Exposed! Is fear of marketing holding you back?
How do you feel about your marketing right now? If it’s lurking on your to-do list, never quite making it to the top and making you feel guilty, this might help.
There are probably as many reasons why people put off doing their marketing as there are marketing books telling you how to do your marketing. That’s to say, there are a lot of them.
One of my coaching clients told me recently that he wasn’t blogging because he was working too hard at the moment. He didn’t want any more clients, because he didn’t have time for them. There was a fear around marketing, not that it wouldn’t work, but that it would. More work and more clients was the last thing he wanted; he was already running flat out just to keep still.
Another client admitted she wasn’t marketing because she had lost confidence in what she was offering to the world. She had the time to do it, and really needed more clients, but fear was holding her back. Marketing, she felt, would reveal her lack of clarity, at the same time as letting people know that she really needed work. It felt uncomfortable and exposing. No wonder she didn’t want to do it.
We might wrap it up as a lack of time, or a lack of direction, or lack of need, but it often boils down to the same thing - the fear of being seen.
The fear of being seen
Working at capacity? You don’t want to be seen in case someone else asks you to do something else. Not busy enough? You don’t want to be seen as desperately seeking work.
It’s a mindset thing. Marketing is the way you build a bridge to the business you want to run.
Marketing is the way you build a bridge to the business you want to run.
Reframe the way you see your marketing
You know that not marketing during the good times can be risky. Projects end, pipelines can dry up, life happens. Not marketing when you’re busy leads to the stressful feast or famine cycle in your business, but knowing that isn’t the same as doing something about it.
Sometimes it can help to look at things from a different angle. Another way to look at your marketing is to think about what you’d like to be different in your business. For some people, being occupied all the time with client work is business nirvana. If you’re happy with the level of work you’re doing, then it’s a case of just wrestling some time into your calendar to make sure you have enough of it coming in that you can keep up the pace. ‘Too busy’ can quickly turn into ‘not busy enough’ and keeping up a manageable but steady stream of marketing activities is your way to avoid that unhappy lurch.
Treat your own marketing as a project, or treat yourself as a client, or reframe your marketing as customer service. Do whatever mental gymnastics you need to do to make it an essential part of your routine.
Don’t agonise over it, but do keep communicating. You don’t have to spend heaps of time on it - a blog a month, twenty minutes a day spent on LinkedIn, a simple newsletter. Find what works for you, make a plan and stick to it.
Find your balance
For others, getting the balance of working in the business and working on the business is trickier. A calendar with all the time blocked out isn’t the goal for everyone. If you’re too busy to think or breathe, you might want to reevaluate your services, or your pricing.
How can you achieve your financial goals without working so much?
What needs to shift in your business model?
Maybe your marketing needs to be aimed at a different kind of client? Or at selling a different product or service?
Think of your marketing as buying time for your future self
Reframing your marketing as buying time for your future self is a good way to look at it. If you’re avoiding marketing because you’re feeling overwhelmed with the current pace, take control of it instead, and shape it to fit the way you want things to be. Write your way towards the life you want.
Make yourself useful
Reframing your marketing activities helps too when you’re avoiding it because things aren’t going well. If you don’t have enough clients, or you’re feeling foggy, marketing can feel very exposing.
You can worry that it looks too selly. People will think I’m struggling.
Or worry that you don’t have anything to say. I’ll be found out as an imposter.
The mental shift that’s useful here is a familiar one. Think of your marketing as helping, not selling. Write something that helps your ideal client with something that you know is a challenge for them. Answer some of the entry level questions that the kind of people you’d like to work with have about your area of expertise. (And yes, you do have one!) Creating simple, clear, accessible marketing will get you back in a productive frame of mind, and point potential clients and referrers your way. Show up consistently and make yourself useful, that’s the way to build a sustainable business that you love.
And once your calendar does start filling up again, don’t stop marketing. Make it part of your regular activities and you’ll even out the stressful feast or famine cycle. It’s a good habit to get into, and you will improve with practice. Marketing with a spirit of generosity takes the fear away. It’s just something you do to help your community, not something that you only do when you need the business.
