Stop Overthinking Your Small Business Marketing (How to Overcome Analysis Paralysis)

[00:00:00] Those decisions can be hard because you always want to do what's right by your mom.

[00:00:05] But at the end of the day, I think because of the gravity of, you know, hopefully you like your mother and you want her to be here for a long time.

[00:00:13] Hey everyone, welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast where we celebrate the S.O.B. that you are.

[00:00:20] And if you haven't figured it out yet, we mean small owned business. We don't mean S.O.B.

[00:00:25] Listen, we know that as a small business owner, you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it.

[00:00:34] And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other, I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.

[00:00:44] Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, promoting your business,

[00:00:54] and then what doesn't really work.

[00:00:56] And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.

[00:01:00] Welcome back to another episode of our S.O.B. Small Loan Business Marketing Podcast.

[00:01:05] I'm here with my beautiful sister, Chelsea.

[00:01:08] Chelsea, before we jump into today's episode, let me go ahead and do a little bit of housekeeping.

[00:01:14] Y'all, first and foremost, thank you, thank you, thank you for listening.

[00:01:18] If you don't mind, please leave us a review.

[00:01:20] That helps to get this information out in front of other small owned businesses so that they can take it, promote their business, and help them grow.

[00:01:29] And also, I want to remind you that if you are looking to join our monthly membership, our S.O.B. community, that's $50 a month for the month of October,

[00:01:40] we are actually donating 100% of those proceeds to businesses that were affected in Lansing, North Carolina.

[00:01:48] So please get in on that now.

[00:01:51] We donate $48.25 of the $50 to these small businesses.

[00:01:58] Chelsea, what are we talking about today?

[00:02:00] Okay, Vivian, today we are talking about analysis paralysis, choice overload.

[00:02:08] Really, what we're talking about is going to be stop overthinking your marketing.

[00:02:15] Okay?

[00:02:15] You're overthinking your marketing.

[00:02:17] I promise you are.

[00:02:18] And to start this conversation, I want to talk about one of my favorite lessons from college for marketing specifically, which is choice overload.

[00:02:29] Vivian, have you ever been to the Cheesecake Factory?

[00:02:32] Factory.

[00:02:33] I sure have.

[00:02:34] You know I have.

[00:02:35] I actually, the first and only time I've actually been to the Cheesecake Factory, interestingly enough, was in Kuwait.

[00:02:44] Huh?

[00:02:45] Yeah, when I went to go visit my husband out in Kuwait, that was the only time I've ever gone to a Cheesecake Factory.

[00:02:51] And I'm almost certain it's the same experience for everybody, but when you talk about being presented with a menu that's about 25 pages long, it's a little overwhelming.

[00:03:02] Yeah, exactly.

[00:03:03] And you know what?

[00:03:05] Real quick, maybe I shouldn't judge because I'm pretty sure the first time I've ever been to a Cheesecake Factory was in Hawaii.

[00:03:12] Yeah.

[00:03:13] So.

[00:03:15] Maybe there's something about being elsewhere that draws us to the Cheesecake Factory.

[00:03:20] Apparently.

[00:03:22] But the Cheesecake Factory is a wonderful example of choice overload.

[00:03:26] There's too many pages.

[00:03:27] They can't even pick what kind of cuisine it is.

[00:03:31] And you get this feeling as a consumer of overload.

[00:03:37] Like there's too many choices.

[00:03:39] You may not make a purchase or you may end up making a choice and then regretting it, feeling regret over the choice that you've picked.

[00:03:48] No, I absolutely agree.

[00:03:49] And I think the interesting part about, let's say, the Cheesecake Factory is they can't even narrow down like what type of food they want to sell.

[00:03:59] They're like, we'll just sell everything.

[00:04:01] Whether you want Asian inspired, whether you want Mexican or whether you want Italian.

[00:04:07] We'll do a little bit of everything.

[00:04:10] Which also kind of leads me to think, you know how they say that if you're good, like if you're good at everything.

[00:04:18] No way.

[00:04:20] If you offer everything, it means you're good at nothing.

[00:04:24] Yes.

[00:04:24] Right?

[00:04:24] You got there.

[00:04:25] So I think, yeah, I think for the Cheesecake Factory, they're always promoting the fact that they sell options.

[00:04:32] They sell a lot of it.

[00:04:33] But I do wonder how many people that walk through there feel some level of stress.

[00:04:39] Yes.

[00:04:40] Yes, exactly.

[00:04:41] And I want to say like the Cheesecake Factory is really popular.

[00:04:44] Okay.

[00:04:44] I understand people love the Cheesecake Factory, but you would be lying if you said you didn't feel a little bit of stress looking through that menu.

[00:04:53] All right.

[00:04:54] So this is a call to action for all of our listeners.

[00:04:56] If, tell us, are we alone?

[00:04:59] Is this something that's normal?

[00:05:00] Is it just Chelsea and I that whenever we go into a Cheesecake Factory, we feel, you know, a little overwhelmed by all of the decisions we have as far as what we can eat that day?

[00:05:11] Exactly.

[00:05:12] But so that is choice overload.

[00:05:14] And I know part of this conversation is going to be about analysis paralysis, which I think greatly relates to choice overload.

[00:05:23] Vivian, can you talk a little bit about analysis paralysis?

[00:05:26] Yeah, I think analysis paralysis, everyone's experienced this to some extent, but it's just kind of like when you are overthinking things and you are stuck in that decision making process.

[00:05:39] You have so much information that you're kind of going through and you just can't pull the trigger.

[00:06:13] Right.

[00:06:14] And then you have to analyze everything is when you start to have a problem because you can't get anything done.

[00:06:20] So just saying.

[00:06:21] Well, whether you call it over analysis paralysis or analysis paralysis like the rest of the world does.

[00:06:28] I think the, yes, you're right, Chelsea.

[00:06:31] And I think the key here is we can do the same thing as small business owners with our marketing because there is just so much out there.

[00:06:41] I am reading this wonderful book right now.

[00:06:43] That's called Traction.

[00:06:45] And in there, he actually covers the, I think it's 18 marketing channels or marketing opportunities that you have to reach people.

[00:06:54] He kind of groups them in like search engine marketing, promotion or PR, all this stuff.

[00:06:59] But he's narrowed it down to 18.

[00:07:01] 18 is a lot.

[00:07:02] Okay.

[00:07:03] This isn't like narrowing it down into four categories.

[00:07:06] If there's that many options out there, how many of us are just getting stuck saying like, I don't know what my next step is.

[00:07:15] Like, I feel like I need more information.

[00:07:16] I feel like I want to research it more.

[00:07:19] And Chelsea, you and I have worked together now at the Season Marketer.

[00:07:24] We've worked together for a couple of years now.

[00:07:26] You see how I operate.

[00:07:27] I'm almost like one of these people.

[00:07:29] Like, I like, you know, where you, on the other hand, you're like, hey, let's make a decision.

[00:07:34] Let's just move forward with it.

[00:07:35] Let's go on.

[00:07:36] But there's something about me that always feels like, hey, give me some time to rem, to roomilate, roomilate, roomilate, roomilate.

[00:07:43] What's it?

[00:07:44] Was it roommate?

[00:07:44] I know the word, but I don't know how to say it.

[00:07:47] Yeah.

[00:07:48] I need time to just sit in the decision or in the options for a little while.

[00:07:53] And then it will come to me all of a sudden and we'll all be like, yeah, that's the right decision for me to make.

[00:07:58] Absolutely.

[00:07:58] And I want to bring up a statistic that I found.

[00:08:02] So according to the Small Business Now's current state of SMB marketing report, basically it's just a report talking about small business and medium-sized businesses and what's going on with their marketing.

[00:08:17] But they found that 52% of businesses surveyed report that they regularly, regularly delay or postpone marketing efforts.

[00:08:29] And y'all, marketing does not have to be a complicated process.

[00:08:33] Like we are absolutely overthinking this.

[00:08:37] I think that's the big thing is I know, let me just say this.

[00:08:43] I know why we feel like it is such a big decision.

[00:08:47] And I'm talking about this from a small business owner's perspective because I own the seasoned marketer.

[00:08:55] Like when you have a limited amount of financial options, not financial options, but like you have a set budget, right?

[00:09:04] And you have set amount of time and you have set resources.

[00:09:08] You feel like it is your responsibility to do the very best and the very most with what you have.

[00:09:15] And that is correct.

[00:09:17] That's the right thing to do.

[00:09:18] You want to be strategic about the way that you are using your marketing budget.

[00:09:22] Okay.

[00:09:23] You can't do all the things because you are not GoDaddy.

[00:09:27] You don't have like endless pockets, right?

[00:09:29] I don't know why I chose GoDaddy as an example.

[00:09:31] I don't either, but it makes sense.

[00:09:33] It makes sense.

[00:09:34] Yeah.

[00:09:34] And so you don't have those endless pockets and you do have to try to get the most out of these things.

[00:09:41] But at the end of the day, like Chelsea said, I know you said it just kind of right now, you said off the cuff.

[00:09:48] It's not that big of a deal.

[00:09:50] It's not that serious.

[00:09:52] Okay.

[00:09:52] And there is something to be said with experimenting when it comes to marketing.

[00:09:59] And the thing is, if you cannot go out there and experiment and try things out, collect data, see if it works for you.

[00:10:07] How else are you going to move through your marketing options?

[00:10:12] And how else are you going to figure out what does bring in the most amount of customers for your small business?

[00:10:18] Yes.

[00:10:18] And I think that's a really, really important point.

[00:10:22] Y'all, again, like Vivian said, you're working with a limited amount of resources, so you want to get it right.

[00:10:30] If you don't do anything at all, you will never get it right.

[00:10:34] You have to do something.

[00:10:36] You have to try.

[00:10:37] Oh, yeah.

[00:11:07] I'm going to spend $10,000 on marketing.

[00:11:10] I'm going to spend $30,000 on marketing, whatever that number is.

[00:11:14] And then come December 31st of that year, are you like, oh, I didn't even spend $1,000.

[00:11:21] I didn't even spend half of what I thought I would.

[00:11:25] If that's you, then you may have analysis paralysis.

[00:11:29] Another great way to be able to tell if you are experiencing analysis paralysis, analysis paralysis.

[00:11:37] Oh, for analysis paralysis.

[00:11:40] Analysis paralysis.

[00:11:41] Okay.

[00:11:42] Another way to be able to tell if you're experiencing this when it comes to your marketing is, you know, are you waiting for someone to come to you about a marketing opportunity?

[00:11:52] If you are not being proactive about your marketing, but instead just being reactive and waiting for opportunities to show themselves, you're overthinking it.

[00:12:05] Yeah. And it may be because you realize you have analysis paralysis.

[00:12:15] And the thing is, you're trying to avoid it now at all costs because you're like, I don't like the feeling of being overwhelmed and having to make a decision.

[00:12:25] So I do think those are two really good ways to figure out if you're kind of stuck in that mindset with your marketing.

[00:12:31] And, you know, I think one of the things that we'll talk about is just kind of how to get over that hump because we want you guys to be very confident when you are making these marketing decisions, regardless of whether or not.

[00:12:46] I know what I'm about to say is going to be controversial, but regardless of whether or not they flop.

[00:12:51] Okay. Something not working out, some marketing initiative not working out or doing exactly what you intended it to do is not necessarily the end of the world.

[00:13:02] It just means that you tested it, you got data, the data proved it was not going to work, and now you can mark it off your list forever and ever, or maybe in a different setting, it may work down the road.

[00:13:14] But, you know, it's information that you can use to make good marketing decisions.

[00:13:20] Vivian, I am so glad that you said that because, y'all, you do not need to be afraid to fail in general in your day-to-day life, but also with your marketing.

[00:13:31] Marketing is, as Vivian said, a learning experience.

[00:13:35] You're also learning more about your small business.

[00:13:38] So what we want to do is for the rest of this conversation, we want to talk about ways you can, you know, shift your mindset, think differently, and focus on these specifics so that you can feel comfortable with your marketing, you can feel confident, and you can get over this analysis paralysis and just work on creating a marketing strategy that works best for your small business.

[00:14:04] So our first thing, most important piece of info you need to succeed when it comes to marketing is knowledge of your target audience.

[00:14:16] At the end of the day, that is the most important thing when it comes to marketing is do you know who your target audience is?

[00:14:23] This is probably the one thing that trips people up so much.

[00:14:28] Can I just say, I'm sorry, yes, this is probably one of the things that trips people up the most.

[00:14:34] I'm going to say something controversial.

[00:14:36] This is the most important thing.

[00:14:38] This is the most important thing.

[00:14:40] This is the most important thing.

[00:14:42] When it comes to marketing in your small business, you need to know your target audience.

[00:14:46] I just needed to say it again.

[00:14:48] Well, so here's what's interesting.

[00:14:50] Let me reframe it like this.

[00:14:53] Okay.

[00:14:54] If you are having a problem with making decisions, it may be, it's easier to remove yourself from the decision.

[00:15:07] And what I mean by that is, like you just said, this is the main point.

[00:15:12] It's not about you.

[00:15:13] It's not about you.

[00:15:14] It's about your target audience.

[00:15:16] And so if it's about your target audience, your ideal customer, your, how, what else do we say?

[00:15:22] Your, uh, ideal avatar, your persona, your persona.

[00:15:29] Yeah.

[00:15:29] All right.

[00:15:29] If it's about them, it means it's not about you.

[00:15:32] And it means that you are always making the decision for the best way to target, to approach, to communicate, to reach these people.

[00:15:45] And so that should make your decision, you know, a little easier.

[00:15:50] Yeah.

[00:15:51] It's almost like, I'm going to give you a really bad analogy, but let's say.

[00:15:56] You had to prepare us.

[00:15:57] Okay.

[00:15:57] Yeah.

[00:15:58] Prepare.

[00:15:58] Prepare.

[00:15:58] Um, let's say that you are the caretaker for an elderly, like mother.

[00:16:05] Okay.

[00:16:06] The thing is those decisions can be hard because you always want to do what's right by your, your mom.

[00:16:13] But at the end of the day, I think because of the gravity of, you know, hopefully you like your mother and you want her to be here for a long, long time.

[00:16:22] Mom, if you're listening, we love you very much.

[00:16:25] I don't know what Vivian's.

[00:16:27] No, I'm not saying it for my, I'm just saying like, it should, you know, it, it should make it pretty clear on some of the decisions that are put in front of you because you're always acting and basing your decisions on what is best for that other person.

[00:16:42] And so that's the same way that you should approach your marketing is, you know, approach it from the perspective of your business.

[00:16:49] But at the end of the day, you are wanting to do what's best for your ideal customer.

[00:16:54] I love that.

[00:16:55] I'm also going to make a bad analogy then along the same lines.

[00:17:01] And y'all please don't judge us for this, but you need to create a persona.

[00:17:10] Like you need to write down for your target audience.

[00:17:14] This is what they enjoy.

[00:17:16] This is who they are.

[00:17:17] This is the education level.

[00:17:18] Like you need to flesh out.

[00:17:21] Flush out.

[00:17:22] Not flesh out.

[00:17:23] What?

[00:17:25] Flush out.

[00:17:26] Flush.

[00:17:27] Flush.

[00:17:28] Wait, spell that?

[00:17:29] F-L-U-S-H.

[00:17:32] It's not flesh?

[00:17:34] I don't think so.

[00:17:37] Hold on.

[00:17:38] Google it real quick.

[00:17:40] Okay.

[00:17:40] I looked it up.

[00:17:41] According to Google, flesh out and flush out are both correct idioms.

[00:17:47] You can use both of them.

[00:17:49] Okay.

[00:17:49] So flesh out.

[00:17:51] So we're both right.

[00:17:52] We're both right.

[00:17:53] Okay.

[00:17:54] That's all that matters.

[00:17:56] You need to flesh out or flush out an entire person so that you can follow along with, oh, this is who they would be.

[00:18:07] Kind of like you started this analogy, just saying.

[00:18:12] Kind of like a will.

[00:18:15] Like this is what they want.

[00:18:19] Oh, I see what you're saying.

[00:18:21] This is what they would want.

[00:18:23] So you need to know what they would want.

[00:18:26] They're your target audience.

[00:18:29] So it's kind of like a will.

[00:18:32] Oh, y'all.

[00:18:33] I don't know if this is what you guys signed up for when you decided to tune into this episode.

[00:18:37] But apparently we have dying mothers and wills.

[00:18:43] I feel like, you know what, y'all, maybe forget that analogy.

[00:18:47] That might have been a little confusing.

[00:18:49] The point is you need to know, like, what is your target audience doing on a Friday night?

[00:18:55] Do they have kids?

[00:18:56] Stop laughing.

[00:19:00] Yes, you are correct, Chelsea.

[00:19:02] Do they have kids or are they pet parents?

[00:19:04] Like, you need to know who they are because that's going to help you get over analysis paralysis because you know, oh, my target audience loves Facebook.

[00:19:14] Right.

[00:19:14] But they don't use TikTok.

[00:19:16] So I'm not even going to bother with TikTok.

[00:19:18] Or my target audience loves text messages.

[00:19:21] So I'm going to do text marketing instead of, like, mail, direct mail marketing or instead of email marketing.

[00:19:29] You know, like, you need to know these things about your target audience because that's going to make it really easy for you to make decisions.

[00:19:36] Well, and I think, too, the struggle is when you're feeling super uncomfortable or, like, you don't know which direction to go with your marketing, it's probably because of this.

[00:19:47] You know certain things that are going to work well for promoting your small business.

[00:19:52] And then you have the world of marketing, which changes 24-7.

[00:19:57] And every other week they release a new social media platform and they tell you that this is the new thing and that you can reach so many more people on this thing.

[00:20:05] And so you are in a constant state of having to, like, you're trucking along, you know what works for your business, and then you're deciding whether to incorporate something new.

[00:20:14] Well, you only have limited time.

[00:20:16] So you're like, if I incorporate something new, what am I going to have to give up, right?

[00:20:21] And the reason I bring this up, Chelsea, is I know I've mentioned this example before, hopefully not too many times because you are going to get tired of hearing it, but healthcare marketing.

[00:20:32] It's been interesting because we partner up in healthcare marketing with these Medicare plans, okay?

[00:20:39] So Medicare plans are the ones that, remember, they target people that are over 65, blah, blah, blah.

[00:20:45] They, like every other business now, they just have bigger budgets, but they also struggle with this.

[00:20:53] And they started doing Facebook ads.

[00:20:56] But what they found were the Facebook ads, while they were somewhat bringing them in, you know, I guess like some new customers, it was not doing as well as good old-fashioned postcards.

[00:21:11] And that is because of what Chelsea just told you guys.

[00:21:15] If you know who your target audience is, you have to know their preferences.

[00:21:19] You have to know their lifestyle.

[00:21:22] You have to know that they enjoy a leisurely stroll to their mailbox to open something up.

[00:21:29] And they're excited when they get an actual postcard that's well-designed and has their name on it and is specific to something that's going on in their life, which is,

[00:21:40] aka, I just turned a certain age and now I have to sign up for a Medicare plan.

[00:21:46] So the thing is, even though they're trying this new stuff out too and it's converting to some extent,

[00:21:53] they're not dumping their money into Facebook ads because they know it's not working for them the way that postcards are.

[00:21:59] Absolutely.

[00:22:00] I have a similar example related to direct mail, but kind of a shift.

[00:22:08] Tim and I are pet parents, right?

[00:22:10] We have two cats.

[00:22:11] We love them very much.

[00:22:13] Those are our children.

[00:22:14] A lot of people my age, you know, their pets are their children, right?

[00:22:19] Which, by the way, would you be considered pet parents or cat parents?

[00:22:23] It's the same thing.

[00:22:26] I know, but I just feel like, you know, when you say pet parents, then it usually means like you have a cat and a dog or a cat and a turtle.

[00:22:33] Okay, cat parents.

[00:22:34] My point is, what our vet does is for the birthday of our cats, they'll send postcards saying happy birthday to Smokey, happy birthday to pup.

[00:22:48] That is a great example of they know sentimental, like emotionally.

[00:22:55] That's the word I was looking for.

[00:22:56] Emotionally, our pets are so important to us that the fact that they sent us a postcard saying happy birthday.

[00:23:04] Wonderful.

[00:23:05] I love them so much for that.

[00:23:07] Yeah.

[00:23:07] Well, and that's the key.

[00:23:10] When you kind of get in the psyche of the person that your product or service is to benefit or can help the most, I think that's where you start to really make a difference.

[00:23:19] So this entire discussion on the first point that we wanted to make is shift your mindset to just understanding if you have analysis paralysis for your marketing, maybe just remind yourself it's not about you.

[00:23:34] What's in the best interest of my target customer?

[00:23:38] Absolutely.

[00:23:39] Okay.

[00:23:40] So our next point, super important for analysis paralysis, and I think something that both of us need to work on, it doesn't need to be perfect.

[00:23:52] Yes.

[00:23:53] Yeah.

[00:23:54] It's a constant struggle.

[00:23:56] I think because we want to put our best foot forward in everything, and as small business owners, you should.

[00:24:02] Okay.

[00:24:02] You should constantly be striving to put your best foot forward.

[00:24:06] However, I think prioritizing what you can kind of, you know, prioritize where it's super important.

[00:24:15] Okay.

[00:24:16] If you're going to be plastering something on a billboard, you want it to be a little perfect.

[00:24:20] Okay.

[00:24:21] Don't be okay with the misspelling.

[00:24:24] Okay.

[00:24:25] Thank you.

[00:24:26] Yes.

[00:24:27] That's really important.

[00:24:27] Don't be okay with like a crappy photo.

[00:24:30] Yeah.

[00:24:30] Okay.

[00:24:30] There are some things you need to prioritize.

[00:24:32] Yes.

[00:24:33] Now, a reel, a reel that maybe the audio was off just a tad.

[00:24:40] If you're going to sit there and like try to perfect that for the next like hour, your hour is better spent doing something else.

[00:24:48] I promise you.

[00:24:49] Okay.

[00:24:49] Absolutely.

[00:24:50] Because you're going to upload probably 50 more reels after this one, and someone's not going to go back and scroll down to see this one.

[00:24:57] And so I do think that to your point, perfection is one thing that does prevent us from being able to make these decisions on what we're doing.

[00:25:10] And so if you are struggling with getting any marketing out there because you are tinkering way too much and you just feel like it could be perfect, go ahead and give yourself the grace to just understand you can always improve as you go.

[00:25:56] I have a perfect example of this.

[00:25:57] And I think, I feel like a lot of people maybe shy away from using stories because they have the same problem.

[00:26:06] And I just want to say, first off, stories are temporary.

[00:26:09] They're there for 24 hours and then they're gone.

[00:26:12] So it's a perfect way to dabble in social media marketing without it having to be so permanent.

[00:26:19] And then two, you know, if maybe the lighting got kind of weird while you're talking or maybe, okay, you need to have audio the entire time.

[00:26:31] One of the stories I uploaded last week, the audio cut out in the middle of it, but I hadn't noticed.

[00:26:38] That's a problem.

[00:26:39] That is not – it needs to be perfect in the fact that they need to hear you the entire time.

[00:26:44] But my point is if there's little things, like it's okay.

[00:26:50] It's fine.

[00:26:51] Just post the story.

[00:26:53] Yeah, I agree.

[00:26:55] Let's use an example that's not social media because I think social media is going to be the one thing that we can obviously say, hey, it's a little easier to show up.

[00:27:04] Let me show you – or let me explain how else this might show up as a small business owner.

[00:27:11] Let's say that you are an organization that has a really good mission or, you know, you have partnered with a local organization.

[00:27:22] So the sales for, you know, November, you're going to donate to the local domestic violence nonprofit in your area.

[00:27:34] You've never done a press release or you've never contacted the media, but you feel like this would be a really great way or a great story to share so that they can help spread the word and people could come by and therefore your donation could be larger to the nonprofit.

[00:27:54] If you don't take the leap and just try it and contact the local newspaper and contact or send that email to your local television station, how are you going to move past this idea of wanting it to be perfect?

[00:28:11] Because that's what's holding you up because you're like, oh, whenever things are all perfectly aligned and whenever I feel really good about the pitch, I can make them.

[00:28:22] Or whenever I feel X, Y, and Z, then I'm going to reach out.

[00:28:26] So maybe not this time, but maybe I'll do it in a couple months when I do this again.

[00:28:31] Here's the thing.

[00:28:32] You're not going to get comfortable until you actually do the thing, right?

[00:28:36] And so it's going to feel weird and clunky the first time.

[00:28:40] It's like rollerblading.

[00:28:41] Yeah.

[00:28:41] I mean, you know, I, I used to love pretending I was, uh, what's her name?

[00:28:47] Michelle.

[00:28:48] Was it Michelle Kwan?

[00:28:50] I don't know what you're talking about.

[00:28:52] Okay.

[00:28:53] Ascana Bayul.

[00:28:54] I think she was a figure, uh, a skating ice skater, but we used to, when we were kids, we used to put our rollerblades on and actually go out there and like, actually, she may be a gymnast.

[00:29:06] And she, I don't even remember.

[00:29:07] Okay.

[00:29:07] The only, the only people I know is Simone Biles and Elona, Elona Mayer, Mayher.

[00:29:15] Is that the rugby?

[00:29:16] Yeah.

[00:29:17] Yeah.

[00:29:17] Woman?

[00:29:18] Love her.

[00:29:19] That's the only thing, only two people I know.

[00:29:21] So don't be saying names to me.

[00:29:23] So, so we used to put our roller skates on and go out there blading.

[00:29:28] Now ask me in my forties, if I, no matter how good I was when I was younger, if I put them on now, I'm going to be clunky at it because I haven't done it in so long.

[00:29:39] Yeah.

[00:29:39] You guys have to know that when it comes to your marketing, the familiar, fami- I can't say that word, familiarity.

[00:29:48] Famili- familiarity?

[00:29:50] Familiarity.

[00:29:51] Familiarity.

[00:29:52] This entire episode is just us not being able to talk.

[00:29:56] That is only going to come whenever you do the thing.

[00:30:02] Yeah.

[00:30:03] All right.

[00:30:03] So, so you cannot wait for perfection when it comes to, uh, you know, press releases and stuff like that, because if you've never done it, it's never going to be perfect.

[00:30:13] Cause I'm telling you right now, you're going to mess up the first like one or two times that you do it.

[00:30:18] But, you know, over time, you're going to get familiar with the process.

[00:30:24] You're going to know, you know, what are going to be good pitches and all of that.

[00:30:28] And sometimes it just takes being rejected a couple of times before, or it takes your marketing initiative not working before you tweak it and realize, oh, I can do this.

[00:30:39] It just means I have to present it in this way.

[00:30:43] Absolutely.

[00:30:44] Yeah.

[00:30:44] Practice makes perfect.

[00:30:46] Are you a small business owner feeling overwhelmed by marketing?

[00:30:50] We understand.

[00:30:51] That's why we created the SOB community just for you.

[00:30:55] Imagine having access to expert marketing advice every week through our interactive Zoom calls.

[00:31:01] Network with fellow small business owners in our community.

[00:31:04] Share valuable insights and grow together.

[00:31:06] Dive into our comprehensive training videos covering everything from social media to SEO.

[00:31:13] And all this for just $50 a month.

[00:31:16] Empower your small business without breaking the bank.

[00:31:19] Join the SOB community today.

[00:31:22] Okay.

[00:31:23] So next thing, next statement, I guess, that I want to say in case you're dealing with analysis paralysis is, y'all, you need to stop comparing yourself.

[00:31:34] There's nothing wrong with gaining inspiration from others.

[00:31:37] But if you're not going to do something because you saw someone else do it and there's no way you could compete or you are going to do something only because you saw someone else do it, that doesn't make sense.

[00:31:50] They are their own complete person.

[00:31:52] They are their own complete small business.

[00:31:55] No small business is the same.

[00:31:57] And you need to do what works best for you and your small business.

[00:32:03] If you're struggling with this, let me give you a little life hack.

[00:32:09] Unfollow those accounts that make you think this.

[00:32:12] And the reason I say that is there's, okay, so Chelsea and I do marketing for a living.

[00:32:21] Chelsea and I, when we utilize social media, if we go on Instagram, we try to make an effort not to follow other marketing people on Instagram.

[00:32:32] And the reason is because when we start doing that, for one, it clogs up our feed into seeing only things within our industry.

[00:32:39] And that's not our target audience.

[00:32:42] We're not out here creating content for other marketing people.

[00:32:47] We're out here creating content for small business owners.

[00:32:50] Therefore, our feed should include small business owners because that is the only way that we are going to better understand what their pain points are.

[00:33:00] That is the only way that we are going to understand what products or what content to create that's really going to move the needle forward for them.

[00:33:07] It's not going to be by following other marketing people.

[00:33:11] Yeah.

[00:33:11] And then, you know, that's where the bad case of comparinitis comes in when you're like, oh my gosh, they're so much further ahead than I am.

[00:33:20] Oh my gosh, they're, you know, it's always good to have inspiration, I think, to look around and say like, wow, that's inspiring.

[00:33:26] Maybe I can take some small piece of that and make it my own, right?

[00:33:33] But don't, you know, don't sit there and constantly judge what you're doing against what anyone else is doing.

[00:33:40] The other point I want to make here, Chelsea, is I think I covered this in a recent Instagram story on our Instagram page.

[00:33:49] Yeah.

[00:33:49] No, shocking, not on TikTok, but on our Instagram page and Instagram story.

[00:33:55] You don't have enough data to compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges when you are doing this.

[00:34:01] So you guys are sitting there comparing your small business to somebody that potentially is, you know, getting funding from somewhere else.

[00:34:11] Okay, you potentially are comparing your small business to someone whose business isn't doing well.

[00:34:19] So you're trying to duplicate something that isn't working for them, but you think because it's nice and polished, it is working for them.

[00:34:24] And then you're going down that same road.

[00:34:27] If we were to think about this like a sixth grade experiment, your controls, your environment is super important.

[00:34:35] And you can't compare A to B unless they are exactly the same, right?

[00:34:41] And maybe you move like you change one thing about it.

[00:34:44] But it's just, I think it's important for people to realize that you're never going to see the full picture.

[00:34:50] And so therefore, it's just not worth your time to sit there and compare yourself.

[00:34:54] I'm so glad you brought up, you know, data.

[00:34:59] Because another thing I really want to say is do not focus.

[00:35:04] Well, I don't want to say do not focus completely.

[00:35:06] But I feel like in general, as small business owners, we need to focus less on vanity metrics.

[00:35:14] It's not about how many followers you have or how many likes a video got or stuff like that.

[00:35:20] Like, yeah, it's good to know that.

[00:35:22] But you need to focus your marketing on am I converting people?

[00:35:28] Whether that's am I converting them into sales or am I converting them onto my mailing list?

[00:35:34] Am I converting them?

[00:35:35] It is about converting people, not how many likes you got on something.

[00:35:41] Yeah, it's for every effort that you make in a marketing channel.

[00:35:47] I don't care if this is social media.

[00:35:49] I don't care if it's billboards.

[00:35:51] I don't care if it's radio.

[00:35:53] Whatever you are doing to promote your small business, you need to figure out a way to be able to track the success of it.

[00:36:03] Because, and Chelsea, we see this all the time.

[00:36:07] People are like, social media, social media, Instagram is free.

[00:36:11] And so they're willing to allow it to take up so much of their time.

[00:36:16] But then you're like, hey, is that paying off?

[00:36:20] Is the amount of time that you're investing on Instagram actually converting over to sales?

[00:36:27] Or if it's not direct sales, is it converting over onto your email list?

[00:36:33] Exactly.

[00:36:34] Or then you're going to be able to massage a relationship and get them to buy down the road.

[00:36:40] I think people need to maybe think about that a little more seriously with Instagram, especially because, like you said, they're using vanity metrics to basically explain away and say, yeah, you know, my Instagram's working well because I have an account that's got 50,000 people on it.

[00:36:57] Yeah.

[00:36:58] Yeah, exactly.

[00:37:00] And since we were earlier talking about how social media marketing is not the only marketing out there, I can give you an example of vanity metrics.

[00:37:09] Let's talk about radio.

[00:37:12] So you put out a radio ad and let's say the station comes back and they say, okay, this is how many people listen to the ad.

[00:37:21] Cool.

[00:37:22] How many people converted?

[00:37:24] Yeah.

[00:37:24] Or if a great example of this is Vivian and I have both done an ad before with the same e-magazine, like e-newsletter.

[00:37:36] And they have a tendency to send you this fully fleshed out like performance review.

[00:37:44] Like this is how many people it was sent to and this is how many people opened it and this is the percentage of blah, blah, blah.

[00:37:51] Cool.

[00:37:52] And it's great to have that information and you definitely want that information.

[00:37:56] Did it convert?

[00:37:59] That is what matters.

[00:38:01] It really is important to have all of that info when you are making these decisions because let me connect the dots here.

[00:38:09] We're coming full circle.

[00:38:12] Maybe you have analysis paralysis and you're not feeling confident in your decision making because you have too many options.

[00:38:20] Going back to what we were talking about at the top of this episode.

[00:38:23] When you guys are not including a metric to be able to tie it back to the data.

[00:38:33] If you have that radio ad out there and you didn't create, let's say, a specific phone number to promote on the ad.

[00:38:43] That then when those calls come in, you can track them and you can see exactly how many people called in from that one ad.

[00:38:51] Then you're going to have trouble and you're going to be like, I think it's working.

[00:38:55] I think it's not like, but I can't put my finger on it.

[00:38:59] And so therefore, I don't feel confident to continue making the same decision.

[00:39:04] And so every opportunity that you have to promote your business is an opportunity for you to build your confidence.

[00:39:12] To know that you are always going to be smart in the sense of tying it back.

[00:39:17] So then you have the data to make a good decision.

[00:39:21] You know, and then it's just like a circle that continues.

[00:39:25] Okay.

[00:39:25] So the final thing that I want to talk about and I think is going to be really important when it comes to analysis paralysis.

[00:39:33] And what we've hinted at, I feel like throughout this episode is you don't have to be everywhere.

[00:39:41] You can't be everywhere.

[00:39:43] I mean, that's a good point too.

[00:39:47] If the book I was reading or I referred to earlier that I'm reading, if it says there are 18 marketing channels, y'all, do you have it in your budget to be able to try all 18 of them?

[00:40:00] Yeah.

[00:40:00] I'm going to tell you the answer to that is no.

[00:40:02] Okay.

[00:40:02] Like that, that would just be like a madman.

[00:40:04] Like you can't.

[00:40:05] Right.

[00:40:06] And also as a small business owner, who has the time to keep up with 18 different marketing channels?

[00:40:11] Absolutely.

[00:40:11] What you do have to do is figure out which ones work best for your small business.

[00:40:17] And so don't be afraid to lean into the ones that are working well.

[00:40:22] And I'll say that's what's going to build your confidence up too.

[00:40:25] Mm-hmm.

[00:40:26] So getting really good at being able to determine that earlier on is going to be what over time allows you to experiment a little more.

[00:40:34] And then also you know that the money you're investing in these marketing initiatives is going to return some type of, you know, sale.

[00:40:45] Yeah.

[00:40:46] And like you said, you know, like you said, what works best for you, your small business.

[00:40:52] Also, what works best for your target audience?

[00:40:56] Kind of going back to the beginning of this conversation.

[00:40:58] Yeah.

[00:40:59] So Chelsea, do you want to give us a quick wrap up?

[00:41:02] I would love to.

[00:41:04] Let's do a little TLDR.

[00:41:08] Ooh.

[00:41:09] Wait.

[00:41:09] First, do you know what TLDR is?

[00:41:12] I see it everywhere, especially on Reddit.

[00:41:16] So I know it means like quick and to the point, right?

[00:41:19] It's too long, didn't read.

[00:41:21] Okay.

[00:41:21] But people aren't reading this.

[00:41:23] So let's do TLDR.

[00:41:25] Too long, didn't listen.

[00:41:26] Too long, didn't listen.

[00:41:27] I mean, I guess you could do that.

[00:41:29] I prefer if you listen to the whole conversation.

[00:41:31] But let's say you want to get straight to the point.

[00:41:34] Okay.

[00:41:35] So this is what you need to know if you are struggling with analysis paralysis in terms of your marketing for your small business.

[00:41:44] You need to have clear knowledge of your target audience.

[00:41:48] You need to really, really know who they are.

[00:41:51] You need to remember that it doesn't need to be perfect.

[00:41:54] I mean, some things do need to be nice and polished.

[00:41:57] But sometimes you have a little wiggle room, right?

[00:42:01] Also, stop comparing yourself to others.

[00:42:04] You can't compare.

[00:42:05] It's apples to oranges.

[00:42:07] You know, like they are not.

[00:42:08] You don't know what's going on with them.

[00:42:10] Stop comparing yourself.

[00:42:12] You do not have to be everywhere.

[00:42:14] That is so important, y'all.

[00:42:16] You do not have to be everywhere.

[00:42:18] You don't have to try all the marketing strategies.

[00:42:20] Just focus on what works best for your small business and your target audience.

[00:42:24] And let's focus a little less on vanity metrics and instead focus on am I converting people?

[00:42:31] Thank you, Chelsea, for that little TLDL.

[00:42:34] That was wonderful.

[00:42:35] You wrapped it up very nicely.

[00:42:37] We hope that this discussion has been extremely useful.

[00:42:41] If you are out there, we know that, listen, it can be hard to run, manage, be a social media content creator, do all the things, right?

[00:42:52] In your marketing, be the HR person, be like everything.

[00:42:56] But that's why we actually started the SOB community.

[00:43:00] So our small owned business community is a paid membership for marketing in particular.

[00:43:07] So if you feel like you can utilize some marketing support, you guys, but you don't want to go higher like a big, expensive marketing agency, then join us over on our SOB community.

[00:43:19] It's $50 a month and you get access to Chelsea and I.

[00:43:22] We do a weekly Q&A type thing via Zoom.

[00:43:27] And so we would love to have you there and be able to answer any questions you have.

[00:43:31] And we also have marketing tutorials.

[00:43:33] We have other people that you can interact with, all of that good stuff.

[00:43:38] Absolutely.

[00:43:39] And do not forget, Vivian, for the month of October, we are donating 100% of the proceeds to four small businesses in Lansing, North Carolina.

[00:43:51] They were affected by Hurricane Haleen.

[00:43:54] They're trying to rebuild their business.

[00:43:56] And so we are going to do the best that we can and help them with the support that we have available.

[00:44:05] And that is going to be 100% of our proceeds for the SOB community going to those businesses.

[00:44:11] So y'all, please consider joining the SOB community.

[00:44:16] If you are dealing with over...

[00:44:18] It's just analysis, not over-analysis.

[00:44:21] Sorry.

[00:44:21] If you're dealing with analysis paralysis, try out these tips and go be the best SOB you can be.

[00:44:29] But for me, I've got a lot of feedback.

[00:44:29] Let's go to the SOB community.