Hey there, my friend, welcome to episode 311 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thanks for leading me your ears right now – I know you have lots of other things you could be doing or listening to – so I appreciate you.

Today I feel like “Dear Dolly” – anyone remember that? Perhaps I’m showing my age, but my point is today I am answering a community member’s question/dilemma. The question, Jenn, was are the top three marketing things a small business owner should be doing every week.

The joy I have in this question is almost immeasurable, so I can’t wait to share those top three things!

But first, a shoutout to me and my book Small Town Big Impact with 107 Simple Marketing Strategies for Regional Business Success. If you haven’t got a copy yet, go to www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au and get a copy. It is available on Amazon – so you can get a kindle or hard copy there too – but I’d prefer you get it from my website! I have just picked up the next print run of the book – which means, holy cow, that’s there are already a thousand copies of my book out in the big wide world (and some have even gone overseas!).

And before you hear today’s episode, I just wanted to see if you had a chance to listen to last week’s episode all about how and why I use ChaptGPT daily (yep, daily) in my business. I am hoping to inspire you to use it more often for all sorts of things by sharing my daily habits with you. If you haven’t listened to that episode, tune back into it after listening to today. Can you find it at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/310

And lastly, I have started a Throwback Thursday part of this pod. This week’s throw back is to episode 19 (wayyyyy back) which is titled Do you think like a marketer? An oldy but a still very relevant goodie! You can find the episode here: www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/19

PS – the episode is at the beginning of my pod journey, so please forgive me if the audio is a bit odd or things aren’t as polished as they are now!

Okay, let’s get into it. The top three marketing things I think you should, as a small business owner, do every week.

Like Tamara, who asked the question, said, you can’t do everything, and ideas are always flowing and sometimes marketing is overwhelming, so what SHOULD you be doing each week?

Now, I have to say this is a risk this – telling you the top three marketing things you should do each week, because there is a real chance you will hate me after I tell you the three things. Because I am solidly confident you know what they are, you just aren’t leaning into them and none of the three I am about to tell you are new, startling or genius, BUT they are the truth and should be your north star in marketing.

Number One

Show Up. And if I’m pushing you harder, show up on video. See I told you’d hate me – I can feel the eye roll from here my podcast friend!

But seriously, if you are not showing up for your audience, at least weekly, then what are you doing? You are not building community, you are not building trust, you are, frankly, hiding behind your brand and possibly your product or services and wanting people to buy from you without showing up for them.

How do you show up then? Grab your phone, press record and start talking. Talk about yourself, talk about what you have for sale that they can buy right now, talk about how when you went for a walk this morning you saw 12 birds eating seeds and when you came along, one bird made a noise, warned the others of danger approaching and it made you think about how important community is and that I (the walker doing the talking) need to be your warner in business! Or something like that. Stories people – they are everywhere.

Tell more stories. Do more video. Show the heck up.

Where do I think you should show up? On the number one marketing platform that your ideal client is on. And repurpose the same content from there over the week, to other platforms.

So, if your number one marketing strategy is email – show up there on video, and then repurpose onto your socials throughout the week.

So, the push the point home, the number one marketing thing you should do each week is SHOW UP!

Number Two

Do 30-60 minutes a week of what I call my Hansel and Gretel reach out strategy.

Yep, spend time commenting and liking, but mostly commenting on other people’s content. Share their content, with your community when you know your community would get value from it.

Whose content should you be liking, commenting and sharing? Your ideal clients and people/businesses you might like to do partnerships and collaborations within the future.

Some of the time is also spent finding these people – who has your audience but is not your competition?

You can post amazing content all week but honestly, if that’s all you are doing, you have got the wrong end of the social media stick. It’s called “social” media – never forget that. So, be social.

Side, note, I have people who do this strategy wrong because yes, they are commenting and liking but they are always back-handedly selling as well.

Insert post I have done – and the comment is “Jenn, I agree. How I would handle this is step 1, 2, 3 blah blah blah” – someone else’s content is NOT your place to sell. It is your place to cheer, challenge, congratulate, celebrate NOT sell (unless your expertise is requested, or the sale is asked for).

Remember, you can also do some hansel and Gretel stuff via email! Get an email from someone who is your ideal client or a potential partner or collaborator – send them an email back – give them some cheerful feedback or answer the question they asked in the email.

My amazing business owner, this here, number two is your GOLD.

Do more of this. Do it a little every day. Do it on the platform you want to build your community on the most. Do it on the platform your ideal client is hanging out on the most.

My amazing listener, I hope you are still there. I’m still a little worried from the eye roll I felt with number one! So, thanks for keeping on listening!!

Number Three

Number three has to be create content. But not just any content – content that aligns with your business goals.

I know this is the hard bit right – this is the overwhelming bit – what content do I create – it’s like one of the top 5 questions I get asked ALL the time as a marketing coach and mentor.

And really there’s NO easy answer. Marketing is simple – but it’s not easy, so you need to work out how to make marketing content creation easier and simpler for yourself.

Make a list of content that you should create to help you reach your business goals and are aligned with the following strategies:

• Engagement strategy
• Lead Generation Strategy
• Sales Strategy
• Brand Awareness Strategy
• Community Building Strategy

To help you get your thoughts around this, here’s my list:

• Testimonials
• Quotes (inspiration quotes but things I’ve said, not some famous dude!)
• LMBO group promotion
• Book me as a speaker
• Buy my courses
• Buy my book
• Work with me
• Listen to the podcast
• Lead magnet promo
• Infographics
• Community shoutout

I make sure I have all of these in my marketing each fortnight to every three weeks.

I am an old fashioned coloured texter and paper girl, so I have literally a calendar I write on that sets out my strategy. Not every tech, right? But that’s okay because it works for me!

What’s got to be on your list? What content do you need to create to reach your goals?

My list helps me reach my goals.

My goals:

• 10 new private clients
• 500 book sales
• 50 people into my Nine Week Marketing Transformation Program
• 2000 members into my Facebook group
• 2 speaking gigs a month
• 300,000 podcast downloads

Etc etc – you get the gist, right?

So, get clear on your goals, get clear on what content you need to reach those goals, and get that content out into the world.

Not easy – but definitely SIMPLE or simpler.

So, my dear friend who’s listened this far, The Top Three (3) Marketing Things Business Owners Should Do Every Week are:

1. Show up
2. Reach out
3. Create content that aligns with your business goals and put that out into the world.

So, my giggle aunt pod listener, that’s it! That’s it for episode 311.

How do you feel? Inspired? Let down because you already knew the three things because you’ve heard me tell them time and time and time again? Or maybe, as my favourite business saying goes “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”, so today although you have heard all this before, today you REALLY HEARD it and feel like you can now take on the world! (Oh, I soooo hope so!).

Let me know in the Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group your thoughts and feelings. You can join here, if you haven’t already:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LikeMindedBusinessOwners

If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening. And do you have a friend who might like to listen in too? Can I ask a favour, and have you share this episode with them? I’d love that and appreciate it SO much.

See you next week on the podcast for episode 312.

But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook, and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

…….. remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!