Finding a “Just Enough” Marketing Strategy That Works for Your Business
THINGS WE ARE LEARNING • MARKETING • SMALL BUSINESS STRATEGY
By Amanda Laird, Growth Marketing Strategist
Before you add that mini mic to your cart, hear me out.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. No secret magic formula that is guaranteed to do anything overnight.
That’s just not how effective, sustainable marketing actually works.
Because how, where, and when you market your business depends on a million different factors, including:
The type of business that you run
The stage or phase of business that you’re in
The foundation you’ve already built
Who you’re selling to
Your preferences and capacity (yup, that counts. Probably a lot more than you think).
You don’t need to be posting everywhere all the time. You need just enough of the right marketing that reaches and connects with the right audience for your business to be effective.
So how do you find the just enough strategy that works for you?
First, Let's Talk Marketing 101
The purpose of marketing is to drive sales. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.
How do you know if your marketing is “working?”
Are you making sales? If you answered yes, then it is!
But if you said no, well then there is some work to do. That doesn’t mean you’re failing, just that you’ve got some leaks to fill.
Every marketing action that you take should have a specific job to do:
01. Attract
Attracting new potential customers by getting in front of new audiences to build awareness of your products or offers.
Tactics include: Search, social content, AI recommendations, advertising, referrals, media, or speaking.
02. Connect
Connecting with potential customers to help them discern and decide if what you sell will meet their needs or desires.
Tactics include: Blogs, articles, newsletters, your website, case studies, and content of all kinds, including podcasts, videos, or social media.
03. Convert
Converting your audience to actual paying customers (that’s the sales part, babe).
Tactics include: Sales campaigns, discovery calls, emails, proposals, literally the “buy now” button on your website.
04. Delight
Delighting customers to drive repeat sales and referrals.
Tactics include: A really good offer that does what it says! Also loyalty perks or pricing, referral incentives, and customer appreciation.
The Marketing Sandwich
If that sounds like a marketing funnel, you’re right! A marketing funnel is a visual representation of how a customer goes from learning about your business for the first time to becoming a paying customer.
But in my work, when I’m talking about doing just enough, I prefer to use a sandwich.
A triple-decker club with all the fixings is a sandwich, and a single slice of bread folded over a swipe of peanut butter is a sandwich too. Which one you reach for is going to depend on your appetite, the resources you have available, and your preferences.
The same goes for your marketing strategy.
There are going to be times when it’s all systems go, like when you’re launching a new service or running a holiday promo, and times when you’re doing just enough because you’re at capacity.
So how do you know what enough even is?
There isn’t a single answer that will apply to every business, and what’s enough will change as your business shifts and grows.
Here are a few key things to consider to help you start building your own sandwich strategy.
What Goes Into Your Marketing Strategy?
01. Sales and Revenue Goals
How much money do you want and need to make to cover expenses, including paying yourself and/or a team?
02. Your Business Model
Selling high-value consulting contracts to corporations is very different from selling a $50 direct-to-consumer mini course.
One requires a high volume of traffic to meet your goals, while the other is more likely to be rooted in relationship building, thought leadership, and word of mouth.
03. Your Customer Journey
What’s happening for your customers before they purchase your products or services? Are they actively looking for your solutions, ready to buy now? Or do they need more time to understand how you can help them?
This will give you an idea of how much and what kind of marketing you need to do.
Think about the last time you needed to hire a service or purchase a product to solve an urgent problem. How did you find that solution, and what factored into your decision-making?
04. Preferences, Capacity, and Strengths
I really do believe that any marketing strategy can work (just ask the professional organizer in my neighbourhood who gets 100% of her business from referrals and flyers on lamp posts), and the best one is whatever you’re going to actually do.
Short-form video may be trending, but if you’re just never going to get on camera because the very thought puts you into freeze mode, then lean into what feels good and doable.
Of course, in business, like in life, there will be times when you have to push outside your comfort zone. But you will go farther, faster, when you’re honest about your preferences, strengths, and capacity too.
What If You're Already Doing a Lot of Marketing?
Try this: Write down everything you’ve done in the last six months and sort it into those four marketing objectives:
ATTRACT • CONNECT • CONVERT • DELIGHT
Consider which of those activities are actually leading to sales.
What’s missing from your sandwich? Is there anything you can ditch or revise?
Most small business owners discover that they’ve been overleveraging in one objective while ignoring another. Or that there is no thread that links each layer together to guide customers towards the sale.
The answer to “what marketing should I be doing?” is usually right there in what you’ve already built.
Starting there is how you begin to do just enough.
About the Contributor
Amanda Laird | Growth Marketing Strategist
Amanda Laird is a certified growth marketing strategist helping solo, creative small business owners grow without burning out. She is the host of the Personal Business podcast and author of Heavy Flow: Breaking the Curse of Menstruation.
Grab her free Map Your Marketing audit toolkit to find the gaps in your current marketing and make more sales.
Need help building your small business marketing strategy? Explore Amanda’s profile on Heart Be Your Guide.