You Don’t Need Marketing

Every business needs marketing, right? Right. But. Not every business needs marketing right now.

There are some things you need to have in place before you do marketing.

And that’s especially true if you’re thinking about hiring someone to do your marketing for you.

What if you don’t do this stuff first?

You’ll spend waste loads of time and money doing things that don’t work. You’ll do marketing things just for the sake of doing them.

Those things won’t help your business. Or your customers.

{Actual person wasting loads of time and money doing things that don’t work. Just for the sake of doing them.}

And if you’re a small business or a solo entrepreneur, you do not have room to lose time or money on things that don’t make a difference for your business.

So don’t start like that.

This is why marketing help doesn’t actually help some small businesses.

Some of my clients find me because they hired marketing help that didn’t actually help them.

They don’t know if they hired the wrong person, got the wrong kind of help, or had something completely different go completely wrong.

Maybe they hired marketing help without really knowing what they wanted to get out of it. Maybe they poured a bunch of money they couldn’t afford to lose on something they think got them nowhere new, leaving them scrounging for the funds to do what‘ll actually get them somewhere.

Bottom line: They feel like they’ve been burned once. So they’re not sure they can trust another marketing ‘expert’ to help them.

{When you look at the next marketing consultant like…I’ve been down this road before.}

You, my friend, do not have to be one of these people. You can skip right to the super awesome marketing part.

Here’s the secret.
If you don’t have these five things, you don’t need marketing. Not yet.

When you do marketing without knowing why you’re doing it or who you’re doing it for or what makes what you have to say matter, you’re not actually doing marketing. You’re just doing stuff.

So until you have these five things down right, you don’t need marketing. Not yet.

1} Decide why you’re doing marketing.

You have to start with why. Not in some esoteric Simon Sinek kind of why {which is awesome, but not what we’re doing here because starting with why here won’t get you where you need to go}.

Just…why are you doing marketing. What do you want to get out of it. What do you need to get out of it. How will you know you got that.

2} Know who your customer is.

You need to know who your business is made for. That’s who your marketing is going to be made for.

Small business owners often find this really challenging.

Narrowing your focus to one or two ideal customers can feel like you’re risking leaving money on the table. And you can’t afford to leave money on the table. But, that’s not what happens when you narrow your focus. In fact, it’s the opposite — narrowing your focus is the only way to grow.

You’re either for someone or no one. You can’t build marketing for “all the people” or “all college students in the U.S.” Yes, it might seem like Apple and JetBlue are for everyone. But they aren’t. And they didn’t start there anyway.

3} Prove what’s good about what you do.

First, prove that there’s something there. That people want that thing you’re selling. Then you can do marketing to attract more people to that thing.

It doesn’t work the other way around. The best marketing expert in the world can’t make your product or service better, improve your sales process, or generally make your business work better.

4} Get some clients.

Building on that last point, if you don’t have any clients or customers, you don’t need marketing. You need networking. You need sales.

This is kind of a chicken and egg thing. How are you going to find customers without marketing, or how are customers going to find you?

{Marketing vs. networking + sales. Kind of a chicken/egg thing. Or whatever this is.}

In the beginning, you find the customers. That’s networking and sales. Depending on the type of business you’re in, you might need to do some marketing on your own to help get you off the ground.

Then, once you’ve got some cheddar in the bank, invest in some serious marketing to help more customers {the ones you now know are the right ones} find you.

5} Be ready to invest some time and money.

Even with all of the right things in place, marketing is not a magic pill. And it’s not an instant fix. {Anyone who promises to deliver you all the stars in the sky, in no time flat and under budget, is likely too good to be true.}

Go into your marketing adventure knowing that you get what you pay for.

Hiring the lowest-priced hourly help on Upwork is not going to be the same as putting an expert on retainer. And the best marketing requires a bit of trial and error before it really boosts your business.

So, before you just dive in and start doing a bunch of stuff or hire someone without knowing if they’re the right someone, get your five things in order.

With this magic sauce, you won’t do marketing things just for the sake of doing them. You’ll own your marketing like you own your business.

Rachel gives entrepreneurs the guidance and tools they need to own their own marketing. Learn more at www.929marketing.com.