Since the start of the year I’ve noticed on social media in LOTS of groups I belong to, that there are small business owners doubting themselves, doubting their ability to create and run a profitable business.

Firstly, if you have survived 2020, 2021 in any shape or form as a business owner – you are freaking awesome! The last two years have been a relentless slog in many ways.

And something that I have noticed from the social media posts I’ve seen, are some amazing comments – the encouraging “you’ve got this” comments.

Then I also read a lot of the empathetic “me too” comments as well.

Business is hard.  That’s why not everyone is cut out to be a small business owner.

So this blog is for anyone who has felt that it has all been overwhelming recently!

Personally, I have worked on my goals really hard in the past few weeks, really letting myself think and ponder:

• What do I really want this year?
• How much do I really want or need to make?

It will be of no surprise that I, at this stage of my life anyway, have no intentions of building a million-dollar business or anything that looks like it.  Well for my social media business anyway – Spend With Us – my side hustle (www.spendwithus.com.au) is already heading that way and I’m not going to stop that freight train – but for my marketing business, I just want it to me and my amazing VAs and I am ok with that!

So I will ask you:

What do you need to let go of or focus on for 2022?

What do YOU really REALLY want (not what society or your competitors say that you need to be shooting for).

What is it that YOU (personally) really want?

To help you in this I will go through some marketing basics with you – to help you get the rest of your 2022 in order.

And – if you get these things sorted right now I promise the year will be a cruiser!

INSTAGRAM BIO

Remember the BOLD words in your bio are searchable terms.

Don’t have your name there unless you think your prospects would search by your name!

Think outside the square or really think key searchable terms here.  Test and measure – so what brings in more engagement and reach, and then update as necessary.

POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Post frequently and consistently and think VIDEO as much as possible.

Want more traction, engagement and reach without much other work – VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO – I can’t stress it enough – video.

Remember to hit all 5 marketing strategies when posting – engagement, lead generation, brand awareness, growth and selling – don’t do all of one and none of the other!  Want to know more about marketing strategies – book in with me for a marketing strategy call or let’s work together to ensure your strategy is working to grow a profitable business.

DON’T BE SALES HEAVY

Again – make sure you are doing more than selling in your marketing.

No one follows or connects for very long if all you ever do is sell to them!

Think of it like sitting next to the annoying “never-off” salesperson at a BBQ, you soon move!  And if you find that at BBQs people soon move away from you – then you’re that person!

No one likes to be sold to all the time.

HUMAN TO HUMAN MARKETING

Yep, in 2022 I am still on the human-to-human marketing bandwagon.

Make 2022 the year you share a little more about yourself in your marketing – social media is a prime place to do this.

Share some insights into who you are, why you do what you do, how your product is made, why you offer the service you do, things people don’t know about you and so forth.  Show up.

Be you and let your audience get to know, love and trust you!

STOP COMPARING!

Seriously, just stop it.  Stop looking at someone else’s Instagram and thinking “Boohoo they have more followers than me, they have more engagement than me – blah blah blah…”

If you want more of that stuff or more email opens or a high click-through rate or more traffic to your website – whatever the goal is – then step up!

Marketing is about relationship building.  It’s about building a community.

Forget what other people are doing and build YOUR community.  Build YOUR relationships.

And for goodness sake realise that this doesn’t happen overnight!

Every year I think to myself, yep what I’ve done for the last (insert how many years) is really starting to pay off.  I had that thought two weeks ago when two people who I think are amazing at what they do in business booked discovery calls with me to chat about becoming private clients.  I was like WOW, me!  That’s amazing.  To be on their radar means that my business is working to attract the clients that I want.

My point, things take time – overnight success just doesn’t happen – it’s a myth (I promise you!).  It takes a whole lot of patience, commitment and consistency!

DON’T SET AND FORGET

When people start a business they open a Facebook account, create a profile on Insta, perhaps another on LinkedIn, they buy a domain, build a website, start an email list (hopefully – this should be at the beginning too) and start doing business.

None of those things are set and forget tasks.  The bio you created in your socials, the About You page and offers page on your website, your email list – it all needs attention and love.

You need to keep it up to date, you need to be testing and measuring, you need to be building on the assets you have and adjusting your business to the offers you have or the products/services you sell.

If you want more leads, more clients or customers, make sure the things that the outside world sees/reads (all the stuff above) is up to date and makes that prospect feel like it’s written for them just before they arrived!

REMEMBER THE MOST CRUCIAL PARTS OF YOUR MARKETING

1. Know WHO your who is – your target marketing. Understand that this needs work too – it changes because you are trying to figure out humans and humans change their minds like they change underwear!
2. Know WHERE your ideal client is hanging out! Yep, this changes too – the newest and greatest can tip the axis!  And you can no longer just say they are on Instagram, for example, because are they watching Reels, flicking through stories or scrolling the feed?  You’ve got to know this stuff!
3. And finally, you need to know what you want to be famous for! If someone thinks x – you want them to think of you!  If someone thinks they need a marketing business coach – I want them to think Jenn Donovan!  If someone thinks they need someone to do their social media posting for them, I DON’T want them to think Jenn Donovan, except to say that Jenn might have some great contacts for me to chat too!  (Which I do, just to let you know!) But actually posting content on social media isn’t my thing – I am a strategist of marketing not a poster of marketing – but more than happy to refer on for work I don’t do in this space.  You get the picture – you need to know what you are an expert in and what you want to be famous for!

None of this advice is new.  None of this is new coming from me – it’s all just a gentle nudge and reminder of what it’s going to take to be successful in your business – whatever success means to you!

Running a small business isn’t easy and some people will fail – 100% some people and their businesses won’t make it.  In fact, 4 out of 5 small businesses won’t make it but for 95% of those who fail at business, it was because they didn’t make marketing a priority in their business.  They failed to get in front of their target marketing with a product they needed, wanted or desired.

Marketing is everything and marketing needs to be your priority.

CONTACT JENN:

If you’re not sure about tackling your marketing in 2022 – let’s chat! Book a call with me at: https://calendly.com/jenn-smm/discovery

I would love for you to join in my wonderful Facebook community Like Minded Business Owners. This Facebook group is one of my favourite things – you can ask me questions over there, and the community of business owners there is so fantastic in sharing of their knowledge and helping each other out.

Or you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta People, on which I conduct my business today and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this blog post today.

About the Author:

Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia.  Jenn’s a coach and mentor from rural NSW and is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world.  The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans!  H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn’s online community is over 320,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 351,000 members and still growing every day.  She’s the major of her own little online city!

Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au

On Instagram – @jenndonovan_

On Facebook – Jenn Donovan

Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan