Five Signs Your Marketing is Misaligned with Your Business Model
What’s the most important factor when it comes to creating a marketing strategy for your small business?
Your business model.
The tl;dr definition of a business model is simply how your business makes money – what do you sell, who do you sell it to, how do your customers buy it and how often? There are as many business models as there are businesses out there and there isn’t one way that’s the best or better than the rest - it all depends on your unique goals and vision.
If your marketing feels scattered and ineffective, it’s helpful to take a step back to assess your current business model and whether your marketing is in alignment with it. This is where marketing often goes off the rails - the issue might not be with how or what you’re marketing, but whether or not it’s the best fit for your business model.
Here are some common signs that your business model is out of alignment with your marketing:
→ You’re not seeing the results you want
If you’re not seeing results (aka you’re not making money!) then that’s a sure sign that something isn’t working. There are any number of reasons why this could be, some of them outside of our control like changing algorithms and global economics, but more often than not if you’re not seeing results it could be the marketing mismatch.
→ You’re reactive, not strategic
If you’ve ever thought to yourself “oh s**t, I should do some marketing or I’m going to be all out of clients in a month” that’s a pretty sure sign that you are in reactive, not strategic, marketing mode. Instead of having a clear roadmap with goals and objectives, your marketing ebbs and flows just like your client base.
→ You’re not attracting the right clients
Are you meeting with or having discovery calls with potential new clients that aren’t quite the right fit for who you want to work with? It could be that your messaging isn’t speaking to your ideal clients or you’re not using the best channels to reach them.
→ The clients you are working with aren’t coming through the channels you’re investing in
You’re signing clients, but when you ask them how they found you it wasn’t through the channels you’re investing most of your time and effort into. For example, you put a lot of time and energy into creating short-form video content or a newsletter – but most of your current clients have come through relationships and referrals and they’re not even on your list or watching your content!
→ You feel overwhelmed and scattered
Do you ever feel like you’re caught on a hamster wheel, creating endless streams of marketing content and you don’t even really understand why or how it’s supposed to move the needle in your business? If you’re committing random acts of marketing or you’re overwhelmed at the mere thought of marketing, it’s time to reassess your strategy.
If any of these signs feel familiar, it’s common to feel like you just need to do more marketing – but in my experience this is rarely the case.
It’s not about more marketing, it’s about just enough of the marketing tactics that are aligned with your business model and goals. Taking a step back to assess your business model and identify gaps in your strategy or foundations will help you build a much more focused and effective marketing plan that will get you where you want to go.
Learn how to identify marketing tactics that are aligned with your business model!
Join the free Just Enough Session Talk on September 19!
