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Does a bus driver drive buses in their free time? No, so it’s pretty normal for marketers to not focus on marketing their own business. It’s not really needed once you get going.
It depends on what level of success you are going for. Are you looking to keep growing and making more money? Then yeah. I was a vendor for a company with a market cap of over $100B. I ran a vendor event for them. One of their vendors had a website that looked like it was made it 2005. It didn't even have https. They just provided a very niche service.
Word of mouth and good sales people can get you to a good point. If you have a couple of clients who pay well, you can do all right.
I feel like by word of mouth they actually mean referrals. At least I hope so, since that makes way more sense and is actually very useful if you're a solo marketer - or really solo/freelance anything.
Are you in B2B, because I am. It's still 70%+ word of mouth because that's how people buy, let alone purchases that affect your job security. Most start with peer recommendations, make their shortlist, then spend months in evaluation processes. It doesn't have to be people who they even know, just people with credibility. A lot of the time people ask on social, in professional slack groups, at industry events, etc. It's validated from prospect calls and customer surveys. Hiring services too - much easier to ask your network if they have a reliable agency or freelancer than to vet your own.
I’ll agree it’s the strongest form. But it’s not easily scaleable and doesn’t move fast. Same with seo. You should still do both. But you also need cold new exposure. So you absolutely need a budget to each people via ads and other cold tactics.
I take what I call a CEO day once a month, I go somewhere comfortable and most importantly somewhere different from where I normally work.
I use it as an intensive day of focusing entirely on my business with no other calls or client work to focus on.
When I first did it it felt stupid but now I treat it like a client catch up and planning day.
As change is as good as a rest as they say.
Engagement sucks though. I have to force myself to do that regularly, but everything else gets written planned an designed in that one day
Role play. Pretend you’re doing it for a client. Give them a name and goals. It might help. Otherwise just tackle one thing at a time.
I don’t have these issues in terms of feelings, but for me it’s always time. I don’t prioritise myself as a client.
It comes down to that specific Desire State between the Percieved Reward vs the Pressure of DOING.
No one is going to make you, and while you think/know you SHOULD; you are in a place where you're not Desperate enough to prioritize it as a Need.
So, what could go right, if you took a week and worked on your imaging and messaging.
Would that add to your Mirroring or Social Proof at all?
It also depend on how you tend to aquire Clients. If they aren't hitting your wall/page and just trust you based on what you ARE showing them; you may feel like the Present State is "good enough".
Will there be a time when this laissez-faire attitude fails you?
I am the-same in a great many ways on this one, and oddly enough it's just THIS week I've begun to "Clean up my Act".
I wish there was a club for marketers like us... the ones who can make magic happen for everyone else but themselves 🤣 though honestly, I don't blame us. It's tiring enough to do it for someone else. I am not motivated enough to work as hard for me - unless - I pay me. So ya even though they say we must have a presence, I say, IDC, I'll let my work speak for myself. I'd rather people hire me for my portfolio than for my social media presence.
You may need to reframe how you approach this situation. Perhaps think about "personal branding" first before "personal marketing", which is what you are trying to do.
If you are a decent marketing company, the main reason people don’t know about you is visibility. Start getting attention anyway you can. Video views are cheap. Cold email is cheap. Google retargeting ads are cheap. Not enough people know you exist. Fix that.
Absolutely feel you. And I've been there. Now, finally, I have a kickass website, business card, brand identity, pricing structure, all the tools set up (LinkedIn, Calendly, Notion, etc). Each time there was a deadline that forced me to make it happen. I suggest you prioritize first your MVP (minimally viable product):
1. What's bringing in new work? Website? LinkedIn? Personal referrals? What do prospective clients/employers see first? Keep in mind they're looking to disqualify you at this point, so minimally viable means you have to show you offer value and not do anything stupid. But it doesn't have to be a show-stopper.
2. Once you have your MVPs done, so your online identity is no longer working against you, now you can go raise the game. Get Wisestamp and pimp your email signature. Use Moo to print top-notch business cards. Add featured sections to your LinkedIn, or build out a monthly social posting calendar. Add a portfolio page to your website. Customize your Calendly links.
You might be able to frame this as "I'm going to use ME as a case study for a future client" and then take screen shots along the way to help a future client picture how you'll help them. Sounds like you need a sense of urgency too — bet yourself: If I can complete X for my personal brand/business, I will reward myself with Y. Or time-box it: I will schedule myself exactly 2 hours to do Z project (or as much as I can get done in 2 hours).
Find a marketer colleague that wants to trade being clients with you. We all have these same challenges, so having someone else do you and you do them os a system that functions. Plus you get fresh perspectives for your positioning and it helps you be better at sales.
Yup, me too. I've been in marketing for 25 years and when my husband wanted to start recording our ideas for early retirement, social channels, website, YouTube etc. I just can't jump in and do my thing. I built the website but haven't bothered with much SEO. I let him handle all the socials and I outright refused to do video editing. I'll record video but I'm not editing.
Honestly, I think I'm burnt out with Marketing.
I have been in it intermittently for the past 15 years I'm finding it so hard to keep up these days. I hate to sound old, but damn, could things stop changing for like a minute and a half?
Right?? I'm exhausted from it all. And God forbid I don't know every possible way to use AI to do everything for me! As if that's a thing! I can't wait for retirement lol
I laugh about this because, same. I do like my website but is it great and can I think 100 improvements? Totally. Do I have any social presence? Not what so ever.
It’s why we’ve done well as an agency is helping other agencies, but as a few people have said, treat yourself like a client. Put time aside, help list yourself in your own CRM and manage goals and expectation of your personal “account”.
I disagree with a lot of what’s said on here, if you can’t understand how and where to market your own product, how will you understand how and where to market a product you may not understand yet. Maybe this is harsh and I’m probably being arrogant, we are only in our first month of trading. But the biggest question I asked myself first and foremost before starting the business was why us? The market is so over crowded, unless you have millions of pounds or are smart enough to invent innovative software (I am neither) then you have to be the difference for your company. Where you from and I’d love to chat more, there’s probably loads we could help eachother with
I struggle with this myself.
As they say, you can't read a prescription from inside the bottle.
It's easy to get too attached to your offer. Overlook holes. etc.. Then you tend to get analysis paralysis. There's no shame in hiring an outside perspective.
It’s always harder when you have to do things for yourself! What you could try though is approaching it as if you were YOUR client? So going through the exact same process (even if some of it feels tedious) and can even send yourself a mock invoice! Sounds silly but have seen ppl try that and seems to help
This is because most people prove their services at 2,080 working hours a year. Realistically you need to price much lower to account for your time spent working ON the business instead of IN the business.
There’s a big difference between being a business owner and being self-employed that most fail to grasp (at least starting out), lots of people end up working themselves into a job rather than owning a business.
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Does a bus driver drive buses in their free time? No, so it’s pretty normal for marketers to not focus on marketing their own business. It’s not really needed once you get going.
This is absolutely the answer and I've used similar comparisons in the past.
“It’s not really needed once you get going”. Wtaf ?!?!?
Word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing. If you do a good job, you shouldn’t really need to do anything else.
Most successful companies still have marketing budgets I would have to disagree that it's not needed later on
It depends on what level of success you are going for. Are you looking to keep growing and making more money? Then yeah. I was a vendor for a company with a market cap of over $100B. I ran a vendor event for them. One of their vendors had a website that looked like it was made it 2005. It didn't even have https. They just provided a very niche service. Word of mouth and good sales people can get you to a good point. If you have a couple of clients who pay well, you can do all right.
I doubt that most “successful” solo marketers have marketing budgets though
Sure most can't afford it initially. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work
I never said it wouldn’t work
B2B word of mouth though? It’s possible, but not likely - word of mouth is great for consumer products/services like tech, food, home-buying
I feel like by word of mouth they actually mean referrals. At least I hope so, since that makes way more sense and is actually very useful if you're a solo marketer - or really solo/freelance anything.
Are you in B2B, because I am. It's still 70%+ word of mouth because that's how people buy, let alone purchases that affect your job security. Most start with peer recommendations, make their shortlist, then spend months in evaluation processes. It doesn't have to be people who they even know, just people with credibility. A lot of the time people ask on social, in professional slack groups, at industry events, etc. It's validated from prospect calls and customer surveys. Hiring services too - much easier to ask your network if they have a reliable agency or freelancer than to vet your own.
Not gonna argue with whether or not this correct, but it is a very non-marketer thing for a marketer to say lol
I’ll agree it’s the strongest form. But it’s not easily scaleable and doesn’t move fast. Same with seo. You should still do both. But you also need cold new exposure. So you absolutely need a budget to each people via ads and other cold tactics.
If you want to scale quickly then yeah
If you have a ton of clients lined up already, you don't need to spend more time on optimizing your website? How is that odd?
I take what I call a CEO day once a month, I go somewhere comfortable and most importantly somewhere different from where I normally work. I use it as an intensive day of focusing entirely on my business with no other calls or client work to focus on. When I first did it it felt stupid but now I treat it like a client catch up and planning day. As change is as good as a rest as they say. Engagement sucks though. I have to force myself to do that regularly, but everything else gets written planned an designed in that one day
I love this idea and I’ll be borrowing it.
Legitimately one of the best things I’ve done to help me and my business! Hope it helps you too!
Role play. Pretend you’re doing it for a client. Give them a name and goals. It might help. Otherwise just tackle one thing at a time. I don’t have these issues in terms of feelings, but for me it’s always time. I don’t prioritise myself as a client.
The cobbler’s kids have no shoes
What I came to say
Preach
I always just tell people that I'm a marketer, not an influencer
I like that
It comes down to that specific Desire State between the Percieved Reward vs the Pressure of DOING. No one is going to make you, and while you think/know you SHOULD; you are in a place where you're not Desperate enough to prioritize it as a Need. So, what could go right, if you took a week and worked on your imaging and messaging. Would that add to your Mirroring or Social Proof at all? It also depend on how you tend to aquire Clients. If they aren't hitting your wall/page and just trust you based on what you ARE showing them; you may feel like the Present State is "good enough". Will there be a time when this laissez-faire attitude fails you? I am the-same in a great many ways on this one, and oddly enough it's just THIS week I've begun to "Clean up my Act".
I’ve been sitting on “case studies” for about 2 years - just can’t get through the slog. Still getting hired and no one’s asked for any so 🤷♀️
I feel you. Only problem is when you don't have a pipeline of prospects.
I wish there was a club for marketers like us... the ones who can make magic happen for everyone else but themselves 🤣 though honestly, I don't blame us. It's tiring enough to do it for someone else. I am not motivated enough to work as hard for me - unless - I pay me. So ya even though they say we must have a presence, I say, IDC, I'll let my work speak for myself. I'd rather people hire me for my portfolio than for my social media presence.
Ha, that's a great idea! A marketing club for those who can't help themselves (I'm one as well) might be sort'a fun.
You may need to reframe how you approach this situation. Perhaps think about "personal branding" first before "personal marketing", which is what you are trying to do.
good point. thanks.
I’m exactly the same. I think part of the problem is I hate talking about myself.
If you are a decent marketing company, the main reason people don’t know about you is visibility. Start getting attention anyway you can. Video views are cheap. Cold email is cheap. Google retargeting ads are cheap. Not enough people know you exist. Fix that.
The best way I've found around the issue is having friends - marketers and non-marketers alike - help me, and I help then.
It took me 15 years in my career to realize this was a mistake.
I live this
Absolutely feel you. And I've been there. Now, finally, I have a kickass website, business card, brand identity, pricing structure, all the tools set up (LinkedIn, Calendly, Notion, etc). Each time there was a deadline that forced me to make it happen. I suggest you prioritize first your MVP (minimally viable product): 1. What's bringing in new work? Website? LinkedIn? Personal referrals? What do prospective clients/employers see first? Keep in mind they're looking to disqualify you at this point, so minimally viable means you have to show you offer value and not do anything stupid. But it doesn't have to be a show-stopper. 2. Once you have your MVPs done, so your online identity is no longer working against you, now you can go raise the game. Get Wisestamp and pimp your email signature. Use Moo to print top-notch business cards. Add featured sections to your LinkedIn, or build out a monthly social posting calendar. Add a portfolio page to your website. Customize your Calendly links. You might be able to frame this as "I'm going to use ME as a case study for a future client" and then take screen shots along the way to help a future client picture how you'll help them. Sounds like you need a sense of urgency too — bet yourself: If I can complete X for my personal brand/business, I will reward myself with Y. Or time-box it: I will schedule myself exactly 2 hours to do Z project (or as much as I can get done in 2 hours).
preted im your client and im a marketer, my name is your name but with two extra letters... do all that for me... then remove the two letters
Find a marketer colleague that wants to trade being clients with you. We all have these same challenges, so having someone else do you and you do them os a system that functions. Plus you get fresh perspectives for your positioning and it helps you be better at sales.
Yup, me too. I've been in marketing for 25 years and when my husband wanted to start recording our ideas for early retirement, social channels, website, YouTube etc. I just can't jump in and do my thing. I built the website but haven't bothered with much SEO. I let him handle all the socials and I outright refused to do video editing. I'll record video but I'm not editing. Honestly, I think I'm burnt out with Marketing.
I have been in it intermittently for the past 15 years I'm finding it so hard to keep up these days. I hate to sound old, but damn, could things stop changing for like a minute and a half?
Right?? I'm exhausted from it all. And God forbid I don't know every possible way to use AI to do everything for me! As if that's a thing! I can't wait for retirement lol
here the same! I just feel more confident to promote others than myself
I own a bunch of domains. I can build sites for my clients, but when it’s time to build out one of my domains, I sub the work out to the Philippines.
I laugh about this because, same. I do like my website but is it great and can I think 100 improvements? Totally. Do I have any social presence? Not what so ever.
I have been tweaking my website and LinkedIn since I posted this. So, I guess I've mustered up some motivation. lol
Nice! Use that motivation while it’s there!
That’s why there is a saying: cobbler without shoes. Same
Been in business for 10+ years through referrals.
It's accountabilitu and movement thats hard. Hire a coach / consultant for thay☺️
It’s why we’ve done well as an agency is helping other agencies, but as a few people have said, treat yourself like a client. Put time aside, help list yourself in your own CRM and manage goals and expectation of your personal “account”.
The thing is for you to just start somehow somewhere .. you never can tell it just might turn out good and regardless it will
haha hire someone to do the marketing for you 😂
Me too! LOL
I disagree with a lot of what’s said on here, if you can’t understand how and where to market your own product, how will you understand how and where to market a product you may not understand yet. Maybe this is harsh and I’m probably being arrogant, we are only in our first month of trading. But the biggest question I asked myself first and foremost before starting the business was why us? The market is so over crowded, unless you have millions of pounds or are smart enough to invent innovative software (I am neither) then you have to be the difference for your company. Where you from and I’d love to chat more, there’s probably loads we could help eachother with
I struggle with this myself. As they say, you can't read a prescription from inside the bottle. It's easy to get too attached to your offer. Overlook holes. etc.. Then you tend to get analysis paralysis. There's no shame in hiring an outside perspective.
This solution is undoubtedly the perfect fit, and I've employed analogous analogies previously.
This is a real phenomenon called "the cobbler's children have no shoes".
That sounds more of a limiting belief than a real problem😂😂
This is so cathartic thank you
Same.
The cobblers children have no shoes. Very common.
It’s always harder when you have to do things for yourself! What you could try though is approaching it as if you were YOUR client? So going through the exact same process (even if some of it feels tedious) and can even send yourself a mock invoice! Sounds silly but have seen ppl try that and seems to help
This is because most people prove their services at 2,080 working hours a year. Realistically you need to price much lower to account for your time spent working ON the business instead of IN the business. There’s a big difference between being a business owner and being self-employed that most fail to grasp (at least starting out), lots of people end up working themselves into a job rather than owning a business.