Have you ever stopped yourself from promoting your business because of the fear of failure or fear of judgement from friends and family? Most people have been there, ourselves included! Megan Spicer, Marketing & Business Development Manager, and Amanda Mulcahy, Marketing Assistant, discuss how to overcome the fear of marketing yourself and your business in this episode. We talk about the importance of marketing, how it impacts your customers, and tips to help overcome fears that can be associated with sales and marketing.
What we cover in this episode:
- 03:00 – Marketing vs. sales
- 05:10 – Promoting yourself & your business
- 12:20 – The fear of marketing your business
- 17:03 – What will others say?
Marketing vs. sales
One of the biggest challenges with marketing is that it is often directly associated with sales and people tend to think of the used car salesman or cold calling, which can give anyone chills. Although sales is a part of marketing, sales does not define it entirely.
Marketing is the action of promoting your business. The main reason this is important to know when it comes to overcoming the fear of marketing, is because if you have the idea that marketing is only sales, then you probably think marketing your business means you have to become the cliche car salesman that is trying to “wheel and deal” and pressure people into a sale.
When you realize this is not what marketing is entirely about, it opens up a better perspective for you. It is also important to know that you should fear sales either. The only way you can generate income is through sales of your product or your service. Learning how to navigate these two areas can be fun when you cater them to your brand and personality.
Promoting yourself and your business
One of the biggest fears of marketing your product or service is marketing yourself. If you have a small business, you are basically marketing yourself because you are your brand, and this can be extremely difficult to do for people especially when they are starting out. No one wants to sound overconfident or brag about what they can do or offer, it can feel unnatural.
However, if you change your perspective on this and see it as marketing, growing, and expanding your business and services to your customers, then it can become a lot easier. Megan adds, “You have to understand the unique value that you and your team bring to the market or to that service and what’s different about you. So taking some time to reflect on what experiences you can bring to the table that other people don’t have.”
Marketing your product or service is a lot easier if you are bringing value to your customer base. Are you bringing value to your customers with your service? What makes you different from your competitors? Remembering why you went into the business to begin with can reinforce your confidence in your business making it easier to overcome the fear of marketing you have. If you are not offering a valuable service or product in some way, then you may want to reassess your mission statement.
According to Megan, “If you aren’t doing everything that you can to show the value of what you bring to the table and reach the right people, you’re potentially doing harm to those people because then they do end up having to work with Joe Schmo who has the sleazy sales tactics.”
The fear of marketing your business
It is very easy to look at your competition and try to emulate them, but this is not always necessary. Megan explains, “You’re a small business compared to the big players out there, and it’s easy to get caught in that comparison game. Like they say, comparison is the thief of joy in personal life and in business. So look at what your competition is doing from small to large, but don’t let yourself get discouraged if you can’t do the same thing.”
Big companies usually have whole marketing teams and each person on it is specialized in their specific department such as social media and advertising. You can grow your business with digital marketing as well. Sure it can be overwhelming for you, who is one person doing all marketing departments, and more, but stepping back and zoning in on your clientele is essential.
Where do your customers get their information from? What social media platforms, if any, do they utilize? Why do they use these platforms? Your customer base may use TikTok for fun and blogs for information purposes. Doing your research and zeroing in on who you are trying to reach, why you are trying to reach them and how you are going to do it can reduce the overwhelm when you start figuring out your marketing plan.
Your plan doesn’t have to be extensive to start out with, it just needs to establish some goals, line out how you think you can reach them and how you’re going to measure them. Marketing plans can be adjusted along the way, and usually are, but a starting point will reduce the fear of not knowing what to do or where you’re going.
What Will Others Say?
One of the fears of marketing is the one and only, fear of rejection. What will others think of you? What will they say about you? The internet can be cruel, and the last thing you want is negative feedback from peers, especially online. So how do you get past this?
Like we touched on earlier, be confident in the value your business is providing. Also, at the end of the day, you are your own worst enemy. You will criticize yourself more and in ways others probably aren’t even thinking about. At the end of the day though, who cares what they say! Yes that sounds cliche and is something you may hear from others, but the bottom line is that it is true.
If there are people out there that are negative towards what you are promoting or how you are promoting, you probably don’t want them to be a part of your business anyways. Those are not the type of people that you need to support you; there are millions of people in the world and many of them will support you in a kind way. Amanda talks about how she had to overcome the fear of marketing and rejection when she was promoting her business.
Amanda stated, “I hated Facebook Lives. It just seems so unnatural. You’re talking to these people you don’t even see, and it’s all live. But I just had a goal, like, do one every single day. The more you do it, obviously the more natural it becomes and soon you’re doing it and people are in the same building as you. You don’t care as much. I remember before, I used to have to go to a different room. It had to be quiet. No one could see me.”
“You just feel like people are judging you. And they might not be, and they might be, but at the end of the day, if you have a product or service that you know you want to get out there and you know is beneficial, then who cares.”
Through all the different channels you have to market your business, being able to grow your business with digital marketing is one of the fastest and most convenient ways to do so. If you let your fear of putting yourself out there come in the way, it could only hinder your growth.Make sure to keep the end goal in mind.
Conclusion
Marketing your business can and will be very overwhelming and fearful at times. If you can remember why you started doing what you are doing, that will get your mindset back on track. Stay confident and service minded in what you have to offer and stay consistent in what you are doing, and your fear of marketing will slowly go away. Of course most things do not happen overnight, so remember that and keep trekking forward.
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