Why Marketing Feels Hard

“The idea of doing a full-on marketing campaign, everything simultaneously… Email, social media ads, Facebook…  it just overwhelms me” 

She said it simply, sounding exhausted. 

She wasn’t avoiding doing the work or being visible in her community. She understood that in order to enroll students in her newest program she would need to tell people about it. 

What overwhelmed her wasn’t marketing itself. The overwhelm came from what she had been told marketing is supposed to look like. 

Big. 
Loud. 
Everywhere at once. 
One hundred channels that all work together seamlessly.
Exhausting. 

This comes up often for people who are trying to grow their small businesses. They’ve been given a ton of mixed information about what marketing actually is. 

They have been told that in order to grow their business, there is a long and complicated list of requirements. There should be hashtags, content calendars, posting schedules and algorithm checks. They must attend networking events, buy ads, create flyers, attend markets, and so on. 

The unspoken expectation is that it is completely reasonable to manage the daily operations of a business and a full life while simultaneously spending every other waking hour trying to convince strangers to buy things. That it is actually normal for marketing to be overwhelming, expensive and uncomfortable. 

At best, this type of approach results in random growth that is difficult to repeat or measure. At worst, it becomes a money pit that fuels imposter syndrome. 

When this is the expectation, marketing might happen a few times but ultimately it isn’t sustainable. Entrepreneurs eventually disengage to protect themselves emotionally, physically or financially. And as a result, marketing stops.

What I believe is really missing here is that marketing only truly works when the system is designed for the entrepreneur who has to do it.

Simple. 
Repeatable.
Authentic.
Affordable.
Comfortable. 

Every entrepreneur is incredibly unique. It only makes sense then that the approach can not be one size fits all. 

Overwhelm and friction with marketing show up when the approach we are taking simply doesn’t work for the person who is supposed to execute it. Every entrepreneur wants to share what they do and create sales. 

By looking at it from a human lens and assuming that the entrepreneur truly wants to share what they do, it is possible to be curious about why the current approach isn’t working. 

From this perspective, it becomes clear that the system, not the person, is the issue.

The quiet, unflashy, powerful truth is that the majority of small business customers come directly from one place - word of mouth. 

More than Instagram posts.
More than TikToks.
More than flyers.
More than Facebook.
More than Google Ads. 

By noticing where new customers are coming from, most entrepreneurs quickly realize that the majority of new customers came through word of mouth: past clients, friends, family members, community members, neighbours, fellow entrepreneurs, people who go to the same clubs or volunteer at similar places. 

As an example of how this type of system works: Let’s say that a friend of yours mentioned that their aging parents are struggling to maintain their lawn and you tell them about a small business who did a wonderful job on yours last year. Your friend is thankful to have a trusted referral and hires the company.

As their marketing strategy, the entrepreneur running the small business sends you a plant and a card to say thank you for thinking of them. 

When that happens, what is the likelihood that you’ll do it again? It’s high. We all appreciate a genuine connection. This is an example of human centered marketing that works for the entrepreneur first. 
For some entrepreneurs, this means sending a plant or a card every time a client refers someone new; reaching out to a past client to wish them a happy holiday; volunteering their expertise with a local organization; developing a relationship with a supplier; or setting up one meeting per month to connect with another business who might be interested in cross referring clients. 

The heart of marketing is sharing what you do with other people.

The intention here is to focus on creating those moments of connection using an approach that in practice feels maintainable and produces results. 

You might notice that in the example, the entrepreneurs themselves didn’t actually share what they do with someone else. They focused on thanking a client who did it for them. That is effective because it creates the same results, people talking and sharing what you do. 

It makes sense that most entrepreneurs think of marketing and immediately feel uncomfortable and overwhelmed. They have been led to believe that it is both essential for their business to grow and deeply unappealing to execute. 

Instead, when marketing is approached as a few key steps that allow us to consistently connect with people who are interested in what we do, it suddenly seems much more doable - and overtime, it works.