Hello Reader,
Too often, we humans overly-complicate, well, everything. And in my world, that means that it's very easy to put up blocks to actually "doing marketing."
I've been there myself. Can't promote the new thing until I've built an amazing marketing funnel. Can't share the new lead magnet until an awesome graphic is created. Can't until, can't until, can't until... As a result, we take no action and we stagnate—which is no good.
However, I believe there is a lot of value in taking a few steps even if you don't feel ready, and even if you're not feeling confident investing loads of time, energy, and financial resources in marketing.
So, I sat down and make a list of as many easy, free (or cheap) marketing activities as I could think of that you can do to begin establishing a marketing habit.
- Create a Google Business Profile
- Add updates to your GBP whenever you create a blog post or have other news to share
- Go through your old email newsletters and create an evergreen sequence so new subscribers get your greatest hits
- Remind your email subscribers of your freebies and let them have no opt-in access
- Use Canva to create a shareable infographic about your field and ask colleagues to share it
- Create a subject matter FAQ and publish it as a blog post
- Host an industry roundtable on Zoom and ask participants to cross promote it
- Repurpose your past live events (such as our community conversations series) into lead magnets to build your mailing list
- Give your favorite clients extra business cards and ask them to share the extras with their colleagues
- Add a request for a Google review to your appointment thank you automation (we use Acuity/Squarespace Scheduling for this)
- Be a big fish in a small pond and participate in a niche platform like mastodon or post.news
- Answer industry questions on Quora
- Check in with past clients with no agenda except caring how they are
- Turn a template you use with clients into a revenue generating lead magnet
- Cross-post a few of your favorite blog articles to LinkedIn using their article feature
- Offer a client a free strategy or coaching call in exchange for using it on your YouTube channel or podcast
- Create a values/what we believe page or statement on your website
- Write a case study focused on the process of working with you not the deliverable
- Add a call to action to your email signature
- Review your onboarding and off boarding processes for opportunities to improve the customer experience
- Add an FAQ to your contact page to make it more keyword dense
- Update your website’s SEO titles and descriptions
- Interview an industry colleague for your blog and ask them to link to the interview when it’s live
- Host a live Q&A/ask me anything about what you do
- Add a newsletter signup to your most popular website pages or posts
- Participate in local or industry networking groups
- Add a keyword rich description of your business to your website footer
- Turn your best topic cluster into an ebook
- Create a video walkthrough of your business/marketing framework
- Add a request for referrals to you off-boarding process
Please don't try to do all of these things! Pick 1-3 and try them and see what happens. Evaluate, test, and tinker. Do more of what works, and less of what doesn't.
Before you know it, you'll have a regular marketing habit.
Warmly,
Sarah
P.S. If you're thinking about working with our team, please know that our books are super full. So, please reach out early so we can set up an alignment call well before you're hoping to kick off your our collaboration.