Ways to market your business without using social media

Your Dream Business

English - January 04, 2021 00:00 - 30 minutes - 55.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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In today’s episode of the podcast I talk all about marketing your business without using social media. After some recent changes to Instagram, Facebook and Apple, it is more important than ever that we do not put all our eggs in one basket and look at alternatives to social media marketing for our businesses.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Instagram has changed it’s terms of service – by using the platform you agree to these. They can change their terms and conditions without asking you at any point.Instagram can delete, amend or block your account if you are doing something that is not appropriate or in line with their brand.If you are using direct message pods or bots, Instagram are cracking down on this more.When you upload content to Instagram, you own that content but they have the right to use your content as they wish.Apple have announced they have changed their app tracking transparency framework – going to limit the information that can be exchanged with 3rd This is good from a personal level but from a marketing perspective this means we won’t be able to know as much about them as we previously have (e.g. Targeted ads).Getting in front of other people’s audiences can really help to grow your own audience.Guest blog, interview on a podcast, speak at an event. Where are your customers hanging out?If you are a local business, you could try a flyer drop in your local area.#journorequest on Twitter – journalists who are looking for specific types of people use this for you to find opportunities.Submit features to publications.Ask if you can do a guest blog on a popular website.Having great content and keywords on your website will ultimately increase traffic and the amount of people who find your website.What content are you putting out regularly – e.g. blog post, podcast etc.Branded merchandise can be a great way to get your message and voice out there – make sure it fits with your business and doesn’t cost too much.Google ads are great for finding customers who are in the market to buy.Google ads are more expensive and more difficult but the people being targeted are actually searching for that term.Google My Business – set this up.You could sponsor an event, podcast, sports team.A sponsorship is usually paid whereas a collaboration is usually mutually beneficial.Collaborate with someone who has the same customer profile as you – event, content, virtual event.Ask your existing audience to promote your content on their social media or leave a review.Use a third party system for reviews – more trusted.You can offer affiliate schemes to existing customers who love you the most to expand your audience.Offer a referral scheme to your customers to get new customers.YouTube is a search engine – different to other social media platforms. You can put content out and grow your audience on YouTube.Try to be on one social media platform of some sort but also look at other options too.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and focus all your attention on one marketing platform/technique – if something went wrong with your chosen one it could be detrimental to your business.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

Why we shouldn’t rely on social media to market our businesses 04:02Getting in front of other people’s audiences 10:47Building your email list 12:05Printed flyers 13:27PR 15:55Content creation and SEO 17:49Branded merchandise 19:02Google Ads 20:43Google My Business 21:40Sponsorships, Collaborations and

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and focus all your attention on one marketing platform/technique – if something went wrong with your chosen one it could be detrimental to your business.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Last Chance to join me for my follow along email list building course!

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Transcript below

Hello, welcome to the first podcast episode of the year. Happy new year. Okay. People we are in 2021, which means surely life is now going to change immediately overnight, just because we're in a different year.

Uh, and therefore we can put the horrors of 2020 behind us. But we can still learn so much from it and make sure that we do the best we can this year and have the best year we can. Cause I'm sure there are many more trials and tribulations coming, but we are tough and resilient and tenacious. That's a great word for a Monday morning, uh, so that we can just keep going and do amazing things.

Okay. Today I've got a really good solo episode for you, real practical. I think you're going to love it. And basically we're talking about how can you market your business without yes. You heard me right, without social media. I'm going to tell you why I want to do this episode in a minute, but before I do, I want to remind you one more time, because by the time the next Monday, episode will come out, we would be starting next Monday, Monday, the 11th of January, we are starting the 10 day follow me along live course on how to build your email list. You start with nothing or with a little bit or with something, but we end after the 10 days with your email list created and you adding people to it using a lead magnet. I'm going to cover everything. I've got everything for you. It's going to be amazing. I'm very excited and I want to get as many as you on as possible because this episode of what I'm going to talk about is really going to inspire you. That if you've not quite understood me go on and on and on before about why you need an email list. Some of the things I might say today will really hopefully summon that in. And now it's not that I think an email list is a be all and end all not at all.

It's one of the many tools that you can use, but the important thing is it's a really important tool and you should, should, should be building your email list. The other thing you need to know about this course is it's currently on for $290. The next time this course goes live, it's going to be $490. You know, when, like I've said to this far on the podcast, I planned it before, or I kind of guessed it a price before I realized what went into it.

And it's it's I do a lot for you. I create a lot of stuff, so you don't have to. So it's a really good value if you get on it now. So to join me and other amazing entrepreneurs, build a list. You need to head over to teresaheathwareing.com/buildmylist. That's where you sign up and I will see you in the private Facebook group.

And we will get started on a Monday, the 11th of January. Okay. Let's get on to today's episode. So why have I decided to speak to you today about doing your marketing without using social media? Because obviously I'm a big fan. I'm a huge advocate for it. It's a great tool for businesses to use. It's a great tool to find your audience, to engage with them, to build a community.

There are lots of many positive things about social media. That is really good for small business owners. So I'm not saying in this episode, don't use it. But a couple of things have come up recently that I want to bring your attention to. If you're not on my email list, then you might not have seen this.

A couple of things that come up that made me think, do you know what? Maybe we're a wee bit too reliant on social media. So, let me tell you the first things. The first thing was that Instagram has changed its terms of service, which basically means it's terms and conditions. And what they've done is they've added and taken away and changed a few things, which obviously they have the right to do.

And basically they say that by using the platform, you agree to these terms of service. So. It's kind of a case of they can change it when I asking you if they can change it, which they've done. The things that kind of really stuck out. Cause obviously there's quite a few changes and I've read them and I've looked through various things and watched people's reviews of them.

And that sort of thing. But the stuff that really sort of sticks out that I wanted to mention was the fact that they've made a point of, they can delete amend or block your accounts. So if they feel that you're doing something that isn't in line with them in their brand, then basically they can just make that decision.

Now, the truth is they've always had that decision, obviously, especially when it comes to content, that's not appropriate. But it they've made more of a point of it, which has made people worry about the chances of it happening. Another thing that they've highlighted is the strictness of their community guidelines.

Now, in one way, this isn't a bad thing, because basically they're saying if you're using bots or direct message pods, basically, they're just kind of like people that get together and go, "Hey, when I post something, would you like it? And will you comment on it?" And that sort of thing. But basically if you're trying to cheat the system in any way, then that is reason again, for them to have your account removed.

So if you're not doing those things, then I wouldn't worry about it, but I wouldn't recommend you did it. If you are doing it, I'd probably stop. Not just because of the terms of conditions, but they do appear to be getting stricter. And then the other thing that people are getting very concerned about is how much access they have to us and our information. Now they've confirmed, which again, meant that it was already in there in terms of conditions that when you upload content, they basically have the right to use it as they wish.

Now you still own that content. However, you're basically given them license to do whatever they want with it. Now let's be honest. They're not going to be like putting it necessarily in an advert or using pictures of your children or something. It's not like that. It's basically just saying though they could, if they wanted to. The other thing that people are concerned about, but I went through the terms and conditions and I didn't see it as, as kind of strictly as maybe people have been concerned about is how much they have access to our phones. Now I do know that TikTok has now got quite a reputation for basically putting like it kind of spies on your phone and what you do on it. So I don't have TikTok on my phone. Whereas Instagram never really did as much as they're now saying it might be.

So obviously it has to have access to your cameras. It has to have access to your photos. It has access to your audio because when you do videos and it's wondering how much of that content it's really getting access to, and also things like your contacts and other things that you're doing on your phone itself.

So, so like I said, that's a bit of a concern and people are getting nervous about it. So that's the first thing that came up. And then within the same week, Apple have announced that they have changed their app tracking transparency framework, get my tongue right in that. And they're going to limit the information that can be exchanged with third parties, such as Facebook. Now as a personal user, then great. That's a good thing because they don't share as much as my data and information as they have been. However, as a marketer and a small business owner. That's not great because it basically means that anybody on Apple, we're not going to know as much information about them as we have done. So if you are doing Facebook ads, you might find that if someone is on an Apple device, which obviously that's a huge percentage of people that are, that we're not going to be able to target them as closely as we have been previously.

So your ads might not be as effective as they have been in the past. So these two things together kind of just got me a little bit. I don't know I wouldn't say worried actually, but it just made me remind myself that we cannot rely on social media solely. And I have many examples, which I've shared on the podcast before about businesses that have had really good social media followings, and then someone hacked into their account and wipe their entire Instagram. Someone who broke a term and condition for Facebook, and they got blocked from their own account. Somebody tried to cheat it and go around the system. And basically again, couldn't access their accounts. So. I'm not saying this is going to happen. I'm just saying I would be really careful about putting all your eggs in one basket.

And I was having a conversation with one of my dear friends who is also a business owner the other day. And she was like, "Surely, we've got to, we've got to find out the ways in which we can market our small businesses without being so reliant and heavily reliant on social media." So I had a bit of a think and I thought I've been in marketing 16 years.

I did a degree in it. And when I did my degree and I started marketing, there was no social media. Like there wasn't even people really had websites back then. God it makes me sound very old. But you know, there's obviously loads of different ways we can market ourselves. And at the moment we are so dominated by social media.

That's what we talk about. But in this episode today, I want to talk to you about other ways in which you can market your business, that doesn't include social media or you having to do social media. Now I'm not saying it doesn't include social media at all. I'm just saying other options that you can use.

Okay. Now I've written down loads of different ideas. So this is really going to be a kind of fly by the seat of your pants type episode, as I throw a load of stuff at you. But also the other thing I want you to remember is this isn't a, you should be doing all these things. Not at all. This is a, here is a buffet of ideas and you can go along and pick the ones that suit you and suit your audience best.

And then try those things out. But, but my main aim and my main focus of this podcast episode is that please don't put all your eggs in one basket. Please don't focus all your efforts on one thing and one place only, and then have something go wrong with that place or something happened. You just don't know.

So if you're spreading it across the place, which I know it hasn't always been the, hasn't always been the focus, you know, in terms of go deep, not wide is good. But yeah, just a warning to kind of like, there is other options out there and you should maybe look at including a couple. Okay. So let's get going.

Now, the one I'm going to start with, and I've done a whole episode on this. I can't remember what the number is, but I'm going to link it in the show notes. It's other people's audiences. This is a really good place to go. And build your audience from. Now, the beauty of other people's audiences is they have kind of done the hard work and they have already created the audience.

So they have created people who are, you know like-minded have a similar interest of whatever that interest might be. And therefore it's a great place for you to go out and find potential customers. Now, when I talk about other people's audiences and not social media, what I'm talking about is maybe go and see if you can guest blog on someone's blog.

Maybe ask if you can be interviewed on someone's podcast. Or maybe speak at someone's event. Basically where are your customers hanging out? What events they're going to, what blogs do they read? What podcasts do they listen to? What videos are they watching on YouTube. And is there any way that you can be part of that content?

Is there any way that you can get in front of them? Now I'm not going to hang about on this this bit too long, because I have done a whole episode to it. So you can go and find that in the show notes, like I said, um, the link will be in there, but that's a great first place to, to think about. Okay.

Obviously I can't do this episode without talking and me iterating again, but I'll keep it brief about building your email list. Do go check out teresaheathwareing.com/buildmylist to see what's involved in that course, because this really is a time where we need to make sure that our lists are being built and not just now, actually it should be all the time.

We should constantly be building our list. Which I do in my business, but I wish I'd started sooner. And I wish I'd put more effort into it in those early days. So it's definitely something that is never going to be a waste of your time or money. But obviously I'm not going to go into it because we I've talked about building lists many, many times. But obviously that is another thing you should be doing.

If we don't look at social media. Okay, next thing. Now I'm going to go all old school. And if you have ever seen them, do it on my husband. He he's got this running joke that he thinks that he gives me all my marketing ideas, FYI. He has no marketing experience or degree or anything. And he constantly jokes about, we should do fax campaigns and flyers and posters, and like basically all the old school stuff.

So the fact that I'm now going to mention flyers on this podcast, he would literally love it now he doesn't listen to the podcast cause he gets to listen to me rub it on 24/7. Anyway, I think that would be very unhealthy if he listened to my podcast. Um, but yeah, he would just absolutely laugh up saying I stole his idea, but I haven't.

So why am I talking to you about flyers? Well, you know what, in some businesses, in some cases, this is an option. Now, I'm not saying any of these are amazing or terrible or anything. I'm just saying, here are our options. If you are a local business that covers a local area, then why not try? Why not do a leaflet drop or a leaflet business drop or personal, whatever it might be. You just don't know. So if you are a gardener or you're a personal trainer, or you have a gym or a cookery school close by or whatever it might be. Then who's to say that that doing a leaflet drop and you know what, if you, you could create a designing canvas. Now I'm not saying always that's the best option, but if money is an option, you know, concern, then you can do something in Canva.

You want to make sure you've got a good eye for it though, because sometimes these things don't always come as we think. And then to get them printed at something like hello...