When it comes to marketing your products and services and elevating your brand, it's easy to get lost in information overload when you look at all the options. Feelings of self doubt can creep in when you look at the snazzy marketing campaigns that “everyone else” is doing. (Psssst - not everyone. Not even most people. Promise).
We can’t change our brains to make them fit the task, but we CAN change the task to make it better fit our brains.
So how do you craft a marketing plan that's right for you? One that’s effective and actually manageable? We’ve got 4 suggestions…
1. Research without the Rabbit Hole
Love it or hate it, a successful marketing plan starts with research. You need to know who your target audience is, where they hang out, and what influences their purchasing decisions - what turns them on or off when they’re deciding what to buy. You also need to know who you’re up against, so checking what your competitors are up to is a great place to start with your marketing plan.
The trouble with research…
For ADHDers more than most, research can quickly lead you down a rabbit hole of endless online content. It’s a gateway to hyperfocus - not necessarily a bad thing, unless you’re on a deadline. Setting some boundaries and limits around your research can help you stay focused:
Set a timer: Allocate a specific amount of time for research, and when the alarm rings, wrap it up.
Use AI to speed it up: Ask Chat GPT to identify reliable industry blogs, forums, or market reports to streamline your research.
Target your search: Set some very specific research goals for things you want to find out. Either write them out or talk them into a voicenote that you can replay to yourself if you feel like you’re heading off on a tangent…
Capture those tangents! When ideas pop into your head, write them down somewhere and come back to them another day. By recording the thoughts and ideas that threaten to derail your research session in the moment, you don’t have to use up valuable brain space trying to hold them in your working memory. See point 3.
Struggling to set goals? ADHD Coaching can help
2. Break it down
Marketing can feel MASSIVE. There are “too many” strategies to try out and more and more digital marketing tools and platforms keep popping up. To avoid overwhelm when you write your plan, it can help to slice up your marketing mission into tiny chunks.
Two or three activities, max: Revisit your business goals and start with two or three marketing activities that will move your business towards them. This is where your plan begins. For example:
Pick ONE social media platform where you know your audience lives and just put your energy into growing followers in that one space.
If you’re sending email newsletters, ONE per month is fine to start with!
When you’re ready to start networking, just join ONE group to begin with.
Put the simplest activities first:
Build your marketing plan around activities that feel most realistic and achievable for you. This is likely to mean choosing marketing methods that are straightforward to implement and monitor, but will be different for everyone. For example:
If you’re not an expert on Google Analytics, website traffic is quite hard to monitor.
Social media metrics such as likes, follows and shares are much easier to capture and keep an eye on
Aim for consistency, as much as possible:
Keep your marketing messages consistent by being super clear on what you do and who you do it for. (Try not to have lots of slightly different versions - it shouldn’t feel like five different people have worked on it all, even if they have!)
Pick an audience and stay focused on them - once you’ve worked out who your business exists to serve, stick to it and make sure you’ve always got them in mind when you’re developing marketing materials.
Keep showing up! Marketing isn’t a once-and-done job. Whichever tactics you choose, you need to keep doing the same thing consistently for at least a month or two, before you make any big decisions about what to try next.
3. Get your ice bucket ready!
As you focus on those first 2-3 marketing activities you want to try, other exciting ideas will inevitably light up your gorgeous technicolour brain. The trick is to remember that you don’t have to act on them immediately - you can put your ideas somewhere safe (physically or digitally) and come back to them.
Find somewhere - whether it’s a notepad, a Trello board or a folder of voice memos - where you can “put your idea on ice”. Come back to it in a few weeks or months when you have the time, energy and budget to give it the attention it deserves.
Your ice bucket is what will enable you to keep your cool and stay focused on getting those first core marketing activities down on your plan, and testing out how well they work for your business.
When you do come back to thaw out some of those ideas, you’ll need to check they still line up with your business goals. Having those long term objectives somewhere visible (like a good old fashioned post-it note) can help you stay motivated and on track.
4. Prioritise cheap or free marketing activities
One of the reasons that marketing can quickly feel overwhelming is that every platform you use will offer you some kind of ‘premium’ or ‘pro’ features. These promise to help you achieve your marketing objectives in a fraction of the time, but they come at a cost you might not be comfortable with.
Beware free trials! Read this blog to help stay in control of your online software subscriptions
There are plenty of free or low-cost strategies available that you can incorporate into your marketing plan. For example:
Social media: platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow you to connect with your target audience and share your story for free! Yay!
Budget websites: If you don’t have a website yet, sites like Squarespace and Wix allow you to create your own professional-looking site using ready-made templates. You’ll just pay a small monthly fee for your domain.
Content marketing: it’s free to start blogging on sites like Medium and Substack. You can make your content free to subscribers and look at charging for it in the future.
Networking: If you feel able to attend local events this can be an effective way to build awareness of your business and get some useful contacts. If your ADHD comes with social anxiety or sensory overload (making these events unbearable), join online communities and chat with fellow entrepreneurs on forums instead.
Remember: your marketing plan should sync with your long-term business objectives. If you’re not clear what those are yet, that’s OK! You've got some sparkling ideas, fire in your belly, and BIG colourful dreams for your business. To start bringing them to life, you may find it helpful to talk through your plans with an ADHD Coach. Book your free call here.
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