The status quo of modern marketing isn't designed for you and me.The hard truth is that most marketing strategies are designed for massive corporations, while small businesses, consultants, coaches, and other experts are left feeling that the advice they’re given just doesn’t fit—and they’re right. We have two choices: we can struggle to force our businesses into an ill-fitting mold, or we can reinvent a system that works for us and allows us to thrive. I don’t know about you, I prefer door number two. 💌 Reach our team at hello@smco.studio. 🌟 Ready to work together? https://sarahmoon.net/get-started
My Business is "Boring" 🙋🏻♀️
Hello Reader,
A friend of mine (and mastermind co-host, Natalie Bullen) writes these great business discussion prompts on social media.
Beautiful answers pour in. They're always so sophisticated and thoughtful.
Then I chime in with, "Boring answer: [...]"
Seriously, my answer is almost always boring.
Question: "What's the best marketing you've done?"
Me: "Boring answer: A weekly newsletter."
Question: "How did you build your authority?"
Me: "Boring answer: Brick by brick. Consistency is the key."
Question: "How did you make your first sale?"
Me: "Boring answer: By talking to local folks about what they needed."
See? Boring.
Here's all the ways I'm running a boring business:
- My pricing? Boring. Mostly they're zeros or fives at the end. No 7s or 9s or 3s or whatever the trend is now.
- Sales pages? Boring. I don't want to write 16 section sales pages with a hero's journey and I don't think my people (you!) want to read them.
- Content strategy? Boring. I use a data informed approach for my business development-focused content.
- Business model? Boring. I'm an evergreen sales kind of gal, and I can't be bothered with the roller coast of the launch model.
I explained this to someone recently that running a long-term, sustainable business is like investing in a solid index fund.
It's the least glamorous approach, but it's also pretty much as close to a sure thing as you can get. Sure, you could buy that glitzy NFT (are people still into that? I have no idea—please don't answer this question) and hope it may pay off. Or you could do the boring thing and go with a Vanguard target date fund or what have you.
This is why I focus so much on authority-building marketing: I know that no matter how the trends change, over time, that will continue to pay returns and build on itself.
Is it "boring?" Yes indeed!
It's also pretty predictable. I don't have to worry about generating sudden "cash infusions," or how my launch metrics are going. Boring can be awesome, to be quite frank.
When things are boring, you have more space to be creative, more space to give back, more space to iterate and improve. Which sounds pretty great to me.
Talk soon,
Sarah
P.S. As I've mentioned a couple times, our rates are going up in 2024. If you want to take advantage of the 2023 rates, please do reach out for an Alignment Call for 2024 projects early so we can accommodate you!
Hi! I'm Sarah Moon!
The status quo of modern marketing isn't designed for you and me.The hard truth is that most marketing strategies are designed for massive corporations, while small businesses, consultants, coaches, and other experts are left feeling that the advice they’re given just doesn’t fit—and they’re right. We have two choices: we can struggle to force our businesses into an ill-fitting mold, or we can reinvent a system that works for us and allows us to thrive. I don’t know about you, I prefer door number two. 💌 Reach our team at hello@smco.studio. 🌟 Ready to work together? https://sarahmoon.net/get-started
Hello Reader, In my summer group strategy program, Summer of SEO, this week we had a great conversation about blank screen syndrome. I don't know about you, but this is usually what it looks like for me: Staring at a blank screen, wishing for inspiration to strike... The cursor blinks, blinks, blinks. I write a sentence. Delete it because it's the worst sentence ever composed. Blink. Blink. Blink. Yeah, it's not awesome! Zero stars for sure. This truly happens to us all, and it's even worse...
Hello Reader, You don’t have to get an A+ in marketing. In all the years I’ve done this work, one of the recurring themes (and I’ve certainly been guilty of it as well) is that people believe they need to do everything perfectly. This is especially true when we’ve got a lot of high achievers that are accustomed to excelling at everything they do. This is how that A+ thinking can become a spiral that leads to inaction. Does this sound familiar? "I can’t do SEO if I can't do everything exactly...
Hello Reader, As algorithms get more and more fickle (looking at you, Instagram) I see more and more folks talking about returning to their previously abandoned blogs as a marketing channel. Which is great! I love seeing smart business owners focus on an owned property (remember, the own two online marketing channels you own are your mailing list and your blog). You could most definitely fire up WordPress or Squarespace or whatever website platform you use and start posting away, but that's...