Listening to a podcast a few weeks ago, I got a slap in the face when the guest stated that most small businesses don't have a marketing plan, they have a marketing schedule. (hello, it's me!)
To be fair, I usually start the year off with a plan and it just kind of... dissolves into a social media posting schedule - usually somewehre around June.
So in this week's subscriber soundbite, I'm talking about how to get back on track for selling season with a marketing plan that supports your business goals. Yes, we'll also talk about execution of your plan and yes, that does include social media scheduling! But let's make sure the execution and the scheduled content supports those all important business goals!
PS: I mention lots of additional resources in this episode. Here they are:
Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.
Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.
Listening to a podcast a few weeks ago, I got a slap in the face when the guest stated that most small businesses don't have a marketing plan, they have a marketing schedule. (hello, it's me!)
To be fair, I usually start the year off with a plan and it just kind of... dissolves into a social media posting schedule - usually somewehre around June.
So in this week's subscriber soundbite, I'm talking about how to get back on track for selling season with a marketing plan that supports your business goals. Yes, we'll also talk about execution of your plan and yes, that does include social media scheduling! But let's make sure the execution and the scheduled content supports those all important business goals!
PS: I mention lots of additional resources in this episode. Here they are:
Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.
Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.
Speaker 1:
Hello everyone and welcome to the September subscriber only episode of the Angie looked up podcast. Thank you all so much for once again supporting the podcast financially. It really does mean so much to me and really does help make the podcast keep running smoothly. And I am super excited because probably by the time you're listening to this, we'll have launched season five of the show and I am just really pumped for all the new guests that we're going to be bringing on this year. There's going to be some really fantastic conversations happening, and that is, in part, thanks to all of you. So I really do appreciate it and, yes, once again, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:
Before we dive into this month's episode, I do just want to mention one thing. I am planning on starting a Patreon for the podcast. That will run in tandem with the current Buzzsprout premium subscriber plan, which all of you belong to, and the reason I wanted to tell you this is because nothing is changing with the premium subscriber plan that you are all part of through Buzzsprout. This is just going to be another avenue for people to support the show. The rewards are going to be exactly the same as what all of you are getting now. The reason I decided to do this is because a lot of people don't understand what Buzzsprout is, and, if you're not sure, buzzsprout is simply a podcast hosting platform that allows podcasters to upload their episodes, have them stored and have them sent out to all the various podcasting apps like Apple Podcasts, spotify, etc. And so I think a lot of people don't understand what that is, but they are more familiar with Patreon or they already have a Patreon account and they understand how that works. So, essentially, what will be happening going forward is that you will have the option to support via Patreon or via Buzzsprout, but they will be exactly the same. The people on Patreon won't get anything different from what the people on Buzzsprout are getting, and vice versa. So it's just another avenue for me to open this up to more people who might be a little nervous, I guess, about a platform that they don't really understand. So that's all it is, but I did want to let you all know so that when you do hear about it on the show or elsewhere, you're not like what is that? How is that different from what I'm doing? So it's not different, it's just another platform. So, with that said, let's dive into this month's episode.
Speaker 1:
This was inspired by a podcast that I listened to called the Product Powerhouse Podcast with Erin Alexander. Erin is a Shopify designer and she works mainly with small businesses, helping them bring their online shops to fruition, and I find it a really helpful podcast as I have a Shopify store. But if you are anyone who creates, and you create product from your work, so whether that is art prints, print on demand, t-shirts, digital product, ceramic mugs, anything that you create and sell, it's a good podcast to listen to because she really does offer some good insights into how you can optimize your website for selling. Anyway, a few weeks ago she had a guest on and they were talking about marketing your business, and one of the very first things they said in the podcast was that most small businesses don't have a marketing plan. They have a marketing schedule, and that hit me like a ton of bricks because I am very guilty of falling victim to that.
Speaker 1:
I am very good at starting out with a plan and then having it fall into, basically me just scheduling whatever I can to social media and not having to worry about it. And I know from talking to my clients, I know from talking to my mastermind group, I know from talking to other small business owners that this is a trap that a lot of us fall into, and I think there's so many reasons for this. I think for a lot of us, marketing is a chore. For a lot of us, we just feel like we just got to get something on social media and be done with it, get it scheduled, get it out of the way so I don't have to think about it and I can worry about the other million tasks that I have to do this week. And I think a lot of us also aren't really sure how to create a plan, particularly how to create a plan outside of social media, and I think we've all kind of been what's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker 1:
Conditioned to think of scheduling content to social media as being a marketing plan, when it's really not. When you think about it, it is just scheduling content. But unless that content actually supports your marketing goals for the year or the quarter or the month or the week, it's not really a plan. It's just content. And social media has been very good at training us to create content for them. They know that they need our content and we have been. We've fallen into this trap of thinking that that is the only way to grow our businesses, to get more eyes on our businesses, and the truth is it's not, and so this really got me thinking. One of the things that I am pretty good about at the end of every year is sitting down and setting goals for the coming year, including marketing goals. Marketing is almost always a big pillar of my annual plan for my businesses, but somewhere between January and the middle of the year it kind of falls apart and I wind up just posting content to social media that doesn't necessarily support those goals that I created earlier in the year.
Speaker 1:
So before we get too far into this, I do just want to mention there are some fantastic episodes of the podcast that can be very helpful with marketing that you might want to go back and have a listen to, and I will put links to these in the show notes for you as well. But episode 22 is one that I did with Heather Travis. It is called Promoting your Business Outside of Social Media, and this is a really fantastic one if one of your goals is to spend less time on social media, but also if you're looking to reach other people who might not be following you on social media or might not be interested in social media, or it's also a great way to build relationships and to network, and so it is one of my favorite episodes of the show. Even though it is one of our earliest ones, it is full of good information, so it's a great one to go take a listen to if you just want a refresher of how to market outside of social media. Another good one that's helpful is episode 33.
Speaker 1:
This was an episode Heather and I did on media kits and how they can be used to market your business. They're just simply another tool to help you get in front of maybe a different type of person. These can be great for pitching yourselves to media more traditional media, but also social media. They can be a great way to create brand collaborations, collaborate with other creatives, and they're also great if you are pitching magazines for promotional activity rather than maybe editorial. Anyway, great episode to add another tool to your toolbox. Another one that I did with Heather. A lot of the marketing episodes are with Heather, and it makes sense because both of us come from a marketing and PR background, but this one was on working with influencers and this is social media specific, but it is another way to utilize social media to help you with your marketing goals, and I think for a lot of small businesses I know for a lot of small businesses that working with influencers is kind of a big mystery area. So this will help you get a handle on how you can work with influencers and how to approach them and how to form relationships with them.
Speaker 1:
The next episode I want to mention is episode 45 yet again, another episode with Heather and another one of my favorites, and this is an episode on how to surprise and delight your customers. So I think sometimes we forget that marketing isn't just about bringing customers to us. It is also about cementing those relationships we have with our existing customers and making sure they come back. So a good way to think about this is you know your cell phone bill, so you probably noticed that your cell phone company, whoever you use, is really great at putting out all these amazing offers If you come join us, if you move to our network, etc. Etc. But they never really do anything for their existing customers and it kind of ticks you off, doesn't it? It ticks me off, and so it makes you want to jump to another cell phone company to take advantage of their new customer offer. So when we're talking about surprising and delighting your customers, we're talking about how to keep them, because a huge part of running a successful business is marketing to your existing customers. It is retention. It's very expensive to go out and get a new customer. It is much cheaper and much more effective to keep the customers you have.
Speaker 1:
The next episode on my list is episode 192. And this is on email marketing ideas. So a really great platform for marketing to your existing customers or people who are interested, warm leads, is to focus on your email marketing. Almost always when I send out an email and I'm actually promoting the purchase of something, I wind up making a sale. So I might not make a ton of sales, but I usually make at least one and that can really boost your confidence and it really reminds you just how important those people are who are following you and who have subscribed to your list. Now I know the tricky part about this is figuring out what to send to your email list, and that's what this episode is all about. I think we have over 20, maybe close to 25 ideas for sending emails to your list that aren't too salesy but are still asking for the sale. So that's important.
Speaker 1:
The last episode on my list that I want to mention is episode 122. This was with Susan Diaz, and it's the easier way to market on social, and so Susan and I sat down to talk about how we can better use social media to market and not have it be so hard, and so we talk a lot about systems in here and it's just a really helpful episode to kind of make the whole social media marketing situation easier, because I know it's stressful for a lot of us. So those are all really good resources to help you out with creating a marketing plan or supporting a marketing plan. But what I wanted to focus on is because we are in September and we are almost at the beginning of quarter four and I don't know, I always actually consider quarter four to be September through to the end of the year. It's like Q2 is just July and August and Q4 is September to December. I know that technically it's not, but that's kind of how it feels in my head.
Speaker 1:
That's kind of the natural break in things for me, and so once we hit September, that is really the time where, if you have maybe not focused on a marketing plan this year, maybe this is the time where you sit down and start to map one out, and an easy way to do this is to just come up with some key goals that you want to focus on for the quarter, and this is going to be different for everyone. It's going to depend on your business. If you are a business that maybe isn't so busy in Q4, maybe this is the time of year where you're going to sit down and start planning out how you're going to market your business for next year and start implementing some of that now, while you're in your slow period. So I'm thinking the one that always jumps to mind is wedding photographers, who, once sort of September ends, wedding season is over and I know you probably have a lot to focus on in terms of editing and getting proofs out and finishing off all the weddings that you have worked on. But then you kind of hit this point in time where it's not so busy and you have some time to relax and to reset and to rest. But it's also a great time to sit down and look at what worked for you and what didn't work for you and start planning for next year.
Speaker 1:
And this is true for all of us. All of us have slow periods in our business. Those slow periods are the perfect time to sit down and think about what you want to focus on next and how you're going to get there. But for the majority of us, heading into this time of year is a very busy time of year and there's so much going on. You have so much that you need to do, particularly if you sell in person at markets I know a lot of us do I do and so you're focused on inventory, you're focused on getting new products ready to go for market season, and maybe marketing isn't on your mind quite so much. But this is actually the perfect time of year for us to really focus on marketing and our goals and getting ourselves out there. So this is a great time to sit down with a notebook and a pen and start to plot out what it is you really hope to achieve in your business, whether it's sales wise, whether it is brand recognition, getting in front of people and having them know who you are. All of those types of things are the things that you want to think about and start to make a plan Once you've got your goals. That's when you can make a plan to support the achievement of those goals. And that's really what a marketing plan is. It's not scheduling, it is simply putting marketing in place that supports the goals of your business.
Speaker 1:
So if your goal is to hit a certain sales target for this time of year, you need to start marketing appropriately. So perhaps you are thinking about things like creating promotions for the rest of the year, particularly around Black Friday, cyber Monday. Will you run market promotions? What kind of promotions will you run? Will they be sales promotions where everything is on sale, or will they be percentage off promotions, where you get a percentage off a certain category of products? Or will it be a buy one, get one, or something that increases your AOV or your average order value? So that might be a goal on its own.
Speaker 1:
Your goal this season might be to increase your average order value. If that's the case, what are you going to do from a marketing perspective to get people to put more in their basket before they check out with you, so that they spend more with you? So that's going to probably require a slightly different plan of attack than if you simply want to increase your dollar value of sales. An easy way to increase your dollar value of sales is to run sales, discount sales where they're getting a dollar, a percentage off or a dollar amount off, but that doesn't necessarily increase your average order value, and increasing your average order value can increase your profit. But you're going to think about that a little differently, because the whole purpose of increasing your average order value is to get them to buy more items or to buy higher priced items it's not necessarily to buy discounted items. So those are going to require different marketing approaches. Perhaps one of your big goals this quarter is to become better known in your local community, and so part of that strategy might be doing more Christmas and holiday markets or, if you've already got those lined up, thinking about how you can improve your branding at those markets so that you're more memorable, so that you stand out, so that people remember you. You might also want to think about how you're actually going to interact with customers at those markets so that they remember you. Are you going to have business cards that you hand to everyone who comes through? Are you going to give them, maybe, a little gift?
Speaker 1:
One of the things I did last year at a market that I was at. It was a market that had Mr and Mrs Claus. Santa and Mrs Claus were also there, so there were a lot of kids at this market, and so one of the things I did is people were coming through my booth. While they might not necessarily have been stopping to see me, they had their kids with them, and so I would offer the kids a little free sticker. I made up a ton of these little tiny octopus stickers they're literally the size of my thumbnail but I did them in different fun colors. I did purple and orange and blue, I think, and I gave them out to the kids and they got to choose which color they wanted, and the kids loved it and it was a great way for their parents to remember who I was, and a lot of my artwork is very kid friendly, so it was a really great way to get people to notice me and to remember me, whether they came back and purchased or not.
Speaker 1:
So that was part of my marketing plan when I did that market last year. It was my first market and I really wanted to be remembered. I wanted people to see me. They hadn't seen me before. I wanted them to remember who I was and I wanted them to have an experience with me that was positive and by giving their kid something tangible that wasn't food, that was really quite harmless, was a great way for them to for me to stand out in their minds, and so think about how you can improve your in person branding so that you stand out. That's a great way to start to make a mark in your local community. And then what happens is people start looking for you at markets or, if they can't wait till the market, they find your website. So when you're at markets, you want to make sure that people can find you again after the market. That's where business cards can come in handy. I know business cards are kind of old school, but but there's still a great way to get noticed at a market and to get remembered after a market. How many people stuff those cards into their pockets or their purses and then they pull it out a couple of months later and go oh yeah, she was that girl who had the cool octopus stickers. I'm going to go check her out. So that's more of an example of creating a marketing plan rather than creating a marketing schedule.
Speaker 1:
I'm not saying that you should be ignoring social media. No, absolutely not. But when you're posting to social media, you want to make sure that what you're posting is relevant to the goals that you've set yourself. And I'm not saying every single post needs to be relevant, but the majority of them should be. And that also doesn't mean you need to sell in every single post, you don't. You just need to post something that supports what your goals are.
Speaker 1:
So one of my goals this year was visibility for my illustration business, and one of the ways that I supported that was by doing a 365 project. So I was literally posting a piece of art almost every single day, unless it was a piece that took me longer than a day, and then I would post regularly. So it was a great way to just be putting content out there that was relevant to my business, but that was still supporting my goal of visibility. I have since cut back on that because it really was exhausting coming up with a new piece of artwork every day. I am still drawing every single day, but I am only posting when I have a finished piece or when it is something that I think is interesting, because it was just a lot. But again, it was supporting a very specific goal in my business and I'm looking at other ways of supporting that goal that don't require me to post new art every single day.
Speaker 1:
Now, because we are heading into the busy season, should you be scheduling this kind of marketing? Absolutely. We have so many things to worry about as we come into this season that scheduling where you can and batch creating content that supports your marketing goals is absolutely something that you should be doing if it's at all possible. It really does take a weight off your shoulders, but I do just want to caution you and remind you that it can be very easy, when you schedule all your social content, to forget to drop back in and interact with the people who are interacting with you. That is hugely important. That goes a long ways to helping you build your reputation online and in person. So don't forget to go back and check and see who's commented and interact with them and just keep an eye on what's going on there.
Speaker 1:
Now, because we are heading into the holiday season and it is selling season, you probably are going to want to create social media content that is selling and you probably are going to want to create email newsletters that are about selling. We are heading into that time of year where people are shopping and I don't know what that's going to look like this year, so I do think people are under a much bigger financial strain than they have been in recent years. I know that is higher interest rates are starting to slowly catch up with just about everyone in some way, and so I don't know how that's going to affect people's spending habits this holiday season, and I think that's something we all need to be prepared for, and we need to actively market ourselves, probably now more than ever. I have heard so many times and I do believe it's true that one of the biggest mistakes companies make when the economy goes into a downturn is to pull back on their marketing budgets, when actually what they should be doing is tightening their belt everywhere else and putting more money into their marketing budgets. So that I'm not saying you should go out and spend tons on Facebook ads and Instagram ads and things like that, but what I am saying is don't neglect your marketing.
Speaker 1:
What you might need to do this season is get more creative with your marketing, and how you get out there, how you show up, how you sell, the kinds of promotions that you offer and the kinds of products that you even put out there Like this is something you can think about. It's not really marketing related. It's more about adapting your business to the climate. But maybe take a look at if there is a budget-friendly option that you can offer this year that still has a good profit margin for you but that might be an easier sell to people who are really watching their pennies this year and may not be able to afford other items that you create. So it's nice to be able to have things at different price points that can meet people where they're at financially. So that's something to consider. It's not necessarily a marketing strategy, but it is something to think about, and if you do that, then you want to bring a marketing piece in that supports that new product that you're launching.
Speaker 1:
So I think what I'm trying to get here besides giving you a bunch of examples that wasn't necessarily my intention, but what I'm trying to get at here is that now is the time If ever there was a time during the year to really think about a marketing plan rather than a marketing schedule this is the time to do it. This is the time to sit down and really think about what your goals are for your business through the holiday season and how marketing can support those goals and what your marketing initiatives will be to support those goals. And then sit down and plot out all the different pieces you will need the print collateral, the digital collateral, all of those pieces. Think about what you'll need. Get them created, whether it's you creating them or whether you get somebody to help you create them, because that's a very valid thing to do this time of year. Hire somebody to help you create those graphics for this quarter. Va's work on contract. You don't need to hire a VA forever. You can just hire a VA for a few months to help you work on some areas of your business where you need a little bit of additional support.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, get that collateral done and then schedule it out, because once you've done that, you know that what you're scheduling is supporting what your goals are and that, I think, is the key thing that I'm trying to get across in this episode. I might have been a little long-winded and a little disjointed in there, but hopefully you understand where I was going with all of this. But really honestly, hearing that statement that most of us do not have a marketing plan we have a marketing schedule really hit me hard and really made me rethink how I want to do the last quarter of this year in my businesses and I'm sure that many of you are probably thinking the exact same thing. So I hope this gave you a little bit of a little incentive to sit down and focus on this and then hopefully carry that over into your plans for your business in 2024. So that is it for September.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much again for supporting the podcast financially. I really do appreciate it. I hope that you enjoy the new episodes that will be out this month and for the rest of the year. I'm so excited I've already recorded two. Like I said, by the time this comes out, the season opener will probably already have been released and I have a great guest lineup all set for the next few months. And, yeah, I think it's going to be a great season. I'm really looking forward to sharing it with all of you. So, with that said, thank you so much, and I will be back with all of you very soon.