Ep 18. What marketing strategy actually looks like (spoiler: It’s not what you think)

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So I had a potential client message me last week saying she’d been doing marketing strategy for months, but she wasn’t getting any results. And by results she meant leads and clients from her efforts.

And when I asked her what she was doing, she sent me this beautiful color coded content calendar with posting themes for each day of the week.

And it looked amazing. But that’s when I realized that we have a massive problem in the marketing world because everyone thinks that they’re doing strategy when actually they’re just doing really organized tactics.

So Hello, and a very warm welcome to Quiet Confidence if you’re new here. I’m Anita Popat, a marketing strategist for introverts.

And today I wanna clear up what marketing strategy actually is versus what most people think it is because, I’m sorry. It’s not just a content calendar.

It goes so much deeper than that.

It’s a roadmap for how someone goes from a complete stranger to becoming a paying client.

And once you understand that difference, everything else starts to make sense.

So Before I start, let me paint you a picture of what most people call strategy.

And I say this from experience of getting clients who tell me that they’re doing all of these things and calling it strategy.

So they’ve got their content pillars mapped out. Maybe it’s Monday motivation or Wednesday Wisdom or um, I don’t know, Thursday throwback. 

(Spoiler alert, that’s really old school now) 

So they know exactly what they’re posting and when, and they’ve got their images and their captions planned and maybe even filmed reels, weeks in advance.

And don’t get me wrong, this is good. Batch creating is good.

On paper it looks really strategic, right? It’s organized, it’s consistent. It’s planned.

But what’s missing is that there’s no journey.

You’re just matching a piece of content to the theme you got for that day.

There’s no heart or soul to your content or that feeling of, “Come over to my page. I get where you are”. Basically everything I’ve been talking about in the previous episodes.

Real marketing strategy starts with a completely different question to what should I post? It starts with who am I trying to reach and what journey do I wanna take them on?

Let me tell you about Lisa, one of my clients who’s a sleep consultant for new parents.

When she first came to me, she had that beautiful content calendar with sleep tips on [00:02:00] Tuesday, motivational quotes about motherhood.

But when I asked her who she was actually trying to help, she got a bit vague like a lot of people do at the start. And she said, new mums who are struggling with sleep.

And then when I asked her what journey she wanted to take them on, she looked at me like I was talking some kind of foreign language

Obviously we worked on that and what we discovered together was that her ideal client wasn’t just any new mum, it was the mum who was three months in exhausted maybe back at work or about to go back.

And she was feeling like she was failing because everyone else seemed to have it figured out, like they always do.

And this is the journey we mapped out for her content. So hopefully the thought process will help you with your content too.

Firstly, we needed this mum to realize that she wasn’t failing.

Like sleep challenges are normal. Once she accepted that, we needed her to understand that there are gentle methods that work.

Obviously, the methods that Lisa used with her clients, and then we needed her to see that getting professional help isn’t giving up. It’s being smart. And then finally, we needed her to feel confident that Lisa was the right person to help.

So instead of writing generic sleep tips, she was speaking directly to the heart and soul of that really exhausted mum who’s holding her three month year old baby.

So Once Lisa understood this journey, her content completely changed.

And you can see how, right?

So what does marketing strategy actually look like?

Well, it starts with three foundational questions. And the way I teach is firstly, knowing exactly who you’re talking to, but also weaving into that exactly who you are and how you wanna show up in the world. And then matching that messaging to the person that you want to talk to in their own words.

And then secondly, where are they now versus where they need to be?

And then thirdly, what’s the journey between those two places?

Let me go into them in a bit more detail.

The first one, who exactly are you talking to? And I know you’re going to say the classic. Yeah, but I can help everyone Anita!

I know you could, but there’s a specific person who needs you the most right now, and the most important thing is that they’re willing to pay for it.

That’s the person that we’re talking to and we wanna think about like what’s keeping them up at night? What have they already tried? What do they wish someone could understand about their situation?

And you are gonna be the one to say, yeah, it’s [00:04:00] me. I know how you’re feeling. Come and work with me in your content.

The second one, where are they now versus where do they need to be?

You can’t really do this unless you’ve got a specific person in mind. When people say they can help everyone, you end up being so broad and. You almost like don’t say anything because there’s so many angles you could take. It gets confusing.

But when you’ve got that one person in your mind, you can really, really channel your content into that direction and go much deeper rather than talking about one thing, surface level one day and then another thing another day.

It just confuses everyone and yourself too.

So when we’re talking about where do they wanna be, we’re not here to press pain points and make them feel bad about themselves. We wanna show that we acknowledge their mindset, but really talk about their desires and where they wanna get to.

I’m all about feel good marketing. We’re not here to put people down, but we do need to touch on what they currently believe about the problem that they’re having and what they think the solution looks like.

They might not know that a solution like yours exists. And they also might have fears or doubts that are holding them back from taking action.

And again, we can use our content to talk to all of these things, but it makes it really, really hard when you’re trying to talk to everyone instead of that one particular person who I call your sweet spot client.

And then thirdly is what’s the journey between these two places?

So this is where people jump straight to the buy my thing post. But there’s usually several steps in between.

So maybe your ideal client needs to realize that their problem is actually solvable first. Like I said before, maybe they don’t even know something exists that really fits them like a glove. Maybe they need to understand first, why their previous attempts didn’t work.

 So I talk a lot about using extroverted marketing strategies and them probably making you feel like you’re performing. Um, so my whole ethos is trying to find a marketing strategy that fits around your energy.

You basically need to get them round to your way of thinking and maybe also seeing that getting help is actually a smart decision. It’s not that they’re failing. 

Let me give you another client example, which might help you visualize this better.

Let’s talk about Emma now she’s a business coach for accountants who want to start their own practice. So her ideal client is the accountant who’s still employed, who’s brilliant at their job, and they’re probably people who are browsing like job sites in their lunch breaks or bookmarking articles about [00:06:00] freelancing, but not really taking any steps because they’re comfy with the corporate salary. Right?

This is the journey we mapped out for her.

So firstly, the people she’s trying to reach need to realize that their dream of going solo is actually achievable, and it’s not just wishful thinking.

 Then they need to understand the challenges they might have of starting an accounting practice versus other types of businesses.

 And then once they’ve got around to the idea of starting something on their own, they need to see how they can start preparing for this while they’re still employed.

And then finally, they need to feel confident that Emma really understood their world, specifically. So we talked about her story of leaving an employed role to set up her own business and all the stories around that.

Instead of giving like generic advice, she was talking about the specific fears accountants might have about losing a steady income.

 And also instead of sharing like broad freelancing tips, she was talking about the regulations and also the challenges they might face in things like getting clients or doing other things, that are unique to accounting practices.

 And because she was so specific and so clear on who she was talking to instead of people asking her like, what do you do, her dms were more like, oh, when come we start.

 So if you’re feeling frustrated because your perfectly planned content isn’t converting, it might not be your consistency, that’s a problem.

It could be that you’re posting tactics without any strategy behind it. But the good news is that once you understand your client’s creating content becomes so much easier because you’ll know exactly what your people need to hear next.

 And yes, mapping out the trust bridge does take a bit of work. And I’m also a big fan of doing market research because you really need to understand the psychology and really get into your sweet spot client’s head.

And that’s the strategic work that I help loads of people with because you need to step outside your own expertise and then really see your work through completely fresh eyes from your sweet spot client’s perspective.

And sometimes when you’ve been in your world for so long, doing the delivering, you are obviously gonna be biased towards a way of thinking. And it helps to have someone on the other side, IE me asking you those questions that your sweet spot client might be thinking.

 So if you’re thinking, yes, this is exactly what I need help with, this is exactly what we dive into inside my one-to-one program, Silent Storm.

 I’ll put a link to that in the show notes for you to check out. But feel free to send me a DM over on Instagram and we can [00:08:00] have a chat to see whether it would be the right fit for you.

 Until then remember, tactics are good, but strategy is better.

 Having a strong foundation that’s rooted in your quiet confidence is what will help you make that loud impact with your work.

 As always, thank you for listening and if you really enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would leave a rate or a review.

And please do share it with your network if you think they would find it useful too.

Thanks for listening.