The internet tells us that anyone can market themselves and their business with the help of online resources. But does that mean we’re all marketing the right way? During BombCast Episode 22, with marketing expert Katie Lance, Jason and Katie touched on some really important topics – one of these being “lazy marketing”. Lazy marketing is a real problem and a lot of people are out there making marketing mistakes without even knowing it. With the help of this BombCast episode from Jason and Katie, we put together a list you’ll want to take a look at. Determine if you’re being a lazy marketer!

Are you making these mistakes?

1 You’re Just Creating Noise

You might think you’re doing the right thing by continually posting social content and by doing regular social ads, but are these posts full of valuable content, calls-to-action and helpful information? In reality, you might be annoying people with meaningless content. Here are some clues that you’re just creating noise:

• You post the exact same post multiple times a week
• You rarely/never change up your ads OR your target audience
• You send out emails that ask for the sale but fail to provide any actual value for the recipient

Does this sound like you? When your putting out boring, repetitive or value-less content, people are going to block you out. It’s just going to be more noise in the social world that people don’t want. Gary Vee is a content expert and has some great advice on this topic. Check out this articles to see how you can stop making noise and start creating meaningful content: Become a Virtual Content Mayor

2 You’re Over-Branding Yourself

Over-Branding is a real issue. And I know what you’re thinking – “Over-branding means you’re working too hard, it doesn’t mean you’re lazy!” FALSE. By over-branding, you are failing to take the time to actually make meaningful content. You are failing to be creative in your content creation process. This is pure laziness. Don’t hide behind your brand! Here are some clues that you’re over-branding:

• All of your content feels like an ad
• Everything you post is so uniform that it all looks that same
• None of your content mentions you, it just mentions your business

It’s important to have a balance of branded posts and then more personal posts. Katie tells us to “start looking at your life as content.” When you post personal content, people will connect with you better. People ultimately decide to work with YOU not your brand. Here’s a great article on building your brand (the right way): How to Build Your Brand & Generate Multi-Million Dollar Listings

3 You’re Not Engaging with People

During the BombCast, Katie touched on the issue of engagement. She says, “Just talking about business, business, business and not engaging with people is a big mistake.” I think we’re all guilty of this one to some degree. We may be amazing at responding to comments in a timely manner but are we proactively connecting with people? Here are some clues that you’re not engaging with people like you should:

• You’re great at responding but are never the first to reach out
• You send bulk emails, and rarely send one-to-one messages
• You have an assistant or employee respond to almost everything for you

Unless you are recognizing opportunities and are proactively reaching out to people, you need to re-think your marketing. Elyse Archer, consultant and sales coach, has great tips on this topic. She uses LinkedIn messages to contact potential clients and build relationships. Her strategy is a great example of what it means to be proactive. Check out her process here: LinkedIn Communication Tips from a Successful Sales Coach

4  You’re Failing to Nurture Leads

This is an easy mistake for people just getting started with marketing. You might be failing to nurture your leads because this process is foreign to you! Lead nurturing is engaging with a group of people by providing them valuable and relevant information. This information will be dependent on where they are in the buying/decision-making process. Here are clues that you are failing to nurture your leads:

• You are sending the exact same value offer to all of your leads
• You haven’t segmented your leads based on where they are in the decision-making process
• You are giving up on leads if you don’t see responses right away
• You aren’t creating personalized follow-up campaigns that are dependent on the recipients response to the email itself.

Let’s say you recently collected 20 emails. Are you adding those emails to your monthly newsletter and calling it good? Do you find yourself sending the same offers to all of your leads? Or are you creating specific offers for specific groups? According to Hubspot, “Leads nurtured with targeted content produce an increase in sales opportunities of more than 20%.” Segment your leads based on where they are at and then create content for each group. Here is a post to help you with this process: 5 Steps for Creating Successful Lead Nurturing Campaigns

5 You’re Spamming People with Irrelevant, Bulk Emails

This is one where a lot of people get defensive and say, “I don’t have time to send out personalized emails.” or “My work just isn’t that exciting so it’s impossible to make relevant emails that people will stay subscribed to.” There are ways to send interesting, personalized emails even if you’re busy. Here are some clues that you’re guilty of spamming:

• You send the exact same email to the exact same people MULTIPLE times
• You have the same template that you use for every single email
• You send the same email to lists of over 30 people

Let’s use mortgage as an example. People typically don’t think, “I would love to get regular emails from my mortgage broker!” But in reality, a lot of people don’t know much about loans. You need to connect and educate in an effective way. What better way to do this than to send one-to-one emails that are interesting and personal? BombBomb, a video email application, makes it easy to record one-to-one videos. You can then send those videos to your clients in a personalized email. People claim that this method of email saves them a ton of time and helps them connect with clients. Check out BombBomb and try a free trial for yourself!

Now you know the qualities. Are you a lazy marketer? Take the quiz below and comment with your results!