There’s times we can get a bit stuck in our business and frustrated our marketing ain’t going as well as we’d hoped.
Perhaps this is you.
And you’re considering getting help but working with a marketing coach or trainer 1:1 isn’t on the cards for you, right now.
This may be because:
- Money’s tight. Perhaps you believe working with a marketing coach or trainer 1:1 is expensive.
- You don’t feel you should ask for help.
- You don’t have time to commit to 1:1 help and support.
- You tried it once and it wasn’t for you.
Or it’s another reason.
In this blog I’m going to share 5 options you have if you don’t want to work 1:1 with a marketing coach or trainer, because when you’re deciding on where to spend your money I imagine you’d like to compare and contrast what options are out there for you.
#1. Join an online membership
What is an online membership?
According to the Membership Geeks a typical membership site includes:
- Access tied to payment (i.e. monthly fee)
- Release of regular new content
- Access to an ongoing community
- No set endpoint (membership continues indefinitely)
The content in a membership site may take a variety of different forms, including courses, and is typically an open ended topic that can be expanded upon over time.
The benefit of joining an online community to learn more about marketing is you’re with others who also want to learn how to get better at marketing and you pay yearly or monthly depending on the membership.
And the cost of memberships can feel more affordable with some costing from £25 – 30 per month.
The set-up of the membership can vary from one to another.
You may get access to the marketing coach or trainer easily – be able to message them, get feedback, questions answered by them
You may not get access to the marketing coach or trainer easily – can’t message them directly, only select a few people to give feedback to and you can’t get questions answered by them.
They may have pre-recorded trainings for you to watch, use and learn from.
They may hold live trainings with recordings available if you can’t attend live.
They may have challenges to help you improve and work on specific parts of your marketing for your business.
Is joining an online membership worth it?
I’ve joined memberships over the years and they’ve been really useful to help me work on areas of my business that I wanted to improve.
They’ve also helped boost my confidence in areas of my business I wasn’t so confident with, and I’ve met other fab business owners.
But…
it can also be very easy to pay your membership each year or month, not do the work and find yourself and your business in the same, if not worse position than you were before.
No-one chases you up to see if you’re doing the work.
So for me to get the best out of a membership I book time out in my diary and get my head down.
But like you I’m human, and there’s times when working in my business has been more of a priority than working on my business so yes, there’s been months when I’ve paid and not been active in the online community.
Cons of joining an online membership
Some of the not so good bits of joining an online membership are:
- You need to be motivated to commit to your learning and development and access the content and do the work.
- There are times you’re too busy to make best use of the online membership.
- If you ask a question in the community it may take time for a reply or you may not get one.
- It can be easy to keep paying your monthly fee without making good use of the membership.
Let’s be honest. We’ve all been there with gym memberships…
How much can you expect to pay to join an online membership?
It depends.
I’ve joined memberships from under £30 per month and heard of memberships that cost into the hundreds of pounds per month.
Most memberships offer a discount if you pay your membership yearly.
Paying monthly can mean you can cancel your membership without losing money, compared to paying it yearly.
#2. Online courses
A quick search for online marketing and business courses will show you there’s plenty of them out there, covering a broad range of topics to help with marketing and business.
They can start from as little as free up to thousands of pounds.
What are the most common features of an online course?
The Membership Geeks tell us:
- One time fee or instalments granting long term/life time access to content
- Module & lesson content structure
- Defined content path or A-Z steps
- Content drip fed or available all at once
- Progress tracking, quizzes, or assignments
- Group or 1-2-1 support
Your course may have a specific start date if it’s an online course you can do with others. You can access the content and engage with others doing the course in a Facebook group or Slack.
There’s also courses that are self-study you can buy and complete in your own time.
And typically a course will have a duration.
For example you could do a 12 week online course to help you create your content for your first website or a 4 week course to help you write a high converting sales page.
An online course can have a specific amount of lessons or modules.
What are the cons of learning using an online course?
The biggest cons to online courses are:
- You may buy it and then leave it to gather dust
- Easier to procrastinate and not complete it
- May not give you feedback you want and need to help you make improvements to your business and marketing.
A good questions to ask yourself is “Are you self-motivated to complete and action what you learn in an online course?”
#3. Books about business and marketing
Whatever the business or marketing topic there’s a mahoosive chance there’s a book out there about it.
And books are reasonably priced.
You can buy them new, second-hand, borrow them from a library or have them electronically via Kindle.
They can even be read to you if audio book is your thing.
It can be easy to read a book and hope changes happen by osmosis.
When you read the book you need to apply/take from it what you need for your business and marketing.
Now I do love a book.
And when I first started out I’d happily stick my nose in a book to learn more about how to become a better business owner and sharpen my marketing game.
But like anything, you’ve got to implement what you learn.
- Try it in your business.
- Apply it to your marketing.
Which I did but if things didn’t quite work I didn’t know what to do next. I had no-one to ask.
And books can take a looooong time to read.
“Which books should I read to get better at business and marketing?”
I get asked this a lot and it ain’t easy to answer as I don’t know what you don’t know.
Or do know.
And also we all warm to different authors and different book styles.
But here are some of the books I’ve found useful, helpful, in-valuable and have really helped me step up my business and marketing game.
Feel the fear and do it anyway – Susan Jeffers
Hack the buyer brain – Kenda Macdonald
The seven habits of highly effective people – Stephen R Covey
Marketing Rebellion – Mark Schaefer
How to get inside someone’s mind and stay there – Jacky Fitt
Content Chemistry – Andy Crestodina
Cashvertising – Drew Eric Whitman
Yes you can buy these books from Amazon, but perhaps they’ve made enough money and your independent book shop would love you to buy from them 😉
#4. Free stuff to help improve your marketing and business
We all love free stuff!
And again, there’s loads of it out there.
You can choose from:
- Blogs
- Videos
- Courses
- Workbooks
- E-books
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- And more.
I’ve learned many a light-bulb moment from free content.
And in the early days I spent soooo much time hoovering up what was free.
Free stuff is great, but relying on it 100% to help you make worthwhile shifts in your business and marketing could end up leaving you frustrated and it’s gonna take you so much longer to step up a gear.
And there’s no-one to give you feedback, help or cast their eyeballs over what you’re doing.
#5. Carry on as you are
Totally understand.
It’s easier to keep on doing what you’re doing and hoping something works.
- Make zero changes.
- Do nothing.
- Change nothing.
One big lesson for me as a business owner is it’s okay – more than okay – to ask for help.
What’s ‘doing nothing’ doing to you and your business?
Running a successful business and creating marvellous marketing isn’t something we wake up knowing how to do it?
And if building, growing and creating your client attracting business is what you want and what you’re doing ain’t working, something has to change.
Because doing nothing could be way more expensive than getting help to get more leads and clients for your business.
Can I help?
Book a 15-minute call with me and I’ll share some ideas you can use to do better marketing.