What I’d Do First If I Was Marketing Your Business

If you've ever looked at your marketing and thought "Where do I even start?", this episode is the clarity you've been craving.

Most businesses don't need to do more marketing—they need to do the right things in the right order. But when you're in the thick of running your business, it's hard to see what those right things actually are.

In this episode, I'm walking you through exactly what I'd do first if I was taking over the marketing for your business. Not the 47-step master plan—just the critical first moves that would make the biggest difference in the shortest time. These are the same steps I take when I start working with a new client, and they work because they focus on foundation before fancy tactics.

Stop doing more. Start doing what matters. This episode gives you the roadmap.

Links mentioned: MailerLite

Transcript

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Hey. Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.

Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge two traditional owners of the land I live and work on, the Palawa people of Luther Wita. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and I acknowledge the deep connection they have to this land, culture and community.

Now let's dive in and make marketing work for you.

All right, if you've ever looked at your marketing and gone, oh, where do I start?

Or maybe you just like jump from strategy to strategy because you don't really know and then you're not seeing any results.

Or maybe you do a little bit of everything,

but nothing particularly well.

This episode is going to give you the clarity that you need and you've been craving.

I'm going to talk about exactly what I would do first if I was taking over marketing for your business.

Not like a 47 step master plan,

just critical moves that are going to make the biggest difference in the shortest amount of time.

Because here's the truth.

Most businesses don't actually need to do more marketing. They just need to do the right things in the right order.

Before we dive into the specifics, let me tell you what happens when I start working with a new client.

I come in with fresh eyes and within an hour of looking at their business,

I can usually spot three to five things that would make an immediate difference.

It's not because I'm a genius.

Maybe I am, but no, not really. It's because I'm not emotionally attached to what they've been doing.

I can actually see what's working versus what they think should be working.

I can spot the gaps. They've been too close to notice.

It's like trying to read the label from inside the jar.

So that's the lens I want you to adopt as we go through this episode.

Pretend that I'm looking at your business with fresh eyes and telling you exactly what I would tackle first Before I changed anything, I would actually spend time understanding what you're currently doing and what's actually generating results.

So here's what I'd look at.

I would look at where are your current customers actually coming from?

Not where you think they're coming from, but. But what they actually say when I ask them.

I want to know if most are coming from referrals,

social media,

Google searches, networking,

or maybe something else entirely.

So what marketing activities are you currently doing? Is another thing that I would look at.

I'd make a list of everything, like every platform you're posting on, every networking group you attend, every email you send,

literally everything.

Another thing I'd look at is what's consuming most of your marketing time.

Because often there's a huge disconnect between where you spent your time and where you get your results.

And then what else I would look at is what results are you getting from each of those activities? And I mean real results like leads,

sales, revenue number, not just likes and engagement.

And here's why it matters.

It matters because you can't improve what you don't measure.

Most business owners have a vague sense of what's working,

but not necessarily actual data.

So this audit gives you the truth about where to focus.

And often you'll discover that you're spending 80% of your time on activities that generate like 20% of your results,

while the things that are actually working are getting neglected.

Then once I understood what was happening,

the very first thing I would fix is your clarity.

Because here's the thing,

you can't market effectively if you can't clearly explain what you do,

who it's for, and why it matters.

So I would make sure that you can answer the next questions in one clear sentence.

The first one is what do you do?

And I don't mean your job title.

I mean what you actually help people achieve.

The next one is who it's for.

And specifically not like, you know, anyone who wants to succeed or business owners or something like that, like really specific.

The next one is what problem does it solve?

And I'm talking about a real problem, not surface level stuff.

The next question is, why should they choose you?

What makes your approach different or better?

And here's how I would test it.

If you, if I met someone at a barbecue and asked what you do,

could you actually explain it in 30 seconds in a way that makes them either say, oh, I need that,

or I know someone who needs that.

And if your current answer is something like,

I'm a business coach or I do marketing, that's not clear enough.

We need to keep refining until it's really specific and compelling. Until. Until someone literally goes, oh, so and so does that.

Or hey, I need that.

So here are some examples.

Instead of saying something like I'm a nutritionist,

we would change that to I help busy mums who are exhausted all the time figure out how to eat for sustained energy without complicated meal plans.

You see the difference?

Or instead of saying I'm a business consultant,

we change that to I help service businesses who are maxed out on hours scale their revenue without working more,

much more powerful, isn't it?

Big difference.

The second version immediately tells you who it's for and the outcome they deliver.

So no more vague kind of statements then.

Next I'd help you choose one primary marketing channel and commit to doing it excellently. Like the best for at least six months.

Not like three channels,

done, you know, just okay and definitely not five.

And done inconsistently,

one channel but really, really well. Six months.

And here's how I would choose.

Firstly,

where are your best current customers finding you?

And double down on that.

The next one is where does your ideal customer actually spend time seeking solutions?

That's where you need to be.

The next one is what channel actually suits your natural communication style?

Because if you hate writing, don't choose blogging. If you're camera shy,

don't force yourself onto video.

And then the next question is what can you realistically maintain?

Be honest about your time and energy because you need to be able to be consistent.

So let's look at some common primary channels and who they're actually suitable for.

The first one is LinkedIn.

This is for B2B service providers,

people like consultants, corporate professionals, anyone targeting decision makers in business.

So if that is your audience you want to be on LinkedIn.

Instagram is mainly for visual businesses, coaches, course creators, wellness professionals, anyone with a strong personal personal brand.

Facebook.

Facebook is great for local businesses,

community focused services and businesses targeting like 35 plus anyone building groups or communities. Facebook is that kind of platform.

The next one is Google or SEO and this is generally service businesses that people actively search for like plumbers, accountants, lawyers, local businesses, educational content creators.

So if people actually searching for what you do,

you need to focus on Google and on SEO.

If people generally don't actually know that they have a problem and they're not problem aware or solution aware,

then Google is not really something that you need to worry about right now.

Email,

which is anyone with an existing audience,

course creators, service providers with potentially longer sales cycles.

I generally recommend email as a main channel anyway.

So we're going to focus on another one next to email in person networking. So this is great for local service providers,

B2B businesses or business to business in specific industries and anyone in like smaller markets.

For the sake of this exercise, I would pick one and commit to showing up there consistently and strategically for six months, at least six months before adding anything else.

Then once we knew where to show up,

I'd help you create a simple, sustainable content system so you're not scrambling every day wondering what to post.

And here's what I'd set up.

I would set up content buckets and those are three to five themes that you'll rotate through.

So examples of this are. And I'm going to give you five different themes and examples.

Educational content.

So teaching something useful.

Social proof which is client results and testimonials,

Connection which is behind the scenes and like personality based content, sharing your values and things like that.

Problem identification.

And this is content that helps people recognize issues.

And invitation content which is clear offers and calls to action.

So to summarize that, Educational, social proof, connection,

problem identification and invitation.

And then you got to think about when you're going to post this and you need to think about it being a realistic schedule that you can actually maintain long term.

Maybe it's three posts per week on Instagram or maybe if you know Instagram, if LinkedIn is your channel,

one LinkedIn article per week,

or if email is the way to go that you're going to focus on right now, it's daily emails,

whatever fits your capacity and your audience's expectations.

I also recommend batching dedicate time once or twice a month to create multiple pieces of content all at once because it removes the daily pressure and actually improves the quality, especially using those content buckets.

And you can use AI, train AI to use your voice to actually speed this process up.

That's why I created a short course on how to create social media content in less than an hour.

Like a whole month of social media content in less than an hour. I'll put the link in the show notes.

So you also need a bit of an engagement routine. So you need to set time each day to respond to comments, to actually engage with your audience and to have conversations.

Because social media is that it's social,

you need to have conversations.

So maybe set yourself, you know, 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening and actually have those conversations engage with people.

This system should take about four to six hours per week maximum.

And that's including creating content and engagement.

Obviously like, you know, you set that batching time aside so it evens out a little bit if it takes more than that.

We need to simplify it because otherwise it's not going to be sustainable.

The next one is to build your email list, even if you think you're not ready. Like I said earlier, email is always the one thing that for me is a non negotiable.

No matter what else you're doing, I would make sure that you're capturing email addresses and nurturing that list.

So here's what I'd set up. If I was taking over your marketing,

I would have a simple lead magnet,

one valuable resource that solves a specific problem for your ideal customer.

It could be a checklist,

it could be a template, it could be a guide, a video training, a quiz.

Keep it simple though.

Something that you can create in a day or two. It needs to be valuable,

but you don't want to create too much work for yourself. It needs to be simple. It just needs to solve one specific problem.

I would also set up a basic email sequence,

so about five to seven emails that are going to welcome your subscribers. They're going to deliver value,

they're going to show your expertise and introduce your offers.

These emails should build trust and they also should make people excited to hear from you.

And then you need to have a regular email schedule.

At a minimum, you need to email your list once a week.

And I get a lot of resistance from clients on this feeling that they're going to be spamming people. It's too much, all of that kind of thing. Here's the thing,

email them less than once a week,

like maybe once a month. You have the risk of them forgetting that they actually subscribed to your list.

And then they go, oh, why am I getting this? I didn't sign up for this.

And it's okay to get unsubscribed, no big deal,

but you just run that risk.

Secondly,

you need to think about this. Are you running a fan club or are you running a business?

If you email people once a week and they don't want to get it,

do you think they're ever going to buy?

I mean, they might,

but you need to think about this.

So, so email them once per week. It could be tips, stories, case studies, offers.

You just need to stay in touch consistently because if you leave it too long, people are going to forget.

Also, you need to give people easy opt in opportunities.

So put links in your social bios,

mention it in your content,

tell people about it,

make it easy for people who are interested to actually join your list.

Not like a hidden thing all the way at the bottom of your website.

It needs to be obvious.

And I would make this a priority.

Social media platforms can change their algorithms or shut down tomorrow.

And trust me, it's happened to people before where they've built, you know, a whole audience on a platform that now no longer exists.

Your email list is an asset that you own.

It's actually the most valuable marketing asset that you can build.

And it's never too early or too late to start building your list.

Honestly, make this a priority.

All right, next.

So many businesses have like multiple offers.

A lot of them are like complex, complex pricing structures and like just, it's just confusing for someone to become a customer.

I actually had a mentoring session recently where the person didn't know how to set up their offer, their pricing, all of that kind of thing, and they were just over complicating things.

I'm like, no,

we need to come up with one offer or like maybe two packages.

No complications,

no, like, oh, what about this? And have you ever seen a menu like at a restaurant that is so long and like you have all these options?

I don't know about you, but I find that really hard to choose from.

I would rather have, you know, like maybe five to seven options on a menu than like 20.

It just confuses me.

It's just too much.

So we need to simplify.

Here's what I'd create.

I would create one primary offer that's the main thing you want people to buy.

Not like, you know, three different packages and add ons and no,

just one clear offer that is going to solve your customer's main problem.

Then you need one clear next step.

So when someone's interested, there needs to be one obvious thing to do.

Like they either book a call,

they buy it right now,

they download it, whatever, you know, whatever it is. One clear action.

Don't say, oh, fill in this form, then we'll call you back. No. One clear action.

And it needs to be easy.

Path of least resistance.

It needs to be a simple decision path.

The journey from, you know, being interested to becoming a customer.

It needs to have as few steps as possible because extra steps, every extra step that you send someone through is going to lose someone.

If I have to fill in five pages before I even can become a customer, oh, I'm gone. I'm going to go to someone who's just like got the one click button.

So make it really simple. I'm going to give you some example pathways because that tends to always help me when I get examples. So for example, for A high ticket service,

someone will see the content.

The step is to download a lead magnet.

The next step is that they receive an email sequence.

And the next step is that they can book a discovery call.

Because it is a high ticket service. Often you need to vet the person to see if they're the right fit or the person needs to talk to you about, you know,

clearing up some barriers to purchase and things like that. So they've booked a discovery call, you've got the call.

The next step is that they receive a proposal and the next step is that they become a client part simple pathway for a high ticket service.

For courses,

someone sees the content,

the next step is that they join the masterclass.

This is an example, could be a video series, it could be something else. The next step is that they receive nurture emails.

And the next step is that they purchase and they become a student.

Or for products,

as in physical products,

someone sees the content,

they go to the product page,

they purchase,

they become a customer.

The simpler the path,

the better your conversion rate is going to be.

So really strip out any unnecessary complexity like make it super simple.

The next one is measurement.

You can't improve what you don't measure.

So I would make sure that you're actually tracking the metrics that matter.

I know it's really easy to get distracted by, oh, I got a new like, oh, I got a new follower. Here's what I would track. On a weekly basis, I would look at new leads or inquiries that you got.

How many email subscribers did I get? So your email list grows.

I would look at content engagement and more like saves and shares, not likes.

I know it's like that instant dopamine hit when you get the likes. But how many people are actually saving or sharing your content? That is way more powerful.

I would also track website track traffic if it's relevant. I mean, you might not be actively sending people there.

And conversion rate from inquiry to people becoming a customer,

that's what I would track on a weekly basis.

Then on a monthly basis, I would track my total revenue,

track the revenue by source. So which marketing channel actually gave you that revenue?

I would look at the customer acquisition cost. So how much did it cost me to get that customer?

And also I would calculate the customer lifetime value. You can set all of this up in spreadsheets and you can, you know, you just have to put your numbers in and off we go kind of thing.

And I would look at email open and click rates.

So are people actually clicking and reading the emails that I'm sending here's what I would not track. I would not care about, follow accounts, post likes, any of that.

And I also wouldn't track anything that you can't connect to business outcomes.

It just doesn't matter.

And I also wouldn't worry about metrics that won't actually be used to make any decisions.

Some things like give us really good feelings, but if it's not something that you know is important in decision making process, then I wouldn't worry.

So set up a simple spreadsheet or like a dashboard, whatever you want to use, whatever you prefer to use,

where you could see these numbers at a glance.

Five minutes a week to update it,

30 minutes a month to review.

And then you can adjust your strategy based on what you're learning. I do this for my clients all the time. The ones I actually work with,

I just go into their systems, I'm like, okay, cool,

this is how many new subscribers, this is how many,

how much revenue, all of that kind of thing,

link it back.

For some of them we actually literally look at, okay, well that email generated that much money.

So track where the money comes from in terms of which marketing channel gave you that money.

All right, the next step is to create a 90 day plan. So that is my final step. So eight steps.

I would help you create a focused 90 day plan that prioritizes the activities that are most likely moving the needle for your business.

And this is what I would put in it.

Firstly, your one primary goal. What is the most important outcome for the next 90 days?

Do you need more leads? Do you need more sales? Do you want to build your list? You need to pick one one because we're going to focus, laser focus.

The next one is your core activities.

So we're gonna look at three to five marketing activities that you're gonna do consistently.

No more,

no less.

We really need to focus here.

And then we're gonna look at creating a weekly schedule and that's when you will do each activity. So batching your content,

engaging with your audience, sending emails,

whatever actually made the core activity list.

We're also going to put in your success metrics.

So we're going to track to make sure that we know that it's working.

We need to put in specific numbers that we need to hit and then track against that.

And we'll also add your review schedule,

weekly check ins to track the progress and monthly reviews to adjust the strategy.

Here's what I wouldn't put in there.

I wouldn't put anything in there that doesn't directly support the primary goal.

If it's not helping you achieve your 90 day objective,

it's just not going to go into plan.

Even if it's a good idea.

I know I'm a hard taskmaster.

The point is ruthless focus only on the things that will actually matter.

And we're going to do that for 90 days.

This is why so many people fail, because it's like oh, scroll.

Or they don't even make a plan.

So they kind of just do their day to day thing.

But are they actually moving forward or just creating more noise or just, you know, being busy for the sake of being busy? It's a trap. A lot of us, a lot of us fall into it.

All right,

I'm going to tell you a few mistakes that I would fix immediately. So beyond the strategic steps, there's actually some quick wins that I'm going to tackle straight away.

First one,

your social media bio.

Most of the social media bios that I see are vague and unhelpful.

So the first thing I do is rewrite it to really clearly state who you help.

How with a clear call to action. I know super short because there's not much space half of the time. The next one is your profile picture.

If it's a logo, a blurry photo or something that's just not aligned with your brand,

I would get you a quality headshot.

People connect with people.

It's that simple.

Show your face,

put you on there.

The next one is your pinned posts,

whatever is currently pinned. If anything,

I would replace it with something that introduces you to new visitors and then it takes them to the next step.

Like super quick actions. These are.

Another one is your link in your bio. If it goes to your homepage,

I would change it to go somewhere more strategic like your lead magnet or your booking link.

Or you can create a curated link page where like you have a number of links and it's specifically for that link in bio page.

Another one I'd look at and change straight away is your response time.

If you're taking days to respond to comments into DMs that needs to be fixed immediately.

Speed matters.

Whether it's you doing it manually and ideally at the start you do that or you put a bot in place so that things get delivered immediately,

all of that kind of thing.

Speed matters.

Another one is your testimonials. If you're not collecting and actually displaying your social proof,

that's where we need to start.

Every customer,

especially the ones that rave about you and hopefully they all do,

they should be asked for a testimonial.

These are really small changes that might take just like an hour or two, but they can make a significant difference on how professional and how compelling your online presence is.

Those kind of things,

they make things or break things.

It's literally those little things that make someone go, oh, yeah, cool, this looks professional. I'm going to take the next step.

Oh, this looks interesting. I'm going to take the next step.

Here's what I wouldn't do,

because, you know, just as important as what I would do is what I wouldn't do.

I wouldn't launch a podcast unless you're already really good at consistently creating content.

I know a podcast is awesome, but it. It takes time,

and I just think that for some people,

they're not quite there yet.

I also wouldn't start a YouTube channel.

It's a massive time investment and the returns are just too uncertain.

So if you haven't got the time and you're not even doing all the other social stuff or all the other content and channels, well,

don't start a YouTube channel.

I also wouldn't build complex funnels with like,

tripwise and upsells and down sells and save that for later.

They're great,

but not right now.

I also wouldn't create a mobile app. It's like one of those things,

massive money investment,

time investment,

and then is it going to pay off?

Look at all the things that I spoke about first.

Also, don't redesign your entire website.

It doesn't need it right now.

We're going to look at, you know,

how we're going to move from where you are now to actually getting onto something real quick. And doing your website is this busy work.

Also, I wouldn't hire a team,

not right now.

I would also save paid ads for later.

So once we've proven your messaging and your offers,

that's when you can put in paid ads to get more eyes on your content and your channels.

And I already said that we would create one lead magnet, so I'm going to stick to that. So we're not going to create any other lead magnets.

And at this stage, we're also not going to build a membership site.

And I.

I'm saying all of this not because all of these things, these things are bad,

but because they're not first priorities.

We need to master the basics before we're going to add complexity.

So if I had to put everything down to the absolute essentials, I would say the 20% of activities that would drive 80% of the results.

Here's what I would focus on.

Because you want to do 20% activities, 80% results. Not 80% activities, 20% results.

No, we need the big things.

I would firstly get crystal clear on who you serve and what outcome you deliver.

You need that clarity.

The second one is consistency.

Show up regularly on one platform, one platform where your people are consistency.

The third one is value.

You need to actually help people for free through your content.

And it doesn't mean that you need to give everything away and solve the entire problem that they have,

but you can take some of that problem away.

So value. The next one is conversation.

You need to engage with your audience and you need to actually turn those interactions into relationships.

It's not a one way megaphone approach.

We live in a day and age where conversations sell, so we need to have conversations.

The next one is email. You need to build and nurture an email list.

This is going to be absolutely your most powerful marketing asset and I've already explained that. So build an email list and then the next one. Number six is ask.

You need to regularly invite people to work with you and don't be shy about it. You can't just keep giving, giving, giving and never asking.

Most people will be waiting for it. They'll be like, how, how can I work with you? So you need to tell them, you need to ask them and invite them to work with you.

And then number seven is measure.

I know the most boring part, but you need to track what's working and then do more of that.

Look at what's working and double down on that and that's it. Seven things.

You just, you know,

if you do these seven things well and you do them consistently for a year,

you will see big results.

Start, start your tracking now, like your starting point,

and then again in 12 months. Well, keep tracking all through the year.

You'll see big results.

I know it might seem too simple and you might be thinking, but what about, you know,

whatever marketing tactic you heard about?

I'm going to tell you why my stripped back approach works.

Firstly, because I always believe in simplicity. And things don't need to be hard because a lot of us are making things harder for ourselves.

But also focus beats scattered effort. You know this, you know that doing one thing really well is going to be doing 10 things just a little bit well.

Also,

consistency compounds and this is what a lot of people forget.

Small actions,

if you do them consistently,

they create momentum.

It's like the snowball effect.

It becomes unstoppable.

It starts small,

but Then it starts rolling.

So really consistency.

Another one is simplicity is sustainable.

I love to simplify things because complex systems, they're hard to maintain. They fall apart,

especially if they have to be serviced by you.

It's hard to maintain a complex system.

Simple systems,

they last,

they're easy to service by you and then you can just double down on things.

Another thing is results create. Create motivation.

When you see that something is working,

like you instantly want to do more of it,

you want to keep doing it, do more of it because it's exciting, because it's working.

So give yourself that rather than the I don't know if it's working, I'm gonna try something else. And you just keep trying different things and you're actually not letting get anything momentum.

So stick to it.

And then having a foundation will enable you to expand. Once the basics are solid,

then you can add more difficult, like more sophisticated tactics.

But without the foundation,

the fancy tactics are going to fail. Like there's no point in running ads if you haven't got the foundation right.

You're just going to waste money.

So that's it.

That's exactly what I would do first if I was marketing your business.

Not like massive master plan, just critical steps that would make the biggest difference.

And they are clarity,

choosing your channel,

creating systems,

building your list,

simplifying your pathway to purchase,

measuring what matters and focusing your 90 days.

And I've got a little action step for you.

I want you this week, I want you to pick just one of the steps that I outlined and I want you to implement it.

Don't go into all eight at once.

Maybe it's finally getting clear on your messaging.

Or maybe choosing your primary channel, maybe just going to just pick one or setting up that lead magnet that you've been thinking about for so long.

Just pick one and commit to it this week.

You're going to have it done by the end of this week.

And if you found this episode valuable and you want more straightforward,

practical marketing advice like this, I have two favors to ask.

Firstly,

make sure that you are subscribed to the new School of Marketing podcast so you don't miss any future episodes.

We release episodes every week with strategies that you can actually implement.

Secondly, if this episode helped you,

would you please leave me a review?

It just takes two minutes, but it really makes a massive difference in helping other business owners discover the show.

And reviews tell the podcast platforms that this is valuable content,

which means that they'll share it with more people who need to hear it. So if you could please leave me a review. I would really appreciate that.

Here's the thing. I actually read every single review and I want to say thank you for taking the time.

So if you leave me a review and you send me a screenshot via email or DM on Instagram, or I will send you my Marketing Momentum Playbook for free.

It is literally the resource I use for myself and for my clients to map out your marketing and your priorities with action plans like the one we spoke about.

Just take a screenshot of your review and you can send it to me at hello, Bianca McKenzie dot com.

I'll pop that in the show notes. Or you can DM me on Instagram biancamackenzie and I'll get the Playbook over to you straight away.

Now, remember, you don't need to do everything.

You just need to do the right things in the right order.

So start with the foundations,

build momentum,

and expand from there.

I want to say thank you for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and to implement what we talk about on the show.

Just remember,

great marketing, it's not about doing everything. It's about doing the right things consistently.

And this is why I don't want you to do all the things.

All right,

thank you so much for listening. I'm Bianca McKenzie and I will catch you in the next episode.

Until then,

keep making marketing work for you.

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