Authentic Marketing, part 2
Yesterday, I posted about how I came to the idea of authentic marketing. Today, I’m going to write about what that actually means - I’m not about buzz words just to be cool.
When I approach marketing strategy for a client, I start with the big picture. This isn’t linear for me, but there are three main pieces I look at:
What are their marketing or biz objectives (sometimes they’re the same and sometimes different)
Who is their audience
What are they doing (eg all the tactics, platforms)
I call this the "Audit” phase, but it’s more of an inventory. It gives me a lot of insight into what working well, and what’s working not so much.
My clients can see results, even at this stage….but there’s so much more to do! This is where my marketing geek comes out :)
The audit covers the top and right circle. To feel aligned with their marketing, we have to look at the bottom circle - how you work. This is about two things:
Operations: how are you creating content, and how are you posting it? This is the brass tacks, to borrow a corporate phrase. Do you batch content? Do you use a scheduler? Is it easy for you to create content? Do you hate? A lot of questions get asked by me in this area.
Mindset: this is where mindset blocks come up, and are tackled. Do you struggle with #perfectionism? Are you uncomfortable in pictures? Do you hate social media? None of these are bad or wrong. Understanding these are how I create a strategy that’s aligned for you.
The left circle is my new one. That’s still about you, and it has some overlap with the mindset piece. Understanding your brand values, is what brings the authenticity to life in your marketing.
Huge marketing secret: it’s not about the platform or tactic, itself, it’s about the platform or tactic you’ll feel comfortable doing.
Real life example that showed up for me yesterday: it’s a common tactic to reach out to people on the ‘gram, and start conversations with them. The smarter marketing peeps talk about how you should make a real connection with them first, before selling to them. It works for LOTS of people.
I couldn’t make myself do it. I thought I was just lazy or it seemed like too much work. Yesterday on a live in one of my FB groups, I realized that the reason I couldn’t do it, is because it doesn’t feel authentic to me. Do I love meeting and connecting with #womenentrepreneurs online? Hell yeah. Can I do it when I know that the reason I’m doing it is to ultimately sell to them? Hell no. I just can’t, and wouldn’t, do it.
So what does that mean? It means that I don’t do the outreach where I go searching for them. Instead, my IG strategy is to create connections with the people who have already started to follow me. Is that semantics? I don’t think so. But if it is, the important part is it feel authentic to who I am as a brand, and so I’m consistent doing it. There’s that pesky consistency word again ;)
This is what Authentic Marketing means to me, and how I create strategies that are authentic to my clients. Have a question? Pop it below.
Want to learn more about how I can create an authentic strategy for you? Shoot me a message!