Posts under Marketing Category
Skills are Queen!
If content is king, then skills are queen.
This is probably the most overlooked issue in all of marketing. It is also the issue that trips up more people in trying to promote their work. Why? Because you can’t DO something you don’t know how to do!
I could sit here all day and say, “You need to be on Twitter.”
But if you don’t:
A) Know what Twitter is
B) Know how to use it
and most important
C) Know how to set up an account and get going,
well, my advice doesn’t really help much, does it?
The thing nobody will tell you is to have a skill you are going to go through several stages:
1) Absolute Ignorance — you have NO IDEA how to make this thing work and no idea how hard it is to do (at least initially). You don’t know how to sign up, how to set it up, how to design it, or how to use it. This is sometimes the easiest stage because in your naïveté, you think, “How hard can it be? Millions of people do this all the time.”
2) Starting to learn — oh, this step is NOT fun! You pull up the page and start to fill out the form and… YIKES! What is that? I’ve never heard of that. What does that even mean? And what do I write for my description? And should I put my phone number on this or not? Which email would be the best to use? Should I pay for the “Upgrade” or will I even use this thing?
My advice for #2 is to try to get as much input from others as possible (and help if they will give it). ASK QUESTIONS! Look like an idiot who knows nothing about this (you don’t, though you are not an idiot. You are new, and it’s okay!)
3) Learning. Sometimes this step can be fun and exciting until you hit the…
4) Making frustrating mistakes phase. Oh, this step will make you want to pull your hair out, bang your head on the desk, or just plain QUIT!
When I was learning to do the bulk upload in Hootsuite, I cycled through 3 and 4 on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. I would get one to work… FINALLY, and think, “Okay, now I know what I’m doing.” Only to find the next one didn’t work for a different reason. UGH! FRUSTRATION!
Understand that any new skill you set out to learn–whether it’s how to run a blog, how to reword your website, how to send a Tweet, how to post on FB, how to bulk upload–is going to take a lot of practice and a LOT of patience with yourself for the mistakes you are inevitably going to make.
So be prepared to put in the effort and time to learn the skills. It probably won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
5) Mastery. Now even in mastery, you will make mistakes, but you will have seen this rodeo before and know how to fix almost any mistake.
To do all of the promotions we will talk about in the upcoming lessons, you will need to put in the time and practice and effort to learn the skills to work that particular promotion. Don’t go into it thinking you will be able to do this in an hour or a day or even five days. Most of these things take concentrated practice over time, wallowing through mistakes, asking for help, making more mistakes, and persevering anyway.
Look at it this way… you didn’t learn to write overnight either!
Content is KING!
Send to Kindle You’ve heard it. I know I have… the mantra, “Content is KING!” And it’s true. If you don’t have quality content, your promotions will go exactly nowhere. So let’s start today with that core principle. What kind of content do you produce? Do you have a book or several? In promoting that…
Build Your Hill, Day 4
Day 4 Last time we talked about the results of our hill. We said if our hill looks like this: we do all the work for very little benefit, and when we stop promotions, everything stops or goes backward. If our “hill” is flat, like this: We have to push very hard to…
Build Your Hill, Day 3
Day 3 Today we’re going to begin talking about a concept I call “build the hill.” First, I want you to consider this. You are trying to get a snowball to roll. I want you to examine the following four types of plains you could be trying to do that on. Now I…
Deeper Fundamentals of Marketing
Day 2 There are four fundamentals to consider when building your marketing strategy–pull, push, content, promos, and remember, right now, we’re just getting an overview of these. As we go through the course, we will take an in-depth look at each one and discuss how it might fit into your overall strategy. In…
Fundamentals of Marketing
Send to Kindle by: Staci Stallings Hello. First let me welcome you to this course. Since you’re here, I’m assuming you are ready to learn to market your products. That may be your blog or your books. Either way, my hope is that you will take the lessons in this course and learn to build…
Recent Comments
March 27, 2020 | By: Janice Phillips
I found your article very true. Your advice to get help and let others know when bullying is happening …
June 4, 2019 | By: Susan Preston
You are so spot on with this post. I have 'lost' a much-loved teenage stepson, now many years ago, but …
August 31, 2018 | By: Donna Shelton
Lovely and informative page. I am so impressed by your Christian light that shines through every post. God …