I’m sure I don’t have to convince you that the last few months have been new, challenging, and many times overwhelming. With everything changing so fast, it sometimes feels like there is no catching up.
Welcome to a day in the life of a marketer.
Marking is an incredibly dynamic felid, one that fuels on change and innovation, It is exciting and inspiring but can also feel exhausting for those who don’t have a full 40+ hours in a week to devote to it (and sometimes for those of us who do).
If you have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by your marketing efforts over the last couple of quarters, you are not alone. Today, we wanted to bring you a few tips to help you take control and bring the excitement back to your marketing efforts.
The subtle art of taking on way too much
I don’t know about you but when I come back from a conference or complete a course or finish a great book, I have a million ideas racing around in my head of what I want to achieve. Those sessions fuel my creative spirit and I jump to implement as many as I can in my daily life.
But inundating yourself (and your staff) with a litany of new ideas and processes will often cause more stress and overwhelm then it needs to. Trust me, I know it comes from a good place, one of continually improving your business. But it really can have the inverse effect.
After many unsuccessful new programs, I found that introducing a ton of new processes, philosophies, and ideas isn’t always the best approach to revamping and leveling up your business.
The most important thing is that your strategies and goals work for you, your staff, and add concrete value to your clients. How can you do that effectively through your marketing? The first step is to change the way you think about your marketing goals.
How to transform your approach to goal-setting
As advisors, goal setting plays a really big role in your businesses both from your perspective as a business owner and those of your clients.
Start by changing the way you look at setting goals. Goals come in different shapes and sizes. They help us achieve something and bring us to a place where we want to be. Sometimes the goal is big, like paying off your mortgage, whereas others are small, like cutting back on takeout. But if you think more about it, these two goals are deeply connected.
By saving more money, no matter how small, you will be able to invest or save that extra money. Those investments and savings will lead to gains which may let you pay more on your principal each month. With time and consistency, you will be able to reach your big goal of paying off your mortgage. When you realize that all of your goals work together, you will be able to better make goals that are realistic, attainable, and bring you closer to where you want to be.
Create goal-buckets
The challenge then becomes to change the way you approach goal setting. Try to separate your goals into two buckets: dream goals and real goals. This can help visualize how you would like things to be and to create a few separate, smaller, actionable goals to help get to those dream goals. So goals are really like a ladder, each step bringing you closer to that big dream goal.
Your business needs your big goals and grand ideas. It’s from there that you are able to be innovative, creative, and carve a new path for yourself. Sounds exciting right? So don’t get rid of your big ideas for fear they will bog you down, rather take those big dreams and break them down into smaller, achievable goals.
Let’s say one of your big dream goals for your marketing is to become a thought leader in your niche. This is an amazing goal and one that can be achieved with careful planning, incredible content, and thoughtful execution. Let’s break this goal down:
- What content are you putting out?
- Are you submitting content to external audiences (other than your blog or social media)?
- How is your content received or engaged with your audience?
- What mediums are you using to reach your audience? (You don’t have to do it all, but having a few strong tools can give you a boost.)
- Is your content relevant, engaging, approachable, and most importantly, reflective of you and your brand? (We sure hope the answer is yes!)
Take the answers to these questions and start to develop new marketing goals for you and your team. Say, for example, you have a library of content but no one is seeing or engaging with it. That means you might need to double down on your social media and email marketing. Maybe you have an established readership but want to expand. Try to find a local campaign to report on or interview another advisor or submit an article/presentation to a publication/blog/website you respect.
Meet yourself where you are now
Marketing is a big word and often a big undertaking for advisors who don’t have the time to dedicate to puns in a blog or sales funnels or clickable graphics as our team is. If you are feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and reevaluate where you and your team are in terms of your marketing goals.
Maybe it is time for you to take on more or maybe your team needs to hone in on one area before you are ready to move to the next step. The best thing is that you do what is right for you and your business.
Let us know how we can support you in your marketing efforts! Take some time to chat with us.
