Three Phases of Marketing Mastery | 82
Whether you have been in business for a while, or are just starting, you might be wondering - Am I making the most of my marketing? Am I spending my time (and money) wisely?
When you determine which step of digital marketing you are at, then you can make the right steps towards growing your business and making the most of your time.
Here are the three phases of digital marketing that I often see:
Step One: Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall 😣
If you just started your business or recently made a change in your business, you might find yourself at this stage. You know you're at the spaghetti throwing phase when it feels like you have your hand in every marketing bucket.
The problem is, you’re not actually sure what you should be doing, or what is sticking. If you find yourself on this step, here are some ways to move your business forward:
Reign It In - You can’t get good at anything when you are trying everything. Pick one long-form content (blog, YouTube, podcast) to market from and one social platform. Get good at that platform. Your data should be the indicator of whether or not you're doing good!
Niche Down - We get afraid no one is listening, so we talk to everyone. Really dial in on who your audience is and what they want to hear. Then, primarily speak to those people.
Put on Blinders - Got imposter syndrome? You’re not alone. When building your marketing and business, put on blinders. Stop looking at what everyone else is doing, and focus on you!
Step Two: Maybe I’m doing it?! 😕
So, you’ve been in business for a little bit. You might be thinking, “I’m actually doing it! I’m running a business! I think…” In this step of digital marketing, people have narrowed down their audience and marketing goals, but they are making a big mistake.
In this phase, lots of business owners spend time convincing their audience they need their services. Instead of looking for people who are ready to buy.
Here are some next steps for this phase of business:
Grow - You’ve probably begun to master some digital marketing tools, such as social media. Now, time to do a little expansion. Don’t go out of control! But pick one or two marketing areas where you can grow or branch into.
Look for Those in Need - You don’t want to spend all your time convincing people to buy from you or see a need for your product. Instead, market more to those who already know they have a problem, and want someone to help them!
Step 3: Well Oiled Machine 🥳
Well, you’re here! The final step of digital marketing. Your business is running well. You found people who want to buy. You know WHO you’re talking to and WHAT they want. Time to let everything run itself, right?
Kinda. The biggest mistake business owners make is when something is going well, they stop looking at it. Here are some ways to make sure your business stays a well oiled machine.
Make Adjustments - With new trends, algorithms, platforms, and much more - you will need to make adjustments to your marketing strategies.
Keep an Eye on Things - Check your data often. Even if it’s once a quarter, you should be looking over your digital marketing efforts, and deciding what is still functioning well - and what needs to be updated.
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @heyitsjenzaia and tune in next Saturday for more business tips and strategies!
xo, Jenzaia
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Episode Transcript:
Hey there, I'm Jenzaia, and this is Market Scale Growth, a podcast created for ambitious entrepreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more money with weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers just like you. My goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dream.
Okay, so before we hop into the episode, I just want to remind you to download my free guide to Facebook targeting audiences. It has been created specifically for teacher business owners, and I go through the warm lookalike and cold interestbased audiences that you need to have set up to be running Facebook and Instagram ads. There are checklists and brainstorming pages so that you know you have everything. But as an exciting special, I'm opening up some Audience Audit calls where you can hop on to a 15 minutes zoom call with me and you'll get my eyes on your audiences so that you can make sure not only you have all the audiences, but they truly are perfect for your business. So head to marketscalegrow.com/audienceaudit to book your free Audience Audit call today. Okay, now into the episode.
Welcome to this week's Saturday strategy session. I'm super excited that you're here joining me today. We're going to be talking about the three phases of marketing mastery. And this is something that's been really, like, spinning around in my head. A while back, I was talking to somebody about running. I have ran a couple three, actually half marathons, and there was complications in my first pregnancy, so I stopped running. And I've been kind of like, dabbling in and out of running since then. But now I'm like itching to run because it's in me. I am a runner, but it hasn't always been that way. I remember back in high school, I would go for runs when my mom really upset me and it was like, not a good idea because there was a few times it was in the middle of winter. I live in Canada, so it's minus too many degrees to be just going out for a run when I don't do this on a regular basis. And back then, I'm a stupid teenager. So I just would get on my running shoes and just sprint as hard and as far as I could without any thought of like, how am I going to get home? Whatever. I always felt better afterwards, though, always. So then when I was in Teachers College, which in Canada, you do your undergraduate degree, like a four year program, get your undergraduate bachelor, and then you go for your Bachelors of Education in Teachers College. And so in Teachers College, we have Practicums, where you're going into a class and to teach and to actually have hands on learning. I'm talking to a whole bunch of teachers. You guys probably all know this, but just in case there's any not teachers out there listening. So the school that I went to was up north in northern Ontario, and they didn't have enough spaces in that small town for all of the teachers at the university. So we had to be farmed out. And I got farmed out to where my dad lives. And I never, ever, ever have lived with my dad. So it was a really weird experience where I knew like, six people. My dad, my stepmom, my step sister, and her boyfriend, the teacher I was working with, and then the principal at the school. Right.
My dad and my stepmom are awesome. I'm in university. How much do I really want to be hanging out with them all the time? My step sister is like six years younger than me, so she was still in high school, and that was a little bit weird. It was nice, but weird. Her boyfriend, I'll just leave it at that. And then the principal of my school, my associate teacher, they both had families and lives and whatever. They weren't trying to be friends with a university student either. Right? So I was in this really weird situation where I didn't have any friends while I was on my Practicum. And the way my school work is like, a week on, six weeks back at school, two weeks on Practicum, six weeks back at school, three weeks on Practicum, and then Christmas break, and then six more weeks back at school. And then I think it was like four or five weeks on Practicum and then March break. Anyway, so it was like back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
And it's not like it was definitely not an ideal situation to be making friends for someone. I'm fairly introverted, and this is like a four or five hour drive from my school to my dad's house. Anyway, making friends was not going to be happening for me. Instead, I watched a lot of TV and I could literally feel the fat congealing in my body. I know that's not an actual thing that you could do, but I just remember feeling that way. And so I decided I was going to start running. I signed up for a five K before I even laced my shoes up. The first time, I just found a five K that was like six months away or something like that. I was like, I'm doing this thing. And then I put my poems on because those were the best shoes I had with me. I did not bring anything better to run with to my dad's house for that Practicum. So I put on some pumas and I went for a run. And I did the exact same thing that I did in high schools. I just sprinted as fast as I could for as long as I could. And I'm like, miles away from my dad's house. Not really sure how to get home and have to figure out how to get back. Then I started actually kind of training for it. Ran that five k, ran another five k. Moved to Taiwan, continued to run. While I was there, I got into a group of people who ran on a regular basis.
They did bigger runs, like, once a month that I participated in. And so I was running on a much more regular basis, like, continuously. I came home, I trained, I ran my first half marathon. I continued to train. I ran my second half marathon. And sometime in the middle of that race, in the middle of my second half marathon, I've now been running consistently since I signed up for that first five k for six years. At this point, at least six years. It was while I was running that half marathon that I was like, Hey, I'm a runner. I've already completed a half marathon. I'm in the middle of my second half marathon. I've trained for months for both of those half. I've ran like a handful of ten KS and more five KS than I can count. And that is when I realized, hey, I'm a runner. It took me that long. And so the reason I tell this story is that it also happened to be in my business with this podcast. Specifically. I got a notification after 60 episodes or something like that, that I charted in Canada. And it was getting that ranking that I charted in the states before I charted in Spain and Australia, but getting that ranking in Canada, for whatever reason, I was like, hey, this isn't just like a little baby nothing podcast. I'm podcasting. Like, I am actually doing this thing. I'm a podcaster.
Even though by that point I've been podcasting for like, a year. And yeah, doing all the podcasting things. That's what it took it was for me to get to chart in Canada. And so this episode is really inspired by those two stories of, like, realizing that you're doing something that you are that thing. You shouldn't take being in the middle of my second half marathon for me to realize I'm a runner as soon as I put on those running shoes and I started running that first time I was a runner. And I heard somebody say this about math people don't think they're math people, that math isn't my thing, that I can't do math. But as soon as you do any sort of math equation, you can consider yourself a math person and had that same kind of feeling about running. As soon as you run, you don't have to be the fastest person. You don't have to be running 10 km every single day. If you run, period, for exercise, then you can call yourself a runner. Like, why not? And so here are I'll stop my stories, because this full story is like, longer than an actual normal episode of mine. But here's the three phases of marketing mastery and kind of what it means in your business and what you can take from it and where you can go. So phase number one is throwing spaghetti at the wall. Phase number two is this is working. And it has to be said in that voice too, like, this is working, question mark. And then phase number three is well oiled machine.
Okay? So going back to phase number one, throwing spaghetti at the wall. When you're first starting out, you're kind of just doing all the things. This is like when I was sprinting, I didn't know how to run properly or how to train effectively or what I should be doing. I was just running to run. And you're going to have this phase in your business where you're kind of like marketing to market. You don't really know what you should be talking about or who you should be talking to. You, you're going to just be trying to talk about all the things and your biggest if you were in this phase, if you are brand new, starting your business, the most important thing is to rein it in. You shouldn't be trying to be all of the things to all of the people. Also, you may be feeling in this phase like that you're pretending to be something or someone that you're not. You might feel like you're an imposter, that you haven't made it yet. You don't have the authority or the expertise to be talking about this thing. And that's where I truly want you to lean into what you are an expert at because you do know more than other people about whatever it is that you're passionate about and whatever it is that you're trying to work towards. And so leaning into it and realizing maybe you aren't the most knowledgeable person ever, but also accepting that you're not faking it, that you do have something to offer and that you do have valid information and valid ideas for people. Once you kind of start to realize what you have to offer, who you're speaking to, that's when you kind of move into the phase two of this is working question mark. It's those first moments of recognition, like, maybe I am doing this thing, maybe my business is working. And like I said, you definitely have an idea of who you're talking to and what you're talking about. And your goal here is to really refine those content pillars, figure out who you're speaking to. And I'm not sure I believe in the whole idea of like niching down to niche down, just to niche down and niche down a bit further.
But you will start to realize who you're talking to. Are you talking to teachers? Are you talking to math teachers? Language arts teachers? Are you talking to your business owners? Like, what is the bigger general group of people that you are talking to? And this is when you're going to stop talking to everybody. And you're also going to start to realize that you're in convincing mode, potentially. So this is what happened to me as I was trying to convince people they needed Facebook ads. Those aren't the people who are going to buy. Generally speaking, I needed to start talking to people who are ready to buy that are looking for someone for Facebook ads. And so I still do content like this. You're probably not looking for somebody to run your Facebook ads if you're throwing spaghetti at the wall.
And if you were to come to me and you're like, I don't know who I talk to and I don't know what I talk about and I don't have any offers, I'm still throwing spaghetti at the wall. The responsible thing for me to say is that's great, here's my podcast, here's my other free resources. I would love to support you when you're ready, right? So once you get into that, it's working, you can start to have a little bit more confidence in turning people away that aren't ready for what you have to offer because there are more people out there who are ready. And your free content, your free trainings, your lead magnets, all of those things are perfect for those people who just aren't there yet. And then we move into phase three where you're a well oiled machine. You're definitely talking to the right people. The ones that are ready to buy, don't need any convincing, don't need any educating. They're basically sitting there with their credit card already in their hand. Like, where's the person to do my Facebook ads? Scroll, scroll, scroll. I need someone for Facebook ads. Scroll, scroll. There she is. Ding. Right? And the other piece of this is so you know who you're talking to and you know what you're talking about, but you have to remember and here comes another little story for you, that a well oiled machine doesn't stay well oiled unless you take care of it. So we just took our Corolla in for our oil changes every 8000 think it is, we have to go get the oil changed. Now, I don't necessarily think the oil needed to be changed.
Like if I had done the dipstick thing and checked it, I don't think the oil actually needed to get changed. But it's really important to us that we have a car that works well and that continues to function well, not just today or next week, but years down the road. Because all we need to get from A to B, right? And so taking our car in on that regular basis to get the oil change keeps the engine running well. And with your marketing, it's very much the same thing. You need to be consistently, constantly doing market research, updating and tweaking your messaging, making sure that it still resonates with your people. Because if you don't, all of a sudden you're going to look around you're going to be like, well, it's all broken and you don't want that moment. You don't want to be like, oh, I left things for way too long, right? You want to be consistently managing it, consistently keeping your business well oiled up to date so that it continues to resonate with your audience, so that you can continue to make those sales and to grow your business.
So just as a quick recap, phase one of marketing mastery is you're throwing spaghetti at the walls trying to figure out what works, who you're talking to. Phase two is OOH, this is working, question mark. And it's when you kind of like, finally have an idea and you're starting to really refine those content builders. And then phase number three is the while oil machine where you figured it out and now you're in the maintenance phase of continuing to do that research and keep up to date. I hope that my long winded story about running and these three phases of Marketing mastery have been helpful for you. If you are looking for Facebook ad support and you know you're ready, reach out, book a free discovery call. I would love to chat with you about that and to support you in your business growth. And I will be back with you next week with a brand new episode, so stay tuned for that.
Thank you so much for listening to Market Scale Grow. If you're ready to build your email list and generate consistent leads on Autopilot, then we would love to partner with you. Our growth package is perfect for course creators, service writers and coaches looking to inject their list with fresh leads so that they can amplify their amazing program and get it out to new people. This six week package is perfect for you if you have a proven lead magnet that you're ready to turn into an established lead generation machine. To get started today, head to marketscalegrow.com/worktogether, fill out the application and someone from my team will be in contact with you to schedule a free strategy session to ensure that it's a good fit and to get you on the path to consistent lead generation with Team JV. Thank you again for listening and I look forward to working with you. Bye.