BONUS: Marketing Message Planner

Special Guest Post from Sara Millis of My Indie Life Blog

Marketing yourself online is a careful mix of a great website with content, or products people crave and a social media message driven to help foster a community of leads.

The one constant in all of that is that your message should always scream VALUE.

‘Value’ is a clearly defined, consistent delivery of content that you both create and curate for your followers.

Good value should inspire and excite, it should also inform and show off your expertise. It can absolutely include content curated from sources you trust to help highlight points in your message.

So have you focused your marketing message yet?

Here’s a workbook I developed to help you.

Let me give you a couple of examples to show you what I mean by creating ‘value’.

For 11 years I ran a handmade yarn dyeing business called Sara’s Texture Crafts and I had a very successful on-line presence, more than most in fact (usually crafters do better at fairs and events).

My best traffic driving tool was social media. I didn’t pay a penny for ads and I didn’t play the google ranking game either!

How did I do it?

I learnt to speak simply and clearly to my customer and I used their passion for what I did to share and create a buzz about my products.

My marketing plan was simple, I let my customers into my daily working life, I shared everything and I was always keen to start conversations and engage with them on their own content platforms too. I gave advice and encouragement around my craft, showing them exactly how to use my product.

I became the person to ask questions of, the person who inspired and most importantly someone they looked out for on a daily basis.

Every time I posted I saw increased traffic to my website, daily subscribers to my email list and an increase in sales.

Now I work the other side of the coin and help people turn their hobbies into business, as My Indie Life Blog.

My marketing plan isn’t hugely different and I work hard to help educate, inspire and engage with my customer.

The logical step to creating the perfect mix of social media for your business is to experiment with different channels to see where you can best connect with your clients and where your message is best heard.

The logical step to creating that perfect mix of social media is to experiment with different channels to see where you can best connect with your clients and where your message is best heard.

Most people forget one simple rule when trying this.

You need to set your experiment a goal!

Setting a goal at the start of your experiment will give you a clearly defined target to aim for and help form the foundations of your strategy for success.

Your No-Nonsense Goal for starting a new social media channel should always be;

 ‘To deliver a consistent message of value to encourage engagement with clients and foster potential leads’.

From this point, you should break your goal down into tasks that will help you launch a new social media channel.

These tasks should be focused on that goal of delivering your consistent message and showing your expertise.

Your immediate launch tasks would be;

Pre-launch

• Define your marketing message and the format of your intended content
• Design the look of your new channel to be consistent with your website branding
• Write a bio that clearly shows who you are and what you do
• Add a link to your main website, or your newsletter by way of a free opt-in
• Research keywords and hashtags that your ideal client uses
• Create content that delivers your message (this can include partly recycled elements from other channels and your website) and utilises keywords and hashtags to help you get seen

Launch

• Schedule content to automate consistently throughout the day/week/month
• Start engaging with industry experts and communities to build a following

Most importantly remember that success will take time, so be patient and monitor your progress at regular intervals.

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Sara Millis is a small business coach who helps makers and creatives realise more success through better planning.

I come from a creative product background where I successfully turned my own £100 investment into a six figure business in a niche area of the craft industry. Before that I worked for British Fashion Designers designing and managing diffusion lines. So I have experience in design, business and range planning, project management and on-line selling.

Throughout this time I taught a lot of colleagues and customers different aspects of what I did, so it seemed only natural to package these tools up and put them out there into the world.

In 2017 My Indie Life Blog was born – a place where fellow independent makers can find the essential planning tools they need to push their business forward and create the jump-out-of-bed job they always wanted!

Website – www.myindielifeblog.net

“I’ve just started some coaching with Sara, and am finding my motivation and focus has improved dramatically, and that’s just after the first session!” — Natalie from Knatters Knits