Here’s the latest edition of The Optimized Report newsletter, which features 1 actionable tip every Sunday to help small business owners dramatically improve their performance, profit, and potential without sacrificing what's most important—TIME.

Many businesses waste time and money doing too much marketing.

Yes, I said it. Too-much-marketing. They cast a lot of noise out into the world, hoping to catch a big fish.

The impact of a great marketing strategy is to do less, make more, with a lot less effort.

But you'll need to silence the desire to chase the next bright and shiny marketing hack. They sound great, they even sound fun, but they're a distraction.

Your goal is to help clients produce a specific result, not tinker with a marketing campaign. Right?

But first, your ideal client needs to know who you are.

Here's a basic marketing plan that helps your ideal client engage with your brand.

Step 1: Know your ideal client.

You can't skip this step.

Your ideal client is the person that benefits the most from what you have to offer and loves every bit of it. Justin Wise clarifies this by asking the question, "Who pays you the most the easiest?"

I'll expand on that and say, "Who pays you the most, the easiest, and does it regularly?"

You have to clearly articulate who these people and companies are. You're wasting marketing dollars on a big guess if you don't know your ideal client.

When you create an ideal target persona, .ask yourself:

• How big is the company?

• What's their job description?

• What do they struggle with?

• What are their goals?

• What do they like/dislike?

Once you've identified your ideal client, you will position yourself as the go-to resource in helping them overcome their struggles and achieve their goals.

Action step: Define your ideal client.

Step 2: Identify the platform.

Now that you know your ideal client, you need to identify the platform they spend most of their time on.

Sure, everyone might be on Instagram, but that doesn't mean your business needs to be. For example, my B2B aerospace company isn't on Instagram or Tik Tok. Nor are we really on Facebook.

Instead, we've researched where our clients spend most of their time, which is:

Platform 1: LinkedIn

Platform 2: Google

Platform 3: An key industry publication

So our marketing ad dollars are allocated to these platforms.

Action step: Identify the ONE platform your ideal client spends a lot of their time on.

Step 3: Create your engagement campaigns.

According to Ross Simmonds, the ideal content to generate awareness and engagement are:

Educational

You can educate an audience on things associated with your industry.

Possible topics:

• How to

• New data

• Insights

• Product updates

• Comparisons

• New information

• Trends

Engaging

Engaging content is to drive a conversation with your ideal client. "It's content that stirs up a conversation or dialog."

Possible topics:

• Personal stories

• Questions

• Thought starters

• Opinion pieces

• Controversial topics

• Fill in the blanks

Entertaining

When you entertain, you leave people smiling, motivated, laughing, or feeling great about themselves.

"In B2B, this type of content could be a hilarious meme that pokes fun of the corporate culture within a specific industry, or it could be a blog post that makes reference to pop culture."

Possible topics:

• Personal stories

• Jokes

• Self-deprecating humor

• Memes

• GIFs

• Pop culture references

Empowering

Here, you can celebrate others and shine a light on people winning.

Possible topics:

• Celebrate others

• Showcasing others

• Elevating other brands

• Lists of people/brands

Pick one category to start with.

A great example of an engagement campaign would be to write a "How To" blog post helping your ideal client overcome their biggest challenge.

Start there.

You then create a paid ad targeting your ideal client on the medium selected in step 2 to read the blog posts if they want to achieve a particular outcome.

Create massive value before you ask for anything in return. 

They should think of you and say, "Wow, X can really help me with Y."

Action items:

• Create an engagement asset (i.e., blog post).

• Create a paid ad getting your ideal clients to read a blog post (or another asset you create).

Step 4: Get them to take action.

You have to give your ideal client a great reason to take action.

Sound simple, right? Yet, many companies get lazy and don't tell the reader why it's important, why it's essential, or why it's crucial for them to take the next step.

That's where a value proposition comes in.

"A value proposition is a single statement that highlights what is unique and highly desirable about your offer," writes Copyhackers.

You must write your value prop for the one offer you're trying to sell to the one ideal client.

"The value-specific value proposition formula answers a key question — What value are you providing?"

Start by filling in the blank with what you offer:

My product is the one that ___.

Here's Reclaim's value-specific value proposition as an example, "Reclaim creates the perfect schedule for your priorities, saving you up to 40% of your workweek."

Their action is "Get started for free."

So, for your business, think of a key action based on your value-specific value proposition to capture leads that give them something valuable.

It can be a simple guide to help them overcome one of their most pressing challenges.

Or it can be a request to schedule time for a quick call to discuss their unique challenge with X and how you can help them overcome it, and whether they do business with you are not, they'll leave with key insights they can use in their business today.

That's the goal.

Create pieces of paid advertising that get your ideal clients to engage with your company, and once they engage, convince them that you have the answers to their unique challenges and help them take the first step.

When you execute these steps, you'll have created a powerful, simple engagement system that gets you in front of your best clients, getting them to take the first step to a long and beneficial relationship.

Build a Business, Not a Prison

Subscribe to The Optimized Report, which features 1 actionable tip every Sunday to help small business owners dramatically improve their performance, profit, and potential without sacrificing what's most important—TIME.

It's always less than a 3.5-minute read with lessons you can instantly apply.