Podcast 76: How to do Less Marketing to Find More Clients

content marketing ethical marketing local marketing marketing podcast productivity Jul 29, 2021

Do you feel the pressure to be doing everything to market your holistic business? You add more and more to the list of activities you “should” do because you assume other practitioners are finding clients using them, and you’re missing out.

Different strategies work for different practitioners, even if they work in the same discipline and help the same niche. Whilst there are loads of options, just because they work for one practitioner, it doesn’t mean it’s right for you. And you certainly shouldn’t be trying to do them all – it’s a recipe for failure.

Finding clients won’t come from doing more marketing, you need to do the right marketing, and this is where less is more.

Ultimately, marketing is about building relationships and connections - this is what leads to finding more clients.

Less general, more niche

If you’re struggling to find clients, your marketing is likely to be too general – it’s not appealing to anyone directly. Your marketing needs to connect you with your audience - it needs to be focussed and relatable to build trust and relationships.

By knowing who your favourite clients are, you can create a simple marketing message. You then use it consistently throughout all of your marketing – less is more!

Having a defined niche will also help you streamline the amount of marketing you do as you only need to appeal to one like-minded group.

Podcast 51 and the blog – finding clients starts with knowing who you’re looking for, goes through niching in more detail.

Less quantity, more quality

If you try and do everything, you’ll end up jumping from one thing to another without doing anything properly. It’s like being a magpie, you’re attracted to the next new and exciting thing, and then the next. It’s called bright shiny marketing syndrome and will keep you stressed and going around in circles.

It’s far better to pick one core marketing activity and learn to do it well before adding others. This will help you maximise the results and identify if it actually works. Once you find your flow with it, it will become easy and take less time and energy to do a good job. It’s at this point you can add something else into the mix if you want or need to.

Pick your core marketing activity and commit to focussing on that for at least the next 3-6 months. This is where you will spend most of your marketing time. Get good at providing your clients and potential clients with amazing value through your chosen medium.

You can use other marketing strategies to promote your core marketing, but they aren’t your main focus. For example, my blog has been my core content for years, 15-months ago I added the podcast as a way of re-purposing the information to reach a new audience. I then promote them to my email list and on social media, but it all starts with the blog.

Less frequent, more consistent

Whilst 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 people to understand the value you provide.

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

If you try to do more than you’re able to deliver, you will fail after a week or two and before long, give up having not achieved anything.

Even if you can only be consistent with an activity once a month, it’s best you commit to that. It’s better to increase the amount you do than to be inconsistent.

Less sharing 'just because'

We’ve all been guilty of blasting out information just because we think we must post something. It’s too easy, especially with social media to add to the noise. 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 post on social media so make sure everything you put out has a reason. Start with the simple filter of 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 within your brand. These will include things both related to the work you do, and things that are of interest to both you and your clients. For example, my topics include marketing, productivity, personal development, arts and crafts, nature, and dogs.

Make sure every piece of your marketing serves a purpose and encourages people to take the next step. This could be as simple as answering a question on social media or booking a discovery call. Put your efforts into creating marketing that reinforces why clients work with you and help prospective ones know you are a good fit for them.

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 20% of your efforts. Identify the 20% that’s working and focus on those activities, and you’ll save yourself a heap of time.

You’re one person, use your time and energy wisely. Streamlining your marketing to the things that count will make it more powerful and leave you with more time to do the things you love to do.

Ultimately you need your own simple recipe that works to your strengths and one that you can repeat over and over again. This is what I help my clients with and you can follow it with my book ‘Your Holistic Business Recipe’ or book a discovery call with me and find out about how I can help you.