Today I’m sharing with you the 10 key tips to putting your marketing on autopilot in your business. One of the big things that many women in business in particular that I find is that they get emotional or feel awkward marketing themselves, so if this is you then putting your marketing on autopilot really take the emotion out of it and means that you’re doing the work and getting the traction without relying on how you’re feeling.

Now before we dive in, this episode is brought to your by my brand spanking new FREE Video training – How to Build a standout brand masterclass. If you feel like you’re just not cutting through the noise, you’re really struggling to get clear on what you’re about and what you’re here to do as well as what it takes to build your brand then this one is for you  – head to www.theconnectionexchange.com/brandmasterclass and get access to that today!

So let’s dive into How to put your marketing on autopilot

1. Get really clear on what you’re selling

• What are you selling?
• What are your core products and services?
  (use my free your best year yet planner)

2. Once you know what you want to sell then work out how much revenue you want to earn you need to start thinking about how much you’re willing to spend on marketing that product. Now obviously spending time building your brand, connection and audience is going to help reduce your marketing spend because you’re attracting clients using free tools.  But you also need to think about a marketing budget for list building, networking, Facebook ads if that’s the path you decide to go down.

• From my marketing manager buddies, the general stat is that you’ll spend around 30% of your revenue in the first year and then 20% moving forward. But when I look online at research it’s usually around 10%
• So if you are aiming for $80k then you may spend $4 -$8K across the year or if you’re aiming for $250 then it may be $25k – you get the gist!
• So set a marketing budget that you’re willing to spend and commit to it.
• When I started out my general rule to start with is 1-2 times the price of the product or service if you’re unsure. That means that you just need one person to purchase to cover your cost.
• The bigger you get the bigger your marketing budget could potentially be but then that will also reflect in your revenue

3. Ok, so you know what you’re selling, you have a ball park figure of how much you’re willing to invest in your marketing now it’s time to grab your calendar and start mapping out key times in the year that you want this running.
   • This could align with seasonality or with events, workshops, launch dates if you’ve got online products or you could just divide it by 12 and have a monthly budget.
   • I personally look at event dates and then launch dates because those are key times in my business when I have a deadline.

4. Now that you know when you need to be marketing, you can start to plan out how long you want to market something in order to achieve your goals. So what’s the lead time you need?
   • So for a launch – if you’ve followed any of the launch gurus then they will say you need to be list building at least 3 months out from a launch. So you may create a free training or opt-in that then has a sequence to move people through to your product or service.
   • If it’s an event then it could be 6 week out from the event. You would obviously be using your free tools and I’ll put the link in the show notes to a video I recorded a while ago on 16 way to promote your event online.

5. Now before you start setting things up you do need to think about the entry point that someone is going to come into at. So what does that mean? Well if you’ve got higher priced products and service then someone who doesn’t know you may not buy straight away, so what’s a lower point that they can come in at and then as you build trust and they get to know you more, then you can start to share your higher priced products with them if it’s right for them and if they’re interested.  So you need to map out your customer journey and stages that you can be marketing to them at.  So let’s say you’re a copy writer and you have an online course that teaches someone how to perfect their copy writing skills.You may market a free or low priced product on how to improve your copy writing skills.  Anyone who signs up for it, you can assume wants to get better at writing copy.  So give them some great tips, show them how to do one element, continue to build the relationships and then offer them your course down the track.

6. Once you have the entry point, which really should be a clear sign that the topic you’re talking about is something they’re interested in then you need to start to set up your automations. If you can spend time setting these up then you can run them again and again and again without having to do anything! How great it that?  Imagine turning this on and off and knowing that it’s doing most of the work for you.I use Active Campaign as my CRM and email management tool which has an awesome automation setup but most email management system even mail chimp can do this.

7. Tip 7 – just because you’re creating an automation doesn’t mean you can’t be human! One big time is write your emails and this automation like you’re actually speaking to someone. I read my emails out aloud and if I couldn’t say it someone then I don’t write it.

8. Realise that not everyone opens every email. You need more emails than you think you do because some people will see some and others will see and read others so don’t be afraid to do the work and really share what you have.  As long as what you’re sharing is helpful, it has a point and it helps them make a decision then share it.  I have FAQ – frequently asked questions when I’m sending product sales emails.  I also share special time limited offers.  I share testimonials.   As someone who has been the receiver of these emails for something that I’m interested in, it’s been really helpful to get this type of info. So don’t be scared to address all the objectives that you know you clients might have or answer their questions before they ask them!

9. Assess – Check how things are going. Are people opting out at a certain point? Are your ads not converting? Are you getting the traction you want is basically what you need to know.  Putting your marketing on autopilot doesn’t mean set and forget. It means do the work upfront, test it out, tweak it and run it again.  The market is always changing so this was never going to be just a one hit wonder – but if you can get 70% of it right and then be tweaking as the market changes, then you’re still in a great position.

10. Work smarter not harder – Change your mindset. Now if you’ve been thinking – wow that feels hard, then my question is what are you doing now? If you don’t have great systems in your business and great marketing strategies, tactics and set ups then I can guarantee you that it’s probably taking you more time right now or you’re probably not doing it at all.

• Change your mindset
• Do the work
• Allocate the budget and get things moving
• If you want to grow your business then you need to be thinking about things like this!

So my top 10 tips again:

1. Get clear on what you’re selling
2. Set a marketing budget
3. Set it out in your calendar
4. Understand what the lead is that you need
5. Know your customer journey and entry point so that you can give them the right thing
6. Set up your automation
7. Be human in your interaction
8. Do more than you think you need to
9. Assess and measure your success and make sure it’s doing what you want it to
10. Work smarter not harder – get your mindset right and make sure you building is running like a business and you’re really thinking through your marketing.

Now as I said – building your brand, the know, like and trust factor, giving to your audience and really building that community is the foundation that you want for your business and then your marketing should be secondary to that!  But it is key for your to!

I hope that you enjoyed that episode. I’ve got a big podcast batching day coming up so I’m excited to be taking things to a more regular weekly episode schedule and I’ll be getting back to one of my favorite things – Videos, so make sure you’re following me on