Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. And oftentimes, we can be so focused on the big goals that we lose sight of the things that it takes to make them happen, or vice versa -  we focus on the little things and lose sight of the big picture.

When this happens, it becomes evident in your marketing.

So what are some of the non-tactical ways that we might be getting in our way and not getting results with our marketing?

Giving up without giving it time to work.

There is a fine balance here. We live in an era of instant gratification where we expect things to work immediately. But effective marketing does take time despite what some people will have you believe, what all the internet gurus try to tell you.

There is no such thing as an overnight success.

I want you to spend three months invested in one thing. One thing, if it's not working, try something else.

Trying to do too many things at once.

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, blog posts, LinkedIn, YouTube, email websites, Google.

The list of things you could do to market your business is endless. And the number of online coaches and experts telling you that you must be on all of them is overwhelming.

They all talk a pretty good game, don't they? So you try and do it all. But you end up not doing particular any of them particularly well. Does that sound familiar?

Because I am guilty of that too.

I want you to stop. Stop trying to do all of it. I want you to take a look at your metrics and your engagements and pick ONE thing that has the best numbers for your business and focus your efforts there until you've perfected it. Once you've got that one thing to where you want it to be, automate it, outsource it, and move on to something else.

Staying where you're comfortable.

Facebook comes to mind. I'm guilty of this myself. But if your audience isn't there, all your efforts are in vain. Just because you enjoy Facebook and know it very well doesn't mean it's the right place for your business. Just because you enjoy Instagram, doesn't mean your audience is there.

If you want your marketing to work, you have to put your message in front of your audience where they are. Putting it out and expecting them to stumble across it is a wasted effort and it will frustrate you.

They can't find you if they don't know where you are. So you have to be where they are.

Spoiler alert: I’m going to tell you how to figure out where they are in a future post.

Trying things too early in your business journey.

Far too often small businesses will try to incorporate things that are four steps ahead of them.

Automation is one of those things.

I specialize in building automated sales funnels. They work and they work well, but only if you have an established sales process.

If you don't have an established sales process, building a sales funnel is pointless because you're never going to know if it works.

Imagine for a minute building a robot to build you a house.

Have you ever built a house? You may have a theoretical understanding of the process, but if you've never done it, you have no way to ensure that your house will stand when the robot is done.

The same is true for automated sales funnels.

You have to know how to sell your thing before you can automate the process.

I cannot stress the importance enough of slowing down and learning to walk before you run.

Doing things backward.

It's pretty standard for a business to create a product or service and then try to find an audience for it. This is usually how we start a business.

You make a few sales, you refine your product or service, you make a few more sales and so on.

But where things start to fall apart is when a business continues in this manner. There has to come a time when the focus shifts from refining the product or service. to understanding who your audience is that is buying your shit.

If you don't make the shift, you're going to continue to struggle. You have to create things for your audience, not find an audience for your things. And in order to do that, you have to know who your audience is.

Focusing on the wrong things.

What are the wrong things?

I've gone over a couple of them here in this article; the rest generally fall under the design and branding umbrella.

I’ve said this a couple of times in this series:

PRETTY. DOESN’T. SELL.

Pretty websites, logos, professional images, photoshoots, award winning flyers, etc. - things that account for 80 to 96% of your what you're doing.

These. Are. Pointless.

You know who cares that it’s pretty? The designer and you.

Your audience doesn’t give a shit whether or not it’s pretty. They just care it has a purpose that relates to them. (The only real exception to this is if you’re selling design or branding. Then your audience DOES care because your work needs to visually speak for itself.)

I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of studying under some of the most influential business and marketing professionals; you know what they ALL had in common?

• Ugly websites
• Basic branding
• Videos shot on cell phones
• Course delivery in plain-text Google Docs

This is something that almost every business owner struggles with.

Even I do it. I try and make everything as pretty as possible.

But it's not where the focus should be. Your beautiful website doesn’t sell; your words do.

They only thing your audience cares about is that your words tell them how you’re going to solve their problem.