Full Transcript 

Jen Liddy

You know, we hear a lot of marketing BS! We hear a lot of marketing excuses, and we hear a lot of marketing myths, so Claudia and I today are talking about two myths that we know really hold people back and actually make marketing harder for them. 

What we're talking about today is the myth that marketing strategy is hard, and now that the broader I focus, the more people I will pull in. If you have any questions about what feels hard for marketing, you can always drop them in the link below. 

So let's start with this one marketing strategy is hard. We actually covered this in a previous episode where we talked about what marketing strategy is, but let's break it down, what is actually hard about marketing strategy?

Claudia Schalkx

People tend to think that marketing strategy is only for large companies with big budgets, right? 

So we tend to focus on tactics, and then we think marketing strategy is complicated, and essentially, I think marketing strategy is the easiest step in your marketing. What do you want your marketing efforts to do for you?

Jen Liddy

When people say, I need a marketing strategy, that's the question they really need to answer. What do they want their marketing to do for them? 

Claudia Schalkx

What do you want your marketing to do for your business? Remember, marketing strategy is in alignment with your business goals, right? 

The easy question is asking, what do you want your marketing strategy to do for you? And then, for me, the more complicated or tricky the tactics or the marketing plan because that is really the answer. 

If my marketing has to help me create awareness, brand awareness, authority or, or selling, how will I do that? And is that the marketing plan or the tactics? And the thing with tactics is that you have to be consistent, and you have to be me in there for the long term. I think marketing strategy doesn't need to be anything complicated - it can be as simple as visibility or brand awareness but ideally linked to a measurable goal.

The more visibility in a measurable way, like on LinkedIn, I want more subscribers, or I want more followers, or I want so many interactions, or I want so many conversations, because actually, in the end, it is about the connection. Make a marketing strategy that is measurable and realistic then the plan can be as complicated or as exotic as you want it. 

Obviously, the simplest.

Jen Liddy

Tell me what your marketing strategy is, for example. What are the goals that your marketing strategy is pushing you toward?

Claudia Schalkx

My marketing strategy rests on the fact that I connect one on one.

I know the conversions for me at the moment where I can talk about my philosophy about marketing our conversations one on one. What I create around are the opportunities to have these conversations. For instance, I love my conversations with you - I enjoy them tremendously. Even if we didn't have them broadcast, I would enjoy the conversations very much because it spearheads the creativity. 

But because we broadcast them, it's also a way to connect with people. Then when I have my one on one conversations, I can focus completely on the person and come up with good ideas. My marketing strategies are geared to conversions, but I know my conversions are one on one. 

So that means slow growth of my business, but more solid because when I connect with people, I really create a very solid relationship. I have usually repeated business from my clients.

Jen Liddy 

Yeah, and your intuition kicks in a lot when you're doing your one-on-one conversation.

Claudia Schalkx

Yeah, you were a witness recently.

Jen Liddy

Yes!

Now that's not hard, right? Now that you know what your strengths are, and it's where you shine, and that strategy isn't hard - that's a myth. 

What's hard is the tactics because you have to be consistent, and you have to show up in the right places that feel good to you and where your audience is. What are your tactics, then? If your goal is to get a one on one on one call, what are your tactics?

Claudia Schalkx

That is my ultimate goal is conversion. 

I am present in many places or in several places where I can create relationships with people. I create this relationship spontaneously - it's not that I joined memberships, for instance, to catch clients, that's not the goal - I get memberships because they address a need I have.

With you, you helped me with my content, but as it happens in these memberships, I have the opportunity of helping other people. When they ask questions, they see how I work, and many times they say, can you help me with this? And then I have 20-minute conversations, focusing on one specific problem you want to solve? And usually, we solve that problem. And there are people who ask me, What can I do? What is my next step? How can you help me? 

So some of the tactics will deliver results - some will not. Some memberships are good for me, but not good for my business but are good for me. So you have to be very careful and very picky where you are going to put your strengths. My risk is that I tend to be very generous with my knowledge, and I tend to solve more problems than it's wise to solve at that moment, and that tends to overwhelm people.

Besides hurting my business, my lesson was to know when it was enough information for them to manage at this point.

Jen Liddy

We've talked about that. We talked about that a lot, where sometimes you're hurting somebody by giving them too much information because they can't swallow it all. 

I love this differentiation that you have to choose the tactics that feel good to you, and I love that you are so clear on some of the tactics that don't always work, but they do require you to show up. You want to show up in places that feel really good for you and that don't deplete your energy.

Claudia Schalkx

Yes, definitely. 

I am not a math person - it overwhelms me. Networking, which for me is a very good strategy, I avoid large events because I go and come back with the same amount of connections or less. But in networking where just the group is smaller or one-on-one, I am more at peace, and then I can really help people because it actually starts with helping people.

Jen Liddy

This is true for every marketer, every entrepreneur, we all want to help people and solve a problem, but we all have these different end goals for our business, the strategies that will get us there, and the tactics that get you there.

For people-watching, I really want them to think marketing strategy isn't hard; you just have to choose the right one and have it be aligned with your goals and then choose the tactics that actually create a return on that choice you made.

Claudia Schalkx

That takes me to the other thing that makes marketing strategy complicated - we need to move on to the rule of on. So one person, one target, we are going to help one specific target, one specific problem, and one concrete offer. 

Especially when you're starting, especially when your resources are limited, when you're growing your business, you need to be very careful and choose the best-fit customer for you. Because that makes everything so much easier, and the best-fit customer is the people that don't ask for discounts on your programs. It's the people that don't ask you to change your program because they thought it was something different. It's the people that behave like ambassadors of your program - they understand they do the work, those are your best people, and selling to the best people is the easiest thing to do. If you compare ideal customers with those that are not ideal customers, you will see where to focus your efforts.

Jen Liddy

Every month I teach a course for the local women's business center, and it's always got women in it who are just starting out in business, and they have a really hard time understanding this aspect because everybody at the beginning is a best-fit customer to you. You don't have any money, you don't know what you're doing, you just want to help people, and you've gone into business to help people and solve problems. 

So I do a whole training in that class about choosing the right clients and the right audience to speak to in attracting the right clients. I give a really specific example about when you're trying to reach everybody, and I talk about a specific client I used to have who was trained to teach teenagers and empower teenagers. She wanted to help teens and tweens, which are actually two separate buckets, teachers and administrators in schools. She was so frustrated with herself because she couldn't get her marketing done, but if you're trying to speak to these four different kinds of people, it's no wonder there's no language in the world that will speak to both a teenager and an administrator of a school. 

It was just so tiring for her, and it kept her in this paralysis. I always try to encourage the women in this group to start thinking about getting laser-focused in your lane at the beginning of your journey. The sooner that you choose this, get rid of this wide net mentality, and you just get laser focus, and you stay in your lane, the easier marketing actually is, but so many people don't buy into that.

Claudia Schalkx

Yes. 

And you know, it's so lovely that you use that example because I think that what was confusing her is that she saw these four groups had most probably the same problem. The thing is that each group experiences the problem at a different level and in a different way. 

What probably happened is that when she started her business, she had some affinity with this program and knew how to solve their problems. With her helicopter view, she thought I could help all these people. 

But the thing is, even if it's the same problem, the different targets will experience it differently and have different goals to solve it. When you start a business, you need to ask: What do people need? 

So it's very important to ask yourself when you're starting your business or creating a new offer? You know, and then see who needs what? What is the issue in the market? What is the market missing? You know, not creating from an idle capacity, but creating from observation and finding what is going wrong in the market, then asking these questions.

Jen Liddy 

You know, the struggle for her specifically was for teens and tweens. They all had a very similar problem. But beyond marketing even, creating a website even, or social media, for example, how do you create an offer? 

Is it going to be like a workshop for teens? And then a whole, like a three-day immersion into a school district for an administrator, those are like 180 degrees apart, and how do you create this offer when you're when you have this huge wide at that you're trying to serve? 

The ironic thing is the more specific and laser-focused you can be, the more successful your business is.

Claudia Schalkx

Let's suppose you're out there hunting for hares, so if you start shooting at every hare, what you're going to do is scare all of them. 

And they will all run away in different directions, which means you've lost your chances, you've lost your ammunition, and you've lost your prey. You really need to, especially small entrepreneurs; we have limited resources, limited time,, and need to be very careful. You can start with one, and when you have your game rolling out the way you want it, you can start considering a second target. 

So, for instance, for coaches, I have a client who is a coach, and she's also a trainer. She helps coaches with certifications, but she also trains individuals, so she has these two markets very differentiated. And when you get to her website, her home, it's like a portal, then you go here you that, and you got here, and you still have two messages, but you're delivering these two messages at different moments.

Jen Liddy 

She's been in the business for a very long time, she didn't enter the marketplace, having these seven different offers, and I think that's a mistake that people think the more offers I have, the easier it will be to sell them. 

But no, that's just more to market and more people to market to.

Claudia Schalkx

Two things confuse people: inconsistency and too many offers. 

If today you are apples and tomorrow, your pears, and the day after your pineapple, people won't know what you're standing for. That is why consistency marketing is so pivotal, and that's why then again, you have to make it easy for yourself by keeping to the rule of one! One target, one problem, and one offer.

Jen Liddy  

I just put your website in there because I know that you do this laser focus thing when people can get on these 20-minute calls with you. You have great examples, you're just able to see things, so I really want to suggest to people if they're struggling with their marketing strategy and your tactics and you don't really know who you want to be, speak to Claudia!

That is what she does; that is the exact thing that she helps people with; I am on the other side of it. I work with those people, and once they've got all that figured out and I help them create their content, but a lot of times they're just swimming in this pool, which has too many people in it and it's too noisy, she really helps clear the road for that. 

I highly suggest you get on a call with her if you're already done with that and you want to help with content. I've sent so many of my clients to Claudia because she really does such foundational work with them, and it's so helpful.

Claudia Schalkx

Thank you.

Take the chance, you won't lose anything, and you will discover you will have a ball of yarn of problems.

Jen Liddy

Your whole thing is unraveling, right? Like you have this big ball of yarn, and you really know how to get in there and just pull the right thread that unravels the whole thing. 

I think it's kind of magical - that's not my strength; my strength is on the other side, so I love that we are collaborating in this way. Actually, we have an offer now, a new offer where you work with Claudia first, and then you work with me, and you walk away with your entire marketing strategy done. 

Your roadmap is mapped out, and all your content for the next six to nine months, and it's pretty cool. I'll put the link for that here. I love these chats because they're real, and there's usually something that people can take away. I always appreciate your insights here!

Claudia Schalkx

They are spontaneous - we don't plan. We only decide what we are going to talk about, and then things happen, which is another proof of my strategy. The moment I write, I become very conscious of a reward, and I become very stiff.

Jen Liddy

So if you are watching and you're watching on the replay, just you can tag either one of us and tell us what your biggest frustration with marketing is or your biggest frustration with content. 

We'd love to address your questions, so we go back and look, so make sure you put your comments below, and we'll be here next week. We decided to do Mondays now, so thanks for sharing. Bye, everybody!