The 4 Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Clients and Cash

Are you feeling like you're stuck on a marketing treadmill, exerting effort but seemingly going nowhere? Whether you're a seasoned freelancer or just getting started in the freelance world, understanding the mistakes in your marketing strategy is crucial to landing more clients. This week, we are unpacking the most common mistakes freelancers often make, and providing actionable steps to help you land more clients with ease.

Topics Covered In This Episode:

1. Acknowledge and identify the marketing mistakes preventing you from landing clients and generating cash.
2. Ensure you're marketing on the right platform where your ideal clients are active, rather than where you personally prefer to hang out.
3. Keep track of your outreach numbers as they help take the emotion out of business and show you if your marketing efforts are sufficient.
4. Active vs. Passive Marketing: Focus 80% of your marketing efforts on active marketing – direct outreach and engagement, rather than passive marketing like posting content and waiting for responses.
5. Find ways to stand out in the crowded market by being proactive and adding value, such as using video introductions in response to job opportunities.
6. Use strategies like risk reversal to make yourself more appealing and to differentiate in a saturated market.
7. Continue to fix identified mistakes to improve your marketing effectiveness, which will help you serve your clients better and ultimately allow business to thrive.

Find the full show notes at:  https://brandimowles.com/236

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Transcript

The 4 Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Clients and Cash

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Brandi: [00:00:00] Have you ever felt like you're just spinning your wheels trying to let in clients and nothing's working? Like you've literally tried everything and nothing's working. Today's episode I'm going to go into the four things you're probably doing wrong when it comes to your marketing and then you can decide where are you at, which mistake are you making, and how do we turn that in to something that's actually going to work for us.

So if you're ready to find out if you're any of these four mistakes in your marketing, let's jump on in.

Welcome back to Serve Scale Soar podcast. My name is Brandi Mowles, and I am your host. If you are brand new to listening to us, I am just so freaking glad you're here. And if you have been a long time listener, I'm excited that you are back. And if [00:01:00] you get any value out of this show, and you want to support us, if you're on Apple, go ahead and leave us an honest review.

Those mean the world to me. I read each and every single one of them. And if you're on Spotify, you can give us a star rating. All of that helps more people find the show, more people listen, more lives are impacted. So when you leave a review, you are directly impacting the show. other people starting growing or scaling their own freelancer ad management business.

And so if you're here, you are probably wanting to start grow or scale a freelance ad management strategist online business. And that's what we're going to talk about today. No matter if you're an ad manager or you're just a freelancer that maybe is offering a different service than ad management, this episode is going to be for you because it's applicable to all.

Online service providers that are providing one on one work. And so today I want to jump into the four things you're doing wrong in your marketing. [00:02:00] And I know you're doing this because after working with over 2, 000 freelancers in the last several years, I see the same mistakes coming up over and over again.

And one thing I want you to know is if you're making any of these mistakes, it doesn't mean you can't correct them. It doesn't mean you're a loser because you're making these mistakes. It happens. If you don't know any better, of course you're going to make mistakes. Just like when kids start eating, they don't know like you should use a fork instead of your hands.

They do that just like you. You may not even realize that what you're doing is a mistake. So, I'm going to be talking about a few things that you can do to prevent a mistake. Or that you should have been doing one of these things to prevent the mistake. So, one, let's take all the judgment, shame away from if you're making any of these mistakes.

And once you know, then it's time to fix the problem. And maybe you're making all four of these, maybe you're only making one, and maybe you are a rock star who's not making any of these mistakes. But I will tell you, even I am guilty of making [00:03:00] at least one of these mistakes sometimes in my business. So let's jump into the four things you're probably doing wrong in your marketing if you're not landing clients.

Number one is you're on the wrong platform. We can all be guilty of this. We want to hang out on the platform where we want to hang out on. We want, if we love Instagram, we love Reels, we love all that, that's where we want to hang out. Maybe your jam is TikTok. Maybe your jam is LinkedIn. I don't know. Or maybe you're just like, I love a good cold email.

I don't know. But wherever your jam is, that's usually where we start to go. It's kind of like your love language. If you're familiar with the love languages, if you're someone who loves gifts, you usually give gifts. If you're someone who loves quality time, you're in gifts are at the bottom. You're probably horrible at giving gifts because that's not your love language.

But the problem with that, with marketing is if you're going to the platform you're on, but your clients on a different platform, you're never going to hit the right client. [00:04:00] Or it's going to take 10 times more work to find your right client than if you were on the right platform. So, an example of this is if you're working with realtors.

They are usually really active in Facebook groups and they always have their phone attached to them. So, you would want to be in Facebook groups or you want to pick up the phone and start cold calling them. If you want to work with HVAC, those people are usually on their phone. So, probably the best way to get in touch with them is through phone.

If you're working with an online course grader, they're probably hanging out on Instagram or in Facebook groups. That's where you need to be. Or, maybe you're working with therapists. They're probably hanging out on LinkedIn or they also have their phone or email. So, when we think about who is our ideal client, Then we can get clear on are we on the right platform now we have some amazing episodes on niching down [00:05:00] and on um Nitching down and cold calling linkedin So we'll make sure we link up some of those In the show notes so you can grab those based on your platform that you're marketing on.

So are you on the right platform? Ask yourself that right now and give yourself a yes or no answer. Am I on the right platform? Is this where my clients are hanging out? If it's a yes, great. Keep doing the dang thing. If it's a no, Then let's change it. Where are your clients hanging out? Okay, so number two You're not playing the numbers.

And if you're not playing the numbers, chances are you aren't tracking the numbers. These two go hand in hand. You have to know your numbers. The number that you don't know doesn't grow. And also, a lot is not a number. So the reason I love numbers so much is because they take emotion out of the business.

I always say numbers don't have emotion, but the word a lot has a lot of emotion tied to it. When we say, I've been doing a lot of outreach, [00:06:00] you're like, I've been working my butt off and not getting any results. When you say, I've done ten cold calls, there's no emotion to that. It's just a number. I've done ten.

Maybe that's a lot, maybe it's not. Like, I don't know, but a lot carries a lot of emotion. So, if someone were to come to me and say, Brandy, my marketing is just not working. First, I'm going to ask, what platform are you on? Great, that's the right platform. Awesome. So tell me, how many people have you connected with in the last 30 days?

A lot. No, I'm sorry, a lot's not a number. Go bring me back a number and we can chat. Because then, we start digging into it, and maybe you just haven't played the numbers yet. You haven't had enough touchpoints. You haven't done enough cold emails. You haven't done enough cold calls. You don't know your open rates.

You don't know your close rates. Whatever those are, you have to know the numbers and you have to be willing to play the game. One of my strategist society members came to me and she was like, Okay, I've sent out a hundred emails and I haven't [00:07:00] got any responses. And I said, Okay, what was your open rate?

And she said on the first batch, it was, um, 80 percent or something. I was like, Oh, that's fantastic. So people are opening your email. And I was like, but what was your open rate on the second batch? And she went back and she was like, Oh my gosh, it never sent. That's why we have to know our numbers. And I was like, okay, come back to me when you've sent the other 50 and then we'll have a hundred and then we can make a decision on the cold emails.

Like what's working, what's not. Same thing with touch points on Instagram. Brandy, Instagram's not working. I've sent a lot of DMs. Okay. How much is a lot? Okay. I've sent 20 DMs. Great. Has anyone responded? No. Okay. Awesome. Then what? We need to one, maybe change up how we're getting in there. Maybe you're ending up in spam, but I don't, but still we haven't had enough touch points to know if something's working.

So when we know the touch points, then we can help troubleshoot. But a lot is not a number. So we got to get clear. Are you [00:08:00] playing the numbers? Are you quitting too soon? Are you bouncing around platform to platform thinking you're going to get results, but you haven't given it a fair shot You're not playing the numbers and you sure as heck ain't tracking them.

You have to track What is your system for tracking inside conversions for clients? We have a tracker inside strategist society our Strategist members turn in a tracker for me each week that I review talk about accountability So with that, you have to be tracking your numbers. I can very quickly identify when a client and strategist societies about telling the client or not based on their touch points because they track it.

So the weeks that a student will turn and say I had 40 touch points, they have discovery calls on their books. The weeks that people say I have five touch points, they don't have discovery calls on their books. They're not landing new clients. The amount of touch points or connections or conversations you have with a client directly impacts how many discovery calls a [00:09:00] new client you are landing, but you have to track it.

Okay? So number one was you're on the wrong platform. Number two is you're not tracking the right numbers. And number three, you're doing passive marketing versus active marketing. Passive marketing is posting and praying that someone finds you. Passive marketing is writing a blog post. Passive marketing is you putting out content thinking that if you build it, they will come.

They ain't coming. You gotta go to them. And so, when we talk about passive versus active marketing, active marketing is when you're directly Outreaching. So whether that's going to an in person event, whether that's cold calling, whether that's cold emailing, where it's in someone's DMs, where it's adding value into Facebook groups and responding to job ops, that is active marketing, discovery calls.

Passive marketing is you're waiting for people to come to you. No one's coming unless you have built A business where [00:10:00] you are the go to person and you've done the work. No one is coming. You have to go find them. You have to go to them. You have to create the conversations or relationships. That is active marketing and active marketing should be 80 percent of all your marketing efforts.

Only 20 percent should be passive marketing. And honestly, if you're just getting started, it may even be only 10%. So when we look at our hours, Break that down. If you have 10 hours of marketing a week, which may be too much. Let's, I was looking for easy math, but let's say five hours of marketing a week.

That's one hour a day. That means out of that one hour, 80 percent of that hour should be spent towards actively marketing. Only 10 percent of that hour should be spent on marketing. Doing things like posting on Instagram. So if we break this down, 60 minutes an hour, times 0. [00:11:00] 2 for 20 percent, that's 12 minutes.

12 minutes should be focused on posting on Instagram or in a Facebook group or whatever it is. The rest should be making connections, directly outreach touch points. That means 48 minutes. Should be spent on outreach only 12 on posts So then you get really good at coming out with instagram posts quick because you only get to them 12 minutes You set a timer and you get the dang thing done So are you spending most of your time in passive or active marketing?

Okay, number four the fourth mistake that you're probably making you don't have a way to stand out You are just posting in facebook a job op. Someone says hey i'm looking for an ad manager podcast producer or whatever And you're like hey I do that Here's my website. What? Like 50 other people just did the same thing.

You want to stand out. You know how you stand out? You get uncomfortable. You post a video in that thread. [00:12:00] You go out of your way to show up. You email, you DM, whatever you need to do. You show value. Inside conversions for clients and booked in bank, we teach the risk reversal method. If you want to start landing clients and you're like, Brandi, I'm not sure I'm ready for conversions for clients.

Then go in and jump into booked or bank. What? We'll link that up. That is a 37 program that's going to show you exactly how to stand out in a crowded market using our risk reversal. method. How do you land clients? Even if you don't have experience, you're going to use booked and banked. And for 37, you can land a 1, 500 client.

Talk about a return on your investment, but that teaches you, how do you stand out? That's how our new ad managers land clients is using risk reversal. They stand out in a market that is so about not standing out. People are lazy. People just want clients, but they're not willing to do the work to get clients.

They're not willing to do the [00:13:00] little extra 10 minute activity that will save them so much time because they're not going to have to spend so much time looking for clients because they're going to land more clients using these methods. How are you standing out? Our Strategist Society members, they're using frameworks to sell their services.

This is a higher touch point. The delivery design. Like, do you have that? And if you already have several clients, but you're like, gosh, I'm not getting champagne clients, it's probably because you're not talking to champagne. You're not showing them how you deliver results in a champagne system. And so, if you want to do things differently, you have to stand out.

I don't believe in oversaturation, but I do believe that you are a fish in a big sea full of other fishies. So are you going to be the rainbow fish? Or are you going to be the fish that everyone else looks like? that's in a school of fish, that's [00:14:00] silver, that's just swimming along with everyone else, or are you going to be the rainbow fish that stands out, that shines bright, that's different from all the others?

So the four mistakes that you may be getting wrong in your business, maybe it's one, maybe it's all four, maybe it's two, I don't know. That's for you to decide. Are you on the right platform? Are you tracking your numbers? Are you spending more time on active or passive marketing? What is that breakdown?

And, are you standing out in the crowded market? And if you are making one or more of these mistakes, that's probably why you're not landing the clients that you want to land. If you can correct all these mistakes, then you're going to be in a much better spot. So, you're like, Brandy, I'm going to DIY this thing.

I'm going to do it myself. Go do the dang thing. And we'll link up resources to help you out, but some of you are going to want support. So here's how you know, which supports right for you. If you're just getting started and you're like, I need to land a client booked and banked is for you. That's going to [00:15:00] show you how to, as an ad manager, we'll link it in the show notes.

37 could change your life. Then we have conversions for clients. If you're ready to really step into that role of ad manager, set up your systems. And find clients and learn how to run ads. That's conversions for clients, head to conversions for clients. com. You can get started with us there. And then if you're already working with clients, but they're not the champagne clients, maybe they are the PBR, the bud light clients.

And you want to up that level. Well, you can. Step out of the doer role and into the strategist role. That's what strategist society is for. We'll link up the application for that. We only have limited number spots. But if you want to learn, how do I create that delivery design? How do I stand out in a crowd?

How do I show up more? What is that tracking? I want that tracking, that one on one support, that accountability. Then it's brandyandcompany. com slash strategist dash society. We'll link it up in the show notes. And [00:16:00] you can go apply and we'll see if you're the right fit. And we'll do a call to figure that out.

So if you want support in any of these four areas, I have a place from 37 on up to help you troubleshoot these problems and get them right. Or you can YouTube university it or binge all of our podcast episodes. Whatever makes the most sense for you. We are cheering you on and know you can do this. Fix the mistakes, fix your marketing.

Okay, y'all go out, serve your clients, scale your business and soar into the success you deserve.