
Another approach would be to write down key information that should be in your book. Then draft a timeline and plan your working schedule based on each module or chapter. 20 hours on the intro, 112 on chapter one, etc.
Thinking about alternatives may offer you new perspectives on your plan. And, most importantly, it allows you to test drive your initial idea by asking your brain to confront it with different options.
Thinking about the macro before the micro allows you to divide attention and effort. You will no longer have to think about everything at the same time. You only need to work on what your current phase is.
To continue the previous example, thinking about all the details in the book all the time might lead to never writing it. However, breaking it in chapters and main events will direct your focus and creativity on one topic at a time. Another great benefit is that having this structure will remove the pressure of uncertainty. What should I write next? What should I do now to grow my business? How should I develop my employer branding to recruit the best employees? The unknown is a strong stress factor and removing it will push your efforts further instead of consuming valuable energy.
To start, find the biggest steps or phases in your project. If nothing else comes to mind, use a classic Prepare – Deliver – Evaluate&Learn framework. Then write down the main steps or actions to be done for each. When this stage is over, take each phase and plan in detail the objectives, actions, stakeholders, and resources.
If you are planning a project you are very enthusiastic about, you will definitely have a million ideas in mind about how things should go: the presentation materials, the title of the first email, the look and feel for the landing pages, the channels, a video script, the design of the room to have a business shooting, the outfit maybe.
Your brain will love these details. They are candy for it because it allows it to focus on the aspects it wants and loves. But too much sugar is bad. And so are too many details. If you focus so much on the little things you risk missing the big picture.
As an entrepreneur or project owner, your role is to sail everybody to success, not to drive the project into the wall because the details are not perfect. After all, perfection is just a sisyphic chore.
Pretty basic, right? How many times have you sent a meeting invite or set an alarm?
Yet practicing this in project management is rare. The reminders I am referring to are however not detail-oriented. They are not the „buy toothpaste” or „pay cable” kind of reminders. They are timeline-oriented, meant to let you know when you are about to enter a new stage of the project. A timeline reminder would be: „you have entered the last five days of project drafting” or „you entered the execution phase. For the next 25 days, your goal is to deliver this webinar to over 200 people.”
Having these reminders set very early in the project will help you and your team with an extra automated project manager. Plus, you can structure them so that you offer a little extra motivation as well. Imagine you would receive a reminder saying: „You’ve done a great job so far. Keep it up and we will get to our goals in no time!”
Know how your destination looks like. Feel it, then break it into objectives and indicators that motivate and help you navigate.
Knowing that you want to have a book on the market is important. And to get there answer yourself some further questions:
how many pages will the book have?
how many copies do I want to sell in the first round?
what is the number of pages I will write daily to have the book done in a year?
what readership will my online free chapter have?
how much money will I make from this book?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are generally measurable so that you can easily track across time. Sometimes breaking a phase into something measurable is challenging but it helps revealing specific actions and resources invested. How do you measure the awareness your project or brand has? What do you guide yourself in order to say your popularity has increased or decreased compared to last year?
These 5 recommendations to plan a great year can easily move to a list of twenty. But it is not the size of the list that matters, but the thought behind it: always search to simplify your work and your life. When it’s easy to do a good job, you might find yourself naturally doing a great one.
Performance is not about effort, but about energy invested wisely.
Today we celebrate. Be it with a post, a thought or a walk to see the marches, today we make a little time to honor our heritage. On this day we are remembered that we are not simple inhabitants of this geographic space. After all, the place we populate shapes us as much as we shape it.
I looked a lot for a picture that talks about my country and my people. One that is relevant, actual, and depicts the most beautiful side of our nation. And none seemed to be more appropriate that this amazing human flag, during the protests last year. It was in Victoria Square that I regained my national pride, surrounded by solidarity, common sense, intelligence, humor, and power. Peaceful but constant, these protests proved WE CAN STAND TOGETHER.
I saw in that square children empowered and impressed, couples holding hands and holding their ground for justice, progress and fair play. I saw at least three generations agreeing on how their country should look…will look.
It is to those Romanians that fight for what they think it’s right that I want to thank. Even if your way to protest is by refusing to raise your shoulders or stay indifferent, you are the Romanian I am proud to be sharing my country with. You might not hit the headlines, but now I know you are there, in thousands if not millions. And I have hope that one day that is what the majority will look like.
To you, my dear Romanians, I want to wish a proud 1st of December.
Foto credentials: Wall Street Journal
I love writing. I feel it gives me the magical ability to bring things from my imagination into „reality” and the other way around. But when it comes to choosing the words to make this happen, well…it can be less magical at times.
In marketing, words are assets. The right headline, the correct description, the most persuasive selling points, the most efficient message all rely on accessing this resource quickly and with precision.
But writing is much more than an instrument. It is a bridge, that allows us to connect, to understand and to express ourselves, to stay in touch. Pouring meaning into shapes of intention and hope is what makes it so special and socially indispensable. And although it might seem strange, good marketing is very similar.
I started Coach4Marketing because I want to transform the meaning and knowledge I held precious into a practical and personal solution. My goal is to support and share growth, stand by the amazing people who take a leap of faith towards what they love and assist them in turning their dreams into reality. If you want to know about me, you can read my story and share your own in a comment.
Partly, I want to do this because I too have done that big jump into the unknown, having nothing but the certainty that I should be doing something I love. So I know how it feels to be overwhelmed, to know what you should do but be totally confused about how to actually get around to doing it. I have felt myself the conflict between the promising theory and the demanding reality.
This blog is about work and belief, not about 1,2,3 – now it’s all done/ gone. It is about your journey and mine, and millions of stories that happen by joining forces.
To sum it all up, I believe in you and your dreams. So just browse around and have fun!
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