Have you ever felt frustrated when trying something new with your marketing that doesn’t work as well as you’d hoped? Or do you know exactly what you need to do to improve your marketing and get better results but find it difficult to maintain?
In this article, I’ll help you solve these problems by answering three simple questions:
- Why is consistency in your marketing important?
- What are the most important things to be consistent in?
- How can you ensure you maintain this consistency?
Let’s start by answering the first question…
Why is consistency in your marketing important?
There’s no denying that people who are successful in business rely on consistency.
They are consistent in their marketing, sales, content creation, social media posting frequency, and morning routines.
So, if you want to get results from your marketing, logically, you must be consistent.
By ‘results’, I don’t mean getting more followers, reach or awareness. Sure, that stuff is important, but when I talk about results, I’m talking about getting more clients.
One of the most common reasons marketing campaigns in small—to medium-sized businesses fail is that they lack consistency.
A business owner hears the great success stories that others have had by gaining more followers on Twitter, generating more leads on Facebook and increasing sales through content marketing… And what happens?
They think “Oh wow, this sounds great! Let me try that.”
They dabble in it for a bit, then stop.
Then they wonder, “Why didn’t this marketing strategy work for me? Maybe it just doesn’t work for my type of business….”
Well, when you dabble in marketing, you’re right! It won’t work—not because that advertising platform isn’t suited to your business, but usually because you didn’t maintain it for long enough.
The businesses that produce the best results (in terms of generating both leads and sales) are those that are consistent in their marketing. They’ve regularly been sending clear, consistent messages to potential clients. Not just for weeks or months but for years.
What are the most important things to be consistent in?
(Watch the video to learn more about what to be consistent in)
Now, obviously, you don’t want to waste time on marketing that won’t produce results. That’s why we recommend always having a defined strategy before you do any ongoing marketing.
You want to focus your attention on being consistent in the areas of your business that will produce the best results.
For example, if you consistently attend networking events to meet new people and generate leads – that’s great. But is it really the best thing you could be doing for your business? Are there other areas you could focus on and get better results? In my experience, as someone who used to do a lot of networking, the answer is yes.
Regardless of what business you’re in, there are some essential areas you have to be consistent in.
Be consistent in your lead generation
You need to have a system in your business that generates leads regularly. So, stop and think about your own business for a moment. Are you generating valuable leads every month? How about every week or day? If not, why not?
Leads are the food your business needs to survive.
Make sure you keep your business well-nourished.
Remember, you don’t need to start with a huge amount of leads. In fact, it’s natural to start generating just a few leads every month to begin with. The important thing is to start somewhere and then keep improving based on the results.
If you need help with lead generation ideas for your business, social media is a great first step.
With billions of people using social media every day, your potential customers are likely using at least one of the many available channels. It’s just a matter of finding them and reaching out to them with the right message.
Be consistent in your lead conversion
The second area in which you need to be consistent in your marketing is having a refined process that converts leads into paying customers.
The way that we recommend you convert leads into paying customers is through:
1. Daily social media updates
2. Creating high-quality and relevant educational content
3. Targeted email marketing
Do you have a system for maintaining those three things? Not just once, but consistently?
You should! I can promise you, from doing this in our own agency and with our own clients, that this is how you can consistently bring in more sales.
If you don’t have a system yet, here are some quick tips to get you started.
Tip #1: Use software to schedule your social media updates in advance
You can use lead generation tools such as Sendible to schedule regular and relevant social media updates on all your social media channels daily – and save a lot of time too.
Tip #2: The more content you create, the quicker you will see results
There are countless benefits to creating educational content for your business. The more content you create consistently, the better results you will get.
To get started, list the most common questions your customers ask and then develop content (blogs, articles, videos, etc.) that answer them.
Tip #3: Email your leads your valuable content
If you’re creating new content, then you can use email software such as Kartra (which is what we use) to email a subscriber list your latest and best content.
At a minimum, follow up via automated emails with people on your list once a month to build trust that nurtures your leads into sales.
How to ensure you stay consistent with your marketing
Let’s be honest. Even when you intend to focus on your marketing, sometimes other stuff gets in the way. You commit to be consistent, but then you get bombarded with client work, or life throws you another roadblock.
Remember, though, that your sales and marketing will help your business survive and thrive!
So, you must make it an absolute priority.
Challenge yourself to be consistent in marketing and sales
One of the ways successful business owners have managed to be consistent is by giving themselves a challenge.
Why not do the same? Give yourself a 30-day challenge to do something related to lead generation and lead conversion.
The second (and more powerful way) to stay consistent is by telling other people about your challenge.
So, are you ready to be consistent in your marketing? The best place to start is by generating consistent leads and clients each month. To learn how to do it, watch the free video I’ve recorded here.
So, start developing a system to be consistent in your lead generation and lead conversion, and very soon, you will start to reap the rewards and results of your hard work.
Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, Ash has been helping business owners get high-quality leads, appointments, and clients each month. He has extensive experience working with B2B & B2C industries in finance, insurance, marketing, sales and beyond. Learn more about the author here.