Shitty marketing advice

Shitty marketing advice is everywhere, and I’m sick of it.

Week after week I speak to overwhelmed and stressed small business owners who tell me they don’t like marketing, or marketing isn’t working for them, or marketing fills up their days and doesn’t get them results.

A lot of this can be traced back to bad advice given to them by well-meaning marketing experts, business coaches and the like.

This morning I experienced this first-hand. I listened to a recording of a workshop for small business owners on the topic of social media.

There was a lot of content, including strategic elements which felt to me like a barrage of “shoulds”. You should have an ideal client profile that outlines their gender, age, hobbies etc. You should post lots of social content. You should do this, that, the other. All provided without nuance or caveats that not every piece of advice is relevant to every single business.

How often should small businesses post on social media?

The slide that tipped me over the edge was one that outlined the minimum amount of times small businesses should post on each social media channel.

Here’s what they said (and please don’t follow this advice, as it’s nonsense).

  • Instagram feed - 3x a week or 5-7 for great growth

  • Instagram Stories - as often as possible

  • Instagram Reels - 1x a month or 1x a week for great growth

  • Facebook - 1x a week, up to 7x a week depending on following

  • TikTok - 1x a month

  • LinkedIn profile * page - 3x posts a week or 5-7 for great growth

  • Pinterest - 2-3 pins a week

  • Twitter/X - 1 per day

  • Threads - 1 per day

I call bullshit!

Now they did say small business owners don't have to be on all platforms.

But when you have a slide like that in a presentation and the heading is ‘this means posting at least…’ - well, as someone who wants to learn from an expert you’re going to feel like you should try to do that.

Why this is terrible marketing advice

Even if you're only on Instagram or LinkedIn - that is still a lot of content. I’ve worked with many small businesses and this kind of posting schedule would be a leap for pretty much all of them. It’s not just the content creation, it’s everything around it: thinking of the topic, creating, uploading, hashtagging, replying to comments, etc.

I also don’t like the suggestion that “great growth” is made possible by following this schedule. What is “great growth”? Numbers? Followers? Sales? This will be different for every business.

And then there’s the hyper fixation on social media as THE way to do marketing. If in some magical parallel universe a small business owner had this kind of spare time available for marketing, is social media the place to spend all of that?

Can they not maybe have a bigger impact on the bottom line if instead they updated their website more frequently, wrote some blogs, appeared on a podcast, emailed subscribers or networked?

Find your own marketing blueprint

This sort of advice - giving out blanket “shoulds” for all small businesses is reckless.

Because imagine you bend over backwards to create this level of output on social media, and then nothing happens. No growth, great or otherwise. Where will you look for the problem? The default is to blame the algorithm or other external factors. Because you’ve followed the formula, right?!

I’ve seen this before, where people come to me for help after spending THOUSANDS learning another person’s blueprint, and even when they conscientiously follow the steps provided, they fall short from the advertised results.

It makes people feel like they’ve failed. Like they can’t do marketing. Like they are the problem. It knocks their self belief and their ability to do marketing that really connects with their people.

And in actual fact, their only mistake was believing shitty marketing advice.

So what can we do when confronted with marketing advice that jars on a gut-level?

My top tip is to go back to marketing basics. Remember what you’re trying to achieve and who you’re trying to reach. That’s where you will find your answers, not in someone else’s idea of perfect marketing (expert or not!).

Want to separate the good stuff from the marketing bullshit? I’d love to help you think it through and find the marketing that feels good to you. So much can shift for you in just one hour!

Karen Webber