Marketing is an essential part of running a business. It’s what brings in the growth, the clients, the awareness, the reputation. However, not all businesses can afford to work with a marketing agency, hire a marketing professional or invest thousands in ads every month. Going at this without having an ace up your sleeve can be a damaging decision for the well being of your business and financial status.
Hiring a marketing coach is a great way to make sure you’re not missing out when it comes to your visibility strategy. These marketing professionals have extensive experience and knowledge in the field that you can tap into to develop and implement powerful marketing campaigns that help you bring in more clients, more money, while saving yourself time and dollars.
Here are seven signs that it might be time to hire a marketing coach to help you take your business and visibility to the next level of growth:
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Business growth is stalled or not what you wanted
All businesses depend on growth if they want to succeed. And that growth is linked to marketing. Think about your marketing strategy, the channels you’re using, the quality of your copy, the research you’ve done to identify your ideal client etc.
For some, growth comes earlier than expected, for others it takes years. Chances are if your business growth is stalled (not seeing the revenue, website traffic, leads you’ve seen in previous years) or does not reflect your expectations you might need to get in touch with a marketing coach. Same goes if you want to take your business to the next level, but have no idea where to even begin to change or add new channels in the mix to increase your traction.
This is oftentimes the case with companies who want to develop and sell new products, launch in new markets, or pivot entirely (from mass market to a specific niche, from low prices to high ticket etc).
A marketing coach is going to help you evaluate what worked to get you so far, while clearing up the process for you to adjust your marketing strategy to the new business objective. This might mean using new marketing channels, updating your content marketing strategy to appeal to a new audience, or upping your overall visibility game with events, podcast appearances, launching a book, running webinars etc.
2. Don’t know who your ideal client is
Many people start a business without knowing who their ideal client actually is. And it’s really not something to be ashamed of. Most people didn’t go to a marketing school, nor practiced years after years on identifying ideal clients for various brands and markets. The most surprising fact is that oftentimes, you, the business owner, actually have the answers that pinpoint to that ideal client, but are covered by generalities, expectations or misinterpretations of data.
A marketing coach will help you understand who your business can serve, how your current marketing is or isn’t appealing to that ideal client, and will teach you how to communicate in order to address the needs of your ideal client.
3. Struggling to be visible on too many channels at the same time
This is oftentimes the risk a lot of businesses take on, just to realize sooner than later that the results aren’t coming in as easily as expected. The belief is that the more channels you are presents at the same time, the more chances you have of reaching your client. While for some this strategy works, for most businesses this is a great way to fail.
First of all, a business has limited human resources and if they don’t work with a dedicated marketing person it’s going to be hard to develop unique strategies for every marketing channel, implement and personalize content to appeal to each of them, then keep track and analyze what works and what doesn’t. Spread yourself too thin and your brand message gets diluted, your resources being invested equally in multiple channels, even though not all of those channels are fit for your brand at this moment.
A marketing coach will help you identify the best channels to start with, will show you what kind of KPIs are indicators that your strategy works, that the results are worthwhile. After you start seeing traction with those initial channels and begin to see signs that continuing to grow on those specific channels isn’t making sense business-wise, a marketing coach will help you evaluate different other alternatives better suited to your objectives.
4. Not being visible on social media
Many businesses do not invest time to be visible on social media. While for some this represents one of the reasons why they aren’t really seeing clients, for others it can be the why behind not getting return clients or not growing as fast as they could. Oftentimes it is a mix of mindset limitations, a lack of marketing knowledge or the belief that social media isn’t really for them, so in return they just avoid it completely or show up every now and then with a confused or too aggressive (salesy) message.
Social media is a great place to be for businesses of all sizes. New businesses can use social media to introduce themselves to their potential clients, to educate about their mission (also products, and services), to build a reputation and establish themselves in the market. Established businesses can do all of the above, and more. These businesses have a huge opportunity to use social media as a way to build their reputation (and gain market share), practice their storytelling to promote their brand values, and even transforming their clients into brand ambassadors which in return brings in new clients.
A marketing coach can help you figure out an appropriate strategy for your business size, objective, and target audience while helping you remain aware of your existent resources (time, money, skills etc).
5. You have no idea what works and what doesn’t
It takes time, multiple tests, sometimes failures, to understand what works and what doesn’t in marketing, what kind of strategies deliver results on specific channels, and what doesn’t, what needs to be changed and what doesn’t.
For a business owner this implies investing a lot of time to understand marketing and business metrics (KPIs) by themselves, and it is not an easy job, especially when you are running a business that consumes a lot of your personal resources (think time and energy). It’s no wonder, and definitely not something to be ashamed of, that many business owners don’t know their website traffic and have no idea how Google Analytics works or what the Insights panel on Instagram actually reflects.
A marketing coach can help you understand what KPIs you should follow, and how those reflect the strategies and tactics employed recently to increase your business’ visibility. Previous experience in specific niches, with specific channels or audiences will give you, as a client, a huge advantage, as you can tap the coach’s experience in exploring alternatives that you might have not considered before.
At the end of the day, a marketing coach will teach you what to be on the lookout for to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your overall visibility efforts.
6. You have little time to invest hundreds of hours in learning digital marketing
I get it: running a business is no easy task. There are so many various priorities requesting you to be present at all times in your business, not to mention taking care of your health, your relationship, your social life. Finding time to take on a digital marketing course can be quite the hassle for many business owners. And even then, you get the theory, but don’t really get the guidance.
A marketing coach brings extensive knowledge and experience to the table, so you don’t have to spend money and precious time on sophisticated digital marketing courses that teach you only the theory. Moreover, a marketing coach will help you understand how various channels can work for your specific target audience, how long would it take for a specific marketing strategy to bring in results, how to plan, implement, and analyze your marketing efforts to identify what works and what doesn’t for your specific objective.
7. You believe you have nothing good to say
A lot of brands are missing out when it comes to their marketing strategy because they believe they have nothing good to say, nothing unique to bring to the table, nothing good enough to appeal their audience. This is a great example of how scarcity mindset can impact your marketing efforts. It’s likely you don’t spend time promoting your business, sharing success stories, or any story from within your business.
A marketing coach will help you identify the unique content opportunities that you have at hand to create a brand that your customers will fall in love with. A coach will help you see with different eyes the many processes you are currently running that are actually creating valuable content that does sets you apart from your competition.
Need help figuring out your marketing strategy?
Hello go-getter. It’s great to have you here. I love working with business owners and marketing professionals who are ready to take their brands to a whole new level of growth. I am a visibility and marketing coach who helps entrepreneurs & leaders grow their businesses with powerful visibility strategies and personal growth. I have over 10 yrs experience working in international markets, both with B2B and B2C audiences.
Contact me here and lets see how we can work together to create a tailored marketing strategy that serves your audience and helps you increase revenue.
Hi there! My name is Monica. I am a visibility coach who works with established entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses with powerful visibility strategies and personal growth.
