Episode #001 Prioritize Your Marketing to Grow Your Business

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 Hello friends and welcome to the Marketing Strategies Uncovered podcast, where we're going to be diving deep into the world of marketing strategies and uncover actionable insights for your business success. I'm Rebecca Van Diest, your host and the proud owner of Clickers to Clients. Today is our very first episode of this podcast, and I couldn't be more thrilled to embark on this journey with you. 

And since it's our first episode, I just want to let you know, I wanted to start this podcast because marketing plays such a big role in being successful. My brother in law actually lives in California and I watched him transition from a corporate job to being an entrepreneur. And I saw how much he was struggling, and you know, times were really tough for him and his family in the beginning, when he was trying to get clients, and he had to figure it all out on his own. 

It definitely wasn't easy for his family, and you know what? They made it work. Uh, he put in a lot of effort. And about five years later, now he's created a business he really enjoys. He's got clients and he's doing really well. When I first learned about SEO websites and the impact that they can have on a business, and creating lead generating machines, like I like to call them, I thought, wow, like I could help people like my brother in law, small business owners, and he needs people that are searching on Google and other online search platforms.

He needs to be showing up when those people want to work with him, um, when they're Googling his business name or they just need their car cleaned, right? So whatever it is that you do, I know people are also searching for you and they need your help to solve their problems. And this is really where marketing comes in.

It's really connecting the end user, the searcher with the professional, the problem solver, right? That's why I want to have this podcast because I have been in this field for so long and I have so much exciting information to share with you. And so I'm just really excited to do so.

So with this podcast, it's my chosen avenue of communicating with you and just passing along all the tips that I can. And I chose it because I really love listening to podcasts myself, and you just can't beat the ability to just listen from anywhere you want to. We're all busy, right? 

So I really hope that you find this podcast inspiring and also super helpful for your business. I want to help you be successful no matter what your budget is or where you are along in your business as well. So that's why I'm doing this. I am really excited to dive into our first episode today. And I wanted to talk to you about why you need to be making your marketing for your business a priority.

Cause you know, again, we're all busy, right? So how do you prioritize your marketing and fit it into your day, your week, your month, your year? I know a year seems like a lot, but we all start with a year plan, right? At the beginning of every year. We come up with how we're going to improve our business.

A lot of times that probably has to do with some marketing. So where do you want to focus on? Maybe you want to sign up for SEO. Maybe you're creating your first website. Maybe you're creating a better website. Maybe you're getting a Google My Business or a business profile page on social media, uh, whatever your focus is right now, how are you going to make that a priority?

So this is really what I want to talk about today. 

I also want to share what I'm doing personally because I'm also trying to improve my marketing as we all should all the time. And so, you know, for me personally, I've been on Facebook since it was invented, and websites come easy to me because I love making those. I love the design of them. So I usually have a good website, usually on Facebook. So I'm good with those, but of course I have room to improve as I'm sure we all do, especially with how everything keeps changing. So I personally want to be more consistent on YouTube and I need content for that. 

Podcasting is a great way to do that. Maybe you want to just record videos. That's another option as well. Another thing that I'm doing right now is building my email list, doing email marketing, because I really want to be checking in with people that need my help and my services on a regular basis.

I want to be consistent. I don't want to be so sporadic anymore with how I'm engaging with people. So for me in 2024, as we're kicking off the second quarter, you know, things are changing. I'm making some pivotal shifts for my business and my marketing and being consistent showing up and having more ways I can help people is really important to me and growing my business. 

And actually a little sneak peek. Sneak listen, is that I'm actually working on an affordable website offer as well right now. This is something I've never done in the past, but I'm recognizing these are hard times for people. I know personally, my business has been slowing down. I'm not getting as many leads as I did last year.

And I think it's just because, the economy is what it is and it makes, Websites and SEO, even more important. And those two things really play really well together. You can't really do one without the other. It's important to have a really powerful website that actually works and that's really important in so many different ways.

And so I'm really excited to have something that's actually affordable that people can have right away and not feel like it's a huge undertaking. People that are just starting out, for example, they're not going to have 

$5,000 for a brand new, beautiful website that works, but hey, maybe they've got $200 a month that they've set aside for their marketing budget.

That's something that can help them take them to the next level and make them the creditable business that people want to work for in a website that's showing up when their ideal client is searching for what they do best. 

I want to have different options. And I think that that's important for people too, if you can, in your business, by the way. Is trying to create other options for people. Yeah, you have got your high end, but also low ticket offers can be a really great way to get cash flow coming in, and get people used to doing business with you and get them excited to work with you. 

So with marketing, it really depends on what you need, right?  Another couple things that I'm looking into this year, doing some workshops at least once a quarter, and I'd love to also have a do it yourself website builder course available. It's something that they can potentially do if they're a little tech savvy. They can just spend a few hundred dollars and take a weekend, take a few hours, and build a website that's really something that they can be proud of. I want to make it so building a website isn't hard. You can just get it done. Uh, I really think that would be amazing. So we'll see as that unfolds, this again, exciting to have options.

And the more that I can provide that to people, I think the more people will be successful and having a website is a really great way to do that for a lot of different reasons. And I'm sure we'll talk about that in other episodes. So yeah, I think anyone could spare a few hours on a weekend. If anything's a priority to us too, for our marketing, we're going to make it happen. 

So that's a good thing to think about too, is setting aside time, understanding how long things will take to build or create, depending on what you're focusing on, just setting aside some time every week is how you're going to make that happen.

One thing also that's been really huge for my business this year that I've really focused on for the first quarter of 2024 was rebranding. And that has been a huge undertaking. I don't think I realized when I was first starting just how big of a deal it would be. 

But it's so worth it, right? If something just feels meant to be and you have to do it, you put the work that you need to, to make it happen. And if you don't know, my business used to be Van Diest Digital Solutions, and we are now Clickers to Clients.

And honestly, that's a saying that I've been using for a really long time, is we turn clickers into clients. And every time I would say that on an online meeting, everybody would be like, Oh my gosh, I love that. That's amazing. I'd say it, you know, from time to time and it just really stuck with me.

I was actually visiting a BNI chapter that I'm not a member of personally and in a breakout room, someone saw my logo and my business name and they thought I was in finance, not marketing. And I thought that was really interesting. And ultimately that was the push that I needed to rebrand and just go for it.

And I'm really glad that I did. I love my logo. I love my colors, the feel, all the things. So hopefully you agree and you do too. And I bring that up because rebranding can also be a marketing strategy or a goal that you might have as well. If you're not currently happy with what you have, you know, and think about, you know, what is your logo?

Do you have a logo? What are your brand colors? How do those colors make people feel? Those are really the different things that you want to think about. You know, do you have a website? I know we've been talking about that, but you know, maybe you need a better website. Can people find your website? Those are different things you have to consider with your marketing.

I don't personally know what your goals are, but you know where you are right now, where you should be headed. to reach whatever goals you have, you need to prioritize making that happen as we all do. 

So what I want to encourage you today is just take 15 minutes, get a piece of paper, get a pen, and write out what your commitment is. What you can do is set a recurring task on your calendar every week and take this time and ask yourself: 

• What are you going to do for your marketing?
• Are you going to do a Facebook post?
• Are you going to write a blog post? 
  
• How are you going to show up and be the voice of your business? 
  
• What are you going to do to get more clients? 
  
• Who are you going to contact? 

If you have more money than time, make sure that you know who you're going to hire to help you, in whatever area that is, so you have more time freed up to do what you love, That will have that positive impact on your business that will lead to more clients that will lead to more income coming in.

Marketing is a great way to do that. What I really want to encourage you today is to think about what your business needs. And if marketing is not what you love doing, that's totally okay. Again, you can hire these things out, like writing blog posts and posting on social media. Uh, but today, again, what I really want to encourage you to do is just think about and write out:

• What does your business need in regards to marketing?

A month from today, where do you want to be? And can you make all of these things a habit for the next four weeks? Because if you can, that will be amazing. It takes about that long to form a habit, right? I'm pretty sure that's true. So think about what you want to implement over these next four weeks. 

Personally, I love doing recurring tasks on Google Calendar. It really helps keep me focused. It's something I check throughout the day, keeps me on track, so that might help you.

Another resource that I use is Asana, and you can do recurring tasks on there too. That's a really great task manager, by the way. I even personally just use the free version. So you can give that a try as well. 

So whatever tool you use, just make sure you use something, whatever tends to keep you on track and remembering what you need to do. Cause if we don't write it down, it doesn't happen. Right? 

So, think about, write down, and really understand how are you going to show up and prioritize your business? Is that marketing right now? Maybe you need to focus on hiring an employee first. I'm okay with that if it is. Sometimes we need to free up that time, but you need to know where you need to focus and don't forget it.

I would love to have this be a priority for you. It is so, so important, and if you don't show up for your business, if you're not focusing on your business, I don't know that anybody else will. So it's really important. I want to see you be more successful in your business.

I want your business to grow and for you to not be affected by the crazy times that are happening in our economy. A lot of businesses are thriving and I want you to be one of those businesses. That's our episode for today. Thank you so much for joining me, and I will chat with you again soon.