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Hi! I'm Sarah Moon!

The status quo of modern marketing isn't designed for you and me.The hard truth is that most marketing strategies are designed for massive corporations, while small businesses, consultants, coaches, and other experts are left feeling that the advice they’re given just doesn’t fit—and they’re right. We have two choices: we can struggle to force our businesses into an ill-fitting mold, or we can reinvent a system that works for us and allows us to thrive. I don’t know about you, I prefer door number two. 💌 Reach our team at hello@smco.studio. 🌟 Ready to work together? https://sarahmoon.net/get-started

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Featured Post

Are you talking to yourself? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hello Reader, One of our biggest challenges as business owners is remembering that our preferences and our audience's preferences are not a single circle. We are not talking to ourselves. (I mean, I talk to myself all the time, but in the case of marketing, we're not talking to ourselves.) A lot of times people think of their audiences in terms of the decisions they themselves would make. The thing is, our clients/customers/etc aren't as advanced as us in their knowledge as we are. So what's...

3 days ago • 1 min read
person holding remote pointing at TV

Hello Reader, Have you ever queued up a new show on Netflix and—whoops—hours later you've watched the whole thing? Who hasn't? 🙋🏻♀️ They hook us in with a great first episode and dangle teasers about what's to come, the stories that will enfold, and we just have to watch one more episode. Excellent content-first SEO is just like that. We find a hook to bring in eyeballs (ie the keywords that our audience is using). Then we pique their interest with that initial experience (thanks to well...

5 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, "I'm so busy serving clients that I don't have time to do marketing." THIS. IS. NOT. GOOD. (Yes, I'm shouting.) I've heard this so, so, so many times over my two decades-plus career and I guarantee you that there's nothing noble in being so busy that you can't take thoughtful care of your own business. I don't want you to "so busy" your way out of business. Yes, this happens to successful people—more than you know. Here's what it looks like: Another one of my famous, ehhh,...

10 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, I hope you enjoy this special Wednesday edition of my newsletter—I'm adding in a series about SEO for subject matter experts in addition to my regular emails. If for some reason this isn't your jam, click here, and you will be removed from this series but remain on my regular list. 🩴 Join the Summer of SEO 2024 Waitlist 🩴 Here's a secret: While I obviously love SEO (search engine optimization) for the visibility in Google it creates, what I really love are all the side benefits...

12 days ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, All marketing works. You've heard (well, read, actually) me say this before. It's true. All marketing has the POTENTIAL to work. I could dress up in a hotdog costume and stand on the corner spinning a sign and that marketing would work. Would it attract the right people? Ehhhh... I think it takes a specific type of person to see someone in a hotdog costume and think, "Why yes, I do need some marketing strategy and the hotdog costume lady is just the one to do it!" But it would...

17 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, Remember that marketing strategy self-assessment I launched last year? I figured most of you would be in the "Create Your Body of Work" stage. After all, you're already out there doing the work, right? I assumed that reality correlated to my audience being fairly far along in their marketing journeys. But guess what? Month after month, the data from that assessment tells a different story. Turns out, the majority of you are in the "Clarify Your Foundations" zone. (Plot twist,...

24 days ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Last year my biggest single business expense line item (aside from mine and Josh's paychecks) was legal fees. No, I didn't find myself in hot water with the law, I finally sucked it up and dealt with a lot of long-standing legal tasks that needed to be handled: new contract, copyright filings, and the (slow, slow, slow) trademarking process for my Alignthority™ system. Why did it take me so long to get this important stuff tackled? I was afraid of being a bad client, or "getting...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Have you ever asked Siri or Google how to do something? Here are some examples: How do I invest for retirement How to plant an edible garden How to price my consulting services How to get started mountain biking How can I travel using points How to hire a trademark attorney Fun-ish fact: I generated all of those examples using Google's autocomplete searches. Those are phrases that pop up when you type into the browser. A lot of searches start with "how," both in search engines...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Hello Reader, If you're a service provider, creative, or other professional smart person, you've probably heard no a time or a dozen. We've all been there—and I won't lie, it can really sting. When I first met my client Natalie Bullen (you can read her story here) she was very new in her business, yet I was blown away by how unfazed she was by rejection. She simply saw this as data and moved onto the next indicated thing. It seemed like an instinct—this is a skill I had to learn and Natalie...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read
person using black laptop computer

Hello Reader, I far too frequently find myself dragged into the occasional "discussions" about SEO being "dead" or there being "no future" in search engine optimization. This has escalated recently as Google recently de-indexed a decent sized chunk of spam sites. (You can read about that here.) Cue panic and hyperbole from folks either 1) creating spam sites or 2) selling competing programs and services. This reminds me of all the times people have proclaimed email marketing, Facebook, and...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read
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