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If your marketing feels frustrating, inconsistent, or like you’re constantly working without stable results, it’s probably not because marketing “doesn’t work.” It’s because your expectations and your strategy are out of alignment. Most service-based business owners are either doing long term marketing and expecting short term sales… or living in nonstop launch mode with zero stability.

In this episode of The Real Truth About Business, Michelle breaks down the difference between short term and long term marketing and why you need both to create sustainable business growth. She explains how short term marketing drives immediate revenue, how long term marketing builds trust and authority, and how your pipeline is the bridge that connects them. If you’ve been wondering why your visibility isn’t converting or your launches feel exhausting, this conversation will bring clarity.

Whether you’re a coach, consultant, OBM, VA, designer, copywriter, or ADHD entrepreneur, this episode will help you stop guessing what to post and start making strategic marketing decisions based on what your business actually needs right now.

You’ll learn:

1. The difference between short term marketing and long term marketing
2. When to use direct offers, launches, and sales pushes strategically
3. Why podcasting, SEO, and thought leadership build authority but not instant sales
4. How to identify gaps in your pipeline that are stalling conversions
5. How to align your expectations with the type of marketing you’re doing

This is the real truth about business growth, especially for neurodivergent service providers who crave clarity, structure, and results without falling for every trend online.

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Here's your Next Steps:

1. Take the "Where's the Gap in Your Business Strategy" Quiz
2. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads or Facebook
3. Visit my website to learn more and apply for the Focused Visionary Accelerator
4. Sign up for my newsletter - Sunday Morning Brew - delivered every Sunday at 6 am

About the Host:

Michelle DeNio is a business strategist and growth advisor for service-based entrepreneurs, especially neurodivergent and ADHD business owners. Creator of the Focused Visionary Accelerator and host of The Real Truth About Business podcast, she helps clients simplify, focus, and grow sustainably. With 15+ years in business operations, she’s known for turning big ideas into simple, profitable action plans.

Okay.

I see two patterns over and over and over again.

I've been seeing this a lot in conversations with clients and just in general on the interwebs of the online space.

And that is business owners doing long term marketing and expecting short term results or the flip side, that they're doing short term marketing and they're just living in this constant hustle and grind and launch mode.

And both feel productive.

Right?

Right.

Both create activity, but neither one of them creates the stability and the consistent flow that most people are looking for on their own.

Right.

So.

And if you don't really understand the difference between short term and long term marketing, then marketing will quite honestly usually feel pretty frustrating.

And that's what I want to chat about today because I think people are getting frustrated with their marketing when it's reality.

For what I'm seeing is just that their expectations are a little bit out of alignment.

Okay, so that's what we're diving into today.

Short term versus long term, when and how to use each of them and what you can expect from both of them.

Okay.

So if you're ready, let's dive in.

All right, welcome, welcome.

I'm excited to chat about this one because I have this conversation a lot inside of the Focus Visionary accelerator and also with my intensive clients, which right.

Now I am booking intensives.

I have spots available for two per.

Month and they are kind of a first come, first serve.

I'm going to make sure that the link is in the show notes, but the intensive is a two day.

So if you are a fast action taker, you like to just dive in.

Get the work done and just really.

See where your gaps are really what's not working.

Right.

What is working and then create a strategy.

The two day chef's kiss.

I freaking love it.

Every single time I do one.

I love it.

Okay, so the link is in the show notes, but also too, if you're not sure, like book a strategy call.

They're absolutely free.

They're no obligation.

I'm not a hard sell.

Like just jump on a strategy call.

If any of these things, any episode, you ever have questions, jump on a strategy call.

The link is in the show notes.

Just do it.

Okay.

Like you don't have anything to be afraid of and I promise it'll be worth your time.

Okay, so let's talk about it.

Short term marketing versus long term.

We're going to start with short term.

What is it?

Okay.

Short term marketing is designed to create immediate movement.

Right.

So some examples of this are direct offers.

Right.

Like What I just gave you guys was kind of a direct offer book, a strategy call, okay?

A sales email, a follow up flash.

Sales, flash promotions, launches, booking calls, right?

With a clear call to action, right?

Like, like I just gave you, okay.

Like it's activating, right?

It's answering the question, what do I want someone to do right now?

Okay, so as you are listening to this, I'm saying if you have questions, I want you to go book a call, right?

Go book a call.

I'm giving you that next step.

It's, I'm, I'm telling you what to do, right?

So usually with short term marketing, you're getting people to move, right?

You're getting people to take some action.

That's the goal of it, right?

Like the short term social media can be short term, can be long term too.

But remember like posting stories and stuff like that, it's short term and so if somebody misses it, they miss it, right?

So you want to make sure that with all of your short term marketing you're giving like a clear call to.

Action because that's what it's designed to do, okay?

So short term marketing, you want to.

Use it when you're in a sales push, right?

Like you're looking to increase revenue.

You have warm leads that need a, a movement, right?

You have warm leads and they need.

To take that next step.

They need to know what their next step is.

And so you need to give them the next step.

You need to kind of help move them along.

You need short term marketing when you feel like you're doing all of these.

Things for visibility but like it's not converting.

And this is the one I see.

The most and a lot of times it's not converting because honestly what you're doing is like these long term marketing strategies which really are not designed to convert, not quickly, right?

They're long term.

Or another short term marketing would be like if you're filling something with a start date.

So if you're launching or if you have a cohort or you have something of that sort where it's like there's a deadline to it, right?

There's a some form of urgency.

So at the time of recording this, it will have been passed by the time this episode releases.

But I have been in a push because I was raising the price of the focus visionary accelerator and so there was a deadline, right?

So that was a lot of the marketing that I was doing was short term.

It was sales, emails, it was, all of my social content was all around like get in now While the price is low because the price is going up because, because XYZ is changing, right?

And so that's all short term.

It had a deadline, it had an end date.

All right, that's short term marketing, right?

It's designed to get people to make a decision.

Okay, but if this is, if you stay in this and you're only doing short term marketing, right, you're always promoting, right?

There's this feeling of like, I'm always promoting, your revenue can maybe feel a little bit unstable because again, you're always promoting, you're in this, you know, up and down, up and down energy.

You're constantly, constantly thinking like, well, what am I going to sell this week?

What am I selling this week?

Or what am I pushing people to?

You know, and, and that can be confusing for you.

It can be confusing for your audience.

It can be exhausting for you.

It can be exhausting for your audience, right?

And so short term tactics and short term marketing without the long term foundation can create these spikes, can create what.

You know, sometimes I refer to as.

Like a cash injection, but it's not.

Sustainable because it's a very hard energy to be in.

And also it doesn't do a lot for building your pipeline, for creating awareness, for visibility.

It doesn't do a lot from that perspective.

So it's like you're constantly on the.

Like on the hunt, for lack of.

A better word, right?

Like this short term is just like moving on, moving on, moving on, moving on, moving on, right?

Where nothing is really working for you.

Because you're having to do all the work.

Where on the flip side, you've got long term marketing.

And long term marketing often is, you know, used to create authority, to build trust, to secure your positioning, to build relationships, for brand recognition, all of those things.

So some examples obviously, like, similar to this, consistent podcasting, right?

Podcasting is a long game.

It's not like you're going to put one episode out there, 8,000 people are going to download it and you're going to get 25 new clients.

It just doesn't happen, right?

Like, you've got to be consistent with it.

You need listenership, you've got to bring an audience to the podcast, right?

And so you've got to make sure.

So it's a long game.

Yes, it can convert, yes, it can convert quickly if you have an audience.

But again, it's still, you have to maintain consistency with it and it's a long term game.

Posting thought leadership content, again, wonderful for brand recognition, wonderful for authority, wonderful for positioning.

But usually thought leadership doesn't create conversion.

It will create trust and it will create interest, but it doesn't necessarily give people that next step of like, well, what do I do from here?

Okay, nurture emails.

So, like my Sunday morning brew, that's a long term strategy as well.

Again, there's a, there's a combination.

You'll see that there's a combination here because there's people on.

Sometimes on my Sunday morning brew, I give you the next step with an action of like, hey, I need, you know, if you want this, click here, do this, book this, right?

Like, of course I'm selling inside of my newsletter because it's business and we're selling, but it's also designed to nurture.

It's there to connect.

I use it very much as a nurture point.

Okay, SEO content, again, long game.

You don't just put one piece of.

SEO optimized content out there and all of a sudden Google's sending a million leads your way into building and networking.

I think this is one where I, a lot of people think this is short term, right?

Networking.

You go to a networking event, you.

Meet new people, you can, you know.

And then something comes from it.

And that's not always the case.

Sometimes you need to go 2, 3, 4, 5 months.

People need to see you over and over and over, right?

So long term marketing is this like compounding effect, right?

It's this compounding energy and it's designed.

Really to answer the question of like, what?

Why should someone trust me?

Or why should someone pick me when they're ready?

Okay, so when you want to use.

Long term marketing obviously is always right.

Like, you should always be doing something that is long term.

But, you know, so if you want.

Inbound leads, you're looking for more referrals.

You want less convincing of people and you just want more.

You want more deciding, right?

So you're not convincing.

You're creating this thought leadership post.

You know, these posts.

You're, you're putting your content out there.

And so people are getting decisions.

They're like, oh yeah, she's definitely thinks the way I do.

And again, like using this podcast as an example, there's so many times people say to me, like, michelle, I went and binged your podcast.

I love what you, you're saying, I love, you know, I love what, you know, the, the what am I even trying to say?

I can't even come up with my words right now.

People that binge my podcast, they'll often say like, oh, my gosh I love the way you think.

I never heard people put it in that way before.

Right?

So it definitely creates authority.

It's a nurture point and it creates authority because like I always tell people, go listen to my podcast.

You're going to love me or hate me at the end of it.

Like, you're either going to resonate with the way my brain thinks and the way I approach business, or you're not.

And that's okay.

Right?

So it's not about convincing people.

I'm not trying to convince them.

I'm just trying to say, like, go listen to this and then make your decision.

Okay?

And so if you want sustainable growth, that's where long term comes in.

But here's the problem.

If you get stuck in just all of these long term marketing strategies, you, you often will probably feel like you're feel visible, but it's not profitable.

Right?

Like I'm in doing all the things, I'm showing up in all the places and it's not converting.

You kind of assume that like being consistent is going to naturally bring in sales, but it doesn't.

And I've seen this play out over and over.

Because people might not know how to work with you.

Right?

Because a lot of times with long term marketing, we're not point blank saying, I've got this many spots available or I've done, you know, this is how you can work with me.

Or go check out my website, book a call.

Right?

Like CO sometimes does that if it's a blog post and they make it all the way to the bottom.

Right.

Again, there's always, there's always a alternate.

Like nothing I say is set in stone, right?

Because there's O.

Or like there's always this like, alternative to the rule, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Right?

And so, yes, it's not to say that SEO can't create a short term, but again, it's about the actual process of the SEO.

Okay?

And so a lot of times long term marketing doesn't have a direct call to action.

You're kind of waiting for people to.

Go, oh, hey, I found you, I listened to you, I followed you.

Right?

And you're waiting for them to raise their hands.

And sometimes they might never raise their hand because people sometimes just get intimidated.

They don't want to be the one to reach out.

They don't want to be the one.

To ask the questions.

So long term positioning and marketing without this like short term activation piece can.

Create this stagnation where you're Kind of feeling like stuck in, like, what the heck is going on?

Right.

Okay.

And that's where most people get frustrated, right.

They post all this valuable content for a month and then they expect sales.

Or they push out an offer hard.

But they've done nothing to build trust.

They've done nothing to build out an audience.

They don't even necessarily have an audience.

And so it's like, then it doesn't sell.

And it's like, well, my marketing's not working.

No, it is.

It's just not working in the timeline.

And with the expectations you have.

Right.

Like, it's just there's a misalignment there.

Okay.

So what you've got to do is.

Kind of bridge the gap.

And how do you do that?

You bring in both and look at it from this perspective of like, long term marketing feeds the top of your pipeline.

So if you've heard anything, I talk about all the time inside the Focus Visionary accelerator and with the framework, when I talk about, you know, my three core pillars, pricing, pipeline and sales.

With pipeline, it's like, what are you doing to get people aware of you?

Step one is awareness.

People have to know you exist.

And long term marketing is wonderful for this.

Okay.

And then you've got short term marketing which kind of moves people through from awareness to interest to consideration to decision, to retention.

Right.

So you've got to have both.

You have to have that long term that draws people in and then the short term that says, here's what I need you to do next.

Okay.

So if, but if you don't have this defined pipeline, like a, you got to start there.

And that's, that's a topic for another day.

Again, that's why we, we focus heavily on that inside the Focus Visionary framework.

Because it's like everybody just thinks I need to do more marketing or I need to do this.

Well, no, not necessarily.

Like, maybe you're doing all of the marketing that you need to, but maybe you just don't have a clear pipeline.

And so if you don't have a clear pipeline, then your short term marketing can't move people through it because you don't even know how to move people through it.

Right.

And so that's where you've got to have the data, you've got to have facts, you've got to have information to work from.

Okay.

Because then you know exactly like, okay, this long term marketing strategy is working really well.

I get a lot from referrals, I get a lot from this networking group.

I get a lot here and then from if I run a conversion event or if I post on social media, or if I send out follow UPS or DMs letting people know I've only got two spots left, right?

Like then you know your short term marketing.

Okay.

And so that's what you got to really look at is what is actually netting the results.

Okay.

Not what feels the most productive, not what is like the thing that brings you the most joy.

Of course, that we want to make sure that you're like happy and you like it.

But again, like I see people hanging out on social media all the time and it may not be converting.

Right?

And so again, just because it's something you enjoy doesn't mean it's netting you results.

And also too like not just what somebody else told you to try.

Okay?

So again, you got to start with the facts so you know which of your long term strategies are working, which of your short term strategies is working.

Where did your last five to ten clients come from?

I ask this question all the time.

This should not be a new question.

Okay.

What actions are you seeing that are creating conversations?

What actions are you using that's creating conversions, right?

Like, what's getting people to go, I'm in.

All right, where do you find people stalling?

Okay.

And then what can you do from a marketing perspective to get them out of that stall?

Okay, so this kind of tells you when you have answer those questions of like, do you kind of have a long term authority gap in the sense of like, they don't necessarily know you as the expert, they're kind of aware of you, but you're not doing enough to build the relationship, to build the trust, to build the authority, to be seen as is the expert in your space.

This is where that thought leadership content comes in.

Anything long term, YouTube, podcasting, right, where people can like really get a taste of you.

Or do you have this short term activation gap where it's like people are coming in, they're aware of you, they're kind of interested, but then they don't know what to do next.

Okay.

Or is it simply that you're like, have a gap in the clarity around your pipeline?

There's.

There's that too.

Okay.

So again, it's making sure that your expectations are in alignment with the actions that you're taking.

Right?

If you're taking all long term actions, you can't expect short term results.

If you're always doing short term things, you can't expect to create long term stability.

Right?

Because you're, you're not setting yourself up for long term sustainability and stability because you're constantly in this.

What's happening right now?

Okay, so here's where I want you to kind of shift your mindset.

There's this question.

Instead of going like, what should I post today or what should I do today?

Ask yourself like what, what problem or what problem needs solving right now as far as in your business, right?

Do you need to create more authority?

Do you need to create more visibility?

Do you need conversion?

Do you need a cash injection?

Right?

So this is going to tell you.

Where you put your focus.

Does it put your focus into what.

More long term activities.

Maybe podcast, guesting again, YouTube if you're into that, networking, sending out an email.

Putting in like a nurture, a newsletter.

Again, like you can't start a newsletter and expect conversion, right?

Like it's just not going to happen.

You have a newsletter and then you have these short term marketing emails that go out, but they serve two different purposes.

All right?

So you've got to know like, what do I need right now?

What does my business need from me right now and where do I want to spend and put my time?

Okay.

And if you want an exercise that you can do if you, when you have time, get a pen and paper out and grab or even on your phone, wherever, I don't care.

You know, make a list of like all of the things that you do and then go down and label them short term, long term, short term, long term, right?

Like really be honest with yourself and like, then ask yourself like which side is heavier?

Where is there gaps, right?

What am I missing?

Do I need to do a little bit more long term marketing and as far as relationship building, trust, authority, or do I need to do more short term marketing, which is more for building, getting those conversions, right?

Getting people to take action.

Okay.

And then asking yourself also like, do you know how to move people from your long term marketing efforts into short term offers?

Right?

So like do you know how to do that?

And that should come in with your short term.

But if you've got this list and you don't have that, that could be why you're not converting, right?

I think so many people so much energy into assuming they don't have enough of an audience or that their offer is wrong or they're, you know, whatever.

There's all these reasons and a lot of times it's just simply that there's something out of alignment.

You could have a ton of leads but you're just not moving them through or you've you're just not doing anything to build trust and you're just constantly in this like post, post, post, right?

Where very short term and people just aren't seeing it.

They're just not seeing your content enough.

Even though it feels like you're doing it all the time because it's short lived.

Right.

And so it could be that you have more than enough of an audience.

You just don't have the strategies in play to have them working cohesively.

Okay.

That's the thing, is that they all need to be working in this like perfect system.

Not even perfect, but as a system.

Right.

That's why I talk about the framework is like when I talk about the focus visionary framework and I use that word as a framework because it is truly just that.

It's a framework that builds this internal system for you in your business so you know exactly what's working and what you need to do, what actions you need to take.

And so that you don't have this.

Misalignment, so you don't have these like.

Expectations that are off a little bit.

Okay.

So at the end of the day I want you to remember this, right?

Short term marketing creates revenue and long term marketing creates stability.

Okay.

And then your pipeline connects the two of them.

And so without all three, you're going to feel like you're working this constant, you know, rat race and wondering like, why are things not actually, you know, why are my marketing efforts not working?

It's not that they're not working, they're just not set up to work together.

That's 90% of the time what I see.

So it's not about doing more, right?

You don't have to do more of anything.

It's about matching the strategy to the timeline and connecting them so that you have a clear path forward.

Okay.

So remember, long term stability, trust, authority, positioning, brand recognition, short term decisions, revenue, sales, conversations, conversion.

Right?

So really take time to sit down and look at where are you putting most of your time and where can you just maybe slightly tweak that so that they will work simultaneously together?

Okay.

And again, if you need help with this, book, the strategy call, it's free.

The link is in the show notes.

Just book it.

Okay.

Yes.

There are some questions on the form asking you about where you're stuck and if you're ready to invest.

Again, that's just there to collect information.

That's sales.

That's part of the marketing.

Right.

I've got to have this information.

But again, if it's not the right fit.

I'm not going to sell you into something that isn't.

I do just, like, book the call.

Okay, so that's what your.

Your goal is for the day, is A, if you need help, book the call, and B, really see where you're spending your time.

And if.

If you' your expectations are slightly out of alignment.

Okay.

I love you.

I believe in you, and I'll talk to you soon.