Being a business owner is tough at times.

We’re all trying to do the best we can when it comes to marketing, and working out how to get engagement, leads and clients from our websites and our social media.

Want marketing that works? In this Blog, discover the most common marketing mistakes by business owners and how to avoid them so you can attract more leads and clients.

What are the most common marketing mistakes business owner’s make?

• Marketing to everyone and anyone, everywhere
• Waste valuable time energy and money on a scattergun, fingers crossed and a ‘hope it works this time’ approach to marketing and their business
• Give away lots of value but then don’t know how to get sales without being salesy
• No action plan so you spend your time getting nowhere with a ‘see how today’ approach goes
• Not knowing what’s working and what isn’t
• Getting in our own way (Those blinking mind-monkeys)

Let’s be honest, I know you’re brilliant at what you do and chances are no-one has shown you how to create effective marketing.

Once you recognise what mistake(s) you’re making that’s when you can start to do something about it.

So in this blog, I’m going to show you the 10 key areas to focus on to get better results for your business and your marketing.

•   Be crystal clear on the problem you solve and who you solve it for
•   Understand what it is your audience really wants
•   Make it crystal clear what results they’ll get and be sure the results you offer are the ones they want
•   Have a marketing message that speaks to your ideal client
•   Know how to find your clients and how to help them find you
•   Put your content in front of your audience consistently and regularly
•   Tell your client clearly what you’d like them to do next
•   Create a plan for your content to achieve your business goals and objectives
•   Know what works and what doesn’t
•   Get out of your own way

Let’s dive in.

1: Be Clear On The Problem You Solve And Who You Solve It For

Who is your ideal client and what problem do you solve for them?

It can be so tempting to decide to work with everyone and anyone but very quickly you can end up working with no-one. It’s seems to be one of those things that’s counter intuitive though, doesn’t it?

Talk to too many and what you say is generic, non-specific and ends up being ignored.

Lost in all of the messages your lovely potential clients are bombarded with every single day in this online world.

When I first started out, I genuinely believed I could work with everyone.  So that’s what I tried to achieve with my marketing.

What happened. Hardly anyone took any notice of me and the ones that did weren’t, I’m sad to say, fab to work with.

Who is your ideal client?

They are the clients you most like to work with, they light you up and you really enjoy working with them.

Think about the clients you’ve worked with. Which ones shone out for you and why? These are the ones you’d love to have more of working with you or buying your products or services.

Why reduce the amount of people you can potentially work with?

I know, it seems a daft way to go about it but the more specific you are in who you are talking to, the problem you solve, the better chance you have of getting more engagement, leads and clients.

And it’s a noisy old world out there online and it’s getting noisier.

The clearer you are about who you are talking to the better.

The more content you share that’s useful and helpful the better too.

2: Understand What It Is Your Audience Really Wants

What big problem do you solve for your audience?

Their painful problem is what’s keeping them awake at night, it’s niggling at them, it’s keeping them stuck, it’s a frustration, a worry, a concern, a situation that needs resolved – by YOU!

Imagine if they associated you as the solver of their problem.

If you don’t understand your customer’s pain points, how are you going to know what problem your product or service solves?

• If you don’t know, what are you telling your client you can solve?  Do they care?
• Is the problem you’re offering to solve really a problem for them?
• Do you know or are you guessing what their problem is?
• If you’re not sure you’re addressing your client’s pain or problem, all is not lost.

They’re leaving you clues everywhere.  Social media, testimonials, book reviews.

Investigate what your client really is struggling with.

Where to investigate what your ideal client is really struggling with

Head to Amazon and check out book reviews.

I know, you’re thinking I’ve got confused.  But stick with me here.

You’re not going to check out any book reviews. Nope. You’re going to check out books that your audience will read to help them to solve their problem.

Investigate your audience

Let’s imagine you help parents with toddlers that are fussy eaters and you want to know – rather than guess – what they struggle with so you can make more impact with your marketing.

The book reviews will tell you what the book specifically helped them with. 

Here’s an example:

The book is Feeding Toddlers: A Pediatrician’s Guide to Happy and Healthy Meal Times.

Here’s a couple of reviews:

‘The author uses her personal experiences as a mum and knowledge as a doctor to convey the importance and ease of introducing healthy eating into the home. Making mealtime a fun family time. I used to worry about the amount my picky toddler was eating but after reading the useful section on portion size I can now see she is eating sufficiently. I also enjoyed reading the recipe suggestions.’

‘Getting young kids to eat well can be such a battlefield and this book does a great job of demystifying child nutrition and suggesting a step by step approach.’

From two reviews you can see parents are concerned that they’re giving their little ones the right nutrition, mealtimes can be a battlefield and they’re confused about portion sizes. They worry a lot.

You can also see the results the parents want which leads us very nicely to…

3: Make It Crystal Clear What Results They’ll Get And Be Sure The Results You Offer Are The Ones They Want

Using our parent’s as an example these parents want fun meal-times, healthy meal-times, healthy recipes with the right nutrition and to be able understand portion sizes.

And that’s just from two book reviews!

Be sure to let your audience know the results they’ll get when they buy from you by including them on your product or service pages, your sales pages and your testimonials and case studies.

How to be sure you know what results they want from your service or product

Perhaps you’re offering results but you’re not sure they really are the ones they want, so ask them.

Create a questionnaire

• Email it to your list.
• Share it where your clients are and ask them to complete it. For example share it on social media.            

Check your inbox

• Chances are you have emails from potential clients where they’ve mentioned what results they’re struggling to achieve on their own.

Use social media

• Keep your eyes peeled for questions asked around what you do (and answer them).

Testimonials/Case Studies

• When you ask for testimonials ask what results they’ve achieved after buying/working with you. Then when a potential client is thinking of hiring you, the testimonial with showcase you as someone who can solve the same problem for them.

4: Have a clear marketing message that speaks to your ideal client

What’s a marketing message and why have one?

It’s one or two sentences that you can repeat over and over and over again so that people know what you offer and why they should buy from you.

What do you want to be known for?

Why it makes sense to have a clear marketing message.

There’s lots of reasons to have a key marketing message but two main ones are:

• It increases your chance of getting a client.
• It will help you grow your business.

It doesn’t stop there.

Your marketing message is the diamond key to your marketing activity.

Create a powerful marketing message and all your other marketing will fall into place.

What to write in Blogs, your emails, your social media, your Facebook lives etc

You can create your marketing message in three steps:

Step 1: Identify your client’s problem

Step 2: Explain how you will help them

Step 3: Tell them their happy ending

Check out my Blog where I break down each step for you so you can create your own clear marketing message so you’ll never be stuck explaining what it is you do, ever again.

5: How do you find your clients? And how do they find you?

You need to be where they are.

And you need to be where they’d expect to find you.

Investigate where your clients are hanging out and looking for help.

Where Are Your Clients?

If you are clear on who your ideal client is, you can search for them on social media platforms.

• Use the search bar in Facebook
• Use the search bar in Twitter
• Use the search bar in LinkedIn
• Use the search bar in YouTube
• Search online forums
• Search Blog sites Reddit etc

Where Is Your Audience Looking For A Solution?

What’s the first thing you do when you want information?

You Google it.

So does your audience. You want to get your content on your website in front of them.

Let’s be honest, ranking on the first page of Google isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight but if this is where your audience is looking you need to have a strategy to create content that’s going to build trust and authority and get you turning up in their searches.

Get inside the head of your audience.

Check out my Blog where I explain “How to create to build trust and authority with your audience, using 6 key topics“.

Become their go to person.

6: Put your content in front of your audience consistently and regularly

How to be in front of your clients regularly and consistently online without going into overwhelm.As a business owner you have so much to do. Add marketing to that and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. 

Creating Content Takes Time

I’m not going to sugar coat these truths. Marketing is the life-blood of your business and marketing takes time to create and gain traction, but when you know what type of content to create to help you get leads and clients, it becomes easier.

Break your content down into 4 types for each of your products or services.

1. Share useful and helpful content

This is the type of content they’re looking for that’s helpful. At this stage of their search, they’re not ready to buy from you or anyone else. They are solely looking for some assistance to a problem that’s presented itself to them.

Let’s use the example of the parent with the toddler that is a fussy eater. The parent knows they have a fussy toddler so they’re searching for specific solutions.

• How to get a fussy toddler to eat
• Why is my toddler a fussy eater
• Tips to get a toddler that’s a fussy eater to eat

It’s your job to write to write content that answers these types of questions and share them as: 

• Blogs
• Videos
• Social media posts       

You can then build a relationship with these people as you stand a chance of them associating you as a solution to their problem.

2. Bring them closer

Have an email list
Offer them your lead magnet so they can sign up to your email list. Your lead magnet or freebie can be the likes of an ebook, webinar, guide, newsletter. Once they sign-up you send them more useful and helpful information directly to their inbox.

3. Deciding to buy

What content will help your audience decide to buy from you?

This is assuming they’ve been impressed with all your useful and helpful content and they’re now deciding who to buy from. We know that people buy from people they know, like and trust so this is where you can add a bucket load of oomph to help them along with their decision making.

Create:

• Blogs that answer their frequently asked questions about your products/services
• Case studies and testimonials – showcase the results you’ve gained for others

Answering questions your competition aren’t anwering so readily has to be a plus, right?

4. Make it easy for them to buy from you 

Make it clear how they can buy from you:  

• Have an easy to find sales page on your website
• Tell them how they can buy from you on social media
• Send emails to your list that include offers to buy from you

How to make use of your content that’s sitting on your website gathering dust?

It can be so easy to be re-inventing the wheel with your content because to us it feels “old news”, but for your audience it can be the first time they’ve seen it. One of my best performing Blogs is one I wrote about 2 years ago.

Here are some ideas to optimise your blogs so it works harder for you:

• Update it
• Share it on Twitter with a post and a link to it
• Share the link to it on Facebook
• Turn sections of your Blog into Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn posts
• Use it as a script/outline/idea for a Facebook live.
• Use it as a script for a video and upload to YouTube
• Share the video on social media
• Create an infographic
• Create a Slideshare
• Turn it into a downloadable PDF and email it to your list

Rinse and repeat for other Blogs, Social Media posts, videos etc

How to find the time to create and repurpose content regularly

Plan your content and block time out in your diary to create it and make it a non-negotiable. In other words, commit to doing it and make it happen.

For me, Tuesdays are content creation and repurposing days and I have a nifty plan and checklist to work through so when Tuesday arrives, I know what I’m writing about, what images I need and how I’m going to optimise the blog once it’s published.

If you were to Blog twice a month, you’d have 24 pieces of content to use to drive traffic to your website, build trust, get leads, win clients and repurpose.

Blog once a week and you could have 48 pieces of content to use to drive traffic to your website, build trust, get leads and repurpose.

Don’t want to use your valuable time repurposing your content? 

There’s lots of fab people out there that can do it for you,  leaving you more time to do what you’re awesome at.

7: Tell your client clearly what you’d like them to do next by using a Call To Action

This was a biggie for me. I’d happily share useful and helpful content but I’d NOT ask my audience to take any action.  Of any kind.

When you ask them to take action it’s drawing them closer to you and building a relationship with them.

In this online world of ours it’s so important to be building connections. We’re people buying from people at the end of the day. At the start of the day too and even in the middle. You know what I mean. 😉

Tell your audience what to do next in a way that’s:

• Clear
• Simple
• Short

A few call to action ideas:

• call
• email
• buy now
• click
• join
• share
• subscribe
• give feedback
• apply
• write to
• sign up
• visit

Use a call to action on your website, in your emails, Blogs, videos, sign up pages, sales pages, social media posts, slideshares, infographics.

Your possibilities are endless.

Be clear on what you want your client to do when they engage with your content.

Make it easy for them to take the next step.

8: Create A Plan For Your Content To Achieve Your Business Goals And Objectives

You want your marketing to help you to achieve your business goals and objectives and so many business owners miss this out. It can be easy to fall into the trap of putting your marketing out there without being clear on what it is you want it to help you achieve.

Here’s what you do and the first step has nothing to do with marketing. 

Know what your objectives and goals are for your business

Without these you won’t know what marketing to create to help you hit them.

If you’re not sure, now might be a good time block out some time to do some business planning.

What is it you want to achieve?

Such as:

• How much money you want to earn? By when?
• How many of ‘X’ product or service you want to sell? By when?
• What new products/services do you want to introduce? When?
• What products/services do you want to promote? When?
• What events are you hosting? When?
• What events are you attending? When?
• What events are you speaking at? When?

Then the key is to:

• Create a content plan and stick to it.
• Get clear on how you’re going to drive traffic to your content.
• Get clear on how you’re creating and building your relationship with your ideal client.

In my Blog “How to create your 12 months marketing plan to support your business objectives and goals” I take you through what you need to do.

9: Know what’s working and what isn’t

It can be so easy to keep on doing the same stuff without knowing what’s working and more importantly what isn’t working for your business and your marketing.

You need to know what activities are playing their part in getting you leads and clients and a great place to start is by asking “Is it working?” but before you answer that question, you need to have first decided what it is you wanted it to achieve in the first place.

What is it you want to achieve?

Let’s consider your website. 

How do you know if your website is working for you?

There are a few things you want your website to do for you and gathering dust and being ignored isn’t it.

So know:

• How much traffic your website is attracting
• What pages your visitors are going to
• Your best and worst performing pages

Once you know what you want a part of your marketing to do for you, it’s easier to know if it’s working for you or not.

The key is:

• Have an objective for each part of your marketing.
• Track how it’s performing for you.
• Keep it, ditch it or tweak it once you know.

10: Challenge Your Chatterbox

We can get in our own way.

Your chatterbox, mind monkeys or inner voice can get in your way.  It can make you stop and ponder what others are going to think about you, who do you think you are and there’s others better than you. To name a few of the types of things it can say.

It used to be such a struggle for me.

If it’s something you struggle with, check out my Blog where I chat about “Imposter Syndrome: How to recognise it and manage it“.

I talk about:

• What is imposter syndrome?
• What triggers imposter syndrome?
• Is Imposter Syndrome ever a good thing?
• How you can manage your imposter syndrome using the Be. Do. Have. Framework
• More ideas to help manage imposter syndrome
• Other resources to you help with Imposter Syndrome

Summary

The biggest mistakes business owners make are:

• Marketing to everyone and anyone, everywhere
• Waste valuable time energy and money on a scattergun, fingers crossed and a ‘hope it works this time’ approach to marketing and their business
• Give away lots of value but then don’t know how to get sales without being salesy
• No action plan so you spend your time getting nowhere with a ‘see how today’ approach goes
• Not knowing what’s working and what isn’t
• Getting in our own way (Those blinking mind-monkeys)

To avoid the most common mistakes business owner’s make:

1.   Be crystal clear on the problem you solve and who you solve it for
2.   Understand what it is your audience really wants
3.   Make it crystal clear what results they’ll get and be sure the results you offer are the ones they want
4.   Have a marketing message that speaks to your ideal client
5.   Know how to find your clients and how to help them find you
6.   Put your content in front of your audience consistently and regularly
7.   Tell your client clearly what you’d like them to do next
8.   Create a plan for your content to achieve your business goals and objectives
9.   Know what works and what doesn’t
10. Get out of your own way 

More Resources

How to answer “What do you do?” so your audience wants what you offer

How to create your 12 months marketing plan to support your business objectives and goals

 What’s next?

If you want more leads and clients from your marketing, check out my Business Review and Marketing Strategy Session. In this 90-minute session we’ll take a good look at what’s going on with  your marketing, and create your actionable marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals.