One of my friends recently asked me about my marketing strategy for this year, given the circumstances — COVID, economies recovering, and that there’s a whole lot more competition in the coaching/independent consulting industry.
It made me think because I hadn’t paid attention to my “marketing” strategy since early 2018 when I decided to keep things simple and minimal. I chose to focus my energies on blogging, sharing and curating content on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and that’s it! Yes, I started podcasting but haven’t been as regular as I would like myself to be.
Keeping on in 2021 will be irresponsible of me because that’s not the way to run a small (albeit “micro”) business. I need a better plan. And here’s a gist of what I have in mind this year:
- Show up every day on this blog as I have been since 2018. This year on, however, I plan to write more on leadership, change management, organisational development and effectiveness than anything else.
- Delete my Twitter and Facebook accounts and go all in to LinkedIn. Yes, this might sound drastic, but I don’t have the time or attention to waste on platforms that aren’t working. Also, that’s not where my audience is.
- Three-pronged content plan for LinkedIn
- Post every day: Share one idea or thought that’s useful as a post every single day. That could be curated content but with a whole lot of “me” in it than just a blurb and a link. LinkedIn doesn’t appreciate its users driving traffic elsewhere. Its algorithm is configured to pick up and push content that encourages the users to stay within the platform.
- Post an article every week: Repurpose the blog posts for LinkedIn. Pick at least one or two posts and reuse them as a LinkedIn article.
- Engage more with the people that comment and share on your posts. Pick up conversations with people who’re active on my key areas of focus — leadership, leadership development, organisational development, Human Resources, etcetera.
- Aim for a podcast video call every single week. Edit and snip out video clips off the recordings and post them on LinkedIn for maximum traction.
- Connect and have conversations with people within your network. Aim for experts whom you want to work with. Please get to know them, the challenges keeping them busy, invite them on podcast calls to talk about their expertise, and build relationships.
- Develop a white paper on one of the organisational effectiveness topics I am researching as part of my master’s thesis. The white paper aims to go beyond the idea and will serve as a great introduction to my world of organisational psychology.
I wish I could write grander plans when it comes to creating content, but I can’t. Time is the most significant deterrent. There isn’t enough of it to help me be all over the place. But that’s not an excuse to do what you can.
The plan above is a solid template for any startup or one-person company that’s struggling to wrap its heads around content marketing or be active on socials. It’s much more focused than most marketing plans and emphasises the need to have productive conversations with your audience members—the ones who might buy from you.
I think marketing’s got to have a purpose, and there’s none better than having conversations with your potential clients.