When it comes to seeing a result from your marketing, you know that keeping going is the way. Sticking with your email newsletter, your weekly YouTube or TikTok videos, your LinkedIn posts and comments…it has an impact over time.
But it’s hard to tell sometimes if you’re speaking or writing or sharing into the void. Is this one of those “just keep going and it will have an impact in the end”? Or is it really not working and you need to give up on that thing, so you can focus on something else with more impact?
As ever, I don’t have the one and only answer, but I do have a few guides.
Is your marketing effort picking up any traction?
Is the number of people who are signing up for your newsletter netting out to a positive number over the past six months, or do you add one and lose one, and really nothing is happening? It doesn’t have to be a massive increase, but if you review the numbers from two years ago to now (and you’ve been consistent), the trend arrow will be going up, even slightly.
Do you get personal comments or replies?
It doesn’t matter if your LinkedIn post got 292 views while someone else’s got 15000 views, if you got one comment or one DM which showed that you’ve had an impact on one person’s life or business. If you are reaching one or two people that you know about, I can almost guarantee you’re reaching hundreds if not thousands who have never said a word (yet).
Is it the best medium or format?
You might have the right message, but your ideal audience isn’t seeing it because you’re writing long blog posts and they prefer video. Or you’re sharing videos and they’d rather listen to a podcast. Could you do the same thing, but switch to another format to get more reach?
Are you obsessively sharing it?
No matter how consistent you are – with social posts, email, video, blogs, or other content – if you’re simply dropping it onto your website or letting it exist in the world, there’s a very slim chance your ideal audience is going to stumble across it. You have to tell people about it. A lot. More than you think.
You’re going to worry about being salesy, but isn’t good sales simply connecting what someone else wants and needs with what you have to offer? And wouldn’t they be grateful to be reminded of it? We’re all constantly distracted, after all. We need to see or hear something at least NINE TIMES before we have a chance of remembering it.
Whatever your consistent thing is, share it everywhere – on your website, by email, on your LinkedIn profile, in posts & comments, in your client community, in client meetings, and on and on. Get to the point that when you share it people say “oh yes i know!” rather than “oh wow, i didn’t know!”
Do you enjoy doing this marketing item consistently?
Sure, most of us start doing videos because we have to, not because we want to. (It certainly is the case for me and many of the accountants I work with.) But over time you either enjoy it for its own sake, and discover that you surprisingly are looking forward to your weekly video – or at the very least you’re enjoying that one reply or comment or even lead you got from it.
If you hate doing it AND there doesn’t seem to be any traction or comments or notice whatsoever, it might be time to switch to another medium.
I’d love to hear what you’re being consistent with (or not so much) and wondering if it’s having any impact. Connect with me on LinkedIn and drop me a note to tell me about it!
