Consistency in marketing: your key to success or the reason you’re falling short?
There’s a lot of pressure to show up consistently online to promote your business and showcase your expertise.
Consistent marketing is often promoted by marketers as your key to building audience trust, increasing customer loyalty, and improving sales numbers.
But what does being consistent actually mean? How many emails a month or social media posts each week are these marketing experts referring to?
The reality is that there is a lot of nuance within common marketing “standards,” best practices, or recommendations.
With 20+ years experience in marketing and communications I’ve worked with businesses of all sizes, and if there’s one common thread it’s that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing.
The posting schedule that produces the best engagement for one business might lead to crickets for another. While one company might see impressive conversion rates with a weekly email, another might only experience unsubscribes.
This is further complicated for small business owners who often feel pressure to comply with intense posting schedules or marketing formulas (meant for larger companies) that they simply don’t have the resources for.
In fact, this blog post was inspired by another post I saw recently which essentially insinuated that if you don't have a dedicated marketing person to push out content consistently, your customers will find it challenging to remember who you are, and trust your brand.
Yikes! Talk about pressure.
Now granted, if you encourage your audience to subscribe to your email list, they will likely expect to see an email from you now and again. And if you have a social media profile, your followers might not be super engaged if you only update them once a year.
But there’s a balance to be found here.
You don’t need a dedicated marketing person if you have a realistic marketing plan based on a comprehensive strategy.
The best way to uphold a sense of marketing consistency for your business is to be intentional with the schedule you set out for yourself, and what you hope to achieve through these efforts.
Focus on content quality over quantity
Your audience likely won’t notice how often you don’t post, as much as they will notice when you do post – assuming your content is relevant and interesting to them.
In today’s noisy marketing climate, there is always content available for your audience to consume. Chances are they actually have a harder time keeping up with their social media feeds or reaching the glorified inbox zero.
So, are your subscribers or followers anxiously awaiting every piece of content you produce? Likely not.
I suspect many don’t even notice when they don’t receive emails or see a social media post from a small business, unless you happen to have an extremely engaged audience.
Beyond that, the one good thing about the algorithmic gods we’re all bowing down to these days is that no one is paying attention to when you post anymore, because they’re not guaranteed to see it the day you post anyways.
Now, this isn’t to discourage you from creating content. I’m a big fan of content creation in all forms – as long as it’s strategic.
I’m simply offering you an opportunity to reframe your understanding of what it means to be consistent, and the value that consistency holds.
Consistency does play a role in building brand trust if you’re sharing quality, useful content. But if the content you produce isn’t helping your audience with the problems they have or only gives superficial help, you may as well skip it.
Instead, dedicate time to crafting a content calendar that excites you, focuses on serving your ideal client, and is strategically linked to your business goals and offers.
When consistency does matter
There are two instances when I am more inclined to encourage you to increase your marketing efforts, at least temporarily: when you’re launching something new, or when you have a time sensitive offer.
These are periods when you might need to rearrange your schedule or prioritize marketing tactics in order to hit your goals.
Even in these situations though, it’s still important to be strategic, and to remain cognizant of your bandwidth so you don’t burn yourself out.
01: When you’re launching something new
We all have sales goals we’re trying to reach as business owners.
And while we don’t have control over whether or not someone buys, we can focus on amping up our content creation during the launch of a new offer (or a promotion period of an old offer), in order to expand our reach and drive conversions.
Prospective buyers may be impacted by inconsistent marketing, if they’re looking for certain information from you in order to make a purchase.
For example:
They may have specific questions about the product or service they want you to answer,
They might be looking for more indication of your expertise, and/or,
They might want to see some additional social proof before they feel confident to check-out.
02: When you have a time-sensitive offer
While the algorithm changes mentioned above can mitigate the pressure or “need” of a daily posting schedule, they also bring up other challenges.
If your audience may not see your content right away, it can complicate the promotion of time-sensitive offers.
If you are looking to promote a time-sensitive offer or a limited-time discount, it’s important to plan ahead, and to show up more often during this time period to increase your reach, improve brand awareness, and drive conversions.
These instances aside, let go of this constant need to show up!
Challenge the idea that inconsistency is irreparably harmful, and instead know that there is nuance to these “standards” or ideals you’re being presented.
Most of your audience understands that running a business is a challenging job that involves juggling a lot of important and urgent responsibilities, not to mention competing priorities.
They’re not comparing you (at least not negatively) to the larger corporations and brands they follow, wondering why you aren’t posting as often as them.
In fact, they’re probably grateful that you’re setting a different standard! So why are you letting yourself fall prey to the trap of comparison?
Take a deep breath. Recognize your personal and business limitations and give yourself grace. Get clear on your goals, craft an intentional and realistic strategy, and stick to it.
When you do have the bandwidth to show up, do so authentically, keeping your ideal client in mind.
What posting inconsistently likely means
If your posting schedule is inconsistent, it’s likely that you’re experiencing:
The breakdown of an unrealistic plan (which is bound to happen if you’ve set your sights too high and/or aren’t taking into account the time, energy, and budget you have available to you).
A change in priorities (completely valid and expected at times, though it does bring up questions around outsourcing and reprioritizing to stay on track more consistently moving forward).
An unexpected busy season (aim to see this as a learning opportunity so you can put additional strategies or resources in place to support you moving forward).
The result of taking time off without batching content ahead of time (while not always necessary, being proactive in planning for time off can be incredibly supportive to your business and workflows).
Overwhelm because you’re expecting yourself to reinvent the wheel with each post (remember, if it’s worth sharing, it’s worth repeating – you have more to say than you think you do!).
Answer these questions to get back on track:
What is a more realistic frequency, either in the short-term or long-term if you need to make an adjustment?
Are you confident that you’re reaching the goals you’ve set for your channels? If not, should you de-prioritize any activities that aren’t serving you?
Do you have the resources to outsource any part of the marketing work you’re doing to ease the load while keeping the momentum going?
How can you be more proactive moving forward? Are there any systems or workflows you can implement in your business to support you?
Do you have a comprehensive strategy in place linking your content to your overarching business or marketing goals?
Are you trying to reinvent the wheel with every post? How can you let go of some of this pressure?
If you’re a small business owner struggling to navigate the world of marketing, or are feeling overwhelmed by the endless advice out there, my Sharp Marketing Program is for you.
Designed to cut through the noise, I’ll help you develop a custom marketing strategy that delivers real results.
Instead of prescribing one-size-fits-all advice, I’ll work with you through a series of personalized sessions so we can clarify your unique business goals, and identify the most effective tactics to reach your ideal clients and grow your revenue.
Most importantly, the plan we develop will be realistic.
Book a free consultation today to see if this program is right for you.