Trusting the Long Game

Modern-day marketing can be both fun and frustrating, especially when you’re running a small business.

Think about the possibilities. Today, a small business owner can share a thought, a photograph, or a short video and potentially reach thousands of people they’ve never met. There was a time when reaching an audience like that generally required a substantial investment in advertising or access to someone else’s audience. There’s something exciting about that! You never quite know which post, conversation, or spontaneous comment might find its way to exactly the right people.

But there’s another side to all those possibilities.

Just when I think I’ve figured out what works for my business, something changes. A platform updates its algorithm, a new trend takes off, or the advice about what kind of content gets noticed shifts yet again.

I usually enjoy making the content. The frustrating part has become trying to figure out the best thing to do with it. There’s only so much time available for marketing, and it’s surprisingly easy to spend a good portion of that limited time not on the content itself, but figuring out what to do with the finished product: where to post, when to post, what format to use, and whether the advice I followed last month is still relevant this month.

And of course, there’s no guarantee that any of that research will produce results. You can spend hours carefully creating something that barely gets noticed, while a spontaneous comment or a video you made in five minutes finds an audience you never imagined.

It’s a little maddening. And a little wonderful.

After much trial and error, I think I’ve decided where to land with marketing for my own business. I’m choosing to trust the long game.

That doesn’t mean ignoring what’s changing or refusing to try something new. I still want to learn, experiment, and pay attention to what’s happening. But I don’t want to spend so much time trying to keep up with the latest recommendations that I lose sight of why I’m creating content in the first place.

I want to share things that are useful. I want to offer ideas that might help someone solve a problem or look at something a little differently. And I want the people who might benefit from what I do to have an opportunity to find me.

Some of that is within my control. Some of it isn’t.

I can’t predict what an algorithm will do tomorrow, and I certainly can’t build a reliable process around something that keeps changing. But I can keep showing up, keep sharing what I know, and keep making connections.

Maybe that’s where the fun and frustration can finally coexist. I can keep creating things I believe are relevant and useful, while staying open to new ways of sharing them. I don’t have to chase every opportunity, but I don’t have to close the door on them, either.

In the end, I think I’m choosing to trust that my people will find me. And that your people will find you, too.