Why marketing my business no longer feels like marketing

How I'm currently sharing about my business + my monthly favourites

I don’t have a marketing plan. I don’t have a spreadsheet (anymore) with dates and channels. I don’t even have a monthly reminder to myself to pitch to podcasts anymore.

But if I’d tell you what I do in a month to share about my business, I’m sure you’d call it marketing. You’d probably even discover a method or strategy behind it (which there is, of sorts).

It just doesn’t feel like that anymore.

In this post I share more about why marketing my business doesn’t feel like marketing anymore and what I’m currently doing to share about my business.

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I’ve written before about how just the word “marketing” felt unpleasant to me. It felt like being forced to buy something (in my case, a way-too-expensive lipstick back when I was 16). And when I started my business, I saw marketing as a necessary evil. I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to work with people, to do workshops and 1:1 mentoring. But I also knew that if I didn’t share about my business, no one would find out about it.

So I did all the things and posted on Instagram and wrote newsletters and blogposts and created lead magnets and pitched to be on podcasts and more.

I made a spreadsheet (I do love a spreadsheet) with topics I could share about, channels I would use (newsletter, Instagram, etc.), which podcasts I’d pitch to. I had a recurring item in my to-do list app that reminded me to pitch to podcasts. I had an ever-changing schedule for my Instagram posts.

My 2023 financial and business goals: a behind-the-scenes look

It all felt like quite a lot of work. And a lot of the time like not a lot of fun. Marketing felt like a side-business to my business, like a whole other job I had to do next to my business.

But now? It doesn’t feel like that anymore. At all. I no longer have that niggling thought in the back of my head that tells me “have to market the business!”.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not in a stage in my business where mentoring clients and paying newsletter subscribers magically come my way. I’m not “fully booked” and especially not fully booked with a waitlist stretching into the future.

Why marketing my business doesn’t feel like marketing anymore

#1

I gave myself permission to market my business in a way that feels really good to me. When I did, everything changed. I now do the things I deeply enjoy and see these things as part of my business. These newsletters are not merely marketing: they are one of the ways in which I support you as a small business owner or freelancer.

Other ways in which I share about my business are through Pinterest, blogs and website SEO, through podcast interviews and by sharing about my business with various communities that I’m part of, including here on Substack.

All of these are ways of sharing that feel good to me: they emphasize connection and community, aren’t fleeting and ephemeral and allow me to really tap into my skills and joys.

#2

I left social media (hurrah!). It’s now been about 18 months since I left Instagram, which was the only social media platform I was marketing my business on. I’ve explained my experiences with Instagram in more depth before, but the short version is that marketing my business there felt increasingly bad.

I felt overwhelmed, annoyed and like I was playing a game according to rules I didn’t know. I was tired of working so hard to essentially support someone else’s business first and foremost, rather than my own. And I’ve not looked back. These days, I sometimes forget that Instagram still exists (although I do speak to clients about how they might use social media in their own business, should they want to).

#3

I stopped creating rigid plans and started unplanning. Planning is definitely one of my superpowers. And as with many superpowers, there is a dark side to it. In the past I have gotten so caught up with my plans that I left no room for my humanness. I didn’t leave any space for days on which I might be tired, or feel more inspired to work on something else.

I planned out of a need for control. I planned out of fear really: fear that if I didn’t put everything in a plan, it wouldn’t get done. Once I realised that this way of working no longer served me, I really had to build up the confidence and trust that things would get done. And that things don’t have to happen at regular intervals all the time.

I used to pitch to podcasts once a month. Or at least, it would be on my to-do list once a month. And while I really enjoy doing podcast interviews, pitching to them requires me to be in a certain mindset. A bold and out there-mindset and energy that I don’t always feel. So now, pitching to podcasts has become something I do occasionally and I often pitch to more than one podcast at once (not with the exact same email or topic, of course).

Some months I don’t pitch to podcasts. That’s okay. Sometimes people ask me without me having to pitch to them. But it feels much better to have “unplanned” this than to force myself to do it. I’m embracing what I’ve called loose consistency and it feels good.

#4

Finally, I outsourced something that definitely felt like marketing, and that I had quite enjoyed before. In the summer of 2021, I really got into Pinterest. In many ways, it’s a platform that aligns with me and my business: it allows scheduling and doesn’t reward presence, and it explicitly invites people to visit my website (unlike Instagram, for instance). It ties in nicely with my desire to do more writing and I would pin blog posts so that people could find them.

A year and a half later I realised that Pinterest would be in the back of my mind for long stretches of time, but I just wouldn’t get to it. With many things, I believe that when we don’t get to things that’s mainly because they don’t quite fit anymore. Otherwise I’d surely have found the time by not doing something else. But I still like Pinterest as a marketing tool.

So I got help. Laura of The Smallest Light is now posting two blog posts a month for me and creating and scheduling pins. The blog posts are mainly old newsletters that I supply to her. We’re a few months in and I’m so pleased with how this is working out (if you’re looking for a VA to support you, do check out Laura’s website).

Marketing my business doesn’t feel like marketing anymore because it’s become such an organic part of my business. It’s more than just marketing.

I realised that this holds for all marketing. For it to work, it needs to serve a purpose beyond being just a newsletter, or just an Instagram post or just a TikTok video. Not all marketing channels work for all people.

When I work with clients around this, I ask them to explore two questions: what feels good to you and what has a positive effect? Both questions are of equal value—in fact, I’d even say that the first one of more important than the second. If you enjoy making videos for TikTok then TikTok is a great way of marketing your business for you. If you enjoy writing, then blog posts and newsletters are a great channel for you.

Marketing is much less about the old question of “finding out where your people are” (which is very hard to really find out), and more about aligning your marketing with your business and your life.

Take a moment to think or journal about these questions:

1. Does marketing your business feel aligned with your business and your life?

2. Which marketing channels that you are currently using feel good to you?

3. Which marketing channels that you are currently using have a positive effect on your business?

I’d love to know your answers to these questions, especially which marketing channels feel good to you and whether they have a positive effect on your business. Join the conversation by leaving a comment.

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a book | when I finished reading

Alice Vincent

's Why Women Grow I just wanted to start all over again (and will for sure reread it this summer). I loved all of these stories on the intersection of gardening and feminism, and it's a great book even if you're not a gardener (affiliate link).

a tree | ever since I lived in a street lined with small ginkgo’s I’ve been loving these trees, especially for their leaves. This past week J and I planted a small ginkgo in our back garden and I can’t wait for it to start showing its leaves.

a newsletter |

Zabby

recently launched her Nature Notice Board newsletter and it’s so informative, fun and beautifully designed. You’ll never look the same at dandelions again, I promise.

What’s on your lists of favourites this month? What did you read, see, hear, drink, eat, observe that made your day?

You might have missed:

• What would it mean to root into trust in your business?

• My 2023 financial and business goals: a behind-the-scenes look

• Thread: what feels exciting in your business right now?

This month I’ve supported clients with plans for new income streams, brainstormed different ways of marketing and cheered them on as they figured out what a business true to their vision really looks like.

I’d love to support you to do this and much more too: to create a business away from the norm that supports all parts of your humanness, whether that means starting or building a business alongside a family, another job, (chronic) illness or any other needs and desires.

There is a slower, gentler and more profitable way of running a business, and I’m here to help you achieve it.

Send me a message or check out my website for ways of working together: from one-off sessions to flexible packages. I’d love to be by your side this year.

I’ll off for a more quiet week on the coast next week (and swimming in the ocean!). Have a lovely rest of your week x

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