Is Inconsistency Killing Your Business?

business Mar 15, 2017

There are thousands of solopreneurs out there trying to make their messages heard. The hard truth is that only a small percentage actually succeed, while the majority get lost in the noise.

If you want to be the brand that stands out, attracts clients and impacts other people’s lives while positively influencing your own, then consistency is KEY to your success.

You can’t expect results when you only go to the gym once a month, right?

Same goes for your brand. In fact, consistency is one of the most overlooked strategies available to dramatically increase your followers and attract new clients. If you can master it, you will blaze to the top.

But like I mentioned, most solopreneurs don’t. Most solopreneurs get stuck in one (or all) of the following “consistency pitfalls”.

CONSISTENCY PITFALLS:

  • They show up to a networking event once and never return
  • They launch an Instagram account and then only post a couple times per month
  • They give a talk and then never do it again
  • They constantly change up how they talk about what they do
  • They have a new ideal client every week
  • They create a Meetup Group and don’t add regular events to their calendar
  • They send their newsletter twice a year
  • Their visual branding changes with the seasons

You get the idea.

And do you know the truly unfortunate thing? The solopreneurs who get trapped in these consistency pitfalls usually give up on their dream because they convince themselves that “it just isn’t working.”

And they are correct. It isn’t working. And the reason is because they are inconsistent.

Being consistent takes clarity about your brand and a lot of hard work. If you can pull this off, you will soar above the crowd.

But I understand that being consistent isn’t easy. I used to be trapped in many of the consistency pitfalls myself.

When I started my business in 2009 I wasn’t clear about my brand. I started out as a general life coach, then I switched to be a quarterlife crisis coach, then a relationship coach for single women, and finally a business and branding coach for solopreneurs.

I constantly changed what I did and who I did it for.

I didn’t reach six figures in my business until I got clear on my brand and got into a consistent groove with my marketing and messaging. Once that happened, things started to fall into place.

Through this journey, I’ve learned some important lessons about consistency that I regularly share with my clients, and today, I’d like to share them with you.

6 Secrets to building a consistent brand

GET CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU DO AND WHO YOU DO IT FOR

I almost skipped this one because it’s so obvious, but it really is a non-negotiable when it comes to consistency. The rest of the strategies that I’m about to share with you rely on it. If you know that you’ve been stuck on this step for months, or maybe even years, it’s time for a loving kick in the pants to get you moving. I would love to help. Let’s talk.

DON’T TRY TO TACKLE EVERY MARKETING STRATEGY AT ONCE

If you’re just starting your business, don’t try to tackle every marketing strategy at once.  Maintaining consistency on multiple platforms, right out of the gate is a plan for failure. Instead, choose 1-3 marketing strategies that you can commit to being consistent at before trying to add new ones into the mix.

For example, maybe you start with attending a local networking group once a month and posting to Instagram once a day. When you get into a groove with these two strategies, and you start seeing results, then choose another marketing strategy to add into the mix… Now you must commit to being consistent with all three!

ESTABLISH CONTENT CATEGORIES

As a service-based solopreneur, a huge piece of your marketing puzzle is delivering content marketing, and to do it successfully you must deliver it consistently. What is content marketing? It’s marketing that positions you as an expert on your topic and delivers value to your tribe at the same time. Content marketing includes things like Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter, Pinterest, Twitter, Blog etc.

Content marketing is a place where many of my clients come to me feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. Thinking about what to post online can be a huge drain if you don’t have a system to do it efficiently. Thus, why so many solopreneurs are inconsistent with it.

This is where content categories come in. Choose your online platform, then, think about the types of content you want to post there.

For example, my content categories for my Instagram account are:

  • How Tos
  • Business Success Tips
  • Branding Success Tips
  • Motivation/Inspiration
  • Videos
  • Promotional
  • Client Success

Having these content categories helps me stay consistent with my content marketing because I have a framework around what types of content I deliver.

What are your content categories? If you don’t know, it’s time to decide!

PLAN AHEAD

It’s difficult to be consistent if you don’t plan ahead. Business and life “happens” and if you don’t have a plan it’s easy to let your marketing efforts fall to the side.

Sometimes planning ahead is easy, like adding a date to your calendar for a networking event. Other times, planning ahead takes more effort, like creating a content library for your social media accounts.

If you find yourself trying to figure out what to share on Instagram or Facebook two minutes before you want to share it; it’s time to save yourself the frustration and create a content library.

A content library is where your social media posts are stored before they go live. Yep, you create them in advance—I like to create 6 months of social media content at a time. This requires a focused day of work every 6 months, but ultimately saves me tons of time that would otherwise be wasted every single day trying to decide what to post.

My tools of choice for my content library are Trello and Buffer.

Trello is perfect for Instagram because it has a desktop application where I create my captions, and an awesome phone application that I use to post my content to Instagram.

With Buffer you can create and schedule your content to automatically post to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even Pinterest.

CREATE CONSISTENT VISUALS

Consistency isn’t only about timing. It’s also about the look and feel of what you put out to the world.

Consistent visuals include things like your style, imagery, logo, fonts, colors, patterns, and even your head shots.

Even if you show up consistently online and at live networking events, if your brand’s look and feel isn’t consistent, you will struggle to stand out and be remembered.

MASTER YOUR MESSAGING

Earlier I mentioned that I used to constantly change what I said I did and who I did it for. My messaging bounced all over the place and the result was that no one remembered how I could help them.

If you want to stand out and be remembered for something specific, you must be consistent with your messaging.

This includes the title you call yourself, the services you say you offer, the topics you write about, the challenges you say you help your clients overcome, the specific words and phrases you use throughout your brand and the tone of your written and spoken word.

Just as with your brand visuals, the messaging you use can build or break trust with your tribe.

Think about your current messaging. Is it consistent or are you constantly changing how you talk about what you do?

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’ve been feeling discouraged in your business lately, I want you to take a close look at consistency. Before you decide to throw in the towel, have you been consistent with the things on the list above long enough to actually experience results?

Clients and money don’t happen overnight, it takes months of being consistent before most solopreneurs see note-worthy results.

Don’t give up. And if you want my help making sure you’re being consistent in the right way. Reach out. I’m here for you!

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