Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Welcome back to another episode of the Monday morning marketing podcast. Today we're talking about taking the meh out of marketing. Marketing can get a bit meh at times, can't it?
Melanie
The frustration of, Oh, my Lord, another platform we need to get a head around or a new campaign that we've got to start, or where do we go from here now that this has happened? And it's just an ongoing of updates and changes.
Esther
Updates, changes, algorithms, audience shifts. I mean, it is exhausting for ourselves to keep up with all the different platforms and stuff. And we just talked recently about some new platforms that have come out. And it does get to a point where it's just like, How many more? How many more of these can we take? But when we think of our listeners as well, who run their own marketing, usually in a small group or by themselves, that have to delve into this marketing mire all on their own, then it does get to be a bit, help me, I'm drowning sometimes, right?
Melanie
I think it's just because we try to take a board on too much. I think we feel we need to incorporate every single level of product, update, algorithm. And I think some of the challenge that we all experience is, Am I meant to know this? Am I meant to show that I know this? And I think that can be really frustrating. And it only takes experience to work out, Well, actually, you don't need to know absolutely everything. You just need to be really darn good at the few things you do do. I said, Do-do.
Esther
Yeah, I was trying not to laugh at that one, but yeah. But it... Okay, so when you're doing your own marketing day in, day out and you're running out of ideas, you're running out of content, you're running out of steam and energy in order to keep doing your marketing, it can become a bit, oh, well, do I have to post today? Do I have to send out a message? Do I have to do this? And we're here to tell you, you don't. Okay, it's you really don't. Yes, there are others out there that will say, oh, but the algorithm will punish you for not posting daily or not posting five times a day. No, it won't. Not if your content is good. If your content is of good quality, people will still find you. And those that claim to know what the algorithm is and does, they are either absolute geniuses or big fat lies because it changes so frequently that nobody can keep up with them. The algorithm is just constantly... One person will tell you, oh, now you have to post 10 times a day to Facebook too, in order to be seen. Who has time for that? Or energy or content? Nobody. Not even Facebook, not even Meta themselves has the energy for that.
Melanie
I also think that people put too much emphasis on social media. It is important, I won't lie, it is very important, but it isn't the only way to reach your audience. Exactly. And if you are getting a bit frazzled with the old social media platform, change it up a little. Go and speak at an event, go and collaborate with somebody. I mean, that's why you and I collaborate, because we bounce off each other so well, and it keeps us both interesting. Let's face it, we're pretty dull without each other. But also there's the accountability element as well. And I think people find, Oh, well, I'm not sure quite where this is going to take me or what is the point of doing this? If you've got somebody to bounce these ideas off, even if it's within your own team, or if you're a sole trader, which I know a lot of our listeners are, just chat to a friend or even speak to a competitor. They're raging for somebody to talk to as well, trust me. And just bounce some ideas off because what can get really quite soul-destroying about marketing is that there's no end in sight.
Esther
No, there's not. And you may feel that you have sent out your best post and you have shared your best blog that you've ever written and then there's crickets. And crickets are normal as well. So there are ebbs and flows in all types of business and all seasons of business and marketing is just another part of your business that unfortunately you have to do. But if you know exactly where your audience is or exactly what your audience is looking for, what their pain points are, how to talk to them. Go back over our podcasts about customer avatars, about giving them names, drawing little faces. You will end up talking to them as if they're your best friend. Because at the end of the day, you have to know who they are and they have to know who you are. So you might as well be best friends.
Melanie
So how do we first get the meh out of the marketing? Well, I think, first of all, stop being so critical of yourself. Everybody gets these slumps. Everybody gets these moments of, Why am I doing this? This is so pointless and painful. We all experience that. And sometimes it's because we've run out of ideas on how to judge up a campaign, or it could be that we've been let down by an influencer or somebody we're collaborating with and like, Crikey, we were relying on that. But you know, there's always something out there that's a little different. Something that you could do might even be just changing the way you take a photo. Instead of doing it where the image is in the centre, you can look up or look down or do a panoramic or just changing up a little makes it more interesting for you as much as it is for your audience as well.
Esther
Yeah. I'm going to go a little controversial here and say take a break. Do a digital detox. There's many, many people that Melanie and I both know who work in digital media, digital marketing, who are, that's their bread and butter. And even they take one week, two weeks of digital detox to get away to refresh themselves and come back with a whole new aspect to it. And I know of others who say they're going to take two weeks, take two hours and go, Oh, in those two hours that I wasn't doomscrolling on insert social media platform here, then I came up with all these ideas because that's just what you need. You just need to step away for however long it takes in order to get the creativity juices flowing again.
Melanie
That's a good idea, actually. I remember you and I, we went away earlier on this year, and I met you somewhere completely different before we went off. And as I was at this hotel and I was working there and I could not believe the amount of work I got through. I got there deliberately early and I was there for a couple of hours. And sometimes just changing your location, go to a hotel lobby or a coffee shop or if you can, go out and sit under a tree or sit in a park or something. And just a change of location just changes you completely, mentally, physically, emotionally, the whole nine yards. So that might be worth a shot. And it doesn't cost anything to do that either.
Esther
No, it doesn't. Also read books, read what other influencers are doing, read what different marketing techniques there are, because there are so many. We could rhyme off lots of different acronyms and things for different marketing techniques, but they don't all work for everybody. And if you go and do your research and you know exactly who it is you're talking to because your audience can change too. You might think that you're talking to Jane, who has two kids and works in a bank, but you might actually be talking to Joanne, who has zero kids, has a dog and is a firefighter. You don't actually know if your product has reached that other person. So go into your analytics, review those, read up on what those mean and go from there.
Melanie
I mean, the hope is that your audience is always changing and evolving. That is the hope. I mean, when we first started this podcast, we attracted a huge amount of ladies and just essentially ladies only. And now thank you, fellas. There's a good 25 % of you listening that are men now. So this is fantastic. So we're having to change our topic slightly, our title slightly.
Esther
Our guests.
Melanie
Definitely our guests. And so it's... And we're also evolving more in Europe now than we ever thought we would. So hi, Germany. Thank you for joining us.
Esther
Sounds like the Eurovision night. For those in America. They might not know what the Eurovision Song Contest is, but the judges are calling. What we're trying to say here, guys, is you're not alone. Everybody goes through these moments where they're like, I really just can't not face doing my marketing today. I do not want to post. I do not know what to post. I cannot physically get to the computer because I just something is mentally blocking me from posting. You're not alone. I'm sure there are lots of you out there who are facing the same thing or have faced it recently, or if you haven't faced it yet, hate to tell you you will face it at some point because it's draining. Marketing constantly being on for your business is draining. But don't forget that you always have the content that you've already produced that you can fall back on. Okay, so go back. We've done another episode on repurposing your content, so go back and listen to that one if you haven't already, and it will give you lots of ideas on how to do that too.
Melanie
So I think this is pretty much as much as we can cover today in how to get the mayor out of marketing. But please just don't think for a second that even the most successful, Gary Vaynerchuk, I bet he's gone, Oh, my God, what can I do today? Yeah. I bet you he has. I bet everybody has at some stage. So I hope we've given you some new avenues to explore. And if you need any more inspiration, you better come back next Monday and listen in.
Esther
And until then, have a great week. Bye-bye.
Melanie
Bye.
