Know Your Core Marketing Strength

Many small business owners dislike marketing and do it grudgingly, even though we know it's absolutely key to having any success.

There are many reasons why people seem to procrastinate with their marketing: they don't really understand the tactic or strategy they are using, they don't feel comfortable doing it, or they can't figure out which marketing strategies to use.

What I've found to really work when trying to figure out which tactics to use - especially when you're just starting out with your business - is to determine what your core marketing strength is.

There are 3 main areas that most marketing tactics fall under: writing, speaking and networking.

All of us are usually stronger in one of these areas, we enjoy one area more, or it comes easier and we can do it quicker than the other two areas.

Why wouldn't you go ahead and take advantage of that and do marketing strategies that you are good at and actually enjoy doing! Don't you think that will right off the bat make marketing more enjoyable and easier to do?

Once you figure out what your core marketing strength is, you can build a marketing framework that encompasses 3 or 4 tactics based on your strength. From there you can add additional strategies from your core area and/or add some from the other two areas.

For example, my core marketing strength is writing. I love writing, I can do it pretty quickly and easily and I have lots of ideas of things I can write about (around my business services and products).

I enjoy speaking and I've done lots of it, but it causes me some angst and it's not something I absolutely thrive on doing.

Networking (especially in-person) is definitely not something I really like, am comfortable with or really want to do! I'll do it, I have done it - especially in my corporate life, but it isn't something I get hopped up about doing! I'm much better one-on-one with people.

So guess what? I've built my marketing framework around writing. I chose marketing tactics that involved writing - like submitting articles, having a blog, doing guest blogs, writing ebooks and so on.

Once that got going and was humming along consistently, I started adding some marketing tactics that include networking and speaking.

But the key thing is that I built my marketing framework around something I enjoyed, could do fast and with not tons of effort. This ensured that I took action with my marketing right away and that I enjoyed it. We all know that we will do something we enjoy, but procrastinate endlessly if it's something we feel not that great at, don't enjoy or it seems too difficult.

That's why I think it's key to identify your core marketing strength and start from there. Marketing can be fun - so help make it enjoyable by choosing marketing tactics that you actually like doing!