It's not about creating content and showing up for the sake of showing up,
posting every day so that you can say that you've posted every day this week.
But instead, it's about sharing content that is remarkable, content that AI
couldn't generate. That means being human. That means leaning into your unique perspectives,
your unique insights, things that cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence. Welcome
to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor. For years, I read all the
books, downloaded all the freebies, and did all the courses, but it
wasn't until I started taking imperfect action that my business had its first million dollar
year. Imperfect action is about doing things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent action
over perfect action, and moving forward even when you're not sure you're doing it
right. On this show, you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips
and strategies to build a business that brings you more profit, more freedom,
and even more joy. Are you on the list to get my daily business
Every day, I'll send you a bite sized prompt designed to help you grow
your business in a more intentional way. Sign up at step taylor dot co.
Forward Slash DBB or at the link in the show notes. Hey,
welcome back to Imperfect Action. This is episode seven hundred and five. Today
I'm sharing six mistakes slow down your audience growth. What I have noticed through
having a lot of conversations with the students in my courses, through people who
listen to this show, through to people who are on my email list,
is that online business owners are struggling to reach the right people and grow their
audience because they're following outdated tactics and advice, and they have limited budget and
not enough hours in the day to do all of the things. But they're
wasting their time on the things that don't actually get their business in front of
the right people. And maybe maybe, as I'm saying that, you're starting
to think, oh, that might be me. If it's you, don't
worry. Today, I'm sharing a couple of mistakes that are a waste of
your time, and as a waste of your time, they are slowing down
your audience growth. Number one relying on social media to attract new clients.
I have been saying this a lot, but social media platforms are not a
great place to reach new people. They want you to spend money with them
on their paid ads, so their algorithms make it a lot harder for you
to stand out and reach new people. Every now and then, they will
release a new feature. For example, when Instagram released reels a few years
ago, and because they wanted everyone to use that new feature, they prioritized
it with the algorithm and they would show that type of content to more people
in the feed. And that's when you hear everyone saying things like, oh,
you have to be doing reels. But the problem is that as everyone
starts doing reels, then the algorithm now has to find a way to distill
what is good content and what is bad content. And then after a while
it stops working. And guess what, I have thirty eight thousand Instagram followers,
which has happened over six years, not something that's happened quickly, and
it's not because of reels. And I post a few reels a week.
And now if a reel of mine gets over two thousand views from thirty eight
thousand followers, two thousand views, that's when I know it's a good one.
Think about that two thousand people out of thirty eight thousand, and most
of the people who are viewing that reel are people who are already following me.
It has taken me around six years to grow that Instagram account to thirty
eight thousand followers, and most of this comes from people that I send to
that Instagram account from elsewhere, because the content that I'm sharing to Instagram is
not there with the goal of me finding new people reaching new people. It's
there to nurture the people who are already following me. So instead of leaning
back, a great way to fix this mistake. Instead of leaning back and
hoping that the algorithm is going to show your content to the right people,
start to build a visibility plan with the things that are going to actually get
your brand and content in front of the right people outside of social media,
and then think about how you can create content that's going to make them stick
around and nurture them into buying from you. The second mistake that is slowing
down your audience growth is jumping from tactic to tactic or platform to platform.
So starting a podcast one month, then doing TikTok the next, and then
giving YouTube a try and jumping around searching for that one thing that will work.
This is a waste of your time and your energy because there isn't one
magic tactic, trend or platform that's gonna be the solution to everything. And
if there was, everyone would jump on it and it wouldn't be and it
wouldn't be as effective anymore. Like with reels, like I was saying before,
as soon as everyone started doing reels, the algorithm then had to find
a way to separate the great content from the clutter, and so people's content
started reaching fewer people organically. Then they brought in reels ads, so now
people can pay to sponsor their content and have it show up in reels.
So then that meant that the free co was showing to even fewer people.
So to fix this mistake, pick the platform or the platforms and the strategy
that you can be consistent with over a long period of time. Consistency is
what build momentum. I've been sharing three podcast episodes a week for the last
five and a half years something like that. It feels like a very long
time, but that is how I've built this show to seventy thousand downloads a
month. Right, It takes a long time, but you need to pick
something that you can be consistent with over a longer period of time, and
once you are consistent in one place, then you can build on that.
So because I'm already consistent with this podcast, then it becomes an extra step
to just switch my webcam on and record video and turn that into a reel.
But we started simple. I started simple. It used to be just
me recording every single podcast episode, and now that I have a team helping
me, now I can build onto it and create other pieces of content off
this podcast. But you need to start simple, otherwise you're going to find
it really hard to stay consistent. Number three, not being consistent in showing
up with your content online. This is a huge mistake. And usually if
you're finding it really hard to stay consistent with your content online, it's because
you're missing one of the three key ingredients. You're either missing a strategy,
missing structure, or you're missing systems. If you are stuck on what content
topics to share, it's probably that you're missing the strategy piece. If you
are struggling to create the content or get it in front of the right people
consistently, you're probably missing the structure piece. And if you're finding that it's
taking you way too much time and you don't have enough time to create all
of the content and get it all done. Then you're probably missing the system's
piece. So make it easy for yourself to be consistent and make sure you've
got all three of those in place. It makes it so much easier to
keep showing up. And that is how you build momentum. It doesn't happen
overnight. Okay. Mistake number four Sharing content that is unremarkable. Seth Golden
has this beautiful book called Purple Cow. It's one of my favorite business books
of all time, and he talks about how when you're on a road trip
and you see a cow, it's like, oh, there's a cow,
And then you start to see fields and fields of brown cows and it's kind
of boring after a while. It's not remarkable because they're all looking the same.
But then if you saw a purple cow, you'd be like, oh,
wow, there's a purple cow. But then if you started to see
fields and fields of purple cows, suddenly it wouldn't be remarkable anymore. And
that's kind of what content online is like. Okay, there is so much
content out there online, so much free content, so much how to tips
and tricks and all of that, and now AI and chat GPT have made
it even worse. Anybody can share a post on the five tips and tricks
to get your dog to stop barking or whatever, and that's no longer remarkable.
So now it's not about creating content and showing up for the sake of
showing up, posting every day so that you can say that you've posted every
day this week. But instead it's about sharing content that is remarkable, content
that AI couldn't generate. That means being human, That means leaning into your
unique perspectives, your unique insights, things that cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence.
Okay, mistake number five not being crystal clear on your ideal client,
your messaging, or your content pillars. In other words, you are probably
missing some fundamental parts of your content strategy. And without a content strategy,
your online presence is going to be pretty blah. Right, You're going to
be following that spray and prey approach where you are wasting time by putting content
out there that's not going to resonate with or attract the right people. One
of the easiest ways to stand out online is to get crystal clear on your
messaging, Because if you can get the right message in front of the right
people at the right time. That is when they will stop scrolling and pay
attention. Back in episode six sixty two, I shared seven questions to help
you get crystal clear on your messaging. If you want a direct link to
listen to that episode, send a DM on Instagram. I'm there at step
Taylor dot Co. Send me six six two, six hundred and sixty two.
Just the number and I will send you a direct link to that episode.
Okay, and then number six. Looking at to others for what to
do and what to share online if you are looking around for inspiration and if
you're in search of the solution for what topics to talk about online the right
thing. If you can just talk about that right topic, that's going to
catch the attention of your ideal clients. You're going to struggle to stand out
because how can you expect to stand out when you are doing exactly what others
are doing? Right? Think about the purple cow. If everybody else is
a purple cow, just being a purple cow, it's not going to make
you stand out. If you're in a crowd and everyone is wearing black,
are you going to stand out by wearing black as well. No, so
instead, how can you be creative? How can you bring in some of
your own personality, your own creativity. How can you share something that is
different and unique, a fresh perspective take on something that has been talked about
to death. Okay, so there you have at six mistakes that slow down
your audience growth. If you haven't already left a rating and a review on
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