Finding Your Marketing Doorway
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I recently took a pretty great online course about sketchbooks (I am a Skillshare affiliate but I pay for my own subscription) and how to develop a consistent creative practice that actually fills sketchbooks up (instead of staring at a blank page). And while the whole course was packed with great insights, my biggest takeaway was the instructor reframing "starting" as "opening a door" and then had several frameworks for doorways to start with in filling a sketchbook.
I talk to my clients about "starting points" and "just beginning," but the opening a door concept is so much better, right? Because that opening a door feeling is less onerous and more hopeful. What's behind that door? What will I find?
How to Start Marketing Your Business—Even When It Feels Scary
If we were to apply this door opening concept to my incessant advice to people to just do marketing, even if it's kind of not the best (which is advice I stand by!), here are some doorways I'd recommend starting with so you can continue a marketing practice (and yes, practice is a word I chose on purpose):
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What marketing feels easy? I use this question all the time with my content strategy clients. We'll map out the strategy and then when we talk about where to start, I always flag the items that feel easy to actually do. For me, this is always writing a blog post because I've done it so many times, it's something I can do even when my motivation is low.
Instead of a task or platform, you could come at it from the topic standpoint. What topic is easy for you to create marketing around? This doorway should feel very comfortable to walk through.
What marketing feels fun? Fun isn't always easy, but there's often something that sparks creative thinking or tickles that experimental part of our brains that's really satisfying.
I would say sending a newsletter fits in that fun quadrant for me. It's actually a fair bit of work (not easy!), and I do always have worries about how things will land, but it's still fun to do, and it feels like a bit of creative freedom that isn't at play as much in my blog. This doorway is also pretty comfortable—no squeaky hinges here!
What marketing do you need to practice? We all have areas where we can improve, right? And the best way to improve is freaking practice! (So annoying!)
Right now, I am working hard to get back in my groove with Instagram (yes, I know Meta is terrible), because I have so many connections on there that aren't connected to me elsewhere. But, whew, I am way out of practice. With the doorway concept in mind, this feels the hardest to me, because I don't like being crummy at things or feeling rusty. But... practice makes it less so, right?
What do you believe is important? Opening this door could feel scary to some folks, but what's important to you—whether we're talking subject matter or high impact from a business perspective—matters.
Perhaps you want to share more of your company values, or level up your brand identity, or improve your backend marketing system. These could all be highly important starting points at any giving time. This probably has the most mental load involved of any of the ideas in this doorway reframe, but that isn't a bad thing whatsoever!
I found this exercise in rethinking the concept of starting incredibly helpful and actually pretty motivating. There’s a burden lifted off that doesn’t need to be there when all we need to do is start.
Even though I advise people all these time around first steps in marketing, I still find that blinking cursor or blank page of "what do I do" overwhelming at times, and opening a door feels more gentle and doable—and I hope it does for you too!
