A Year In Review: The Marketing that Didn't Work
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This week, I recap the marketing strategies that worked well and the ones that didn't as I close out 2021.

Hey Start Marketing listeners, welcome to the final episode of 2021. It's hard to believe that this year is already done and over with. Today, it's just me and as a way to wrap things up and set up next year's season, I wanted to do this solo episode. It's been almost two years since I started my business and this podcast. So i think this is probably long overdue, but I want to review what's been working well when it comes to my marketing strategy and what hasn't. This will become a regular segment for Start Marketing.

So, let's dive in. 

Let's start with something that's had some ups and downs when it comes to marketing: my website. Now, you all know that I'm strong proponent of having a website for your small business. It's where you can tell a more complete brand story and sell your products and services better than when you rely on social media for your business. Plus, you own it, which means it can suddenly up and disappear like a social channel can. 

what went well about my website? I've been able to update my story as my brand and target audience has changed. I feel like it's a really great representation for me and it can house my podcast recaps which helps give me an SEO boost. 

What hasn't worked well for me? it's not so much about what hasn't been working as what I wish I would've put off investing in. Here's some context: when i started my business, I had a target audience identified and doubled down on them. I paid someone to write awesome, SEO optimized content for me. And then a several months later, I changed my target audience. And I hired someone to write brand spanking new copy for me and do a bunch of on-site SEO work. And then, a few months later, I found myself back at my original target audience. I think. Maybe. The thing is, I didn't know what I didn't know. I thought I was being smart about getting ahead of the SEO game; starting early with content and a keyword optimized site. But, what I didn't know was that in your first few years of business, you can (and probably will) change your target audience as you learn what works for you and what doesn't. So it's not so much that this marketing strategy didn't work, it's just that I wish I had waited to invest in SEO text until I was super sure of the direction I was headed. I can easily roll back my website to an earlier version, that has my original text on it, but that would also mean that I spent almost $3k on something I'm not going to use. Ouch. Omg, it hurts to say. My advice when it comes to this marketing strategy is to DIY the text on your site until you're absolutely sure you know your target audience. Give it a couple of years of business to let things settle so you don't get marketing strategy whiplash. And spend unnecessary dollars. 

Also in the bucket of things that didn't go well in the SEO game: signing up for YEXT. this was at the suggestion of someone I worked with early on, who has done great work for me in the past. Even she admitted that in hindsight it wasn't what she would recommend today. Yext, for those who don't know, is a service that will update your search engine listing for every known search engine out there (google included) at once. In theory, for SEO purposes, you're supposed to have the equivalent of Google My Business on every site that offers a directory listing. There's hundreds of them. But, it's expensive (about $600/year) and it's not really necessary. Focusing on Google My Business is a good first place to start. Save yourself the money. That's pretty much my advice when it comes to SEO. Focus on creating good content and learn how to publish it with solid SEO keywords and phrases, but save yourself the dollars and invest in SEO later down the road. You don't need to be rank #1 in google to get started. 

Something that's gone well for me has been building my brand. I'm glad that I've spent time focusing on this. Even if parts of it have changed and evolved. Establishing my voice, my mission and the core values of my brand have really helped me stay on course so that regardless of who I'm talking to, my message has been consistent. I want to make marketing accessible and actionable. Do not underestimate the work you can put in to your brand. It will help you nail down your messaging and help you learn what work and what doesn't. I am a huge brand advocate because having one in place really does streamline the marketing process. It's the measuring stick by which you make all the decisions for your business including and especially the marketing ones. Having a brand also gave me clarity for my messaging on social media. Which leads me to something I don't think has gone well for me:

Social media. Oh man. If you're a regular listener, you know I am not a fan of social media. Ultimately, it drains me. I don't mind scrolling through and reading content from other creators, I don't mind using it personally, although I try to limit that because I find it to be unproductive most of the time, so when it comes to my business, I just don't think I've done a great job at establishing a social media strategy. I know I need to do more videos; I even have ideas for videos, but you know what I never do? Create videos. I know. Here's the thing that it comes down to: I spend a lot of time creating podcast content, so when I think about creating social media content, even based on my podcast content, it becomes another thing on the list that starts to overwhelm me. I know I could batch. It just feels like it takes so much energy, so I would give my social media a D. Maybe a C-. I'm consistent and there's good info there thanks to my podcast, but I don't do a good job of incorporating things like video or personal stories that could liven it up. The fact that it has any life at all is thanks to my fantastic VA, Kyla of Stories by Kyla. So shoutout to her for saving social for me. 

One thing I do think has gone well on social media front is my switch away from Buffer to HelloWoofy. Arjun Rai, the founder was a guest a while back and after our conversation, I immediately made the switch and I haven't looked back. It's less expensive overall and offers way more features than Buffer can at a higher price point. There's an affiliate link in the show notes if you're interested in checking it out. 

Something that did go well for me, but was also underutilized is my email marketing. I have a good open rate and a solid click through rate, but I lack consistency there, so it's a little bit of a mixed bag. The same goes for Pinterest. I am a big advocate of using Pinterest for small businesses because the algorithm is friendlier than other social networks and if you use the Tailwind app, it's so incredibly easy, but I also lacked consistency there this year. I think it's because I don't have a great process down to help streamline using it and once I fell behind it fell like climbing a mountain to get back on track. Which is funny, because here I just need to take my own advice and start marketing. Nobody except me is pressuring me to "catch up" on past episodes. I could literally start with the latest one and go from there. Instead, I've been focused on having a complete library that it's been too much. However, when I do post content, I see good engagement on it. This one, I'll call a mixed bag as well. The engagement and reach are good, but the engagement of saving the pin wasn't my original goal (it was email list building), so by that standard, this strategy didn't perform as well for me as I'd liked. 

I'll conclude with two things that have gone really well for me:

This podcast and networking. My podcast numbers have steadily risen over the past year, which is exciting to see. I can see spikes where gusts help promote their episodes and therefore help me get additional exposure and create some brand awareness for me. Podcasting energizes me, sparks my creativity and helps me meet all kinds of new people throughout the process. It also gives me a large library of content to pull from for social media and my emails. So that's a huge win; I'm never struggling to find content or something to talk about. 

Finally, the last thing that's gone really well for me is networking. I'll actually be covering how and why this is a powerful marketing strategy in January, but let me tell you. This was probably my most underrated marketing strategy headed into 2021 and it's become one of the best for me. I am fortunate, with the addition of my PayRecs director role, to not have the pressure to find clients and it's given me the chance to really focus on the things that I enjoy doing in my business. That being said, building a network of people who support me and help me grow as an entrepreneur and podcaster has led me to more clients than anything else. I'm gaining brand authority through networking because it often leads to speaking gigs or presentations and in general, people are getting to know me, my skillset and my passion through casual conversation. So, I'll put this down as the most successful way I've grown over the past year. I have invested a fair amount of money in networking groups and communities, but i feel like I've chosen wisely and they really pay off for me. I don't get a lot of value out of the free communities, although the Girlboss one might be the exception, but most of the others are just kinda exhausting and full of people who want to give opinions or through out a lead magnet just to grow their email list. It actually makes me a little sad to see because I see posts like "I've created the top ten things I did to earn 100k this year, who wants it?" or "I've created the perfect roadmap to a six figure month that I achieved in just one month after being fired from my former job, who wants a copy?" And I see so many people "raise their hands" and give over their email address and it just seems like a vicious cycle of women who've "made it" taking advantage of and using the promise of unicorn marketing to sell their products and services to women who are doubting themselves. And you all know how I feel about unicorn marketing pitches. 

So, to recap, the things that really didn't go well for me:

• Social media
• The amount of money I spent on my website - that should've been saved for another year. 

Things that were a mixed bag:

• Pinterest
• Email marketing

Things that went well:

• actually having a website
• building my brand
• this podcast and
• networking

I think what the stuff that didn't go as well as I had hoped comes down to is: spending money prematurely on the marketing strategy, not being consistent or not having a set strategy before I implemented. It's definitely something that I look at and kinda face palm myself, because I'm all about having a strategic marketing plan and executing against it. But, what I learned is that I probably had way too much on my plate than is really feasible for one marketer to get done and therefore spread myself too thin. what's that saying? when you try to do everything you end up doing nothing? That's kinda how I feel. It's a pretty harsh assessment of my own marketing strategy, to be honest. 

For 2022, I have a new plan that I am super excited about and addresses some of the challenges I've had this year. In fact, that's what I'm going to cover in my very first January episode before you hear from an amazing guest, Vincent Pugliese about how to use networking to your benefit. 

Here's a lesson that I learned repeatedly throughout the year (even though I already knew it, I had the pleasure of eating some humble pie regularly to be reminded of it): when you're marketing, you're playing the long game. There's no silver bullet. So, focus, create a strategy, invest wisely and for pete's sake, stop committing to more than you can handle. 

Alright Start Marketers. I hope you're a little bit inspired by this episode and the very honest reflections it includes. Tune in next week for my reveal about how I'm going to get my marketing strategy on track for 2022 by making some major tweaks and getting out of my comfort zone. 

Until next time!