7 Easy Tips: How to Be Happier When Marketing (So You Can Attract Dream Clients)

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Today’s post is about how to be happier when marketing your services, why it’s important for you, and shares 7 tips you can put to work right away.

And it’s my fervent hope that, while I may not convert you into a total marketing geek, I can gently nudge you into being happier when marketing. It’s all for a worthy cause: after you become happier when marketing, you can attract more of your dream clients.

Women Entrepreneurs Worry More About This 

Here’s why it’s important for you to be happier when marketing your services. Did you know that women entrepreneurs worry more about their marketing skills than men do?

Yep, according to a recent study called, Small Business Owner Report | The Male Female Divide, by Plan Beyond. This study compared business skills between men and women entrepreneurs and found that 39% of the women said they worried about their marketing capabilities.

As Amy Vetter at Inc. Magazine pointed out, 24% more women are worried about marketing skills than men in this group of 368 participating entrepreneurs.

Whether you worry about your marketing skills or not, it’s going to be astronomically easier to get the word out about your coaching business if you can be happier when marketing.

Marketing will feel more comfortable after you accept this: of all the hats you wear as an entrepreneur, marketing is a must-do in your basket of skills. Even if in the future you’re going to outsource some marketing tasks / projects to a freelancer, you’ve just gotta get a handle on feeling comfortable when marketing. As the owner, you’re the chief cheerleader for your business.

So, let’s unpack this puppy. Here are my best tips to nudge you over a bit on the marketing happiness scale. Ready to dive in?

7 Tips: How to Be Happier When Marketing Your Services

Tip #1. Move this to the top of your to-do list.

Women often sheepishly admit to me that “doing marketing stuff” is at the bottom of their daily action list. If this is you, stay with me here.

Start with your feelings about marketing, do you think of it as “tooting your own horn”?

Okay, let’s get this one out of the way first.

If you haven’t heard my coaching (rant) on this topic, here’s the short version:

Marketing isn’t self-promotion.

It isn’t talking about your services or your skills. As wonderful you are!

Instead, marketing is educating clients about how they can solve problems with your programs.

If you find yourself avoiding marketing, next time you’re giving a talk, creating marketing content, or networking to bring in more clients, focus intently on their plight. When marketing, your job is to communicate—in your own style—that you “get” where your ideal clients are coming from. That you understand their problems. Their pain points. Their barriers and blocks.

Shift your mindset about what marketing is

At its core, marketing is education in small, bite-sized chunks. Client-attracting actions (a.k.a. marketing) are solely about *serving* future clients, first. After all, when you’re marketing you’re sharing valuable info, tips, lessons, and stories about how other clients, just like them have solved the problems you help solve, right?

I promise you, once you have a talk with yourself and stop calling it ‘self-promotion’, you’ll find a new way to think about marketing. Honestly, it’ll be easier to feel comfortable when you’re immersed in marketing activities, once you come to grips with how you want to feel about it. I can say this, because I’ve absolutely been there!

Ask yourself, wouldn’t you like to accomplish more client connection actions like these?

• Networking at live (Zoom) events
• Recording a video to share your tips, insights with future clients
• Finally starting your podcast
• Blogging weekly about your dream clients’ top pain points
• Writing articles to contribute to an association website
• Updating your LinkedIn profile (for the first time in years)
• Creating your next lead magnet to encourage potential clients to join your email list

Yes, you would like to pack more of these valuable actions into your jam-packed workday. If you’re thinking, “But I already have enough to do with serving current clients, family, exercise–and the list goes on” I hear you.

Try this tactic, if you want to free up time so you can accomplish more client connection activities: find tasks you can either delegate or dump. The reality is, to make room for new valuable actions you often have to dump time-sucking, low-value tasks.

Your Top *How to be Happier When Marketing* Goal

When your top marketing goal is to communicate that you 100% understand your clients’ current messy situation, you’ll have little time to dwell on self-doubt, fears, or uncertainties. Won’t you?

Do it for yourself and your future clients, who need you now more than ever.

When scheduling your day, make client connection actions your #1 priority. Both on your calendar and in your daily life. Pinky-swear you’ll do this for your business? Fabulous.

Tip #2. Circle back to this story.

Since we agreed that marketing isn’t about you, but about your ideal, dream clients, remind yourself of their characteristics.

After all, when it comes to making connections with  potential clients, you’re being of service first. Serving first is beneficial because it gives clients a taste of the types of assistance you offer through your life coaching programs. That means, you simply must know as much as you can about your perfect people.

And, one of the many benefits to creating your ideal client story is that that helps you do three things:

1. Keep a mental picture of clients who desperately need your guidance, coaching, training, and solutions your products and services make possible.
2. Remind yourself that the primary purpose of marketing is to begin relationships with ideal clients.
3. Energize yourself to get your message, your marketing content, and your business out there.

Tip #3. Take a stroll down Client Success Story Lane.

Get re-inspired about helping your clients resolve their problems or achieve their dreams.

Now, I know that you have a boatload of happy client stories. If you’re newer in business, think about family and friends you helped. Either way, recall what they said about how your work helped them to shift. How did they explain the benefits they got from working with you?

Be generous with yourself here!

Remind yourself of all the ways clients benefit from your products and services. Working with your business. Include both tangible and intangible. List 50 benefits clients get from your work.

Don’t think you can come up with 50?

Try this, Replay your client successes. Recall in detail the conversations you had with your happy clients. Lists all of the ways they told you how much they appreciated your help.

Do this exercise as a journaling exercise, or type it into a Google doc. Either way, give yourself a couple of hours spaced out over the next few days or weeks. Come back and read what you’ve listed so far, I know you can come up with 50 more when is your clients lives and businesses are better because they worked with you.

Bonus tip: after listing 50 benefits your clients gain because they worked with you, list 50 more.

If you feel stuck on getting clear about the value you bring to your clients, give this post a read: How to Own Your Value 

Tip #4. Keep this visual by your desk.

You may have a vision board pinned up in your office, your daily affirmations, or 90-day goals list.

Like many entrepreneurs, you’ll find it valuable to also pin up a picture that reminds you of your dream client by your computer. It can be any photo, because no one sees it but you. Make sure it reminds you of your ideal clients.

Tip #5. Grab your phone and call (or text) 3 of your top, favorite clients.

You know, the clients who always cheer you up because they love your work. They’re uplifting to talk to because they share what’s going on with them and they talk candidly about problems you help solve. Right after talking with them, jot down how they made you feel inspired. Exactly what did they say that made you feel validated? Use that insight to motivate yourself to get into a client-generating mindset!

Tip #6. Create your simple, 1-page Action Sheet so you won’t forget these.

Brainstorm all the client-generating actions you can take. You can scan this popular post for fresh ideas, 21 Ways to Find Ideal Clients, Even If You’ve Tried it All.

Which client-finding ideas in that post most inspire you?

1. Choose 3 client winning actions you feel excited about
2. Type them on your one-page client action sheet.
3. Schedule these actions on your calendar.

Tip #7. Commit to becoming happier when marketing for 14 days.

Promise yourself that you’ll choose your client-generating actions, put them to work early in your day, and follow through on each action for the next two weeks. Then try for two more weeks. Track or journal about your progress.

Here are six juicy questions to help you uncover what might be keeping you from staying on track:

• What do you like the least about marketing your business?
• What do you enjoy most about marketing your business?
• What are your barriers to consistently creating marketing content?
• Do you have a quick way to record content ideas when they pop into your head?
• When are you most creative?
• When you last found time to write a blog post or record a video, how did you do it?

List all the client-generating actions you’re avoiding. How can you make these super-vital activities more enjoyable for yourself?

Can you find an accountability buddy? Create a few daily marketing affirmations? Make doing your marketing activities a game of some sort?

Final thoughts

Marketing your business isn’t about you. If you need to remind yourself of this, write it down in a thick pen, on a large sticky note. Place it next your computer, put another sticky note in your journal, by your mirror.

Do whatever it takes to keep your beautiful brain focused on educating potential clients with your awesome knowledge! And less focused on thoughts like, “marketing feels hypey and icky”.

We all have different parts of our business that challenge us. A lot of women entrepreneurs, even after years in business, still feel like marketing our services is bragging or ‘tooting our own horn’. And we ALL have to get over this old-school thinking. Take your marketing actions one at a time.

Find the ways that work best for you to be happier when working to bring in more of your dream clients. Do more of them. Why? Because you deserve to fill your business with clients who love working with you.

Be Unstoppable,

~ Cynthia 

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