How I’m Turning My Marketing Strategy Into a Research Experiment
Funny thing. Before I started writing this article, I wanted to start by writing that before I started my own company, I never used marketing in the jobs I had. But that’s not really true now, is it?
First of all, I had to get the job. That meant applying for a job and standing out. Promoting what I have to offer. And that’s just how it starts. Once hired, you need to make yourself heard to get the assignments you like. You want the people you work with to know what you are good at, and what you like to do. Sometimes when you have an idea, you have to ‘sell’ it to your boss and coworkers. This is all marketing.
When I started my company, I didn’t see it like that. I just thought I knew nothing about marketing. To be honest, I even thought I suck at it. But this is just a mindset, right? Marketing is nothing more than letting people know what you offer. That’s it.
There’s a lot of ways to do marketing. I have tried different things. Spammed Linkedin with posts everyday. DM’ed people to offer my services (which both me and the people I DM’ed didn’t really like). Tried to sell programs to people I had coffee with (also not a fan). Did online workshops to promote my programs (these were fun to do. But didn’t lead to sales). Joined ‘the week of’ types of events to find new customers (which I did, a few anyway). Some of these efforts were successful. Others weren’t. Some were really exhausting. I’ve realized that my marketing efforts have felt scattered. The scattered approach left me feeling frustrated and drained, making me question if marketing could ever feel natural. It’s time to take a more structured, scientific approach to see what truly works for my business.
So, as a gentleman scientist, this calls for a research project!
Channels
As I briefly mentioned in my SmartSolopreneur newsletter #1, for my Feel good after 40 project, I use different channels for marketing:
Substack for updates on my project. Free articles with general updates, and Premium content with in-depth articles (see below for the first two) and the opportunity to be part of the project
Pinterest, to promote my articles on Substack, and to promote products I develop along the way. Pinterest is not fast-paced like Linkedin, for instance. Posts have a longer lifetime: months or sometimes years. This allows me to focus more on the quality of the content, instead of the quality.
Podcast. I plan to do a podcast every other week, in which I update you about what I found out in the two weeks prior to the podcast. This is still in the making, I hope to release the first episode somewhere in January. Also meant to draw attention to the project, of course.
This is the main structure. I might add in occasional experiments with other channels like Linkedin.
With these channels I have a 2 week cycle of creating and sharing content. I like to batch activities to match my energy, and then plan the release of that content in advance.
Metrics
You can only tell if you are progressing if you measure. So you have to think about metrics. Hard metrics, like:
views, likes, comments, shares
number of subscribers
open rates (for Substack newsletters)
conversion rates
website traffic
Because I experienced energy drains from marketing before, I want to add in metrics on that too. In a weekly session, I reflect on my marketing activities of the last week:
Performance of activities: how did the marketing activities do, in actual numbers? What worked, and what didn’t?
Energy check-in: what was the impact of my marketing activities on my energy levels?
Adjustment and planning: adjustments to the plan (if needed) and planning for next week’s activities.
Learning what works
By treating my marketing plan as a big experiment, with focus on what works, I hope to build a well-oiled marketing machine, to really fund that gentleman scientist lifestyle I like so much!
How do you approach marketing? Have you found a system that works for you? Share your insights—I’d love to learn from your experiences!