Podcast 60: Doing Less Marketing to Find More Clients

content marketing ethical marketing finding clients marketing podcast Apr 08, 2021

Are you feeling the pressure to do everything and be everywhere with your marketing? Do you assume others are thriving because they’re doing things differently? Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed at your never-ending to-do list.

There’s no question you do have to market yourself, but there’s no one size fits all, especially when it comes to marketing. I know some extremely successful practitioners who promote themselves solely on social media, and others who prefer the more personal approaches like networking.

Whilst there are lots of different ways to market your holistic business, just because it works for one, it doesn’t make it right for you.

It’s time to stop and review what you’re doing. There are ways to reduce the amount of marketing you do and find more clients in the process.

Less quantity, more quality

If you even attempt to do everything and be everywhere, you’ll struggle, and stress yourself out in the process. You’ll end up jumping from one thing to another, without doing anything properly.

I often hear practitioners say they’ve tried everything, and nothing works. They have a scattergun approach, trying one thing for a few weeks before dropping it to try something else.

It’s far better to learn how to do one marketing strategy really well before adding another into the mix. This will help you to maximise the results and identify if it actually works. Once you find your flow, it will become easier, and take less time and energy to a good job.

Pick your main marketing strategy and commit to focussing on that for at least the next 3-6 months. Marketing is a marathon and not a sprint and it takes time to establish and give results.

This idea doesn’t stop you from using other marketing activities, but you use them to support your main strategy. For example, I write weekly blogs (which is now accompanied by the podcast) and I promote them via my email list and on social media.

Less frequent, more consistent

Being consistent with marketing is key to it being successful. As one person, you can only be consistent with a limited number of things. Putting out consistent good quality marketing will help raise your profile and will help your audience to understand the value you provide.

You’ll also be training your potential clients on when to expect to hear from you. If you write an article each week and people enjoy them, they’ll be looking out for the next one.

Even if you can only be consistent with a certain strategy once a month – commit to that. If you try to do more than you’re able to deliver, you’ll struggle after a week or two and before long, give up.

Less sharing “just because”

We’ve all been there, especially on social media. Guilty of blasting out information because we think we have to post something. Unless your marketing has value for your favourite client, it will drift off into a black hole, never to be seen again.

It takes time and effort to understand what resonates with your audience. Keep it simple by ensuring everything you share out has a reason behind it. Start with the simple filter – will it entertain, educate or inspire your favourite client? If not, don’t post it!

To help you decide what to share, have a list of topics you discuss. These can include both business and personal topics and you don’t have to share everything – be selective. For example, my topics include marketing, mindset, business tips, nature and dogs.

Make sure every piece of your marketing adds value and serves a purpose. It is there to reinforce what you do and help prospective clients decide whether you’re a good fit for them.

For more on this, check out podcast 56 – Ask Why? When Picking Marketing Activities for Your Holistic Business.

Less general, more niche

If you’re struggling to find clients, your marketing could be too generic. It’s trying to appeal to everyone and gets lost in a sea of beige. It needs to connect with people at an emotional level, so it needs to be focused and relatable. Marketing is about building connection and relationships and needs to speak to an individual.

By really understanding who your ideal clients are, you can create a simple marketing message to use consistently throughout your marketing. Again, one message rather than a jumble of different ones – less is more!

If you want to find out more about the topic of niching, check out podcast 51 – Finding clients Starts with Knowing Who You’re Looking For. And there is a blog post – Creating a Marketing Message.

Repurpose content

If you create content marketing for your business (blogs, videos, podcasts, social media posts etc.), you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you post. By working smartly, you can repurpose and re-use the work you have already done. What do you have available that can be recycled in your marketing?

With hundreds of blog posts, a book, not to mention numerous talks and workshops, I have a library of work. By finding ways to update and re-purpose earlier work, it saves me hours every week on creating brand new content from scratch.

The Holistic Business Matters podcast is another prime example of this, it’s a way of providing my popular and new blogs in a different format. As a practitioner, I refresh and update old articles for my newsletter each month.

For more on how to repurpose content, check out podcast 15 – How to Repurpose Content for a Holistic Health Business

80/20 rule

If in doubt, think of the 80/20 rule. When it comes to your marketing, 80% of your success will come from just 20% of your efforts. It is far better to identify the 20% that is working and focus on those activities. You’re one person, use your time and energy wisely. This will help you streamline your marketing and leave time to do the things you love to do.

If you’re struggling to find clients and market yourself effectively, book a discovery call with me to find out how I can help you.