The recent murder of George Floyd and the reminder that #BLACK LIVES MATTER has, quite rightly, forced us to take stock. I’ve found myself questioning my implicit bias and reaching out for resources to better educate myself. Two I plan to dig further into are Brownicity and Be The Bridge. As a white woman it’s hard to know what best to do but I aim to fight for racial equity in my actions, words, and in the way I raise our daughters. Often, effective action starts with taking stock – knowing where you are, where you’ve been, your mistakes and triumphs, and glimpsing the right path ahead.

At the risk of moving away too quickly from the important topic of racial inequality, I have found that this ‘taking stock’ has been my attitude with much of life since we were forced into lockdown in March. I think it’s a crucial part of being human, and an important but oft-overlooked step in marketing your work, so I want to share what that has looked like for me. I trust you’ll find some tools to take with you so you can market your writing authentically and effectively.

The first few weeks of quarantine were a weird, high adrenaline bubble where I had an unexpected burst of creative energy. I recorded videos and Facebook Lives, I created a survey, there was the novelty of meeting with girlfriends via Zoom from the comfort of my couch and pyjamas, and I saw a higher interaction for my coaching business on social media.

A few weeks in though, exhaustion set in and I was losing motivation and direction. People started blogging and advertising about the need to ‘pivot’. Suddenly I started questioning my writing and coaching. Should I do this thing or that? Should I launch a course or did no one have money for that right now? I felt overwhelmed and distracted.

Clear the clutter

One morning I realized I needed to start by clearing the clutter. I wasn’t getting anywhere by scrolling social media and snatching at the latest idea.

  • Visual clutter

First of all I did this physically. I have a cork board next to my desk for inspiring and directional things. You know, motivational quotes, a reminder of who my audience is, my motto. Things like that. But it had become crowded. So, the first thing I did was remove every last piece of paper and decide whether to file it or chuck it. It was deeply satisfying to stare at that empty board.

Take-stock-gain-clarity-in-marketing
  • Comparison clutter

I also realized I needed to clear my mind of everyone else’s good ideas so I could figure out what was right for me and my audience. So, I stopped looking at social media for a while and unsubscribed to all but a few email lists. (Sorry if you were one, it’s not personal!)

One key thing was that I stayed in that space for a while; with my clear cork board and an empty emptier inbox.

Take stock of your marketing

A few days later I woke up with the refrain ‘take stock’. The thing was, it was March. I normally do a review of my business and marketing in December. At most, I do a mini review in the summer, ready for a reboot in September. This wasn’t the right time to do one, I told myself, but external events disagreed. When you’re thrown into an unexpected crisis, you may just have to take stock.

With my training in business and marketing, I was tempted to do a SWOT. That’s where you note down your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a grid. You can read more about how to do a SWOT for a writer here. However, that seemed too sterile; it wasn’t what I needed. I needed something more personal, more intuitive. So, I did something radical and decided to review the things that mattered to me. I know, I told you it was radical! The thing is, when you’ve studied marketing, it’s easy to fall back on the acronyms and templates. But at the end of the day, marketing is an art not a science, so the important thing is to take those tools and use them to your service. You’re CEO of your business, not the author of the latest marketing hacks book, so you need to build and maintain a business which works for you.

For me, I decided to ask myself these four questions:

  • What have I LOVED? Because I decided last year I’m only in this if I enjoy it.
  • What BRICKS have I built? In other words, what are some of the foundational pieces of my business and marketing plan which I have under my belt.
  • What RESOURCES have I created? Blogs, templates, tools to help writers and entrepreneurs hone their message and get it to the right people.
  • What have I LEARNT? About MYSELF, BLOGGING, the MARKET, and my CUSTOMERS.

If you’ve been around this blog for any amount of time, you know I love me a mind map, so I wrote these four questions on a blank piece of paper and started jotting down the milestones which came to mind.

These same questions might be helpful for you, but the key is to figure out what’s important to you as a writer or entrepreneur. Return to your initial vision or goal. Maybe you’ll want to review your growth in terms of:

  • Readers/customers
  • Sales
  • Interactions
  • Subscribers
  • Personal learning
  • Web traffic
  • Ads

The benefits of taking stock

Aside from the sense of relief and clarity from having only one, neat, colour-coded piece of paper on my cork board, there were so many unexpected bonuses from doing this exercise.

  • It was encouraging to see, written down, the things I’ve achieved.
  • More than that, it was fascinating to look over the list. As I did, I spotted things I do which I love or are different to what others do. I also noticed things which my customers appreciate. This helped me clarify my differentiators.
  • As a result, it’s helping me make decisions. Once I saw what I’ve loved about my coaching and copywriting business over the last few years, I got braver about saying yes to some things and no to others.

It’s easy to get caught up with the pace around us and rush through life. After all, if we want to get heard in the noisy place called the Internet, surely we have to be busy saying things? But, if you want to establish yourself as a successful author, or create meaningful relationships with customers, you need longevity. That only comes through good planning and building trust. And, to get to a good plan, you need to know where you are. Take the time to take stock and you’ll gain clarity for the next step in your marketing.

Would you like help choosing the next step for your marketing? Reach out and we’ll come up with a plan together.