Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.
I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 106.
Mistakes are par for the course when it comes to being a small business owner. We’re constantly being pushed to try new things, work outside of our comfort zone, and wear wayyyy too many hats. Mistakes are proof that we’re ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING.
But There are certain mistakes that can really trip you up and put a wrench in your progress. I know because I’ve been there. So today, I thought I’d share 7 of the marketing mistakes I’ve made and seen so many other small business owners making, in hopes that hearing me share about them might just give you what you need to avoid making them yourself.
BUT! Before we get into the episode, I just wanted to plant a bug in your ear that in March, the doors to Making Good Happen, my membership program, will be re-opening. If you are looking to make a smart marketing plan and then have the accountability to ACTUALLY follow through on the plan… we would LOVE to have you in Making Good Happen. Be the first to hear more about it by joining the waitlist: makingoodpodcast.com/waitlist.
FIRST: Perfectionism
OHHHHH perfectionism. Until recently, I used to consider perfectionism a kind of secret strength. On some level I knew that it slowed me down, A LOT… but I didn’t fully comprehend the extent that this impacted my life and I was PROUD that I always felt like I produced the best quality work.
But in the last few years, I’ve come to realize just how damaging being a perfectionist can be. For me, perfectionism meant that I only ever wanted to do something if I was SURE I could do it really, really well.
This is not a good quality to have as a small business owner, and specifically as someone who markets their small business, because we are CONSTANTLY having to try new things and do new things that we’ve never done before. If we wait until we feel like we can do them perfectly to take the first step… we’re going to be waiting way, way, way too long.
For me, I haven’t fully gotten rid of perfectionism. It’s still my natural tendency. But what I have gotten is much more aware.
If I notice myself procrastinating, I can often tell it’s because I’m being a perfectionist. That whatever I’m procrastinating on, it’s because I don’t feel like I can do it perfectly yet.
When I have big dreams that I’m not taking action on, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s some perfectionism coming into play.
This has happened with doing big launches, with being willing to do Reels, even with starting this podcast.
Here are a couple of mindset shifts I’ve made that make confronting perfectionism easier:
First, I’m willing to put things out there even at 80% quality level. (You know this because you’ve probably heard my dog barking in the background on this podcast more than a few times!)
Second, I often ask myself: do I want to do this imperfectly, or do I not want to do it at all? Because really those are what it comes down to it. Are you willing to let your perfectionism cost you the results you want?
Something to think about.
SECOND: Paying too much attention to what other people are doing
The second mistake that I’ve made and I know so many others can relate to is paying too much attention to what everyone else is doing.
It can be tempting to look around, see people who SEEM to be getting the results we want to get, and feel like we need to do something just like that to succeed.
But the reality of marketing is that it’s what makes us DIFFERENT that is our superpower.
One core concept you’ll hear marketers talk about is the Unique Selling Point. What is it about your product or business that is unique and special to you? This is how you stand out from everyone else… and standing out from everyone else is why your ideal customers will choose your business over others.
Not only that, but paying too much attention to what everyone else is doing can also really make us get in our own heads about our businesses and how things are going. We compare ourselves and feel bad.
But the truth is that we never really know what’s going on behind the scenes in someone’s business. They might talk a big game or portray an image of all the things you want… but it’s just what they’ve chosen to show you. It can be all smoke and mirrors.
We all have plenty to learn from other people, but there’s a fine line between LEARNING and comparing.
THIRD: Focusing on all style over substance
The third mistake I have to share with you is focusing on all style over substance. I have to say, I can definitely be guilty of this.
What do I mean by this?
I mean… focusing on setting up the fancy website before you really have a product to sell. Or focusing on getting your logo and business cards instead of going out and doing the hard work it takes to make sales in our businesses.
It can be easy to get distracted by things like our logo and branding and website, because those are the things visible from the outside.
But overly focusing on these types of things can actually be a distraction from things like creating content to attract your ideal customer, going and having conversations with them to start building a relationship, sending your weekly email out, etc.
I’m not saying that things like your brand don’t matter – OF COURSE they do. But I don’t believe that they’re what will make or break your business. What will make or break your business is DOING THE WORK. Executing your marketing plan on a consistent basis.
FOURTH: Lack of intention
The fourth mistake that I’ve made and I know a lot of others have also made is to have a lack of intention when it comes to what marketing activities we’re doing.
The reality is that for just about all of us, there’s probably way more WE WISH we could be doing or that we want to be doing than we can actually do given our time and resources.
So how do we decide what to spend our time on and what NOT to spend our time on?
INTENTION.
We need to get crystal clear on what our business goals are, and then INTENTIONALLY design marketing activities that are directly in service of that goal.
A great example of this is deciding what social media platforms to focus on. We have Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Clubhouse, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and on and on and on. How do we choose where to spend our time? We need to get intentional about getting to know your ideal customer and make a decision based on that person – where they’re hanging out and spending their time.
Whenever you’re stuck on a decision in your business, it can be helpful to take a step back and ask yourself, “what am I trying to accomplish here? How does this relate to my overall business objectives?”
FIFTH: Spreading yourself too thin
Closely related to the last mistake about lack of intention is my fifth mistake, and that’s spreading yourself too thin.
I’m more guilty of this than ANYONE ELSE, so I just want to raise my hand upfront and acknowledge that. This is a mistake I continue to make and have to always check myself.
BUT. As I mentioned before, there’s so much we COULD do and WANT to do with our limited time and energy. So many small business owners are IDEAS people. We are full of plans and thoughts and big ideas for things we *could* be doing.
This mistake is all about basically ignoring the reality that we have limited time and resources, and trying to do it all. If you’re the type of person who has a daily “to do” list with 27 items on it… this might be you.
What happens when we try to do everything, is that we tend not to do most of those things as well as we could. We can’t really double-down on any one thing, because there are always 25 other things we could be doing.
There’s a book called Essentialism by Greg Mckeown that really changed the way I think about this. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s blurb on the website, which I’ll link to in the show notes:
Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin?
Do you sometimes feel overworked and underutilized?
Do you feel motion sickness instead of momentum?
Does your day sometimes get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?
Have you ever said “yes” simply to please and then resented it?
If you answered yes to any of these the way out is the Way of the Essentialist.
The Way of the Essentialist involves doing less, but better, so you can make the highest possible contribution.
I’ve found that practicing Essentialism is a daily practice. It’s not something you just snap your fingers and all the sudden you’re an essentialist. I do a better job at it in some moments rather than others. But if you resonate with this mistake, I can’t recommend the book Essentialism enough.
SIXTH: Marketing that is very busy
The sixth mistake on my list is marketing that’s very busy. This is probably the most specific, tactical item on the list, but I think it applies to pretty much every type of marketing you can think of, from photos to words to logos to design.
There are small small exceptions to this, but as a rule – white space wins.
When you’re writing an email, a piece of social media content or even a product description, don’t fill it with fluff. But more importantly, use white space to your advantage. Marketing is not a good time to write paragraphs that are 10 sentences long.
You’ll hardly ever see me write an email or anything really in my business with more than a few consecutive sentences… and often I just do ONE sentence at a time.
And that’s because I have my reader in mind. Sure, I’m more than capable of reading long paragraphs… but that’s not what I’m on social media or someone’s website to do. So don’t ask me to… because there’s a good chance I’ll skip right over it.
Now, I’m not saying that you should write 1 sentence captions all the time. I love reading a good long caption or description or email. But breaking it up visually with line breaks, bullet points, section headings, etc. is a super helpful way to make it more digestible.
I also see a lot of photos used in marketing that are just super busy and have way too much going on. In general, in your product photos – your product should be the star of the show. If I can’t immediately tell what’s for sale by looking at it, we’ve got a problem.
When in doubt, go for white space.
SEVENTH: Not sticking with it
Today, I looked at my podcast statistics. I’m over 60,000 downloads – and I just reached 50,000 downloads in January. This is something I’m really excited about.
But honestly, most things in my life I’ve given up LONG before I’ve had the chance to see results like that. I started my podcast in May 2020. For the first 8-ish months, I did have listeners and downloads, but growth was slow. But I continued to show up and put in the work week after week.
Now, my podcast is growing quickly and so many opportunities have come my way as a result. But I couldn’t have gotten to the point I’m at without putting the work in for a LONG time before I really started to see results.
Taking small actions consistently over time is pretty magical, and I’m now trying to apply this concept to other parts of my business and life. What could happen if I showed up consistently for the long haul?
This concept is a huge part of the book Atomic Habits by James Clear… as he describes it, just like an atom is the smallest particle that makes up everything in the universe – everything we want to achieve in our lives we can get to through taking small actions consistently.
Atomic Habits was actually the second book we did for Making Good Book Club, which was episode 101 of Making Good. Check that out if this topic is interesting to you – I’ll also share it in the show notes.
So, to wrap up… here are the 7 mistakes I hope you can avoid making:
Perfectionism
Paying too much attention to what others are doing
Focusing on style over substance
Lack of intention
Spreading yourself too thin
Marketing that’s too busy
Not sticking with it
It’s possible you’ve already made some of these, or are in the process of making them… but my hope is that this episode will help you look a little bit bigger picture at the way you approach marketing, and maybe make a shift or two.
You can find details from this episode at makinggoodpodcast.com/106.
Before I wrap up, I also want to remind you that if you want all the details FIRST about when the doors open to my membership for small business owners, sign up at makinggoodpodcast.com/waitlist.
Thank you for being here, and for focusing on making a difference with your small business!
Talk to you next time.