Today I am sharing how I had my biggest month ever in business and I did it without any sort of focus on social media. Now, I don’t want you to expect fluffy marketing or new ideas or crazy concepts because that is not what I did and not what most service businesses need to do either.

I think in marketing too many people are looking for the holy grail – that one tactic that will transform your business overnight not only does it NOT exist, you will be seriously disappointed by the results.

I want this to be highly relatable for you so I am sharing the process so you understand exactly what I did and not just give you fluff.

What Did I Do? 

• At the end of 2021, I started to plan what my goals and focus were for the next year. I do this every year and I spend the last 2-3 days of my working year reviewing, evaluating and seeing where I need to make changes.
• As part of this process I looked at what was working for me:
  • Where were my clients coming from?
  • What size client and were they someone I’d want to work with in the future?
  • Did I enjoy those doing marketing tactics?
  • Could I see the tangible benefits from them?
    

Where was I spending most of my time?

• I was spending way too much time on Facebook & Insta and even delved briefly into TikTok and doing Reels.
• I would spend time coming up with ideas, filming, creating and paying my VA to create beautiful images and graphics to share and when I evaluated the results the numbers didn’t stack up – I wasn’t getting clients or enquiries from these channels.
• The exception to this was LinkedIn which is my primary social channel and one that performs well for me – as you know, LinkedIn does not apply to my normal social media rules.
• That is because it was designed to do business and build networks and connections
• But it was only ONE part of my marketing too

What was I wasting my time on that was not performing?

• • For me that was the likes of Facebook and Insta. And it was mentally draining always having to come up with new ideas and be in constant content creation mode. (this is on top of the work I was doing for my clients).

What I Did Next – I Doubled Down

• I decided to double down on what was working – made total sense to me
  • I joined a local BNI networking group.
  • Real life conversations & networking – I set up more face-to-face meetings simply to get to know other people in my network.
  • I wrote & shared content that aligned with what I was feeling in the marketing world (focused on other marketing and less social media). And it got really good engagement.
  • I introduced a new exploration session which allowed potential clients to work with me in a 2-hour ‘taster’ session where we created a plan for them to go and execute without a long term commitment.
  • I educated others through my blogs and my LinkedIn newsletter.
  • LinkedIn was part of my strategy but a small part of it and I posted twice a week, published a weekly newsletter which was my blog repurposed so little time spent on here.
  • NB: LinkedIn is the exception to the rules of social since it is design for business and it is one of the channels that I win new business through it, so it stays in the mix.

• I also did a couple of guest webinars with membership organisations which put me in front of new people.
• And I went old school. I created some personalised cards with my personal mantra “Never let anyone dull your sparkle” which I sent to new clients, people I had met, or just as random acts of kindness.
• I dropped or significantly reduced social media.

Why Did That Work?

• I made a change and didn’t continue to do the same tired things “hopefully they would work.” I call that ‘hope marketing’ and crossing your fingers never gets results.
• I didn’t just keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.
• I was focused on real people, real life relationships, and giving to others first.
• l pushed myself out of my comfort zone.
• I did more of what worked. Seems so obvious but I think it is easy to get caught up in the glamorous side of social to the detriment of marketing tactics that actually work better.

The results I got were the result of 2-3 months of hard work prior. It wasn’t overnight nor did I expect to see overnight results. That is just setting yourself up for disappointment. I could feel the shift personally but also started to see the results in new client billings coming through the door.

So, What Can You Do?

• Move out of your comfort zone.
• Change your mindset about marketing – how you market, how much time you need, what you need to do. Thinking about it in a different way will help you.
• Evaluate what is working and what isn’t.
• Come up with a simple plan.
• Try some new things.
• Have realistic expectations on timings – you will not transform your business overnight.
• Get started.