Marketing in small business can feel like hard work.

Social media, email marketing, websites, lead magnets, brochures, blogs, webinars, capability statements and ALL THE THINGS can feel incredibly overwhelming.

When the world is screaming at you to do more, more, more, you need to take a step back.

There are ways to make your marketing less time consuming, more powerful and more fun.

And one of the ways to do that is to choose only the best content channels for your business.

Here’s how you can do that.

Decide, right now, that you don’t have to be everywhere.

Despite how far we’ve come with the learning that’s available on marketing in small business, there’s still so much pressure for us to show up everywhere.

I think this comes from seeing big brands everywhere – so we get this feeling that we also have to be everywhere in order to attract our ideal client.

But we really, really don’t.

It’s completely a myth.

You don’t have to jump on that latest marketing trend. You don’t have to be on every social media platform. And you don’t have to have a podcast.

You get to make the rules about what marketing is good for your business.

So, before you do anything else, I want you to decide, right now, that you don’t have to be everywhere.

Because being everywhere can actually cause more harm than good – spreading you way too thin, and diluting your message instead of reaching the customers you want to reach.

Which brings me to my second point…

Start with the channels that are where your customers are

When we’re being pulled into the marketing vortex of more, we forget that we really need to start where our customers are.

If they like to learn via video content, then we should be focussing on YouTube. If they love to engage on Instagram, then we should definitely be there.

If podcasting is popular and easy to access for them, then that’s where you should be putting your energy and budget.

Whatever your business, make sure your content creation, marketing and distribution meets your customers where they are.

If you don’t know where they are or where they hang out, then you need to answer that question (and perhaps a few others that you’ll find in this Understanding Your Tribe workbook you can download for free here).

Look at what your competitors are doing

Looking at the marketing your competitors are doing serves two purposes.

The first, is that you can have a look at what’s working for them and consider whether it will work for you too (particularly if your ideal clients are exactly the same).

The second, is that you can see where they’re leaving gaps and fill them.

The trick is to not become so competitor obsessed that you forget to align your marketing with your business.

Use competitor research to help inform your decision making around which marketing channels and platforms you should target, and then move your focus onto doing that.

Align your channel choices with your business goals

This is something we routinely forget to do (mainly because we get caught in the trap of feeling like we have to be everywhere).

You need to take the time to get strategic and align your content creation and distribution choices with the goals of your business.

What is it exactly that you’re trying to achieve?

Are you looking for significant growth? Or to simply maintain the credibility you have with your existing clients? Are you wanting to tap into a new market? Or launch a new product? Or build your thought leadership?

When you align what you’re doing in your marketing with the goals you’re trying to achieve in your business, you’ll make better marketing decisions. And when your marketing is in alignment, you’ll find that it’s much easier to do, because its completely purpose driven.

Check-in with your data

It can sometimes feel like a lot of effort to measure small business marketing.

We’re so busy with so many other things, that watching the marketing data can feel like a real chore.

But it’s so important.

Because it will help you nail the first three items in this article.

When you measure your marketing, you’re putting yourself in the driver’s seat.

It will help you to see what’s working and what’s not. Where you might need to tweak things, or even stop marketing on certain channels altogether.

When you’re measuring the right parts of your marketing efforts, you’ll find that you can feel at ease when you decide to remove a channel from your marketing plan, and confident that when you’re trying something new, you’ll be able to tell if it’s working or not.

Because you’ll have the data to back up your decisions.

I also want to encourage you to not get caught up in thinking your numbers are too small to matter.

That your 250 Instagram followers, or 150 email list subscribers are not enough.

Measuring the data will show you that small can also be mighty – especially when you’re using the right channels to connect with your ideal client.

It’s okay to start small, and build from there.

When we fall into the trap of being everywhere, we don’t actually take the time to work out which content and marketing channels are the best ones to support our business.

Because we have to have content everywhere, we start focussing on quantity over quality.

Our measurement gets messy. We get overwhelmed and find that we’re struggling to resource the marketing machine we’ve created.

And we forget why we were even marketing our business in the first place.

This is why it’s important to remember that it’s okay to start small.

Pick the one channel or marketing activity you think you should be doing based on knowing what your customer needs from you, and what’s in alignment with your business goals and start there.

Once you’re nailing it and it’s delivering what you need it to deliver, then build on it.

Keep things simple, streamlined and manageable for your business.

The best content channels for YOUR business are the ones that help you build the business you want to have.

When you focus on your ideal client, do your competitor research, check-in with your marketing data, align your marketing with your business goals and start small, you’ll be able to avoid the curse of everywhere and start marketing on the best platforms for YOUR business.

What is the business that you want to have?

And how will your marketing help you achieve that?

When you answer these questions, you’ll be able to create marketing that connects with your ideal client and helps you build a brand and business you can be proud of.