We all have it, stinky stuff in our business. What do I mean? Well look closely and you will find at least one and likely several long neglected actions you meant to take to move things forward. These are the things that nag at you every day in the back of your mind. They send you little nudges like “if you’d only put that in place a month ago, you wouldn’t be in this mess now.” They are the pieces of your business (and your life) that are crying out for attention and getting stinky in the process.
Social Media Marketing OverloadYou know how when you have something good to eat, but you forget about it too long and it turns stinky? Well that’s exactly what these strategies, tools and techniques are doing in your business by not getting implemented. They don’t improve with age (these are not fine wines or good cheese), instead they lose their good taste and just become sources of frustration and annoyance because you haven’t made the time to act on them as you know you want to.
Let’s solve it. Let’s excise the stinky parts from your business so you can take those quantum leaps you keep reading about.
Step 1~ List (this might hurt a bit, go with it) three strategies or tools that you’ve learned about, you know would be effective in growing your business, but you haven’t made the time to act on them. It could be adding an opt-in to your website, starting a blog (or blogging consistently), video marketing, doing keyword research to boost your SEO and help clients find you faster, it might be getting active on Facebook. There are a million and one things, just pick three that are making the most noise in the back of your mind (or even the front.)
Step 2 ~ Now we are going to work backwards. On your calendar, give yourself a measurable goal to see concrete results from implementing just one of these three actions, strategies, or tools. That means you want to get specific and meaningful, for example, you might measure it by how many new subscribers you get to your newsletter, how many new comments on your blog, how many views on your video, how many fans on facebook, or how many new clients (most meaningful.)
Slow and Steady Wins the RaceStep 3~ Having established a meaningful and measurable goal, now it’s time to schedule your implementation. Don’t count on doing it all at once, that didn’t work the first time (or the second and third). This is going to require dedicated bite-size focus on a regular basis. This needs tortoise behavior, slow and steady, because your hare routines aren’t getting you what you want. So if it is video, go for one video a week. You can shoot them all in one day if you want, but better yet, just shoot one right now! Write that blog post right now! Add an extra 30 minutes or more to your daily routine to pick up the social marketing activities you wanted to add to grow your business, do it today.
Once you have tackled one stinky activity, strategy or tool and realized your first goal with it, you are going to feel empowered to grab the next stinky piece. The trap is when you stay in that place of overwhelm thinking you have to take them all on at once. You freeze up and do nothing. One thing beats nothing, and will give you the necessary momentum to keep going.
Tell me here about the stinky parts in your business. I’d love to help you get unstuck and make everything smell good and run well again!
As always, connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for regular doses of marketing magic, mindset shifts, and motivation to move you forward.
