How to reduce your reliance on social media marketing

Want to know how to reduce your reliance on social media marketing. For many small business owners social media marketing becomes a necessary evil. They don’t enjoy marketing their business on social media, but because it is the main way they generate leads and make sales in their business they feel as if they have to keep on using social media. If you feel similar or you even if you love social media but don’t want to rely on it so much then you are in the right place. Keep on reading to find out how to reduce your reliance on social media marketing.

 

 

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HOW TO REDUCE YOUR RELIANCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

 

 

Step 1: Remember that there is more to marketing than social media

The first thing you need to do in order to reduce your reliance on social media marketing is remember that social media marketing is just one type of marketing you can use. I come across so many small business owners who think that they have to market their business on social media. And not even that they have to market their business on social media, but that it is the best way to market their business. That is not true at all!

 

Marketing existed long before social media was even a thing. Thriving businesses existed long before social media was around. And you need to remind yourself of that.

 

If you are like most business owners and entrepreneurs you don’t like being forced to do something. And so if you feel that you have to market your business on social media then that is likely to already make you (slightly) resent marketing your business on social media.

 

So remember that marketing your business on social media is an option. You are actively making the choice to market your business on social media. A choice you can change at any time in the future – if you wish to do so.

 

 

Step 2: Consider the other marketing options

As we’ve discussed you have the choice at any moment to stop using social media to market your business, but if you are relying on social media marketing for leads and sales then just stopping today isn’t going to be a smart business decision.

In order to reduce your reliance on social media marketing you need to focus on diversifying your marketing so you can generate leads and sales in other ways. Once you are making leads and sales in other ways you’ll be less financially reliant on social media and that might mean you can use social media less without worrying about the negative impact.

There are so many ways that you could market your business, but here are some of the most popular choices for online, service-based, businesses.

 

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a tried-and-test marketing option that works for business big and small, across virtually every industry. It is very rare to come across a business that wouldn’t benefit from email marketing. And the beauty of email marketing is that as it is something your business owns you can get access to lots of data and properly track the ROI (which is usually great for email marketing). Email marketing is a great way to nurture and convert people.

 

Affiliate or Referral Marketing

Another option is to set up an official affiliate or referral scheme. This is where you have other people promote your business and for each sale that is made they’ll receive a commission or kickback. This type of marketing can work really well if there is another type of business that naturally will recommend your business. For example, website designers can be great affiliates or referral partners for photographers and copywriters because very often a client who is looking for a new website design might also need images for that website or help with the copy to supply for the website.

 

(Long-Form) Content Marketing

Another way to market your business is by create high-value long-form content. This could be done in a written form (usually a blog), an audio form (a podcast) or a video form (usually a YouTube Channel). The beauty of creating these types of long-form content is that it allows people to truly get sucked into your business’ world. If your business creates a number of pieces of long-form content then this means that people can binge consume the content and this enables the know, like and trust factor to build fast, which in turn is great for generating leads and sales.

Find out more about creating a bingeable bank of content here.

 

Search Engine Optimisation

Another option is to use search engine optimisation (SEO). This is where you will purposefully create and optimise content so that is shows up when people search. Originally these techniques were used so that website pages would rank on search engines (such as Google and Bing), but those same techniques can be used on YouTube and Pinterest. This type of marketing is great for generating initial awareness and because someone is purposefully searching for something and then your business is offering a solution it can result in very fast purchases.

 

Social Media Advertising 

There is no denying the power of social media platforms and how many people use them on a daily basis. But just because you want to tap into that power doesn’t mean you have to slog away and create organic content that is hardly shown to your followers. You can pay-to-play aka run social media ads. Running social media advertisements has multiple advantages to posting organicially. Firstly, with social media advertising you are able to be more targeted. This enables you to be even more specific with your messaging. Secondly, with social media advertising you are creating an advert that can run for weeks or months with very little intervention so it is a great use of your time.

 

Speaking

Another way to market yourself is through speaking. Traditionally speaking meant travelling to speak on stages in conferences and events, but now the options are endless. There are so many online/virtual summits, as well as the fact you can speak on other business’ podcasts, YouTube channels and do joint lives on social media platforms. Speaking is great for increasing brand awareness and visibility. But when done well speaking can also be used to build your mailing list, generate leads and makes sales.

 

Networking 

Last, but not least, there is an old school method to consider – networking. Networking has been a tried and tested way to market businesses for years. That’s why there are so many different types of networking groups and events that exist. Networking comes in all shapes and sizes, and if you’ve tried networking before and didn’t like it then it probably means you haven’t found the right type of networking yet. But that doesn’t mean the right type isn’t out there for you!

 

 

Step 3: Decide what you’ll use 

Having considered all the options it is time to make a decision and get started. Above I have given you 7 options, but I am definitely not recommending that you decide to do all of them. Trying to do everything at once will end badly. Instead, decide to focus on adding in between 1 to 3 things. Consider how the options work in the buyer journey and ensure that your options will enable someone to go through the buyer journey without social media.

 

For example, you could decide that you want to use long-form content, SEO and email. This could result in multiple buyer journeys.

 

BUYER JOURNEY 1: Person searches for something on YouTube, watches your video that has a sales call-to-action and they instantly buy.

 

BUYER JOURNEY 2: Person searches for something on YouTube, watches your video that has a call-to-action to join your mailing list or download a lead magnet, they join your mailing list, they receive sales emails and then they buy.

 

BUYER JOURNEY 3: Person searches for something on YouTube, watches your video that has a call-to-action to follow you on social media, they follow you on social media, they see a sales post and buy.

 

As you can see there are multiple ways someone can complete the buyer journey and one of those journeys includes social media. That is fine, because some of the options don’t and that is what is important. To reduce your reliance on social media you want to make sure that it is possible for people to buy without having ever viewed your social media account. But that doesn’t mean they won’t.

 

READY TO STOP RELYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIVERSIFY YOUR MARKETING?  Come join my upcoming masterclass Diversify and Dominate: Unleash the Power of Multi-Channel Marketing. To sign up for the next time I’m running this masterclass here.

 

Step 4: Get started

You’ve considered the options, you’ve made some choices and now it is time to get started. Pitch yourself to speak, create a lead magnet and start building your email list or launch that podcast. The only way to reduce your reliance on social media is by taking action so that the other forms of marketing start working for you.

Now usually there are two things that hold business owners back from taking action – not having the skill or not making the time. From a skill perspective there is nothing you can’t learn or that you can’t outsource. Either commit to upskilling or outsource it. Then from a time perspective start little and focus on the types of marketing that will give the biggest return. One of the major downsides to social media marketing is how long it can take to create a post that only lives for a short period of time. That means it isn’t difficult to find another type of marketing where you get more value for the time you are spending on it.

 

For example, if you could set aside 1 day that would be enough to make considerable progress with virtually all of the options mentioned. You’d be able to:

• Create a batch of long-form content
• Get your email list set up, lead magnet create and automated sequence running
• Pitch yourself for loads of speaking opportunities
• Research and contact businesses to see if they’d be interested in being an affiliate or referral partner
• Get a social media advert set up and running
• Contact at least 20+ businesses about being an affiliate or referral partner

And most of these types of marketing have a much longer life span that social. So carve out the time sooner rather than later. This isn’t activity that becomes something you have to add into your weekly activities.

 

Step 5: Monitor where sales are coming from

The whole point of diversifying into these other types of marketing is to reduce your reliance on social media and for you to start feeling less reliant you’ll need the proof aka you need to know that the other types of marketing are generate leads and sales. So track and review.

Some types of marketing is easy to track. For example you can easily tell when social media adverts, emails and affiliates have generated sales. But in other cases you might have to use a combination of data and anecdotal feedback.

As with any type of marketing pay attention to what is working and then double down on that. Keep a track on what percentage of your sales is coming from each type of marketing and get excited as social media starts accounting for less and less sales.

 

That’s it! You now know how to reduce your reliance on social media marketing.

 

Social media marketing is a powerful way to market your business, but relying on social media is stressful as a business owner. By following the steps laid out you’ll be able to diversify your marketing in a way that means you’ll be able to bring in sales through other ways, which in turn will allow you to reduce your reliance on social media marketing,

 

I hope you’ve found this blog post useful. Let me know in the comments what your biggest takeaway has been. 

 

DIVERSIFY YOUR MARKETING FOR SALES SUCCESS NOW AND FOR YEARS TO COME!  Come join my upcoming masterclass Diversify and Dominate: Unleash the Power of Multi-Channel Marketing. To sign up for the next time I’m running this masterclass here.