I’ve been serving women in their marketing for 3 years and in that time I’ve noticed a few patterns; a few things that people do over and over that can get in the way of growing their business. Things that stop them from making more impact and making more money. If I can save even one woman from making these same mistakes it will make my heart sing. So here goes:  

The 3 most common mistakes I see made by smart women in business

 

1. Too much time on social media

I spoke to a woman the other day who spends 80% of her time on social media. She wanted to know how to make her time spent there convert into more $$ revenue in her business. At the moment she is converting her time into less than $150 a week. I nearly cried. Nearly every woman I speak to is spending too much time on social media. There are exceptions. Some women have really engaged audiences on their Facebook page and are hanging out here, in their comments, deepening relationships and selling spaces on their events, workshops and coaching packages). Most of them are worrying too much about how many times a day she should be posting, and kind of missing the point about what social media is for. Yes – people have gone viral and made a million dollars. Is that going to happen to you? Probably not. Social media is great for deepening relationships. It’s great for storytelling, delivering your product, brand building. It’s great for heaps of things but creating content and posting is not an end in itself. Sorry. It can be fun. But it is probably killing your creative flow in terms of better ways to use your energy. Like setting up a great lead magnet. And a nurture sequence. And nailing your message. And serving your peeps.  

2. Boosting posts or running ads at the last minute

“Facebook ads” is one of my favorite marketing toys. It is the best place to spend money on advertising for most businesses. Mostly because of the huge number of people on Facebook and the quality of data/analytics that you get when you run ads. If you know what you are doing on FB ads, you can know for sure how many people saw your ad and what actions they are taking. That’s a lot more than you can get from running newspaper, radio or magazine ads not to mention flyers, F2F networking etc. BUT

As well as Facebook Ads having a bunch of nuances you need to be savvy to, ads work best within a strategy. Something like this: For 2-3 months before it’s time to launch my product/service, I’m going to take time to set up the before and after of my Facebook ad AS WELL AS use social media content like videos, images, and posts to allow people to get to know me. I might even run an ad to increase my reach and brand awareness so that when I’m ready to sell to these people, they actually know who I am, what I stand for and how I can help them.

Other arguments that perfectionism might make:

• I need better gear
• My backdrop is not good
• I make mistakes when I do a single take
• I want it to be good

I disagree. You don’t need anything more than a smartphone or your computer and the free version of Zoom to create a video today. You only need to create a 1-meter nook in your home with decent light to create a backdrop – the rest of the house can be a bomb site No-one minds if you get a word right. It makes you fallible, loveable and real. You become an imperfect person that others can relate to. Relatable. Did you see my video? Was it good? I recommend you talk about something you know inside and out, and that you don’t scratch your nose and your bra endlessly and your video will easily be better than mine. If it’s a self-confidence issue: Get some coaching. and/or Just make some videos anyway and don’t share them with the world immediately. Get used to seeing and hearing yourself. OR Don’t watch them back. Just post them on your Facebook page. And then look at your analytics. See how well video performs? It outperforms any other kind of post on Facebook PLUS it’s let’s people get to know you while you: clean the house, spend time with your friends and family, lie on the beach etc.