In all honesty, running a business is extremely hard on its own. This is why I am focused on maintaining the clients I have and hosting workshops. I don’t want to add more work to my plate than needs be. However, there was a time when I believed that for a small business to be successful, the owner must blog, social media and email marketing. Since then, my mainframe has completely changed. It was not because of the burnout that happened when trying to do all those things in more. I actually became really smart about my business and other people’s business. Today, I want to breakdown what your business needs to do when it comes to blogging, social media and email marketing.
It’s Okay Not To Do Them
Gasps, yes it is okay if you chose not to do them and focus on other means of connecting with your audience. In the last few months, I have been working with more local small business owners. Some are just starting out and others have million dollar companies. Want to know what they all have in common, none have a social media presence for their businesses. Instead, we have focused on growing business through word of mouth and having a fantastic website. This concept doesn’t work for everyone, but it does work. My client Charles has a steady growing website design company without having to create a blogging or social media schedule. He does want to do those things at leisure, but they are not mandatory for his success. If you’re going to go without social media for your small business and focus on obtaining local clients there are several ways you can do that.
Blogging
There was a time I believed everyone should blog no matter the business type. I have sense took those words back because I realized blogging or vlogging is not for everyone. The amount of work that goes into creating content just for a blog is a lot of work. Then if you do not see immediate traction regarding the blog you get disappointed. To be honest blogging requires just as many hours as running your company. If you do not enjoy creating consistent content and imagery for your audience then I would look into once a month email marketing.
Social Media
There are over 300+ social media platforms, but the most popular are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Snapchat. That is five platforms plus email marketing and blogging. OMG, that is too much. That how I currently feel even with automation I am over social media. Influencers will tell you if you were not an early adopter it would be hard to gain influence on a platform. This is really not true, obtaining a ROI that you are comfortable with is another story. This is why I am not the hugest fan of social media. Yes, its fantastic free tool to reach your audience. It has helped me land clients, readers and sales all over the world. However the time I put into obtaining that was not a huge enough ROI for me. Instead, I focus on blogging and email marketing to grow my influence with my existing audience. They then share my content with their friends and family growing my business with word of mouth. I will say paid advertising on Facebook does work when you invest the time and effort into it.
Email Marketing
Personally, I would say creating my monthly email marketing campaigns is one of my favorite things to do. I spend maybe 2-3 hour once a month creating it. This includes writing the content, checking for errors, layout, imagery and more. So much time is invested because this is a once a month thing that actually connects on a personal level with my audience. Things I don’t share on the blog or social media is the type of content I am sharing. As a service based business you need to determine if the email marketing content schedule and who is it focused on. My audience is global so the advice I provide can be used any where in the world. Product based business your newsletter will always focus on product. You have the added bonus of utilizing email marketing sign ups from events and curating specific content for those local readers. This is something I harp on with clients about all the time. If you are going to be at an event such as; pop up shop or vending locally the customer who bought you in the past should be notified.
If you’re a service-based business I believe that you should find a way to build your expertise in your industry, you can do that by choosing one or all the above. However, if its going to cause you to lack in other areas maybe hosting a monthly free workshop is better for you. Product based business should choose one of the three to do. Mainly because you want to reach your audience if you’re not heavily invested in paid marketing or advertising. Providing customers the knowledge to know when a new product is arriving or going on sale is crucial to a continuous revenue stream.
Blogging, social media, and email marketing can run you raggedy if you allow them too. Find what works for your business and do that.
