Welcome back to making good, the podcast here to help you do better marketing so you can make a bigger impact. I'm your host Lauren Tilden. And this is episode 263. And forgive my scratchy voice. I am just getting over a cold that I got from my daughter. I was hoping that it would have passed by now, hence recording this episode a little bit late, but I wanted to get the episode out. So scratchy voice and all here we are.
So, what if I told you that marketing doesn't have to be this massive overwhelming task that you dread every day? What if you could find ways to make marketing your business easier, quicker, and maybe even more fun. Well, the truth is that you absolutely can, if you approach marketing and the right way. This is something I'm thinking a ton about lately because I am working on something free. That's going to take place in November. That. Oh my gosh. It's going to be so good. I can hardly wait.
Stay tuned. Making sure you're on my email list for details there. I'll have more to share soon there, but for now I want to dig into this idea and share some tips with you on how you could make marketing easier for yourself. Yes, this is just a podcast episode, but if you really pay attention and you really implement what you hear in today's episode, even just one or two of the things I'm about to share. It could really change the game for you.
So with that, let's get into 10 ways to make marketing easier. Tip number one is to get clear on the foundations first. If you want to build anything that will last, it needs to be built on solid foundations. This is true with building houses and it's true with building a business. Your marketing will only be as effective as you are clear on the foundations of your marketing and your business. So it's really worth spending some time upfront getting clear on this.
Now, let me be really straightforward with you. This is the one thing on the list I'm about to share with you that isn't in itself easy. It takes serious thought and intention, but once you've done this stuff, Everything in your marketing is so much easier and so much more effective because you'll stop wasting your time, doing things and talking about things. That don't matter or don't resonate or make an impact because there was no strategy or intention behind them.
So what exactly does it mean to get clear on your marketing foundations? Well, this in itself is a bigger question than just one episode. But here's a good starting point. You need to get clear on the basics first. Basic like your ideal customer first and foremost, who they are, what they care about, what they struggle with, what they're looking for, what transformation they want to experience, et cetera, the better, you know, this person.
The better your products will be the better your content will be the better your results will be. This is the person who you will create your products for and the person who you will be talking to in your content. Next up is your point of view. What sets you and your approach to business apart? How are you different from everyone else? What is it about the way you run your business? That is unique. That clear on this and then shout it from the rooftops across your content.
Next is your value proposition. To put this simply, what does your business have to offer? What value do you bring your customers? Your tone of voice, how you talk, what kinds of things you say? What kinds of things you definitely don't say your content pillars. These are the broad topics that you generally cover in your content. You want to look for about five or so of these to cycle between. Your marketing mix.
So this is all about nailing down your business goal, your products and your offers and their prices, your sales channels, so where people can actually buy from you and make the transactions. And then most importantly, for the purposes of our conversation today. Nailing down your marketing channels. So where will you actually reach your people and how, when I teach about marketing strategy, I like to make it very simple. Your marketing just needs to do three things.
Reach new people, build a relationship with those people and make the sale. So you'll want to answer these three questions. In terms of reach, how and where will you reach your new potential customers? Some good examples of places for this would be social media. Long-form content with SEO, paid advertising, collaborations, PR Pinterest, et cetera. And just to note, no, definitely. Don't try to do all of these. Pick a few.
Then relationships, how and where will you build a relationship with your ideal customers? The best place for this is email marketing. So please have that be part of your strategy. But you can also do it to some extent via social media and your long form content. And finally sales, how and where will you make the sale? This is usually focused on email and your website. Once you've answered these questions thoughtfully. And based on what you know about your ideal customer and your business.
You'll be off to the races. Again, the work I just described nailing down the foundations of your marketing, your business, actually doing that work. That's not the easy part. But once you've done it. Everything goes so much more smoothly. Ideas will come easier. You'll have confidence that you're showing up the right places. Uh, saying the right things and the results will follow. Okay, now that we've gotten the big one out of the way. Let's talk about some other ways.
Tips two through 10 on making marketing easy. Tip two is to make a loose plan and advance. If I was guiding you on your marketing, your content, like I do with members inside of making good happen. Here's what I would recommend. Plan out ideally a month ahead of your marketing content. That doesn't mean you have to sit down and create all of that content in one setting a month in advance.
But do sit down and decide in the next month with a calendar in front of you, what marketing channels am I using? What days will I show up in each place? And then on each of those times that I'm showing up, what will that piece of content be or be about? It is so much easier to follow a marketing plan when you've already decided what the content will be about. And all you have to do is go sit down and write it.
If all I know is that I have to send an email every Wednesday, but Wednesday comes around and I have no idea what to write it about. That's a much more difficult place to start from. And honestly, a place that I might just jump ship. Then if I looked at my handy little marketing calendar, I see that I'm writing a newsletter about five ways to find small business community. And then I go get to work.
The more decisions you can make for yourself in advance, the easier it will be to actually follow through when it's time to get to work. Tip number three, put marketing work time into your calendar. This tip might seem simple, but it is unexpectedly powerful. All of your marketing tasks, writing the email, creating the social content, following up with that client, et cetera. All of these should not just be tasks on a, to do list.
If you want to make sure that they happen, they should have a place on your calendar. That means literally blocking out hours of time into your calendar based on how much time, you know, different tasks take you. And another pro tip don't. Just put a block on your calendar called marketing. That is so vague. And so unhelpful. If I sit down at my desk, I'll look at my calendar and it's telling me to do marketing from 10 to 12.
I actually really don't know what to do with that or where to even start. So instead put into your calendar, exactly what you need to work on. So for example, Tuesday 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, right newsletter, about five ways to build community. Tip number four, repurpose content you've already created.
My friend, if you have created content for your business in the past, if you've ever sent an email written a blog post written anything on your website, posted on social media, you have a treasure trove of content at your fingertips. From this moment onward. Gone are the days of spending a bunch of time creating something, posting it, and then never touching it again. I want you to be getting every last ounce of benefit from things that you take the time to thoughtfully create.
So there are two ways that you can go apply this right now. One go look for the greatest hits, the content that you did in the past. That performed well. That you're proud of and give it another shot. Simply repost it. If some time has passed or you can convert it from one format to another, pull out smaller bits and pieces, or even expand on a small concept to make it larger. There are infinite ways to repurpose. And I have a whole step-by-step training on this inside of making good happen.
If you're interested. The second way that you can use this concept is to use a content creation approach that I call primary content. This means that you choose one piece of content each week, that is your primary content. It is the thing that you invest the most time and energy into. Usually it's going to make sense for this to be the longest format piece of content. So for me, this will be my podcast episodes.
Like you're listening to now, but for you, it might be a blog YouTube, or even your newsletter. The idea is that you really invest in creating this one awesome piece of content. And that is our primary content. And then we repurpose the heck out of it. We repost it. Other places we pull bits and pieces out. We summarize it. We tell a story related to it somewhere. Literally get every last piece of usefulness out of it that you possibly can.
I find that one piece of primary content can easily become well over 10 other pieces of content. It is magic and so easy. Tip number five, double down on what works. One of my favorite marketing principles that you may have heard me talk about before is doubling down on what is already working. It's easy to get so caught up in trying to do everything that we don't actually pay attention to. What's working now for us. Look at your metrics, whether it's your Instagram insights.
Your email open and click rates or your website, traffic, anything else you have access to simply look for? What's performing best and do more of that. If you see that you're getting most of your new Instagram followers or engagement from Instagram, carousels and not reels, do more carousels. If you see that your email subscribers always click links about one certain topic, but less so about others. Talk more about that thing. They love.
If you notice that most of your new customers are finding you from. Influencers who are mentioning your product. Really get intentional about your influencer marketing. If you notice that certain podcasts episodes are always super popular, but other topics definitely capture less interest, do more of what is working. And instead of spreading yourself too thin, trying a million things focus on what's actually getting results. This is all about doing less, but getting more from it.
Tip number six, tag others in your content. So this is a very fun, super easy one that I threw in here. And it's just a tag, someone else in your content. Now don't go overboard or do this in authentically, but where it makes sense, tag someone else on social media. This is such a simple way to expand your reach and build relationships. Whether it's a fellow business owner, a collaborator, even a customer. Tagging people, it gives you the opportunity to engage with new audiences.
If you have a compliment to give, write it up and tag the person in it, not only is it a nice thing to do and we'll send some love and engagement their way, but people love to repost and reshare when they've been tagged so nicely, this kind of social marketing not only grows your reach for that individual posts, but it also strengthens your relationships. Tip number seven, use AI to save time.
AI tools like Chad GBT or Gemini or many others can help you brainstorm ideas, draft captions, repurpose content from one format to another. And so, so, so, so much more. Now I'm very much about human marketing. I hope that you can feel and hear that this podcast is coming straight from me. It was not generated by a bot. But I'm increasingly using AI tools more and more. And in my case, specifically, chat to BT to streamline my marketing content and workflow.
In fact, here's where I'm currently at with Chad TBT. I am currently focused on creating custom GPTs, which are these pre-programmed a little bots that helped me do certain tasks. I'm very extra. So of course I've given them fancy names too. I have birdie the blog writer, poppy, the podcast assistant, Polly, the private podcast, assistant Coco, the carousel creator, Nellie, the newsletter writer, and so much more. Now I find I get the best results. When I give these bots a starting point.
For example, here's a podcast transcript. Turn this into a carousel. And I never take the output that I get word for word. I'm always tweaking and improving it myself. And it's always starting with something that I created in the first place. So I'm always making sure that that human Lauren element is really there, but even, so it saves me so much time. I'm so obsessed with this, in fact, that I'm about to give a presentation about how to build your own AI assistant inside of my membership.
So, if you're interested in more about chat GBTs and custom GBTs, let me know, and I'd be happy to create more content about this. Again, let AI make marketing easier. It doesn't, and can't replace you, but it can help you. Tip number eight, launch things that you are excited about. So, whether we're talking about a new product or offer a promotion or something else entirely, I want to encourage you to follow your enthusiasm.
Marketing is so much easier not to mention more effective when you have genuine excitement about what you're sharing. When you're excited that energy comes through and your audience can feel it too, even makes them kind of excited. And I hate to say about the reverse also applies. If you're bored about what you're talking about in your marketing, we can feel that too. When you have things to share that you're excited about ideas come easier.
It's easier and more aligned to show up, talking about it. There's a certain buzz to your content that can't be faked. Whether it's a new product, a collaboration, a special promotion, whatever, launching with enthusiasm, it makes the whole process smoother and more enjoyable. And if you're not feeling super excited about your next launch right now, Maybe that's assigned to tweak it or pivot to something that does let you up because it really does come through.
Tip number nine is to create templates for yourself. Chances are you have some things that you do over and over again in your business? Do you have emails that you send that are generally in a similar format? Do you tend to post a certain style of real or Instagram carousel? Do you use a similar intro and outro for your podcast or structure for your blog? Wherever you can create templates for yourself.
Yes. There's a little bit of an upfront time investment with us to create the template that one time, but it makes the whole content creation process so much easier. Even for this episode, for example, I didn't just open up a blank document. I made a copy of my template and Google docs that lays out everything I need. And I started typing right in there. I can't tell you how much time this will save you.
You don't have to start from scratch every time, whether we're talking about social media, graphics, emails, or even captions, having a template means you just plug in your new info or graphics, and you're good to go. Finally tip number 10, engage with your audience directly. This could be possibly the most important thing on the whole list. Marketing. Isn't just about putting content out there. Ultimately it's about building relationships with your ideal customers.
And when it comes to building relationships, nothing beats an actual conversation. Some of the best time you can spend each day for your business, as long as you don't go get lost in the social media vortex. Is responding to comments, answering DMS or engaging with people who are interacting with your content. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just show up, be genuine and have conversations with your community. This is how you build trust and loyalty over time.
A good way to do this is to just set a timer for yourself. Put 10 minutes on the clock and spend that time engaging with your audience. Whether it's responding to comments, sending a thank you message, or even starting a conversation in the DMS. Okay. So there are the 10 ways I wanted to share with you to make your marketing easier. Number one, get clear on the foundations. First. Number two, make a loose plan and advance. Number three, put marketing work time in your calendar.
Number four, repurpose content you've already created. Number five double down on what works. Number six tag others in your content. Number seven, use AI to save time. Number eight launch things that you are genuinely excited about. Number nine, create templates for yourself, and number 10, engage with your audience directly. Now, like I said before, listening to this episode was the easy part. If you really want marketing to get easier, you need to actually take action.
So, if you're serious about this, ask yourself, which of these tips could I implement immediately to make marketing easier? And then go put it in your calendar. For example, if you're going to go create some templates for yourself, go add in a few hours into your calendar and specify what are you going to create templates for? If you want more information on how to do all of us, I have tons of specific resources and trainings inside of making good happen. My membership program.
Trainings about repurposing, nailing your marketing foundations, content workflows. AI and so much more. Join us over at making good happen dot C O the link isn't in the show notes. You can find the show notes from this episode@makinggoodpodcasts.com slash 2 6, 3. And I'd love to hear from you and share your thoughts with me about this episode. DM me over on Instagram at Lauren Tilden. If you enjoy this episode, I would. So, so, so love to have your support. Here are a couple of ideas for you.
First I'd be honored if you'd leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player, and don't forget to subscribe and follow. Or second, take a screenshot of your podcast player while you're listening to the episode and tag me on social media. I'm at Lauren Tilden. I would love to connect with you and cheer you on. This episode was produced and edited by Corrine Monaco. Thank you for being here and for focusing on making a difference with your small business. Talk to you next time.