You’ve worked your way through all the steps to create an on-line marketing plan.
You’re committed, you’ve studied what’s possible, found a mentor, have a budget, and have moved outside your comfort zone to create material to use in your marketing. You can read the overview here.
What’s the next step? It’s implementing all that you’ve done, and then seeing if you can do better.
Let’s start with implementing.
Until you put something out into the world, nothing happens.
Early in my career, I was guilty of spending hours in my email account, reading and learning. Though the information enabled me to create and grow my businesses, it didn’t directly help me sell anything.
Until I started creating content.
Once I started creating blog posts, social media posts on multiple platforms, webinars, and other one-to-one networking opportunities, leads began to turn into sales.
It was hard putting what I wrote out into the world, but I did it. I knew that I wouldn’t grow my business until I did, and that was what I wanted to do. It was my “why.”
I want to help other businesses grow and succeed. I’ve had years of experience, some of them great and some challenging, but I’ve learned from every one of them. I am now working to help other business people succeed faster.
It’s challenging to put out information, learn new skills and then use them. Doing so moves you outside your comfort zone. You can read about that here.
One thought for those who like to have perfect content before they put it out: This was an issue for me at first, until I realized that perfection is really fear. You’re afraid that someone won’t like it. You’re afraid of letting your baby go. It’s tough to do.
My first post-school experience with presenting something in public came when I was an assisting minister at my church. One of my duties was to write the prayers and I included things that I thought were important. But when I stood up to pray in public, I realized that 300 people were listening, and that these were my prayers. What a time to realize that.
I managed to get them out, and the feedback from the congregation was supportive.
Since that time, I’ve had many opportunities to create prayers, articles, blog posts, and other content. Some have been received positively and some were questioned, but I keep putting out content.
Then there’s the issue of testing, which is the process of looking at what you’re putting out into the world and seeing if it’s getting the results you want.
Are subscriptions to your blog increasing? Are readers sharing your social media posts? Are you getting sales and referrals from what you’re creating?
If you aren’t getting the results you want from what you’re doing, adjust it.
Look at everything you put out as a test and ask if it’s helping you reach your goals. If it is, do more of it. If it’s not and you know that it can, adjust how and what you’re doing.
Create more, create less; use a different medium. Write about different topics. Move from blog posts to videos. You need to experiment and test everything. Make sure you don’t get in a rut by doing the same things and getting only okay results.
The key is to analyze what you’re doing, to see if you’re getting the results that you want and, if not, to adjust what you’re doing.
Testing will tell you if you’re getting the best possible results from your work.
There’s always something you can change to improve your results. When you run out of ideas, you’ve stopped learning and growing.
Keep learning, growing, and implementing. Then take the time to compare what you’re doing with the results you want. If the results are what you’re looking for, that’s great. If not, make changes.
If you want some help looking at what you can do, contact Brian here and see how he can help you speed up your success.
Have a great week.