Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 177 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love to you take a screen shot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/177

Also, my 6 weeks Marketing Mastermind program is coming up for the first time in 2022 shortly.  I only run this 3 times a year and only take 8 business owners.  So if you’re keen for some mentoring, accountability and group coaching to take 2022 by the horns and turn it into YOUR business year, then come along and join me for the February starting 6-week marketing mastermind program.  You can get all the details here: (or go to the show notes as previously mentioned!) https://bit.ly/mastermindwithjenn

I have been scrolling a LOT on social media – more than usual – but hey it’s been holidays and Netflix can only hold my attention for so long!

And what I’m seeing in LOTS of groups I belong to are small business owners, micro, one-person-band 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.  Like really freaking awesome.  I make a point of not swearing on my podcast, but if we were having wine together I would say something more like you are beep awesome, a beep legend, being beeping proud of yourself, you know how beep hard the last 2 years have been, so stop beeping putting yourself down and be beeping proud!  Or something like that.

But, from these posts, I have seen some amazing comments – so encouraging, and you’ve got this comments and then lots of “me too” comments.

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

So I wanted to dedicate this podcast to you if you’re feeling like this – even the slightest bit like this.

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 what do you need to let go of or focus on for 2022, that you really really want – not what society or your competitors tell you, you need to be shooting for, but what you really want?

Podcast episodes, if you haven’t already listened to them, ????? are good ones to go back and listen to for inspiration here.

But on this episode, I wanted to go through some marketing basics with you – to help you get 2022 off to a good marketing start.  Get these things right now and the year will be a cruiser, I promise.

In no particular order whatsoever:

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.

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 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!  It’s 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 that same bandwagon!  The human to human marketing bandwagon.  Make 2022 the year you share a little more about yourself.  Share some insights into who you are, why you do what you do, have 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 going – boo hoo 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 – 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 2 weeks ago when 2 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 – I promise you.  It takes patience and a whole lot of it!

DON’T SET AND FORGET

When people start a business they open a Facebook account, one 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!

Finally, remember the most curial 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 something 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 say!  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.

Ok, that’s it for another episode of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

I’d love to talk more about all this – come and join my Facebook group Like Minded Business Owners.

Remember you can find the links in the show notes at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/177

See you next week on the podcast for episode 178.  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 peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!