5 Marketing Tactics That Aren’t Making You Money

“Marketing is an investment, not an expense.”

-Tiffany Barry

There are an endless number of articles on the internet sharing an equally endless number of marketing tactics you can use to grow your business. But just because an idea exists, doesn’t make it a good one.

When you’re growing your business, you want to focus on the activities that are going to pay off big.

Like generate more revenue and allow you to reach and help more people.

Unfortunately, these marketing tactics are probably not making you money.

Creating Content That Doesn’t Sell

I feel like we can all agree that overly promotional content feels icky and spammy, but I think there’s sometimes the temptation to take salesy feeling content completely out of the equation.

If you’re putting all your time and effort into creating content that nurtures your audience, but you never directly ask them to take the next step…

Then you’re not marketing effectively. You’re abandoning your audience in the middle of your funnel, and you’re leaving money on the table.

Even worse, if you’re creating content that doesn’t align with what your target audience wants or needs, then you’re wasting your time.

Before you sit down to write your next blog post or record your next podcast episode, take some time to research what topics will be most helpful and interesting to your ideal customer.

Next, give your audience the next step to take to work with you. Don’t make the mistake of assuming they know what to do next.

Living in Launch Mode and Never Shifting into Nurture Mode

Spending tons of time on launch emails without nurturing your audience along the way is a surefire way to waste your time and stay broke.

I see so many entrepreneurs spending hours and hours writing the perfect series of launch emails, but once your email subscribers receive those emails, what’s next?

If you never take the time to nurture your audience and build a relationship with them, then you’re going to have a hard time selling them anything.

And even if you do manage to sell them something, it’s likely that it’ll be a one-time transaction.

Launch mode is important, but it’s not the only mode you should be in. You also need to focus on building relationships with your audience so you can create lifelong customers.

If you always stay in launch mode, and you never shift into nurturing your audience, your marketing efforts aren’t going to significantly help you generate more revenue.

And there are going to be quite a few people in your audience that still need your help.

Once, I was one of them. I followed an entrepreneur early on in my journey, and in fact, I’m still on her list. But I didn’t invest with her then and won’t do so now.

Because she only ever emails me when she’s launching something. Then suddenly I’m bombarded by sales emails, Facebook ads, and promoted Instagram posts. When her marketing campaign is over, we slip quietly into radio silence until the next launch.

It’s not a great feeling from my end, and it’s not a great move from a business sense either.

Posting on Social Media Without a Strategy

Social media can be a great way to connect with potential customers and grow your business. But only if you’re using it correctly.

If you’re posting haphazardly without a clear strategy that gets you from point A to point B, then you’re not going to see the results you want.

Instead, take some time to develop a social media strategy that includes defined goals, target audience, and marketing objectives. Once you have a plan in place, you can start creating content that aligns with your goals and begin seeing real results.

You can also book a Power Hour session with me, and we’ll work together to nail down a simple and effective strategy. Then we’ll take it a step further and create a list of action items to help you actually put it to work!

Learn more and get started here.

Creating Long Winded Blog Posts and Sharing to All Your Facebook Groups

The hard truth is… not many people care about you enough yet to spend 5 minutes reading a gigantic blog post shared in a random Facebook group, and most of the people who end up commenting are either director supporters or those who are networking with their own self interests in mind.

Instead, if you want to share a post, make sure it’s short, sweet, and to the point. And if you’re going to post it in a Facebook group (or any other social media platform), make sure it’s relevant to the people in that group.

Follow the AIDA framework:

-Attract: Grab the attention of those Facebook group members.

-Interest: Share content that is engaging, interesting, and informative—and brief. Make sure it’s relevant to what your audience wants or needs at their core.

-Desire/Decision: Use persuasive language and marketing copy that speaks to your target audience.

-Action: Use a call to action (CTA) that is clear and straightforward, including links to resources or upcoming events that will help drive sales.

Chasing the Latest and Greatest Marketing Trends

I saved the best for last.

If you’re busy chasing marketing trends or wasting time trying to “hack” the Instagram (or TikTok) algorithm instead of focusing on the authentic marketing strategies that will actually work for your business…

Well, you can probably guess what I’m going to say.

It’s definitely not a tactic that’s making you money.

Chasing marketing trends is a huge time suck, and it’s not an effective use of your marketing efforts.

Instead of chasing marketing trends, focus on building a strong foundation with marketing strategies that are tried and true. Once you have a solid foundation in place, you can start testing out new marketing tactics to see what works for your business.

But don’t get too caught up in the latest marketing fad—it’s probably not worth your time.