Hey,
Let me let you in on a secret I wish I had known when I started in marketing:
It's supposed to be hard.
If you read 90% of marketing gurus' content— you’ll start to think that you're failing.
There are a lot of threads on the internet of mostly broetry and broad advice that starts a few ways:
1. “I started my business 13 months ago and we just crossed 3 million in revenue. Here’s how I did it...”
2. “We grew our newsletter by 100k last year. Three ways we got there…”
3. “Gain more followers with this simple Instagram hack.”
No wonder we all feel behind. But here's the thing; I've been doing this for 13 years and I know that no story beginning with a big number and a humble brag is ever the entire picture.
What the first storyteller failed to mention is that they made 3 million in revenue, and we all know revenue is not the same as profit. The truth is, this company is losing money every month and digging deeper into small business loans.
What the second storyteller failed to mention was the highschool friend with 12 million YouTube subscribers who made a video about that newsletter. A simple story of getting help from someone with a big audience cosplaying as pure email hustle.
What the third storyteller failed to mention is that their hack will only net you a trickle of new followers.
Here’s what these gurus don’t want to tell you: there is no such thing as easy growth.
Getting people to listen to you is hard.
Getting people to buy from you is hard.
Getting people to care about a thing is really hard.
There isn’t a map you can follow for guaranteed marketing success.
That’s what makes it so fun.
Okay, so if it's supposed to be hard— are there ways to make it a bit easier?
Of course, I gotchu.
1. Build a customer board of directors. The best way to find new ways to grow your businesses is to really understand your customers, and care about their needs. This week, tap five customers you know and ask if you can have monthly Zoom meetings to learn more about their lives, problems, and experiences with your company.
Make sure to offer an inventive incentive— something that appeals directly to your people (and not an Amazon gift card).
2. Don't learn the hard way. Ignore marketing "gurus" who make you feel behind. Instead, spend time learning channels from people who have shown themselves to be experts. Take courses from people you trust, and join communities and networks that will speed up your learning.
Shameless plug that there are two seats left for the next cohort of Growclass, starting tomorrow(!!).
3. Find the signal, and double down. Make a list of the top three ways high-quality customers find you now. Do you have a piece of content that consistently brings in leads? Do you have a partnership that always brings in new customers? Look for the signal, and then experiment on ways you can maximize the impact of that channel.
4. Show up consistently. It’s easy to give up on a tactic if it doesn’t work immediately— and not many things work immediately.
But most of all, stop comparing yourself to folks doing some internet-bragging. It's a well curated highlight reel that leaves out most of the story.
In short, you’re doing great {{ person.firstname }}. Give yourself some grace.
Internet hug,
Sarah
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