Hi there. My name is Avil Beckford, and I'm the host of the One Problem podcast. There are tons of problems in the world, but why should you get overwhelmed? Let's tackle them one problem at a time. Today, my guest is Kelly Wagner. She is a podcast host and marketing master. Over to you, Kelly.
Kelly Wagner
Hi. Thank you, Avil. I appreciate you having me on. Entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners face the marketing maze. And that’s what our problem that we face today? How, as business owners, can we navigate that marketing maze and be successful with little resources? So as we look at this journey, there are ways to break this down into four key components that I think will help business owners map through this journey without overwhelm.
The first one is time management. As business owners, how do we navigate the time to fit marketing in? Because as we all know, as solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, we wear multiple hats. So where does marketing fit into that priority list? And how do we wear that hat effectively? So what I recommend is that as you map your calendar, map in about an hour a week for marketing.
The One Problem Podcast with Kelly Wagner
And I'm going to give you the tools to use to make sure that one hour is effective and efficient so that you can implement marketing that actually grows your business. The second thing that I want to talk about is the difference between building your business brand and building your personal brand.
When we meet with business owners, small, medium, and large, the problems are the same, believe it or not. In today's world, and since COVID, a lot of us are trying to figure out how to differentiate ourselves online because everybody has become accustomed to this digital world.
Kelly Wagner
But it doesn't mean it's easier. It means now it's more noisy, it's crowded, it's loud. And what I find more and more that solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and small business owners are trying to figure out is how do I stand out? Do I speak as Kelly or do I speak as Forecast Sunny? Do I speak as my business and my logo, or do I speak as the individual that's the expert? I think that there's a balance in that. What we're telling business owners more and more is to make sure you have professionalism to your brand, your business brand.
You need a logo, you need a brand voice, you need a brand tone. But really, the promotion of your business falls on to you as that solopreneur, entrepreneur, and business owner, because your business isn't the expert. You are. Your business doesn't have the experience. You do. Your business is not a logo.
It is you as a human. We encourage business owners to understand your brand as Kelly, the marketing expert, and utilize that voice and that personality to promote your business. And the art of building your brand is its own journey and learning curve. But it's something that we as business owners can do very easily because we are in the field we are in because we have a passion for it. We have an expertise for it. We have an understanding of. So that's number two, build your personal brand to build your business brand.
Number three, budgets. It's the reality of owning a small business, right? How do we navigate a budget? Where do we find the revenue? The extra revenue to promote our businesses?
Kelly Wagner
And what I'm going to tell you is a secret as a marketing agency owner, I don't want you to know. I'm kidding. You can do it for free. You really can. And you just have to be creative. Social media platforms are a wonderful way to reach a large number of people and demonstrate your expertise. Emails are a great way to send free messages to a target audience that wants to learn about your product or service.
Intentional networking is a great way to grow your business with little or no investment. Now, some networking groups have a fee associated. But it's very small compared to a monthly marketing budget. There are many, many ways that you can promote your business without spending a lot of money. But you have to be creative, you have to be intentional, and you have to be focused.
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- Jackie Maclean, Energy Innovator and Clinical Hypnotherapist
- Leslie Nydick, The Conflict Strategist, How to Lead Inclusive Conversations
One of the last things I want to evaluate, though, is how do I do all this? How do I do all this and manage the tasks and wear all the hats and now become a networking expert? There are so many tools and resources out there that can help you. I suggest you make these investments and research which ones are going to fit best into your business.
There are email automation softwares that are less than a cup of coffee a month. There are tools to schedule your social media that, again, are the price of a lunch out. And there are AI tools to help you write content. There are so many resources that are little to no expense to you that will not only make your marketing effective and professional-looking, but efficient and effective.
Kelly Wagner
What I am recommending for all the solopreneurs for business owners, and entrepreneurs out there, find the tools that work for you. Find a way to use AI, but always edit your AI. Never post AI without editing or adding your own personality and your own voice and tone into it. But use it as a basis. What I have found after years and years and years in marketing is it's a lot easier to edit someone else's work than it is to create it on your own.
So use AI wisely. That's the one caution I want to put in here. Use it wisely. Always edit it and always write it to sound like you would want it to sound, but use it as a tool to project you forward. Don't let the fear of what should I write stop you? How do I write it? What should I say? Use AI as a guide. Use your experience and intelligence to edit it. But use these tools so that you're able to produce quality content, quality marketing pieces. Use your personal brand to promote it all because you are the expert.
Because what we want everybody to become online is a person of influence, not an influencer. That should be our goal. Become a person of influence because you are an expert. You are good at what you do. You have the authority to advise on it. So use that platform and make your marketing about you, your expertise in your brand, and you will see your business marketing change over like you never have before. Simplify it and become the voice and the face of your business. Back to you, Avil.
Avil Beckford
Thank you so much. That point about AI is so spot on. I leverage AI every day. There's so many ways that you can use it. One way I use it is to help to create images for my blog post. Yeah, and automation, I have a service that I use to schedule my posts, so you're spot on.
Kelly Wagner
Yes. It seems overwhelming, but we can do it. We just have to slow down a minute. If we plan up front, the work every month should be at 30 minutes to an hour. If we plan right on the front-end. A little investment on the front will take you a long way to efficiency month over month.
Avil Beckford
Thank you so much. This has been so great.
Kelly Wagner
Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
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