Marketing Where the F$@&# do I start?

Argh seems like a very fitting word to start this blog with. What is Marketing? The dictionary defines it as the activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising”. So, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google, Your Website, Twitter, Yelp, Ticktock, SEO, Billboards, Flyers, Pamphlets, Business Card, Radio, Email Blasts… What is marketing wasn’t a very helpful question. Here I am in the same place I started with nothing more to show for it. This is the age of information, but have we ever stopped to think who puts all the information out there. Which platform do you choose, what if you choose the wrong platform? There is only so many hours in a day and when you are a small business you are doing all the things yourself. Even with all the information out there, how do you translate the information into sales? Can we please for a minute talk about these online sales when you aren’t a big box store. Gone are the days you stand in front of the customer/ client talking about your product. All the things you need to tell them are now in type formal and you must hope that your website doesn’t cap your word count. Not only that you now need to translate sincerity through written word, for those of us that are get to the point gosh darn is it a struggle. What I want to project is witty, humorous and relatable what I seem to project is bitchy. I’m not, I’m just a girl whose been through hell this year trying to talk to you about my bomb products that I really love. SO, it’s up on my website, which is a forever work in progress with the suggested SEO, changes to get better discovered to translate to sales so you follow all the clicky boxes and suggestions even though truth be told I haven’t the foggiest idea what they mean. So, the websites up but now it suggested you need to drive traffic to the website how the heck does one do that short of sending the link out to everyone I know. All that results in is a quick click and a very nice comment even though most of them won’t even make it off the home screen. Here is a fun fact you are more likely to have a client turn into a friend, than a friend turns into a client. It sucks but the sooner you realize it and move on the happier you will be. I am a firm believer in supporting those who support you. Social media that seems like an easy fun way to drive traffic to your website and this might have been the case 5 years ago but I’m reading algorithms trying to determine the best days and times to post to be able to reach my own followers that already like my page. Only now pictures aren’t good enough they want reels, but you need to be moving/ dancing put music to it I’m still back here thinking what the heck is a reel and how do I film myself and why can’t I just stick to a picture but don’t forget your relevant hash tags to get seen. But you can’t use the super popular ones anything with a million views won’t get you noticed. But don’t select anything with too few uses either it means that no one uses them, and you won’t get noticed either. Don’t forget to tag the town you’re from and get noticed, make sure it’s the one in Ontario not Europe. Find other business to run collaborations and giveaways with. How do you find these businesses you ask? Well, you get comfortable randomly messaging them and hope that they don’t think you are a scam. You also need to hope your email isn’t marked as junk mail, elsewise you will try to contact the winners and you will think the worst because small businesses we worry about the smallest details, that a normal human wouldn’t think twice about. Don’t forget about your stories you don’t want to project the image that all you do is work, even though you are putting in 11-16 hour days without your service based business being opened yet. So, your stories need to give your audience an insight to your life. Making you relatable as a human. How many times can you post a picture of your coffee cup before people start thinking you are off your rocker. You’d love to post on of the kids, but they haven’t stopped fighting for long enough for you to even know what the fight is about. Well, the dogs it is, if they don’t cooperate, I’ll just bust out some treats. Now that’s done what are these YouTube shorts that have really taken off. Or YouTube in general stats is showing it to have more viewership than Netflix which I myself can’t even form an opinion on as we don’t watch tv. It’s been over a year since I’ve seen anything on Netflix and back then the selection was less then par. If reels were a struggle my god YouTube is next level, professional level communication to get noticed. You need to a) pay someone b) buy camera equipment, a laptop, and editing software. Then you get the video posted for all of 4 people to watch it. Yes, there is money to be made in YouTube however it’s not instant gratification, its consistency showing up with more content for over a year, so onto the next step. I could continue but it’s a bit of a circular motion for all the media platforms with most of us standing there scratching our heads. Truth be told its ever changing and ever evolving, we do all the things as small business owners just hoping something sticks sometimes its just about getting your name out there. It takes seeing your name 10+ times before trusting you enough to do business with you. I’m going to be honest I never put this much priority in getting recognized or our name out there. For ten years we operated on the down low, underground if you will and I loved every second of it. Ten years of loyal established clients, or their friends and family. The house fire really tossed a wrench into our plans. Never would I have dreamed of starting fresh. Re-establishing who we were, our knowledge, our worth. If I am going to be honest never, would I have dreamed we’d be trying to sell our facial products we use during our service online, waiting on someone else’s time frame of urgency for us to get back home. I never had much interest in retail products before. That’s the funny thing about losing everything you own. You re-evaluate sometimes you find your own weaknesses and you readjust. You learn about marketing you do all the things. Then you sit there wondering if there’s other small businesses out there in the same boat wondering the same thing. Then you sit down in a notebook and a pen to write your blog post much to my Husbands annoyance as its not efficient as my computer is two feet away. As I try to explain I hate it I’m old school and my thought process doesn’t flow the same way. I’ll type it up later or pay Paige to. Outsourcing, this is an important word for small businesses. Ours is all done in house, currently the dogs are trying to sleep giving me stank eye for my side light, and Tanner has no clue what time it is reading me passages out of the business book he is currently reading. As he gives me hell for not having an off switch, I silently giggle to myself as he too is still working just in different forms. The next time you are on a small business page like the page, share their post, you don’t have to buy anything to help them out with their reach or visibility. They will appreciate it. Most of us run on very little sleep and will be up in a few hours with children who will be wanting breakfast. After getting lost in the blog writing rabbit hole, after reading an article stating one blog a week (which was my original goal) was laughable and 2/3 was a more acceptable amount. Slowly I am finding my voice again after the fire socializing was hard, relating to people was hard, watching life move forward even though ours was falling apart was hard, finding joy was hard. But each day is a new day and if you don’t start you will never get there. Consistency is key, showing up everyday because done is better than perfect. My conclusions are anything but perfect. It’s the single thing I struggle with the most and have since before the fire. Go subscribe to our website and YouTube Jess XO