This week’s episode is Part 5 of 5 of our New Business Roadmap Series. This 5-part series has been an exploration of how we would approach starting a brand new small business from scratch today. Whether you’re starting a new business or you’re simply adding a new offering to your existing business, these episodes are really a step-by-step journey toward successfully and confidently debuting something new. Over the past 4 episodes, we’ve discussed: 

• Episode 101: Questions to ask yourself when starting a new business or creating a new offering, to ensure you’re starting from a place of purpose and strategy. 
• Episode 102: Ten foundation-building to-dos to complete, to ensure you’re starting your new business in an organized and comprehensive way. 
• Episode 103: Your must-have minimum viable product, or how to launch your new business or new offering in a curated way — so you can use your resources like time, energy, and money wisely. 
• Episode 104: And systems, processes, and workflows. How to create a well-oiled machine, while creating a personal experience for your clients or customers. 

This week, we’re exploring how to market your new business or your new offering — the foundational steps we would take when starting a new business or creating a new offering. Like many aspects of small business ownership, there is always more than one path to the same destination, but we’re hopeful the tips we share today point you in the right direction and equip you for success.

Marketing Your New Business or Your New Offering

When marketing a new business or a new offering, we always like to begin with the end in mind. When we do, we can begin the marketing process from a place of purpose. When we have purpose, we’re no longer creating simply to create — but we’re creating in order to serve, connect with, or help our specific audience. We’re creating to kindly lead and guide our audience toward the revenue-generating areas of our business.

Have a Goal for Your Marketing

Have a goal for your marketing — a specific person you’re hoping to reach, speak to, and form a meaningful connection with. When you market your business with a specific person in mind, creating your visual content and composing your captions becomes easier to do. You no longer ask vague questions like, “Are you a business owner looking for a new brand?” Instead, you speak directly to your audience and say something like “You’re a business owner who knows your brand can communicate your value and work on your behalf… And here’s how I can help.” Anytime you’re creating new visual content or written content on behalf of your business, keeping a specific person in mind can equip you for success.

Determine Which Platform(s) You’ll Be Present On

Determine which platform or platforms you’ll be present on. If you’re like us, these days, you feel more pressure than ever to be present and active on several platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, and beyond. We’ve always believed in the power of going where your Ideal Clients are — using the platform or platforms where your audience is present and active. That way, the marketing efforts you do put in are at least directed toward your audience. We’ve certainly made the mistake of marketing in the wrong places. As an example, we’ve found Pinterest and Instagram to be our most successful platforms for connecting with and providing value-adding content and resources for our audience. We believe it’s because both Pinterest and Instagram are so visually-focused, which is helpful for our brand and web design business. On the other hand, we’ve found Twitter to be less successful for With Grace and Gold. Of course, there is always more room for us to learn, grow, and develop a sound strategy for Twitter. But with our limited workday, and a deep desire to focus more on client work than on marketing, we find ourselves going where our audience is present and active — focusing most of our marketing efforts on Pinterest and Instagram. So, where is your audience? Which platform or platforms do they use most? Which platforms will allow you to get in front of your audience and more seamlessly connect with your audience?

Create a Marketing Schedule You Can Stick To

Create a marketing schedule you can stick to. It’s important to determine how much time you can spend marketing your new business or your new offering. When you create a marketing schedule you can stick to, you give yourself the best chance of succeeding and seeing your marketing plan through. On the other hand, if you plan to post multiple posts per day, or even one post per day per platform, you may be able to stick to your schedule for a little while — but it may be too much to be sustainable. These days, with ever-changing algorithms, our personal recommendation is to create a schedule you can confidently use and stick to. That way, you can focus on the quality, and not the quantity of your posts. 

Find a System You Can Use to Plan, Organize, and Create Your Marketing

Find a system you can use to plan, organize, and create your marketing. A few resources we recommend are Planoly, Plann (With two Ns), Tailwind, Buffer, CoSchedule, and Sprout Social. At With Grace and Gold, we use Planoly for our Instagram planning and Tailwind for our Pinterest planning. These systems allow us to market our business, or any new offering, with purpose and direction. By creating visuals, composing captions, and scheduling when content will be released, we can rest assured we’re marketing from a place of purpose and peace — rather than from a place of panic. We’ve certainly gone through seasons and periods within our business when we marketed form a place of panic — and looking back, for us, it may have been better to market less often than to market consistently with no real direction or goal. 

Create Your Visuals and Compose Your Captions

Create your visuals and compose your captions. When launching a new business, your visuals and captions can often be evergreen — visuals and captions that can be used and understood no matter their timing. We recommend batching tasks to create a collection of professional graphics or photos you can use to market your business. When you have a pool or collection of graphics or photos to choose from, you can more seamlessly upload your visuals to the social media system of your choice. Similarly, we recommend composing captions in bulk, too. What are the different angles of your business you can write about? For example, dedicate captions to writing about your one-of-a-kind approach, your client experience, your expertise, recent work you’ve created, in-progress work, past client testimonials, lessons, fun facts, or behind-the-scenes education you can share with your audience, and more. By collecting your visuals and captions in one place, you can draw from content you’ve created from a place of purpose, too. This prevents the overwhelm that can happen when you know you need to post something today, but you aren’t even sure where to start — a feeling we are all-too familiar with. 

Remember Your Blog and Your Newsletter

Remember your blog and your newsletter. When we think of “marketing” it’s easy and natural to think of social media marketing. However, the marketing channels that have made the biggest difference for our revenue at With Grace and Gold have been our blog and our newsletter. There is something unique about having a blog and especially having a newsletter. When someone subscribes or opts-in to receive your newsletter, they are saying a confident “yes” to learning more about your business and your offerings. You can serve your newsletter audience in a more personal way, because your content is arriving directly in their Inbox. For us, at least, newsletter writing feels much more personal and relationship-focused than the hustle and bustle of social media marketing. Your newsletter is also something you have ownership over — so it also feels less volatile when compared to the ever-changing expectations of each social media platform. Visits to your blog can be helpful for enhancing your Search Engine Optimization, and your Search Engine Optimization is truly an asset to your business. So, remember your blog and your newsletter — because these are powerful, long-term marketing channels for your business, which can help you to better connect with and serve your audience. 

Begin Posting and Monitoring

Begin posting and monitoring. Using the social media marketing system you’ve chosen, and using the visual and written content you’ve created, begin posting your content. Then, monitor your content. Which content performs best? Which types of posts resonate well with your audience? Are you getting the response you want from your content? By monitoring your content, you can create more of what is working — and better ensure what you’re creating is truly serving and helping your audience.

At the end of the day, we believe social media marketing, blogging, and newsletter writing are channels we can use to speak to, connect with, and guide visitors and audience members toward the products and services they can truly benefit from. When you market from an open, honest place — a place of wanting to help your audience succeed, learn, or grow — your marketing can be created with purpose and confidence. 

We are so hopeful these 7 steps help to equip you for success as you approach marketing your new business or your new offering. Thank you for tuning into this week’s episode. This week’s episode concludes our 5-part New Business Roadmap series.

Before you go, we want to share: Brand It, Build It will soon be interviewing guests! If you’d like to be interviewed or if you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed, please complete our form.

About Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is a leading small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, founders and entrepreneurs. Enjoy weekly, actionable episodes to build a successful, sustainable small business from the inside out.