Start Marketing

TL;DR: I had an existential crisis and I don't know if I want to podcast anymore.

I'm taking a hiatus from podcasting while I decide if it still fits in to my life. As I've always said, content creation is a full time job in big businesses. Right now, I create content that isn't as strategic or well-prepared. I don't mind creating, but I'm not willing to give the content the marketing time it needs to grow.

Thank you all for listening. Get out there and Start Marketing.

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

Cooler temps are approaching and that means that the hustle and bustle of marketing through the holidays is upon us. But, before we get too caught up in having an amazing fourth quarter, we need to reflect on our efforts this year and prepare for strategic marketing in 2023.

In order to avoid starting the new year doing the same ol' same ol' that may not even be working for us, or starting the new year doing spaghetti marketing (throwing things at the wall to see what sticks), learn how to create a strategic marketing plan that will grow your business.

The steps to prepare for 2023 marketing:

• Evaluate your 2022 strategies
• Set your business goals for 2023
• Set your budget for marketing in 2023
• Select your strategies

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

Social media isn't the only way to promote your small business, gain brand awareness and increase visibility for your products and services. There are other free alternatives to social media. Learn about:

• Reddit
• Public Relations
• User Generated Content

and how to execute each marketing strategy to increase branding and awareness for your business.

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

If you're struggling to convert leads into sales, today's episode is for you. We talk about how to reverse engineer a path to "yes". This is really just moving backward through the sales journey your customers go through to make sure you have content that addresses each phase and creates confidence to help move them to the next phase of the sale.

Each phase of the sales process creates an opportunity for you to have marketing strategies that move your buyers closer to a final sale.

We walk through an example of a wedding photographer and a few main phases and the types of content they can create to close the sales loop.

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

Do you ever wonder how someone's videos get people to stop scrolling and actually watch them let alone engage? There's a few easy things you can do to help stop the scroll and get your target audience to pay attention:

1. Research your audience
2. Answer one question
3. Bullet list your points
4. Create intrigue
5. Use text

Learn how to create videos that will engage your target audience and get more eyes on the content you work hard to create.

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

Creating content can feel overwhelming when you don't know what to talk about. Using content pillars helps:

• Create cohesive on-brand messages
• Keeps you relevant to your target audience
• Helps build your authority and trust
• Makes you more efficient in your creation process
• Helps move your target audience toward a sale

It's a fast easy exercise to do that has a lot of benefit.

Music: Tuesday, by Sascha Ende, Music.io

You spend a lot of time creating content that doesn't get a lot of visibility or engagement. What can you do to change that? Conduct keyword research.

• Use Google searches
• Use Wikipedia
• Use Uber Suggest/Google Search Console

Build your keywords and phrases into your content on your website, Google Business Profile, social media, hashtags and blogs. Publish consistently and over time, your content will gain visibility.

Music: Tuesday, Sascha Ende, Music.io

I get asked pretty frequently what free alternatives are out there for marketing that aren't social media marketing. While social media marketing is tried and true, it's a big ask to do organically for small businesses or solopreneurs. Content may be king, but if you don't have the time to do everything the algorithm wants you to do, you're stuck spinning your wheels creating content that gets little to no visibility but takes a ton of time to create. So what can you do instead?

1. Networking
2. Google Business Profiles
3. Referral and review programs
4. Pinterest
5. Create a hashtag strategy

I've talked about some of these before:

Pinterest

Networking

Google Business Profiles

Music Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

I get asked two questions frequently:

1. What's the best free way to market my business?
2. How do I know if my marketing is successful?

Marketing should support, not distract from your business goals. There are three simple steps to measuring the effectiveness of your marketing:

1. Create a sub-goal for each strategy that's tied to your business goal for the year.
2. Track each strategy but understanding costs and utilizing pixels/unique identifiers
3. Set a time period for your strategies. 

If your marketing isn't generating positive ROI, it's not for you.

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io

It's tempting to use social media as a stand-in for your website. But it's dangerous to build an audience on rented land. Why? Because if the algorithm changes or the platform goes away, so does your hard-earned audience.

Using a website is critical because:

• You own the brand aesthetic
• You own the data
• You own the audience
• You control the messaging
• You can ask for the sale

Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende, Music.io