Now, if you follow me on Instagram, and if you don't then you should, @Suzchadwick, then I recently asked a question, “Which was what is one thing in your business you would love to get better at?” and somebody answered “Marketing and advertising my services”.

Now, I know that this is something that so many women deal with where you just feel really awkward putting yourself out there.

Maybe you're not sure what to say. Or when you come to posting something, then you get emotional about it, and don't want to do it. And you're holding yourself back.

One thing that I found has really worked super well for me has been scheduling and really planning ahead for my marketing. What I mean by that is I usually look at the next say three months, six months, and think what are the marketing campaigns that I want to put out? Do I have a free opt-in, am I looking to build my list? Am I looking to promote an online course?

A really good example is that my Play Big, Brand Bold online course is something that I love, and I want to put out there. But when it comes to the emails that go out I do feel a little awkward. I think, oh, I don't want to bother people with, you know, all of these emails.

So if I am in the moment during the launch, and I'm writing and sending them, I can guarantee you that I won't be doing it as well or doing as many as I need to. And I may not have thought it through as well as I could have if I had planned. Now, that's all changed, I have done a massive amount of planning for the launch that I'm in, and sat down and basically wrote the largest email automation that I've ever done. The point is that even though it's weeks into the future, because I've sat down and I've thought about the messaging.

(Grab your Free checklist and get your marketing autopilot started today!)

I've automated it in my CRM to go out on a certain dates at certain times. If somebody opts out it'll take them out of that sequence. If they want to know more they can click something else and they'll get other information. And all of that is just happening. So I'm off doing my thing working with clients, spending time with the family, and that automation is just happening. Marketing in my business is just happening, and the messaging, and exactly how I want to say it, and the things that need to get out to the people that want that information is just going out without me having to do anything.

So it's really not coming down to how I'm feeling on the day, am I feeling vulnerable, am I feeling strong? Should I put this out, should I not put this out? That is taken out of my hands. I've made a decision that, yes, I want to market this product or service. This is how I'm gonna do it, this is when it needs to go out, I set and I forget.

Now, I obviously do go back and take a look at the stats and make sure that things are working well, especially with things like Facebook ads. But once you set them up, and you target who your audience is, and you set how much you want to spend and when that is gonna go out it really does mean that you can take yourself out of the mix a bit. And you don't end up dealing with those feelings of not wanting to do something, even though you really do want to do it. But in that moment you don't.

So if you've been struggling to market and advertise your business, yourself, your products and services, then the one really big tip I've got for you is to make sure that you are planning ahead, that you are scheduling. Even things like your Instagram scheduling. Make sure that you've got the posts you want to have going out when you want to have them. It just means that if you're not somebody who enjoys or finds it easy to post in the moment, then it's something that you can plan for and make your life a whole lot easier.

I just think that generally as women in business we've got so much to do, I say it all the time. You have to be a jack of all trades. So you have to work out if there's something that's holding you back, if there's something that you know you're not doing that is actually gonna help your business to grow, then get ahead of the curve. Really think about and plan it out. Schedule it in wherever you need to schedule it. Whether it's Facebook ads, it's an email automation, it's campaigns on Instagram, whatever it is, or scheduling posts and just get it going so that you can go off and do what you want to do, and your marketing's happening effortlessly whilst you're not there.

What's your biggest issue when it comes to marketing your business? leave a comment below and let me know! 🙂