308: How do I know if I am doing a "good job" at marketing

Do you ask yourself this often? 

Am I actually doing a “good job” at marketing my business? 

I am going to give you 3 things to think about, but spoiler alert... There is no magic. Marketing works for businesses because they know what works for their audience and their business. 

No random Instagram video tells you exactly what to do to market your business is the answer, so let’s talk about it. 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ The three ways to know if you are “good” at marketing  

✨ How you can level up your marketing 

✨ Why there is no magic answer  

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Mariah: [00:00:00] This is episode 308, and we're talking about how do I know if I'm actually doing a good job at my marketing. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creator of Content bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen. With over 10 years of experience in marketing, and this podcast is here to help you create the perfect content marketing plan if perfect ever existed by blending, storytelling and strategy.

So let's get into it. Welcome to the first episode of 2026. Things are a little bit different around here. The intro is a lot shorter because we don't have time, and I'm doing everything in video. So this is the first video. You'll notice my hair is wet and I have my. Pajamas, my golden retriever pajamas on right now because let's be real, I had a couple weeks off the podcast to have a break and I was ready.

I had all these great ideas, one of them being recording this [00:01:00] episode using all video and putting it on my podcasting, streaming service, all in video. So if you're on Spotify, you can watch it and. I, we, we are leaving tomorrow. We're going on a road trip, we're heading to Brisbane. We're gonna be living in Brisbane for two months while our bus is getting renovated.

Lan to our bus. If you've been with us for a long time, you know, we live and travel on a bus. And if you're watching this video, you know, this isn't a bus anyway. Like, I need to wash my hair, so I'll go wash my hair and put my pajamas on, and then like, basically you're ready for bed. Forgetting that I needed to record this podcast or I wanted to record this podcast so that we could get it ready for the week, it's gonna come out.

And I was like, as soon as I was like shampooing my hair, I was like, oh my God. Right? You wanted to film a podcast. I had makeup on and everything. Like I had a first birthday today for my niece. I was like, it's perfect time to record this podcast. And I went and had a shower and anyway, so this is a lesson.

Even when we have grand plans, we wanna look a certain [00:02:00] way, be a certain way to get our content out there. Sometimes you just have to show up even if it isn't the way you thought it was going to be, and hit record, do the thing. And sometimes it's the most authentic to show up like this. So I am walking the walk, talking the talk, and I say this to everyone, if there are things holding you back from creating.

Just do it, especially for your business, for the people that you're here to serve. So whilst yes, I could have put it off and actually put off another week. 'cause we don't have time. We're traveling some serious kilometers tomorrow. I could have just went, oh, I'll just have another week off. No, we're here in the golden retriever pajamas and the wet hair and we're doing it.

So let's talk about the concept of, am I good at marketing? Now I watched a Netflix show. I barely watched Netflix, to be honest, and it was, nobody wants this, which is an. A Netflix series on a couple. He's Jewish and he is a rabbi and she is a [00:03:00] podcaster and talks about sex and, you know, all like completely two people from two different worlds.

Anyway, he does, he's, he's a rabbi, so he does his sermon and he, the sermon, he talks about a story that is having a message around you are not missing out on anything and you are not, you are, you are already in on it is what he says. So the story goes. There is a man on a roof and he prays to God and he says, please send me help.

So helicopter comes and says, I can rescue you. The flood waters are, you know, rising. He's going to get taken away by these flood waters. And the helicopter comes over and he says. Oh, no, no, no. I'm okay. God's gonna save me. So the helicopter drives off and then, oh, uh, and then he goes, please God save me.

And then someone in a boat comes along and says, I'm here to save you. I said, oh, no, no. I'm waiting for God to save me. And basically the message of the story is we are always [00:04:00] waiting for a sign or a message that we are doing something right, and we always have this thing in our mind that someone's gonna come along and save me or.

I am in on something. I'm not in on something that everyone else knows, and I find this happens a lot in the social media world, content marketing, marketing. When you think that other business owners know something that you don't, and they hold this secret recipe to success on going viral or selling lots of products or services online, this message is for the people that think that.

There's some, you're, you are not, not in on anything. You're doing exactly the right thing. It's just about tweaking and changing things that are right for you. And if you're in this mindset that everyone knows everything and I know nothing and they're all in on something that I'm not, that just creates more stress, more pressure, more anxiety.

And that is also the reason why things don't work out, because you, uh, have this concept that. [00:05:00] You have to make money or you have to get it to work. And then in the end, you don't show up authentically. You don't market the way for your audience, don't even think about your audience. 'cause you're just thinking about it working and all, all the clients that I work with that don't have that pressure, that is when the marketing does the job.

But if you are like, am I missing something? Is there something I don't know. Let's go over a few things. So the first thing is, are you looking at your data? Do you. Generally know what is happening in your marketing. Do you know what works? And then do you look at it and go, why does it work? Now we have these amazing AI tools now that we can feed data into and it can look at things and it can say.

This performed really well. That didn't, it could be because of this. It could be because of that. Like there is actually no excuse to not be tracking or looking at the data. I know it can be overwhelming. I know not everyone loves numbers, but I try to see it as a storytelling [00:06:00] purpose, right? So when we look at the data, we go, oh, that was really interesting that when we did this type of content, or we talked about this, it seemed to have triggered something that created this, this, and this.

So every time I go into a meeting with a client. I can say these things performed because of this and this didn't perform because of that. Yes, it's obviously based on assumption, but it is educated guessing and it is really knowing and understanding the audience from continuously creating content. So.

It's really not about going on social media and someone saying, yes, of course we can look at trends. What's gonna perform well? What, how are people engaging? It's really important to know all that, but it is very different from just going, oh, well that person told me to post four times a day and to talk about this, this, and this, so I should do that.

It's generally knowing, because your marketing numbers say, so if you are really overwhelmed by data. Just send me a message, let me know. I've got a [00:07:00] lot of resources to help with the marketing data. So the second thing of. Am I good at my marketing? It does come from lived experience, so knowing and understanding.

So the more you do this, the more you learn what works and what doesn't. Even not just from going, oh, I can look at the numbers and absolutely know what performs and what doesn't. It's also from that feeling that you get and how your audience reacts. So if you go, oh, I seem to have gotten more comments or more likes, yes, I know engagement is a vanity metric, but it does give you a pretty good indication from just feeling of we're notif.

Notifications come in on social media or maybe you get a comment on your podcast or someone replies to your email. Always make note of those things 'cause there is a reason that happens. So the more lived experience you have marketing your business, the more you understand what works and what doesn't.

And really answering that question of, am I [00:08:00] doing a good job at my marketing? Right? You'll know purely from living it and doing it. And the third thing is getting feedback from people who know what they are doing. So I understand we can watch videos. We can follow massive marketers from Gary V to, you know, uh, Neil Patel, or anyone, any Instagram guru, TikTok guru, like there's loads out there, right?

There's even the head of Instagram creating content, telling you how to use the platform and how to get the most results. There's people that are connected to Instagram with those carousels. I spoke to Instagram this week, and this is what they say is performing, or the head of Spotify, if you're doing podcasts, whatever it is, right?

There's always going to be. Gurus out there giving you information based on what they're seeing. And I've done podcasts of top things that I think are gonna work this year. But the best advice that I could ever give you is directly talking to someone, whether it's having a [00:09:00] strategy meeting with them, whether it's they've got a active community group where they are not just giving general.

Over like high level advice to anyone, and it could be very generic that they could potentially put on their social media as well. It is tailored advice based on them knowing what you do, who your audience is, and asking questions to understand more about your business, to help you navigate and give feedback.

Right, and this isn't always easy. Some people could spend thousands and thousands of dollars getting help from business coaches to marketing coaches to all of that. Is it worth spending money on? Yes and no. It depends like, you know, spending, there's, at the moment there's a bit of backlash on TikTok because there is an influencer who.

Created quite a big following. She's OnlyFans and she's created a lot of money, and now she's quitting OnlyFans and she is doing, uh, [00:10:00] she, she created this really, really big campaign to tell everyone she's basically launched a social media course. Now, that is not a bad thing, but the problem is the process in which she's getting people to join.

This has been quite interesting. She's asking for how much money people make. Do they have a credit rating and you get a call with her or her team based on how much you're willing to spend. And this can be a course of upwards of $6,000. Now this isn't actually for business owners. This is more for people that wanna become influencers or content creators.

So whilst I think investing, 'cause you are a business owner, you do need to invest in your business. Is definitely a good thing. It's choosing it wisely. Where can you get someone that's directly gonna speak to you and not just a course? So when I've been doing and supporting small business owners, I've done hundreds of content clinics, workshops, I've had direct conversation with business owners, and I've started to work out what they need.

And basically, we all just want our, our tailored questions answered. And what [00:11:00] happens when we go to workshops or we're on social media, or maybe you're in a course. You don't directly get your specific questions answered. Maybe there's not the forum for it. Or you might be in a group and you might answer a very niche question that you have and people might go, well, like you might feel embarrassed to ask it as well.

Right? In a, in a big group. So when I was creating, what does it look like to support small business owners right now, I created a Ask me Anything WhatsApp group. So basically it's 14 business days. It's. A lot cheaper than buying a course or hiring a coach, and I will answer those specific questions because.

I've done podcasts on this before. Everyone does have their really, really specific questions and the how do I know if I'm good at my marketing? I think it does come down to getting that tailored feedback now. Yes, with AI chatt out there and people even creating chat bots now, so you don't actually get direct access to those people.

Yes. We can get our questions [00:12:00] answered. But when you get it from someone that has lots of experience and lived experience, that AI is just kind of collating from everywhere and anywhere and you don't know if it's giving you, you know, is kind of has a conscious bias at the same time. When you are working with someone that has had that lived experience and has seen it happen hundreds of times, it is really comforting and validating and not just validating because.

Good marketing experts aren't here just to say you're doing a great job. It's giving you the support that you need to make the decisions that you need to make, that are going to get you the results. So if you are going around in circles and going, I don't even know if I'm doing a very good job. Just invest that money to get help.

And if it is at the moment a small investment, like my, ask me anything WhatsApp group, it's $30, it's 14 business days, $2 a business day, and you get access to me. It's a small, intimate group. I don't usually have loads of people come in. And I can give you advice specific to your business. And also with my lived [00:13:00] experience, I worked with a lot of different businesses from product, uh, brick and mortar stores.

Um. Be like consultants, strategists, business coaches, service-based providers, like lots of experience. And with the strategy and the framework, I am able to really support you. So if you wanna make moves this year, just make that small investment and get that feedback directly from me. I'm here to help you.

Right? So really, do you need money to learn whether you are doing a good job? Do I have to spend money? In some cases, yes, whilst you could look at your data and you could just go, you know what, I'm just gonna give it a go practice and learn. You will get good at it. It's just a practice, it's a skill. It's not, you're not born with marketing skills.

You can learn them, but if you're like, I wanna just know right now and fast track that, get feedback, and if it's not me, that's fine, but make that commitment to learn it now and it will pay [00:14:00] dividends in the future. I absolutely promise you. So if you want to advance your marketing this year, and that is a goal, have a look around, see what you wanna invest in, and just make that commitment.

But thank you for joining this first filmed edition of the Content Queen Podcast and be a content queen or king. And remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today, and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends, especially if you're all talking and going, you know what?

Wanna be better at the marketing this year? This is a good place to start, and you. Put it on your Instagram stories, tag us, or just simply share the link with them, you know, copy and paste. If you do leave a review, it does help me get amazing guests on. We've got a whole year of guests now weekly, or what is it, 52 weeks roughly, so half of that are guests.

So if you want amazing guests to continue to come onto the show. Leave a review 'cause that's how they find me. [00:15:00] And I get the emails and the cheeky pitching and we get great guests. So make sure you leave a rating or review. If you're on Spotify, you can leave like a comment on the episode and make sure you follow us on Instagram TikTok.

We're creating videos on the podcast, we're creating videos to help you around marketing topics, content marketing. And let me know if there are topics you want me to talk about in the future. Send me a DM and I'd love to get that organized for you. But have an amazing week and I will see you next week.

Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment