Does marketing for your business sometimes feel like…I don’t know...blech somehow?
Maybe you can't get yourself to sit down and work on your content. Or maybe you resolve, once and for all, to start sharing your thoughts on social media. You start out posting a few things with great enthusiasm. You feel wonderful! On fire, even!
But then after a day or two, or a week or two, your motivation seems to fizzle. You're back to procrastinating. The times you do work on your marketing you feel good and the times you don’t, you feel bad.
Or maybe you DO create consistent content. Perhaps you write your blog routinely but, honestly, it feels like one more thing on a big to-do list.
You get it done, but it takes a BIG effort. "It's Monday," you think "Time to write my blog. UGH!"
If this sounds like anything you've experienced, you're not alone. I hear it from so many people! Along with sharing the practical ins and outs of marketing, one of the main ways I help people is to help them create a better relationship with their marketing. Lately, I've written about the nature of marketing relationships and the power of showing up and taking consistent action.
This week, I'm going to dive into that relationship building more deeply and offer some more practical, granular steps you can take to create a better connection with your business' marketing.
Write down your intention.
I’m a writer so I believe in the power of writing things down. But it’s not just me. Much research has shown that writing down your goals means you’re more likely to achieve them. Not only does having the intention written down serve as a visual cue and in the case of complex goals serve as a starting point for creating smaller steps, also the writing process itself helps encode it on a deeper level. On a more energetic level, bringing thought into form, as in words on a page, carries a special brand of power and starts the creation process.
So, grab your journal, your day planner or a post it note, and make a statement: I intend to create a better relationship with my marketing.
Visualize the feeling state.
What feeling state do you want to aim for?
When you imagine yourself having a good, strong relationship with your marketing, how do you think you’ll feel? Strong? Confident? Powerful? Unstoppable? Spend a few minutes visualizing that feeling state because that’s what you're looking for.
Process goals are OK to set, but it’s far better to focus on the feeling state, because that’s something you can access at any time and isn’t dependent on any external outcome, such as likes or followers, which can be difficult to predict or work toward when your business is in development.
Reframe what iT means to "market."
So many people associate marketing with selling. As in I'm here to create this video to put on YouTube so people can see what I offer and buy from me. Yes, you create content in your business to build an audience of ideal clients. And from that audience, as people gain trust in you, you hope they feel safe enough to approach you for help.
This is all true.
And, what if marketing could also be about creating connection and service? Your marketing is the primary vehicle in which you get your message out into the world.
For example, maybe you want women and girls to stop obsessing about their weight and focus on their innate power. Or maybe you want people to know there is nothing wrong with them, and that in fact, what is "wrong" with them from the point of view of culture, could be the very thing that helps them transform themselves and those around them? Or, perhaps, you want people to understand that they need to engage and work with their physical bodies in a way that helps them process and heal their trauma.
Those are powerful messages.
And your marketing is a vehicle to carry those messages out into the world. A cascade of petals on a light breeze, falling just where they need to. Viewing your marketing in this light can generate a rush of positive feelings - lightness, power, purposefulness, patience. And so on.
Tie it to something fun!
Behavior design experts talk about tying habits you want to create to anchor behaviors. I've taken this perspective and have adapted it slightly here. Since I'm all about helping people stop struggling with their marketing, I love to come up with ways to bring more fun into growing their business.
Here's how that could look:
Identify something you love, love, LOVE to do and that you find fun
For example, I love doing card readings, coloring, and doing creative writing prompts. What about you?
Find a way to tie in that fun thing with your marketing
For example, I often sit down, pull a card when I start a session to work on my marketing, asking "What do I need to know about this time I'm going to spend with my business?" I love envisioning how the messages can shape my experience of working on my business and sometimes find their way into my content.
Other times, I will do a 10-minute creative writing prompt to start off my marketing session. Playing in the space of imagery and sensory detail opens a creative portal for me and puts me in an open receptive frame of mind that helps my marketing.
Sometimes, I make the fun thing a reward. I say if I spend 30 minutes working on my sales page, I'll take a break and do some coloring pages.
Name your support.
Everyone needs help. But it's not always obvious what kind of help you could use to create a better relationship with your marketing.
So, first, spend a little time thinking about where you’ve gotten tripped up in the past on your marketing. Is procrastination an issue? Consistency? Know-how? What to talk about?
Once you have a sense of what might be a problem, you can look for the support you need.
For example, if procrastination is an issue, perhaps a coworking partner or group will help. Having a set time with others who are waiting on you to work in your marketing or business can be powerful. Maybe if you're not sure what to talk about, you can do some ideal client interviews and brainstorm topics.
Or, if you're having trouble with know-how or making your content effective, perhaps you could try working with a coach. If consistency is an issue, perhaps you can try bookending or finding an accountability buddy, someone to check in with that can support you.
Hold it lightly.
One of the kindest things we can do with marketing for our business is to hold it lightly. So much of what is out there being marketed to coaches, healers and other creatives makes it seem like there is some great Marketing Rulebook that exists. And that if you could only figure out all that you're supposed to do, your business would be growing in leaps and bounds.
The reality is that your marketing, along with other aspects of your business, need experimentation.
You need time to learn what works best for you, how to market authentically and what your ideal clients respond to. You need space to discern where your energy is calling you and where you're being led.
While you're learning and growing into your business and marketing, layering your marketing with heavy expectations and thoughts that this HAS to work only raises imaginary stakes and causes constriction. In contrast, holding outcomes lightly lessens the pressure you put on yourself, which in turn frees up your energy and calls in lightness.
If you’re looking to create a better connection with your marketing, one that feels relational instead of transactional, and one that doesn’t leave you feeling heavy or weighted down somehow, you can start here. Write down what you’re looking to do and tune into the feeling state you’d like to experience with your marketing. Try reframing how you’ve defined what marketing means in the past and take some time to figure out a way to bring in more fun to your marketing.
Then spend some time figuring out if there are things – both small or big – that you can do to support yourself. Last, but arguably most important, approach everything you do, including implementing some or all of these suggestions, with a sense of lightness and curiosity.