330: What pains you about marketing? I might have the answer

What pains you about marketing?

Is it not knowing what to post?

Feeling like you're constantly behind?

Feeling like everyone else knows something you don't?

Or feeling like you're creating content but nothing is actually happening?

Because if any of those resonate, I don't think your problem is content.

I think your problem might be a lack of intention.

In this episode, I'm unpacking one of the biggest things I've noticed after working with many of businesses over the last decade.

The businesses that struggle the most with marketing aren't usually struggling because they can't create content. They're struggling because they don't have a clear plan.

And NO I am not talking about a social media posting plan...

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 👇

✨ Why your content problem might actually be a strategy problem

✨ The real reason marketing feels so overwhelming and exhausting

✨ How intention creates momentum, confidence and consistency

✨ Why having a strategy helps you filter advice and focus on what actually matters

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

This is episode 330. I'm curious to know your marketing pain points because we may have some answers for you. 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 experience in marketing.

This podcast is here to help you create the perfect content marketing plan by blending storytelling and strategy. So, let's get into it. As the title suggests, I think we all have a pain with marketing. I think it depends on the day, the month, the year, the hour, really, let's be fair. But most business owners really think that they're struggling with content, like the actual delivery of the content.

But what they are struggling with is the lack of clear intention and plan. That is what I have seen over servicing so many business owners. We really struggle with this concept of content creation versus marketing, and we get caught up in the content creation [00:01:00] rabbit hole, and then wonder why our marketing is not working.

So when you don't have this plan, marketing feels really heavy. But when you have intention, it creates energy, and it creates A direction on where you're going and why, and it gives you a chance to measure rather than just throwing things out there and hoping for the best. So I'm curious to know what you think your pain is with marketing, 'cause it's not wrong, right?

You might not know what to post on social media. You may be feeling like you're always behind, like you're scrambling for your phone at 5:00 PM to chuck something up on social media because you're just hoping that it gets seen by the right people. Maybe you feel like everyone knows something that you don't, like people are in on something that you just haven't cracked the magic bullet that's going to get your content in front of the right people or go viral.

Or you'll feel like you are creating consistently, but nothing [00:02:00] is really happening, or a mixture of all the things. And if this resonates, you don't really have a problem with the content. As I said before, you have a problem with the intention behind what you're doing. And this is not... You're not alone in this.

I see this all the time. Currently working with a new client, they had someone doing their content for them, and they just weren't building the funnel. They weren't building a pipeline. What they were creating was, was fine, but there's no clear intention. So what I've come in and done is created a strategy that allows us to repurpose things and get the overall goal of what we're trying to achieve with the content that w- we are putting out there.

Now, it's too soon to share the results, but what I'm already starting to see is a cross-pollination between all the things they're doing. Their business is quite complex. There's very... a lot of different arms. So with that intention, we're able to get clear goals, clear [00:03:00] focus, and everything seems to be starting to make sense.

A- and, like, imagine if you're doing this on your own, right? Like, uh, this business, particularly the example that I'm giving you, they were second-guessing. They were looking at their competitors. They were- Sort of just chasing the next post or, or doing the next thing, and they had help, right? Imagine you not having support and help by someone that knows what they're doing.

And there's no hate on the person that was doing the content. They were just delivering what they had put together. There was no clear plan, intention, or strategy. But for you and for many businesses, I see second-guessing, I see comparing, I see trace- chasing trends. I see changing direction every week, like, "Oh, okay, let's chase this, and let's chase that," without building intention.

And I have a client who did a podcast on this. She's been a very successful business strategist for many years, coming on 15 years, I believe, and she did a podcast on this, what I found really interesting, and it was that. It was her business has consistently done well [00:04:00] because she has intention. She knows what she's trying to do.

She's not creating anything new. She's just being very focused on what it is that she does and consistently showing up for that. But she's always had intention and strategy and plan, like she's a business strategist. But really, what you end up saying when you are second-guessing yourself, comparing because you are putting stuff out there, you're saying your content doesn't work.

You're saying social media doesn't work. You're saying, "Marketing just doesn't work for me, so, well, what's the next thing?" But really, what it is is you're not operating with any kind of plan or roadmap to go, "What does success look like, and what does working look like for me, and why am I even here? What am I trying to do?

What works for me versus what doesn't?" And trying to create a plan that can help you continue to find out what works for you. So I wanna go over some, some pains, and let's work through these together. So the first one being, "I don't know what to post." So that is the surface level [00:05:00] problem, "I don't know what to post," but really, the deeper issue is, "I don't really know what matters.

What is the intention?" So if you knew your audience, if you knew your goals, and if you knew the things that you wanted to be known for, you would know what you're going to create. Now, I'm not saying you don't know your audience, but have you created a specific plan on how you're going to- get to that audience without just going, "Oh, well, I'll just show up on social media or on Instagram," because that's what is the done thing.

Really, then what happens is every post feels like work and every piece of content doesn't really feel like it's going anywhere. It just kind of goes out into the void and you're also relying on channels where that kind of does happen. You know, things just go out into the void and they're never to be seen again without creating the building blocks that are going to help for sustainable marketing.

One post is not going to determine the success of your marketing. It is a series of marketing efforts that determine the success of your marketing. Then the second one [00:06:00] is I'm doing everything. So you're doing Instagram, you're doing LinkedIn, you're doing email, podcasts, SEO, TikTok. Maybe you're not doing all of those, but you're doing a series of them, and then you're always feeling like you're chasing the next post.

"Okay, I've gotta, gotta do my Instagram post, and then I'll repurpose to here, and then I'll do that, and I'll copy and paste," and then you're on your phone for hours just for one piece of content, right? So there's no real purpose or strategy or even repurposing plan, and not just the fact of, yeah, you might be repurposing from, like, taking something from Instagram and clicking the button that reshares it over to Facebook.

Very easy repurposing strategy. What I'm talking about is taking the plan of your business, the main goals, breaking that down into things that people need to know and things that people are looking for and searching for, then creating a series of content that will hit people in different places and allow you to use those key themes and key concepts to repurpose [00:07:00] across.

It's not just a matter of clicking the button on Facebook, which is... it's a great one. It's easy, but that's not really what I mean when we're creating a repurposing strategy. So then what ends up happening is scattered action because you're, maybe you're really consistent on here for a week, and you go over and you create a couple blogs, so you're really consistent there for a week, and then you drop off on a couple, and then there's no sort of consistency really.

But there's... People don't have a, a place where they go, "Oh, there they are." Or you, you might do some email marketing. You might create a post, or an email out to people, and then you don't email them for months. And then you do that, "Hey, I'm back" email, which you don't have to do. Um, and then people go, "Oh, well, I've sort of forgotten about you," or it just gets deleted or put into spam.

So scattered action creates scattered energy, and you're really just focused on that one thing, not the whole ecosystem of what you're trying to create. And when you do that, that feels really different. Then the third one is nothing is working. [00:08:00] Nothing is working. I'm doing everything. It's not working. I am, I am being consistent, but it's not working.

And I have done a lot of content on the energy piece, the self-belief, the self-confidence. I think that's a huge piece as well. But let's just talk about and, and go back and listen to some of those episodes. But this is where you'll feel deflated, right? You know, this is where you go, "Oh, nothing is... Like I'm doing all this stuff, and I'm just not getting anywhere."

But how do you know? What are you measuring, and what does success look like for you? What is the goal? Because many people don't actually know that. They're just posting and hoping. They're just posting, putting things out there, and going, "One day I'll go viral, and it'll change my business for the rest of my life."

And that's unfortunately not how it works. I saw, um, a, a new business owner create a product-based business, looked like she'd been doing some content, and she did that like, "I'm launching my business. It's a product." Out into the world, and she did that and, yeah, got no sales and did a video on it, and then everyone's like, "Oh, if this is [00:09:00] pity marketing, I don't want a bar of it."

And then she had quite good feedback, but everyone's like, "Well, why would we choose you? What have you created?" So, so when she's gone and decided to create a business, she's decided to use TikTok as a channel 'cause everyone said, "Oh, well, TikTok is a great channel. You should jump on it. You know, you can reach hundreds of people.

It can change your business. You could go viral." But she hasn't spent the time on why people would buy my product and what makes me different from every other brand. She didn't spend time building storytelling. She didn't spend time building community. That is where your content can be a massive performer for you, is building community.

Building the people that really wanna buy from you. Then that, and your unique selling point. Unique selling points, yes, can be sustainability and it can be all these things, but it is also the story and the brand behind it, because people aren't just going to buy your logo or something with your logo on it if you're a product-based business.

If you're a service, you're kind of already selling yourself. We know how that feels. We, we do that a lot. But [00:10:00] for products specifically in this case, then when she launched, of course no one's gonna buy because no one really knew why they should buy from her. No one really... What, what made you different from the hoodie that I could buy from Cotton On?

So she got some really interesting feedback around this. This is where we start to question, okay, well, nothing is working. Why? Am I not spending time focusing on community? Am I not... Am I just posting and ghosting? I'm, I'm not nurturing my audience enough. I'm not emailing them. I'm not doing these things.

Oh, but I knew that used to work, and why am I not doing that again? I don't really know. So this is where we need to s- stop and pause and think about what things have worked in the past. What have you seen, like tiny, tiny little bits? Even if it's small, where have you seen a little bit of traction? Then start to use that to keep creating your marketing and your content Hoping is not a strategy, unfortunately, but intention is.

And when we know why we're doing something, why we're creating it, and why us, why people would choose us, we're more confident, we show up more consistently with that confidence, [00:11:00] and you're less attached to the individual result of every piece of content 'cause you understand the bird's-eye-view level of it being an ecosystem.

You get what it's here to create, right? 'Cause unfortunately, gone are the days where we could just share what we're selling and people will buy it. We have to give them a reason why. And the fourth one, which I see a lot, is everyone has advice. Everyone's gonna tell you, "Start a podcast. Start a newsletter," which I think you should, but I never say should, but email marketing is a good one.

"Make more reels. Use AI. You should do paid ads. If you're not doing paid ads, it's just not gonna work anymore." Then suddenly, you're overwhelmed. Then you don't actually know what to do. But when you don't have a strategy, when you don't have intention, every piece of advice feels urgent. "Oh, yeah, that's gonna, that's gonna..."

But if, even if you don't have intention, e- even... Okay, it's great. Someone... You have a catch-up with someone or a mentor y- or you watch Instagram and someone's telling you to do something, but there's no why behind it, and [00:12:00] there's no... There's only the hope that that will change my business. That's where things become messy, right?

When you do have a plan, you are intentional. You know what pieces of advice you should take because you know what's going to get you there to the overall goal of what you're trying to achieve. Let's go back to the business that I started working with. They said to me, like, "Well, what af- what if it doesn't work?

What after three months doesn't work?" I said, "Okay, well, we need to identify what 'works' looks like," because it's not just leads in the door. It's also all the other stuff, all the branding, all the, the third and second degrees that comes from showing up consistently for your audience in an intentional way.

So yes, getting leads in the door and then converting them into sales, of course, is a big goal of why we would want to show up at the top of the funnel of our marketing. But we also need to see the long-term sustainable impacts of doing that as well and what that's going to bring. I've [00:13:00] been consistent on social media since I started my business in 2019, and yeah, things are always up and down.

You lose clients, you get clients back. But I've built enough of a ecosystem that if things do go bad, and they do, I'm not as stressed because I have the foundations, and I can take an intentional pause and reflect on what I wanna do next. I don't have to scramble for my next client, right? So that's what happens, and I was intentional since 2020.

2019 was a little bit of posting and hoping for the best, but I decided in 2020 I couldn't do that anymore. I was side hustling and I didn't... I get it. I get what you're coming from like, "Oh, but I don't have time to sit down and create this elaborate plan that makes me feel anxious. Where do I even begin?

I don't know where to start." That's why I created my seven-step framework, to be fair. That's why I have programs like Boot Camp which we're doing a live round of, so we know where to start because [00:14:00] that is generally the reason why I was able to be consistently showing up and getting results from my marketing and actually seeing people come through the door and getting leads.

Then I was able to scale with other things like paid advertising, um, you know, doing workshops, doing other things to build up my marketing because I was able to create that intention and everything is intentional. Do I lose sight of things? Yeah. But because I have a plan and a strategy and I know what I wanna do in my business, I can then sit back and go, "Okay, well, why, why did we start this?

What were we trying to achieve?" And then I can start from there again. But without that you kinda just... You're just not really sure what you're doing, right? So that's where we create freedom is by having that plan being intentional. And intention creates that energy and when people feel that we're being very intentional with what we're doing, they're more likely to listen.

They're more likely to pay attention because they feel what you believe in. They feel that [00:15:00] story. They feel the energy that you are giving towards trying to help them understand how you can help them, right? So I didn't create a program like Boot Camp to fill you with more ideas, to create another template to give to you, to add something else to your to-do list.

I did it to help you be intentional with your content plan because I saw how much it helped me, and I wouldn't be able to create as much content as I do for my clients if I didn't have these plans. Hold the phone for a minute. I'm just going to open up my content scheduling platform called Rella, in which I put majority of my clients' content.

There's probably some missing. This is just social media posts. And I just wanna pull up how many in... how many pieces of content went out in May, and this doesn't include platforms where maybe I... Well, I do blogs or emails, um, podcasts, and where potentially I [00:16:00] don't schedule for a client in this platform because I can't.

589 events I could not do that if I wasn't intentional with how that business was going to show up. And it's not a volume thing. I'm not trying to say with volume. That is intentional content built to a strategy I packaged how I do my strategies up that clients pay me to execute monthly and I made it accessible for business owners that don't know where to start and don't know why their marketing isn't working and social media isn't working for them I created it to help you identify what needs to be marketed based on your goals your audience your strengths what you have to offer and with bootcamp I do these live rounds so you and I can have a hot seat together I've changed it slightly so basically six weeks every week we have a call and every week someone will be in the hot seat to be determined based on who joins [00:17:00] and we talk about your business and it's not random advice on social media it's advice from based on the things that you give me about your business like having a mini strategy session so I'm gonna leave it there I know we think marketing is really hard but it's because we're not being intentional enough and we don't have a plan we don't really know what we're doing and I'm not talking about a posting plan I'm not talking about I'm doing a motivational Monday post I'm talking about knowing based on the goals and the things that I want to achieve and my audience and who needs my product or service what my marketing looks like then we can go into the fun of the content creation and the creative stuff but just I can't see marketing being easy and marketing working without that it just it can't happen like I just someone has to prove me wrong and even the people that said oh well that person told me they didn't have a strategy and they made 10 million dollars they know their audience they know their goals that's strategy that's the foundations I bet you they know the [00:18:00] foundations of their business and why they're doing it maybe they don't know that they're going to post every Monday at 5 p.m.

that's fine I don't care about that but they can't sit there and tell me they don't have a marketing strategy it's a lie I'm just putting it out there it's a lie so if you're tired of like guessing overthinking And actually thinking marketing just doesn't work. I don't see it. Social media, content marketing, everyone's telling lies.

Or is there something that I'm just not in on? Then just come to bootcamp. It is something that I think every business owner needs. Whether you need it from me or not is up to you, but if you're listening to this podcast, I guess it's because you like how I teach and what I have to offer. So let's do bootcamp together.

Let's sit down, make it intentional, and I can guarantee you'll be a lot clearer on how your marketing is going to work after that six weeks. The live calls start July 8th, so you have time. If you have any questions, send me a message on Instagram, @contentqueenmoriah. [00:19:00] And yeah, be a content queen or king, and I have said this every episode for a very long time.

But remember, developing your strategy and story develops your business, and that's exactly what we do in bootcamp. So let's just do it together. Thank you so much for joining me today and for the tough love that I had to give. Please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends.

You can do this by adding it to your Insta stories and tag me at contentqueenmoriah or share it with them. If you wanna do bootcamp with a business bestie, please do feel free. Share it with them. Let's do it together. And if you do rate and review on whatever platform you're listening to on, it helps me get amazing guests.

I have been podcast interviewing until the cows come home lately, so it's all because we're in the charts. People have been... I've, I've got emails I need to reply to. I've had people pitch me in the last few weeks, and, like, the follow-ups too. And that's why I'm like, "Oh my God, I just, I don't have time to book in another interview."

So we've got, there's lots coming in, and it's because of the rate and reviews. So please take a minute to rate and review the show and follow me on TikTok, Instagram, [00:20:00] LinkedIn. Ask me questions there. I appreciate those that do do that, um, because it just means that I know a little bit more about you. I can tailor the content and make it more in aligned with what you need right now.

But I'll talk to you next week. Bye.

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