Hey, welcome to the Coming Home to Joy podcast. This is the podcast where we talk about all things business and joy and how to build a business you can love for a lifetime. Today's episode is all about the most effective marketing strategy. I'm your host, Tina Joy Cochran, and you can find out more about me and get a free marketing plan at goldenheartland. com. I am so excited to share this training with you and this coaching with you today about what is the most effective marketing strategy. I do what I do because what I have discovered. Is that very often women, particularly who want to earn income from the things that they make, who want to build a certain lifestyle and have a business that supports it. We get stuck in this area of marketing and sales. Particularly the marketing side. And what I want you to know is that there is a marketing strategy that is the most effective that you can tap into. So what are we going to cover today? We're going to start out with what is marketing. What do I mean when I say marketing? And trust me, we'll dig in a little bit deeper there. Then we're going to talk about why we get stuck. As I said, I often, find people get stuck. This is a place that is continually a problem. We're going to talk a little bit about why that happens for all of us. And then I want to share with you what the most effective strategy is and how you can access it. And as always, with any of the coaching and training episodes in this podcast, we're going to talk about action steps that you can take today and things you can do in order to implement the things that we have talked about. So let's get started. What is marketing? First and foremost, marketing is probably the number one skill that every business owner needs. If you cannot figure out a way to make friends. At least with marketing, you're going to probably get stuck in the growth of your business. So this is why we focus here first. lEt's define marketing. Marketing defined is the process of helping people become aware of what you offer and then guiding them to make a decision. And take action on it. You see, marketing is not about convincing, manipulating. Notice in that definition, I didn't say anything about convincing people to buy what you create, tricking people or manipulating people or pushing people. No, it's about helping people, helping people become aware of what you offer and then guiding them you. To make a decision. It's their decision. You can't force anyone to buy from you. And marketing isn't really about that. It's about helping people understand what your business is about. I promise you that you do not have to be that guy. wE'll talk a little bit later about why we get stuck. And one of the reasons we get stuck is because we don't want to be that guy. If you've ever felt sold to, if you've ever felt manipulated, if you've ever. It's the whole buyer's remorse going, Oh my gosh, I don't even know why I bought that. I just felt like I didn't have a choice. And then you start a business. And the first thing I tell you is, well, you have to learn how to do sales and marketing. And you're like, yeah, I don't want to do that because I don't want to be that guy. Well, I promise you, you don't have to be that guy, but here's, here's a question. If you don't tell people about your business, And how they can buy from you who will I wish I really wish I could tell you that, starting a business and running a business, growing that business that you can love for a lifetime will be kind of like field of dreams If you build it, they will come, but that's not really true. So stop for a second right now and take a breath. Marketing is not something that is going to burn you up, I promise, or take so much time and energy that you won't be able to have the lifestyle that you want. When we talk about a business you can love for a lifetime, we talk about growing and designing a business that fits your lifestyle and supports your lifestyle and marketing can be done that way as well. So marketing consists of three components. Component number one is a message. What, what are you selling? Who are you selling it to? What is your business about? The next part is a strategy. As I said, there's a really effective marketing strategy. I'm going to share with you before the end of this podcast that you can access, but strategy, how are you getting that message out? And then the last is a call to action. What is a call to action? A call to action is. Telling the people what to do next, right? The definition of marketing is helping people become aware through that message. What is the message? And then guiding them to take action through that call to action. You must have clarity in your message and a strong call to action. So many business trainings, marketing trainings, skip that part and then just move to the tactics and say, Hey, if you do exactly what I do, then your business will look exactly like mine. And the truth is that doesn't always happen because your business is your business. not my business, and you are you, not me. So we need to lean into what is the clarity of our message and what is the call to action. In our next training episode, we'll lean into that some more, but right now I want to stay focused on this strategy idea and why we get stuck. So why do we get stuck? You see, I believe that God designed each one of us with gifts and talents that we can use to bring value to the marketplace and build a business that we can love for a lifetime that actually earns income. But what I discovered is marketing gets people stuck. So clients and members of the Golden Heartland community say, I've heard this so many times, I'm not good at marketing. Maybe you've heard yourself say that. Maybe you've heard yourself think or say out loud, if I could figure out this marketing thing, I know everything would fall into place. Maybe in your heart of hearts, your secret wish is I just need somebody else to do the marketing for me or when you look at the business and it's not growing the way you want to, the first thing you start to beat yourself up about is if I could just market more, I just need to market more. Well, there's two reasons why we're not doing this most of the time. The number 1 reason why we get stuck with marketing and we're not doing it effectively is because we don't want to. Let's be honest. Very often business grows up around you. You create something or you buy that ranch or that farm and you. Have people say, wow, that's really cool. You should sell that. Or you know what you could do with your ranch. You could grow blackberries on your ranch and make wine or elderberries and elderberry syrup. And it would be great. And we'll have this big business and you weren't even planning a business in the 1st place. So we really don't want to do the marketing that secret wishes. If I could just build it and have people show up, that would be great. The 2nd reason why we don't do it is. We lie. What do I mean by that? I mean, we tell ourselves stories about why we can't. We make up excuses about why we don't. And we basically build the story around sales and marketing. Sales and marketing is for other people. I'm an introvert. I can't do marketing. Marketing requires me to get out and about. And I live in a rural area. I don't have the energy. I'm too busy. All kinds of things behind both of those. Is fear. And as you know, I'm a follower of Jesus and most of the people that I work with and the people in my world, are also followers of Jesus and 2nd Timothy 1 7 in the passion translation says, for God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love and self control. So if this is who we really are, then we can step into that fear and make it bend under the Lord's power so that he can deliver the message he has given us. How do we do that? You know, I hear you, Tina, this sounds great, but you don't understand. You don't know what I'm dealing with. I get it. The bottom line is. We're all dealing with something and fear tends to hold us back from what God has called us to do. And marketing comes into play there, but you can do it by learning who you are and how you're motivated and then design your marketing activities and your business activities that fit you. Don't try to be or copy anyone else. You are completely unique, completely designed for a business that was built just for you. So now we know why we get stuck. We just really, it's about motivation and we don't want to. And we've told ourselves a lot of stories. And we know that we need to take action though. If we're going to have a business and the business is going to grow, then we need to take some actions and we need to do marketing. So let's talk about that third piece the marketing strategy. What is a marketing strategy? A marketing strategy is essentially a tool or technique and actions that you take to deliver your message and your call to action. Things like social media, right? Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, all of those online social media tools. But let's be honest. We spend a ton of time on, but we don't always spend much time telling anybody about what we do or what we sell. Another example of a marketing strategy would be having a list of emails and sending an email. Out on a periodic basis to this list. It's a strategy that I love and a strategy I use a lot in my business and have for over 10 years. And what is really cool about that strategy is it allows you to kind of have like a group and a fan base and people that talk to that are interested in learning about your business. We'll spend more time talking about that in other episodes. And I've got some folks I want to bring in to interview that will also help us with that. So don't worry about figuring all these strategies out. I'm going to tell you what the most effective one is. One that I see a lot, especially with my clients who live in rural areas, who are creatives, who make things or grow things. is we set up of events. We set up at the farmer's market. We set up at the craft show. In fact, that might be how your business got started. You made a whole bunch of stuff. Somebody said, why don't you set up at the local craft show you set up. It was a great event. Lots of your friends bought stuff from you and bingo bang. You're in business. That's a marketing strategy. What about networking? If you've been following this podcast, You may have listened, and if you haven't, go back and check it out to my interview with Kathy Weaver, the author of Networking on Steroids, where we talked about networking. Networking is a very effective marketing strategy. We did a whole episode on it. Check that one out. another marketing strategy, and this is the one people think of first when they think of marketing, think of marketing is advertising. So these are some examples of marketing strategies, and often what we do is. We jump in here and say, I need to do more marketing. And we jump all the way to strategy. And we're like, let me just, I need to do more shows. I need to meet more people. And we don't take the time to really dig into what is our message and what is our call to action. And what are we even trying to do with this? So this is why I will spend time in a future episode on the message and the call to action. And how do we spend more time to really make sure that we are talking to the right people and telling them with clarity what we do so that they can take action. So marketing strategy, think of marketing strategy as basically, it's a tool. It's how you are going to deliver your message and call to action. So here's the good news. There is a strategy for marketing that is the most effective and it's available to everyone, regardless of the size of your budget or the size of your business. I know I can hear you. What is it? What is it? Come on. You've been saying you're going to tell us. So, what is the most effective marketing strategy out there? The most effective marketing strategy out there is The one that you will do the all these strategies that I talked about, social media, advertising emails to list events, direct selling, speaking, writing all of these different marketing strategy. They all work to some extent if they didn't work. For somebody, they wouldn't exist, but they can't work at all. If you don't do it, I've been coaching for decades now. And what I've discovered is that it's not that we don't know what to do. It's that we don't do. What we know, so the next time you find yourself thinking, you can't do marketing, ask yourself this. When was the last time I invited someone to a party or when was the last time I tried to rehome a puppy? What about the last time I invited someone to somebody else's party or ask somebody to the movies? Truth be told, all of those things are marketing. Because marketing is essentially, here's what I have to offer, here's how you plug in and buy it if that's what you want, and moving on, sharing the message, sharing the call to action, moving on. The challenge is, we get all tangled in, oh I'm not a business person, that's not what I do, that's not who I am, I can't do that, it requires me to do things that are not comfortable. Stop, take a breath. If you think That in order to market your business, you have to be somebody you aren't, you're not going to do it anyway. So if the most effective marketing strategy is the one that you will do, then design the actions and the strategies that fit you. If you try to white knuckle your way to a thriving business, you will end up broke, exhausted, or worse yet, growing a business that you hate running. So I hope in listening to this episode. Maybe you're walking on the treadmill right now, or maybe you are just doing some dishes or listening. I want to encourage you with this. You can build the business that you want to build by being who you are. Because when it fits you, you will work through the things that make you uncomfortable in order to get there. Think about the last time there was something you really wanted to give to someone. you had to call them, you had to get out of your comfort zone. You know, you saw a great movie and you thought, wow, I know five people who should see this movie. What did you do? That's marketing guys. That's how we get the word out. See, I created this podcast to basically help you build a business. filled with joy that you can love for a lifetime. Part of growing a business you can love with a lifetime is making friends with marketing. Just make friends with it. It's a key component to this process. As we dive deeper into marketing in coming episodes, and we will, Because that's the place where we get stuck the most. So I kind of get on my soapbox once in a while about this. And I want you to have the skills that you need and be able to make friends with this fun, fun project. You will learn how to incorporate this in future episodes into your business. So it can become a lifestyle. The truth is marketing can be easy. It can fit who you are. It can feel right. It can even be quick and not take very much time. And here's a secret. It could even be fun. So what should you do now? If you're listening to this and thinking, Okay, maybe that's true. What do I do? Here's your next steps. Ask yourself these questions to give yourself some ideas of what you believe about marketing and why you're stuck and what you could do. Ask yourself one. Why can't I do marketing? What is it you're telling yourself? Well, I can't do marketing because number two, what do I not like about marketing? Make a list. pLease don't put judgment on that list. Don't make the list and say, I don't like these things, but I'm going to have to do these things. What if you don't have to. What if you look at that list and say, I don't like these things, so I'm not going to do them. You won't do them anyway, most likely if you don't like them. Now, once you've got the list of why can't I do marketing? And what do I not like about marketing? Now go through that list and say, are these things true? For example, I can't do marketing because I'm an introvert. Well, I'm an introvert. Lots of people that maybe you have heard of who have very large businesses, who you think are great at marketing. Who you might think are extroverts are actually introverts. So that probably may not be true. I can't do marketing because I live in a rural area. I live in a rural area. Lots of business people live in rural areas. We're in a great time now. You're listening to this podcast because we have technology that allows us to get our message out, get our calls to action out in a way. That doesn't require us to leave our rural areas. I love my little 14 acre property in the heart of the United States, in the heart of Missouri. I don't want to run around being crazy. So, you get to offer yourself just the way you are. Last question. This is the hard one. And this is the one I'm going to challenge you to be completely honest with yourself. Am I willing to change if your business is growing at exactly the rate that you want and you love it and it is perfect and keep on doing what you're doing. But if it's not, there will be change in order for it to change. So, are you willing to change and just own the answer? There's no shame in that. Yes or no. If you're brave, if you want to, and I'd love for you to do it. If you've answered those questions, Why can't I do marketing? What do I not like about marketing? Are these things true? And am I willing to change? Last assignment, how about if you go to our website, golden heartland dot com slash contact and share your answers with me. Those messages through our website come directly to me. I would love to hear what you're discovering. Remember, joy is waiting for you on the other side of change. You can do this. Marketing can be a friend. Focus on the strategies you will do with a clear message and a strong call to action, and you will be amazed at what happens. This is Tina Joy Cochran, founder of Golden Heartland. Join me next time for more encouragement, insight and inspiration so you can come home to joy. And grow that business you love for a lifetime. Don't forget to subscribe and check out our other episodes and I'll see you next time.