What If You Took a Little Leap and Learned to Make Your Content Marketing Easier?
Have you ever started at a blinking cursor in your blog and wondered whether any words were ever going to come out? Or stressed over an email to send? Have you scheduled a whole bunch of quote-pic social media posts just so you wouldn’t go dark on your Twitter or Facebook business feed? Yep – raising MY hand here too. Creating content to keep our businesses out there, in front of our ideal clients, can feel time-consuming and HARD. But what it felt easy?
“Marketing” can be a frustrating, confusing, or even scary word.
Writing emails, writing blog posts, doing videos, sharing on social media are not things that come naturally to most solopreneurs or small biz owners. If you’re a financial analyst, numbers come naturally. If you’re an editor, grammar and style manuals are your best buddies. If you’re a parenting coach, listening and empathy are core skills. If you’re a graphic designer, PhotoShop is in your wheelhouse (and definitely not mine!). But we each had to stretch out of our comfort zones to learn how to market our skills and our businesses. Stretching feels scary too.
Comfort zones are … well … comfortable! Like your couch, favorite sweatshirt, or a recipe handed down from your grandparents. These are our easy spots. We can do that stuff without thinking or breaking a sweat. Graphic designers whip out logos. My financial guys LOVE their spreadsheets. Coaches know just the right questions to ask and how to probe.
If you ask most parenting coaches, authors, editors, or graphics whizzes to do a regular series of Facebook Live videos, or start their own YouTube channel, knees will knock. You pause. You procrastinate. You procrasti-learn (taking every course on the planet vs. taking action). If you’re trying this on your own, it’s hard to step out into the fear.
Because those new steps, those marketing tactics that aren’t comfortable, are downright scary. Taking a leap to try something new feels scary, and so we procrastinate. And then it just feels scarier.
But what if content creation didn’t feel so scary?
What if you could test and try and be supported while you took a leap?
What if you got to a place where those new things, those marketing things, actually felt EASY?!
What would it take for content marketing to feel easy?
What has it taken for content creation to feel easier for me?
Well, not ALL of content feels easy or not all the time. I still freeze at the keyboard some days. 😉
What helps me tackle my own marketing and business growth:
Practice.
Support.
Breaking things down into smaller steps.
Seeing examples from other rocking business owners.
More practice.
Templates.
Community – that provides accountability plus support.
Have I mentioned practice or just doing it?
Ok, and brownies and coffee mugs and other prizes haven’t hurt. 😉
In addition to following resources that help me learn tips, trends, and techniques to improve my content marketing (that I then share with you), I too have to keep practicing. I use checklists. I get templates. I turn to licensed content as a brain-starter. I look to other businesses for inspiration.
And I consciously, with intention, push myself out of my comfort zone at least once per year.
Once you take that first leap, it’s easier to leave your marketing comfort zone and explore new tactics.
I’m not sure I really believed that would be the case when I first started seriously practicing a stretch of my content marketing 7 years ago (read about 2019’s stretch here). Even with all my experience in marketing and research, I knew I had to get better at DOING content. I thought with enough support, guidance, and practice it would become easier.
And it has become easier! Because every year – this is now my 7th by our best count – I CHOOSE to stretch. I choose to practice. And the accountability, community and sheer fun of it keeps me coming back. Prizes don’t hurt. 😄
Where have I gotten that support, encouragement, nudging, butt-kicking, inspiration and education in content marketing in-practice?
Kelly’s challenge comes with a packed guidebook, including checklists, to guide us through many possible content marketing challenges. Different business owners, at different stages, will be stretched by different challenges. What makes one online business owner shake their head (TicTok?!), will be an other’s jam and joy (keep shining Tishia!). There’s a content challenge in here for every business, touching on all the major forms of content marketing (valuable blog posts, lead magnets, video marketing, social media, and more).
I remember the year Kelly added doing a series of Facebook Live videos as an option and I got excited. I even declared in her community I was gonna do that!
And then I got nervous.
And then I straight-up panicked and didn’t do the FB challenge that year. I stretched in other ways.
But … I didn’t do the thing I knew would really stretch me …
However, thanks to the awesome SYC and the guide, I still learned about how to structure a Facebook Live series. Then I watched other business owners go Live. I asked for support. And by the following winter, I took the leap and I was going live every week. What started as hard and scary became easy. Fun even! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve done a Facebook Live by now. It’s become an integral part of my business and marketing.
What You Get Inside the Challenge
When you do the Stretch Yourself Challenge live you get community, support, accountability, and live calls – which are all awesome. But you can completely learn and rock your content marketing by doing the SYC as a self-study, any month of the year. Pick one of the challenges (Facebook Live series, start a YouTube channel, create a new opt-in gift, promote a great blog post like crazy, etc) and give it your attention and practice over 30 days. And you can still join Kelly’s community and get support from like-minded, stretching, leaping business owners. Any month is a good month to take a leap!
Challenge #5 – Content Refresh from SYC Guide
I recommend the SYC because you will learn how much easier content creation and content marketing can become when you know how to do it. When you take guided steps and practice it. When you have support. When you see other online business owners stretching and taking a leap and getting OUT THERE with their marketing. When you see it CAN be easy.
This year I’ve already completed two challenges from the guide that I had no intention of doing at the start of the month (a webinar on 10 days notice, creating a new group coaching experience). LOL! I did them because of inspiration, because they brought me joy, because they let me give more to my community … and because they had become EASY. And they were easy because they brought me joy. And they were easy because I had done them before and gained confidence.
Feeling joyful about leaving my comfort zone … knowing I CAN leave my comfort zone … that’s why I choose to come back to the SYC so often.
Every online business can learn to make content marketing easier
My content isn’t perfect. No solopreneur will ever have perfect content marketing. We’re human and there’s one of us. But we can keep learning and experimenting to find what parts of content marketing work for US, for OUR business, and that become EASY for us. That may not be Facebook Lives for you, it might be weekly emails, or a podcast, or one really meaty blog post per month.
What if you stretched and took a leap … and found a part of content marketing that was easy for YOU?
P.S. h/t (that’s “hat tip”) to my coach Kelly McCausey for introducing me to “What If It Were Easy?” – a question she nudges her folks with. We business owners overthink things a LOT. I even have the mug to remind me to step back, strip away the extra layers, stop over-thinking, and do what is easy.
20 Things to Know About When Choosing Email Marketing Software for Your Small or Solopreneur Business
Email is THE TOOL to set you up for a laptop lifestyle, work-from-anywhere, business. And yes, your business, no matter how small or large, physical retail or online only, needs its own email list. But getting started with email marketing can seem daunting for a lot of small businesses, especially solopreneurs doing everything themselves. There are many options in email marketing software. So let’s sort through 20 things you should know about email marketing: facts on email, how to go about choosing software for your business, and what some top software options are.
Get the Facts on Email Marketing
Yes your business needs email, yes it’s still effective, yes all businesses can benefit.
Your email list is a business asset – you OWN it and control it, unlike the always-changing social media platforms.
By any set of numbers, email marketing is FAR from dead and should be cornerstone of the marketing plans of any business.
Yeah, email is all that and more!
But what if you’re in the smaller percent of businesses that haven’t dove into email marketing – yet?
Tap Into the Enduring Power of Email to Grow Your Business
List building activities and email marketing are some of the most valuable and most profitable strategies for any business with an online presence – that’s all businesses! But it’s hard to focus on strategies and tactics to build our email lists if we don’t HAVE an email list. Just because email has been around for many years doesn’t mean it no longer works or that newer marketing tactics automatically work better.
But we don’t want just any list! We know it’s a no-no to ever buy a list or buy leads (that violates all kinds of rules plus it’s bad business). We don’t want to ‘churn-n-burn’ through a list either. It’s not just about building a list to get to a certain number (though, yeah numbers kinda matter!), it’s about building an engaged list that wants our emails, opens them, and takes action on them. We want a high-quality, targeted list. And to make the most of a targeted list + email marketing (personalization, segmentation, timing, automation), we need email marketing software.
But HOW do you go about email marketing and sending emails?
First things first – use software that lets you stay safe and legally compliant
To properly, legally, send marketing emails out to a list who has chosen (opted in) to receiving your emails, you mustuse email marketing software/service (EMS).
Just a reminder, you can’t send marketing emails through your domain email, Outlook or Gmail (sending one-to-one to a contact, friend, or prospect is ok – not mass emails). You’ve heard of email regulations such as the CAN SPAM Act in the US, CASL in Canada or the GDPR rules in Europe. As a business owner (or ANY organization – this applies to nonprofits and educational orgs too), you needan email marketing service to stay safe, legal, and to make your marketing more efficient.
While this sounds intimidating, if you’re a legit business using a known, reputable email marketing service, you should have few problems. Choosing and using a reputable EMS should be one of the first steps, and maybe first purchase, when creating your independent, online, laptop lifestyle business. Ok, it should be one of the first decisions for ANY type of business! Email is for every business.
Next to choosing a reputable software option, the best way to ensure you stay safe, legal, and ethical with your email marketing is to get clear, explicit permission to email people.
Give folks a way to choose to receive your emails – and in some locations, this means even asking your paying customers if they want to receive marketing emails. People choosing to join your list can be current or new customers, prospective customers who signed up via a blog post, a webinar, a social media post, or who heard you speak at an event. No, merely exchanging business cards doesn’t count – send them a personal follow-up email and ask them to join your list.
But which email marketing software do you choose? How do you go about choosing?
Before you jump in to looking at trials or signing up for one of the email marketing services I will go over below – you should think about what you and your business need. These steps apply not just to choosing email software, but any software, purchases, or investments for your business. Your business is going to be slightly different than mine, your audience different, your comfort with software and tech will be different. Go through my recommended questions to sort the software options into what fits you right now.
Ask These Questions for the Business or Marketing Services/Software You Are Considering
What stage of development is your business?
There are differences between what you might choose if you have a hobby or a side gig and this is not a full-time business. Consider whether you mostly sell crafts on Etsy, or journals through Kindle Direct Publishing, or you are a consultant to nonprofits, or you are creating online courses for other business owners, or you sell classes to busy moms of toddlers. It can make a difference if you have prior business experience, or this is your first exciting adventure.
Also consider how tech savvy do you feel – or how well do you handle pressure or learning new software? Or do you only want to learn the basics and then hand things over to a VA (virtual assistant) or OBM (Online Business Manager) to run daily operations?
Will this software grow with you, your business, and your list?
Does the tool have the features you need right now and features you think your business will grow into in the next 12-18 months?
If the software is missing a key feature (like email automation/autoresponders), it doesn’t matter how cheap it might be. Likewise, if the features are too hard to learn, will the tool hold you back when you are just starting out?
I’ve seen both sides to this with solopreneurs I’ve worked with – they paid big bucks they didn’t have for tools like InfusionSoft or LeadPages before they had products or services to sell, before they had a list. The tools confused them and were holding them back, not helping. On the flip side is a coach who went with the free MailChimp account because they didn’t have much of a budget, but back then the free plan didn’t have the tools (autoresponders) they needed to sell their services and new courses. They limped along for too long.
How much do the next tiers of subscriber numbers cost and when do you likely think you will reach those levels? Are you able to budget for the next levels of service/number of subscribers that your business will need?
You don’t want a tool that is too limiting and you will outgrow quickly, nor a tool that has so many advanced bells + whistles that you don’t have time to learn or will not use for years to come (if ever). You are not marrying your tools or software for life, you will change! It’s ok. (Psst – I’m on my 3rd email marketing software in just less than 10 years of business – it happens!)
What plans and price points does the software offer?
If you work steadily on list-building or participate in events, will the tool accommodate you? Will you outgrow the basic plan too quickly? Can you afford the next tier of pricing? What kind of business goals and growth will you need to set in order to comfortably afford the next tier?
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How proven is this software?
Is it a brand new startup with little track record yet? Is the tool still in beta or testing phases of any kind? Is it a more mature tool?
There are marketplaces that specialize in showcasing newer software and getting apps/software to their first big audiences and sets of users (especially AppSumo + ProductHunt, also StackSocial). There can be some great deals there! BUT … beware that many of those deals are on new, unproven software, or software that may still be in a limited form. Do your homework, read the reviews, know exactly what features you are getting (or not) if you see deals from these types of third-party marketplaces. Friends and I have been burned with deals on software that had too many bugs or the version on deal at AppSumo didn’t include all the features.
Does it have lots of testimonials, reviews, a substantial knowledge base with support and feedback from its users?
Has the tool aged well and kept up with changes in marketing technology? Alternately, has the tool been around a while but is no longer a leader nor has the most current features?
What is the reputation of the software you are considering?
What do reviews say?
What do your colleagues or friends with a business similar to yours use and what do they like about it? It’s very helpful to know other friends who have a business model similar to yours and what tools they use and why (it’s why you’re reading my blog post and my emails, right?!). Ask around in groups or among your business friends and get honest assessments. And take their recommendations with a grain of salt. 😉
What is customer support like for this tool?
How responsive do they seem to be?
What methods do they offer for contacting them? Do their business hours match yours
For example, a key piece of business software I use is from a European-based company, they only reply via email or chat, and it’s necessary to take time differences into account when seeking support. It’s not great when a problem pops up on a Friday afternoon!
Do they offer timely training? Does the training look easy to understand and not time-consuming?
For example, in addition to all their videos, tutorials, customer forum, and blog post – my email service Active Campaign runs a live, in-person training program that travels the country. I attended their Study Hall in Philadelphia not long after I made the switch. They’re doing virtual Study Halls now too.
ActiveCampaign offered an all day training in Philadelphia – very timely!
How easy is it to operate?
How easy is it for you to navigate through the tool and its user interfaces?
How easy is it to get started and take your first actions in the app? For example, how quickly and easily can you create your first form, create your first email, create a segment for a list, or create an automation?
Your EMS should make it easy to manage your contacts, send automated emails, have a way to tag or segment subscribers, easily create campaigns, and track performance.
The tool that lets you easily, consistently send engaging emails, that reach your audience, and lets you work smarter not harder is the system that’s right for you.
How easy is it to send different types of emails?
Is it clear how to set up an automated email vs. a one-time or broadcast email?
What do the emails look like?
Are the included templates modern and follow current best practices? Or do they look stale and years old? [hint: overly styled, graphics heavy, multi-column ‘newsletters’ are a thing of the past]
But I’m on budget, bootstrapping, no money for marketing – can I go free?
It’s often true what they say, “you get what you pay for” – so free is not always better. And I stand by the assertion that email is so vital to growing your online business that you just can NOT skip out here.
If it’s a ‘free’ email software – what’s NOT included?
What are the limitations – and not just in numbers of contacts or emails sent per month?
Do you have access to automation/autoresponders?
Can you segment your list?
Will it integrate with 3rd party tools?
What level of support or service is offered to customers of the email marketing software?
Often customer service is severely limited for those on free plans -e.g. you may only be able to send them emails and wait for a reply.
Compared to so many other tools and tactics out there, email marketing is still very inexpensive, especially given the high return on your investment. It’s much better to invest and spend for a solid email marketing service that serves you well and has the features you need instead of cheapening out and needing to move services in a few months or a year as your business grows.
Ok, But What Are the Common Email Marketing Software Options for Solopreneur Online Businesses
I’ve tested and used multiple services over the years, researched to move to a new system, and am delighted that I’m now with ActiveCampaign. AC has made my marketing better, my email more efficient and effective. This is the tool I demonstrate in additional courses on email, tech, and marketing. I love how easy it is to tag, segment, and run multiple automated series, all with people on just one list. Lite plan for up to 500 subscribers is $15/mo and goes to $29/mo for 1,000 subscribers. [Note: I pay one-time, annually, which makes my per month cost just $17/mo, less than some other companies]
Dashboard of my ActiveCampaign account
AWeber (I used this one for years before moving in 2019)
AWeber is a favorite among many online business owners I know because they offer a free/low-cost trial, have relatively low monthly rates, ($19/mo) and offer very good customer service (one of the few that has phone-support). Their tool is pretty easy to learn and use.
They were also one of those tools that qualifies as proven, but also dated technology. They just didn’t seem to be keeping up with changes in design, interfaces or features. I’m glad to see they’ve finally added features and improved things (e.g. added built-in landing pages), I’m still also glad I left. NEWS: As of spring/summer 2020 AWeber has launched a totally free tier for up to 500 list contacts and they have added features like a landing page builder. This makes them competitive and worth checking out.
[NOTE: Warning … many of my solopreneur pals and client who participate in list-building events such as bundles or giveaways have run into major problems with AWeber in 2020 for disallowing or unsubscribing the new opt-ins who joined during these events. The company’s responses have been unsatisfactory and turned a lot of business owners off. If you are planning to build your list through strategies like giveaways or bundles, at this time I recommend you stay away from AWeber until they stop this behavior toward legitimate opt-ins.]
CK has gained a lot of fans among online solopreneurs, especially pro bloggers, authors and marketing geeks for its strong tagging and automation features, as well as built-in landing pages. When I was doing my research to move in 2019 it was a serious contender – and I followed my own tech advice and asked other business others for their thoughts, plus poked around inside. For me, it had too many quirks, odd naming of structures/systems, was not intuitive for me to setup or use, had poor designs, and cost more than ActiveCampaign. But it has many fans in my circle of business pals! Free 14-day trial, rates start at $29/mo
MailChimp (like many, I started here on their free plan, but moved quickly)
Known for its totally free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers. But it has limitations, quirks, not always intuitive or user-friendly. While they’ve added ‘advanced ‘features and say they’re built-in, they aren’t truly advanced and some require paid plans. MailChimp has significant restrictions on affiliate marketing that can scare off certain business owners (do read all the fine print). Support is very limited for free plans. Paid plans start at $10/mo for up to 500 subscribers.
Small business friendly with automation tools built-in and easy drag-n-drop email builder. Their built-in forms and landing pages are attractive and easy. But some clients I’ve worked with complain about GR not being so easy, not connecting well to other tools, or being hard to learn. Those are possible pitfalls with most of the email systems. GR has a 30-day free trial; Basic plan $15/mo up to 1,000 subscribers.
A frequent TV advertiser, this tool is popular among many offline, retail, or e-commerce businesses and claims to be very user-friendly. $20/mo up to 500 subscribers, $90/mo for 5,000. 60 day free trial.
A newer player in email marketing, like its name suggests, it’s a bit stripped down. It’s missing many of the advanced features of other EMS, including some key automation features. But it’s simple and affordable, with a free plan , a $10/mo unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers, and a $15/mo plan for up to 2,500 subscribers. Note: a few biz owners I’ve worked with have had problems setting up automations or scheduled emails – a toss-up as to system issues or user error.
There are many others, but these are most common among online, solopreneur businesses- ones that my colleagues, friends, and clients are using or have used. Some of the newer, start-up options could be a good fit for you, IF you can go through the questions I gave you earlier for evaluating software AND that new tool meets those requirements.
Choose the email marketing software that lets you get started building your list and sending emails quickly
It’s so much better to just get started then to worry about finding the perfect tool. Done is better than perfect!
And while changing systems can be a pain, it’s often necessary as our businesses change, our needs change, and the tools change. Don’t be afraid to switch if a tool doesn’t match you, your needs, your business, or if the tool is holding you back instead of helping you move forward with ease.
It helps to choose an email marketing service this is known among your peers and other online business owners, that VAs know, so you can get community support.
If you are still struggling with the pains of setting up your email marketing software or getting started so that you CAN go build a list and write awesome emails, check out the course I created just for business owners like you – Hell Yeah You CAN Start Your List – Even If You Aren’t Techie.
Solopreneurs or Small Business Still Need to Know How to Safely Use Images for Marketing
I’ve written articles and given presentations on basics of graphics and finding good, quality, safe-to-use stock photos for marketing, but it finding and properly using images online can still feel tricky. And most of that teaching about images had been in my other business, for my nonprofit clients. My solopreneur, small business pals need this advice too! And you need to know where to find quality images that represent your diverse audiences. So much of traditional stock photography is bland, boring, and white-washed. So, here are my tips on finding, and safely using, other people’s images for your marketing purposes.
Another reason I care about this topic – I’ve been a serious amateur photographer since I was a kid. I’ve lost count of how many cameras I’ve owned – and there’s probably a half-dozen of them in spots in my office just now! I even found a few older film cameras (one with a roll from the late 80s still inside!) last summer during a major cleaning project! I’ve had Instamatic with flash cubes, Polaroids, 110 film, my first 35mm point-n-shoot, disposables, the glorious 70s era Pentax SLR I learned to shoot and develop black&white film for, the expanding collection of DSLRs, action cams, and a new mirror-less camera I now own.I may have a little problem! I try to take classes every year to get better and to use my own photos were possible on my site and in my marketing.
AND … I have that graduate degree in library and information science, so I have a little training in intellectual property and copyright. Plus it’s a basic part of the library profession’s ethics code to always look out for and protect IP and copyright. Yeah, I’m a bit nerdy and a stickler for this stuff!
Even with the crisp, high-def, high mega pixel cameras we carry in our pockets now, it’s still not always possible or practical to take and use our own photos. Sometimes a story or content needs a particular type of image. And what if we need photos to represent our diverse audiences, but it’s not possible to do a photo shoot? Or you really want a certain object, a look, or an aesthetic?
So where do we turn to safely find quality, representative photos?
To stock photography.
And now, to Creative Commons licensed images.
Read on for tips, warnings, definitions, and my lists of favorite photo sources to use in your marketing.
But First – Know That Diversity, Inclusivity, Authenticity in Images Matters
Representation matters. Period.
Your audience and prospective clients need to see themselves represented accurately and authentically. People want, and respond to, seeing people like themselves in every situation. Our websites, e-books, reports, course materials, and social media posts should show the diversity that is out there among our communities.
Finding appropriate, representative photos has been hard.
It can be hard to find diverse stock photos representing a true range of people, across ethnicity, race, culture, body size, gender, setting, and action or role. And when you did find a photo, it would have a ‘token’ person of color stuck in the background. Or someone would be dressed so stereo-typically and inappropriately for the context of the photo that it felt like a joke to the nationality or ethnicity ‘represented.’ Or photos with larger bodies only showed them in unhealthy situations or as fat-shaming. How awful! Where were the black business women, the Latinx business owners, the BIPOC students studying or coding? Where were the active people in wheelchairs, or my fellow larger women doing Zumba?
There are better photo options now
Thankfully more diverse photo collections and resources have popping up regularly, presenting a beautiful range of skin tones, ethnic backgrounds, genders, and ages. Some of the larger, mainstream stock houses have added diverse photos, but in side collections. Granted, a few that I loved and recommended (like WOCInTech, ColorStock), have stopped or disappeared; and many of the better, more diverse collections are royalty-free cost-free, so you pay per image or join a monthly membership. But there are options out there and it shouldn’t be hard at all for you to find and use truly diverse and representative images in your marketing.
Even my fave graphic design tool – Canva – has commissioned photographers to broaden their collection – and experience from the nearly 2 years since this commitment, shows that images are indeed much more widely representative and still good-looking and useful. [Canva’s story on inclusion, diversity, Black Lives Matter, including their natural women collection.].
Check the terms of any social platform if they have their own rules on re-sharing of images. Know what’s ok for each.
Just because you didn’t mean to, or know that, you infringed on copyright doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Someone can (and often does) still sue for copyright infringement. There are attorneys who troll social media and the web for this. 🙁
Know what your intentions are for an image you will use in marketing – think of everywhere it COULD eventually appear – and make sure you’re covered for all those possibilities. Get the right licenses.
Don’t assume “Fair Use” applies or is in play just because you might be using for an educational purpose or because you are not directly selling where an image is used.
It might be ok to share an image that the creator first shared on social media – if they’re signaling that sharing was their intention. Use tools that are designed for sharing with proper attributions.
Plus, what a creator thinks is ok may be different than what law says is ok. It’s NOT ok to borrow, steal it, print it on flyer or a stick it on a t-shirt. If someone, even someone famous, didn’t intend for a pic to go public, it’s not ok for you to keep sharing it online.
When in doubt, get explicit permission for exactly the use you have in mind, from the original copyright owner of the image. When still in doubt, do NOT use that image!
Let’s Talk About Stock Photography – What Are Stock Images?
Until fairly recently (mid to late 2010s), if you wanted to find and use an image for marketing purposes and you weren’t taking your own photographs or hiring a photographer, it meant turning to stock images. Now, there are more people sharing images online under other licensing arrangements – notably Creative Commons (more on that below). You may not need to purchase credits or images very often – but there are instances where it’s absolutely necessary to protect yourself from copyright infringement or costly court battles.
There are 2 Main Kinds of Stock Images
Royalty Free – the most common type; you are paying for near unlimited use of an image, IF you follow its license rules.
Rights Managed – less common; there are more restrictions on the scope and timing of use
Royalty Free does NOT mean “free”, as in no-cost. It means you do not have to pay ongoing royalties to the rights owner for every use of the image, or for the number of times it is seen, nor do you have to secure the model release, etc. BUT you must pay for the license, the right to use the image (including multiple times) in a certain manner. Costs for the license are often based on image resolution size, related to file size. What size you need to purchase a license for depends on what you’re using the image for – in a blog post vs. high resolution in a video vs. print quality, etc. [see chart below]
NOTE – most royalty free image licenses are for NON-COMMERCIAL use. Which would cover most blog posts, presentations, use only internally in an organization.
Just because you may not be ‘selling’ a thing (like a free report, e-book, social media post) , doesn’t mean you couldn’t run afoul of COMMERCIAL vs. NON-COMMERCIAL use. This is where you may need to consult an expert in intellectual property, trademark, copyright law.
Commercial Use = commonly defined as use that is intended for commercial, promotional, endorsement, advertising, or merchandising purposes. Examples could include a branded organizational website, brochures, products, product packaging, advertisements.
For example – if you are selling that e-book, you may need a different license than if you used an image in a blog post.
Editorial Use = any image marked as such can only be used for news or purely informational purposes. This is mostly because they feature other entities that have their own copyright, trademark, and intellectual property issues – such as celebrities, public figures, commercial products, logos, etc. Don’t use editorial images on posts that are promoting anything.
[Update: oh man I am geeking out – Deposit Photos made a beautiful interactive history of stock photos, with emphasis on all the changes in the 2000s that have led us to having more resources, more natural and authentic images, more diversity, and how those style changes came to be.]
What Size Image to Purchase
The resolution and size of the image you need may depend on how or where you intend to use an image. Consider all the places that image may appear in your marketing – and make decisions based on license level and image size accordingly.
For use only on web pages, blog posts, or social media – a lower resolution and smaller pixel total size is ok.
You do NOT want large (in terms of data/memory, i.e. MB) files uploaded to your website as it will slow the loading of your pages and affect your total website storage at your host. Use the smallest file size you can, that allows for images up to 1000 or even 2000 pixels (e.g. in header images).
Higher resolution is necessary for anything that will/could be printed – even if the image size itself in the document is small.
Resolution (pixels or dots per inch/dpi) and file size (kb/MB/GB) are NOT the same and not necessarily correlated – you can have a high res image that is not a huge file size in data.
Small
Larger
Smaller number of pixels , lower resolution
e.g. 800×600 px (pixels), often less than 0.5MB file size
Ok for most website use, emails, social media posts
Cost less $$
Higher number of pixels, higher resolution
e.g. 2400 x 1600, or greater than 4MB
Needed for printed materials – brochures, books, packaging, magazine articles
If you are creating high-definition videos or presentations, use higher res images
The safest images you can use in your marketing materials are ones that you yourself have taken and thus explicitly have permission to use. Baring that (because we’re not all photographers, nor can we take all the images we may need), purchasing a license to use a photo is the next safest way to go. Buying the rights through a well-established stock site, that’s done all the legal work for you, can save you hassles in the long run. Yes, it costs money and I realize you have limited budgets – but if you want a really safe route, this is it.
Beware using the Google Image search feature or even looking at the Usage Rights options – this is not always correct!
Another big caveat and to bust a misconception …
Merely giving credit or attribution or a citation to an image you found online does NOT count as permission to safely use that image. UNLESS you acquired that image specifically from a site that offers images in exchange for certain forms of attribution. If you see an image you like on some other site, you can’t ‘borrow’ it, use it on your site and just link back to the original. Well, that’s better than nothing … sort of. But you didn’t explicitly ask for permission from the photo’s copyright owner. Go ask permission!
Finding Royalty Free Stock Photos
* I’ve had accounts or purchased images over the years from Corbis, Fotolia, iStock, Shutterstock, 123RF, and Deposit Photos. I don’t personally recommend Getty Images because of some predatory, overly legalistic, and other wise unsavory behavior on their part. However, Getty has several diverse collections they’ve added under partnerships in recent years: 67Percent (plus-size women), LeanIn (women in business leadership), and the Muslim Girl Collection.
The only active R-F stock account where I have credits right now is Deposit Photo – I think they are less stereotypical, bland, or white-washed compared to other sites. But I mostly use CreativeCommons C0 images from sites like Unsplash, Pixabay and Nappy. Or the images from my Canva (affiliate) account (which admittedly often come from Unsplash!).
** Another note – I have a Canva for Work/Canva Pro account – and that includes access to a LOT of their stock photos, for free. [the image in the header/featured image for this post came as a free photo while using Canva] You do get more photos vs. the 100% free Canva (affiliate) account. [In 2020 they made some changes to make more images widely available but this many change again – if you want the most photos and to not worry about purchasing via other stock sites – upgrade to Canva Pro. ]
Canva (affiliate) offers very cheap vectors, illustrations, and photos to purchase and use in your designs. Ironically – many of the photos they charge $1 for come from some of the CC0 sites seen below, others from other stock photo sites. But at least you know if you purchase an image as part of your design, you are in the clear. Always check licenses and terms in case they change!
Recommended royalty-Free Image Resources
Deposit Photos– I like DP because they have a good range of photos that don’t feel like stereotypical stock images. About twice a year you can find a coupon that gives a lot of credits for a lower price – I have a batch of unexpiring credits.
Fotolia / Adobe Stock Note: Fotolia’s collection is now part of Adobe Stock.
iStock (owned by Getty) – check to see if they still give a free image, video, +/or audio file per week.
123 RF – you can often find free (no-cost) images here as well as r-f for credits, but they are very Euro-centric in terms of photographers, images, keywords (e.g. money featured more likely to e Euros vs. Dollars)
TONL – diversity leads to innovation” – culturally diverse stock photos; a membership-based stock resource, you can pay by photo or for a set number per month.
Mocha Stock – diverse r-f site, has illustrations and videos as well as photos. You need to buy credits.
Jopwell– from a leading site for BIPOC career advancement, a collaborative collection of photos from their events as well as those staged for stock use; interesting way it organizes them – see categories for ‘students’, ‘interns’, ‘offices’, ‘millennials’
Diversity Photos – not as well known as other stock sites, but has a good representation of culturally diverse photos at decent prices.
Body Liberation Stock Images – inclusive, diverse, body-positive images, especially of women. Looking for images to represent real women of all sizes and mobility levels, for health, fitness, well being, work, holidays, and everyday life – check this site out!
CreateHERStock – emphasis on women of color, for lifestyle, business, or every day content; royalty-free stock. Check their freebies list as well.
Tetra Images – absorbed the Blend Images collection, which used to be a stand-alone collection of multicultural images.
Where Can You Safely Find Free Images to Use?
Royalty-Free Stock photos are not the only game in town anymore as more artists and creators are choosing to put their images out in the public domain and allow for reuse, modification, and use for a variety of purposes with NO attribution required, no rights management – in fact they are giving up their rights. These are images you can use in just about any manner you see fit. I use them in my workshops and presentations, in blog posts, in the featured images from my site that get shared to social media, etc. However, just because I could use these images for a commercial purpose, my own desire to see artists appropriately compensated means I will not. I’ll purchase images for those uses. You do you, though. 😉
Creative Commons Creations – Finding and Using
Creative Commons arose as a way for individual creators, artists, writers, photographers or visual artists to to standardize and grant copyright permissions for their work. It’s evolved as more creative folks use CC, and as more creators use a variety of types or levels of permission for their work.
Creative Commons Zero– the most open of all the Creative Commons licenses, CC0 means a photographer, illustrator, author or any creator has given over their works to the Public Domain and waived their rights to control the work. CC0 items may be modified, used, or reused however you’d like.
There are other levels of Creative Commons license – do NOT assume that an image found through a search for “creative commons” is a CC0, available to use however you want.
You may find other images available to use freely, if you give proper attribution. Here are tips on how to attribute:
If you want to be on the right side of attribution, use the “Attribution – BY” (CC BY) or the “Attribution-NonCommercial” (CC BY-NC) licenses and follow these styles. If you modify an image, you must note that in your attribution. If you want to be super-duper safe, you CAN give attributions even for CC0.
Flickr Attribution: title / author / source / CC license
Wikimedia Commons Attribution: title / author / CC license / source
CC0 Attribution: title / author / source / is in the public domain
Recommended Resources Offering Images under Creative Commons Zero License – Free Photos
My top two, the ones pinned to my browser and that I probably use at least every other day: Pixabay (inc. clip art, illustrations, vectors, video clips) and Unsplash (gorgeous work! a site started by and for serious photographers).
Many of the Creative Commons licensed sites are just as bad as the big r-f stock photo sites in terms of lack of diverse images.
I feel Unsplash and Nappy are best at having images that don’t look like stereotypical, boring, bland, all-white-dudes stock photos. Be sure to check out the list of diverse, royalty-free sites as well.
Note: on some of the free, CC0 sites there are very large ads for royalty-free stock sites and sometimes your search will even bring back results – usually shown at the top – that actually are paid images from an r-f ‘partner’. Just double check where and what you click!
Unsplash – long one of my favorite photo sites as it was originally created by photographers for other creatives. Many of the photos have a similar stylistic approach, the site is hard to search as it has never had great tagging or metadata – BUT – it’s 100% free
Pixabay – photos, vectors, illustrations, even video clips with better tagging and search interface than Unsplash. You CAN give attributions if you’d like, you can also send donations (‘cups of coffee’) to image creators, and if you create a free account you can skip the Captcha process for each download.
Nappy – specializes in “beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people” and they are all FREE. Not just royalty-free, but no-cost free!
Pexels -curated collection of photos, some original to Pexels, but many are pulled from other CCO collections.
StockSnap – another meta-search site, pulling CC0 images from other sites.
Burst from Shopify – free photo collection, most but not all photos are CC0; some photos are under a nonexclusive license to download, copy, modify, display or use. Burst encourages attribution or credit. you can also upload your own ‘stock’ images that you’ve taken, and these can be used by other Burst users, no attributio required.
Gender Spectrum Collection – 180+ gender-inclusive photos of trans, non-binary models that aren’t clichés; available under CC0
#WOCInTech Chat – the project has ended but the collection of women of color in technology lives on in Flickr. Photos are free to use but all photos must be credited with a link to the collection and/or the hashtag #WoCinTech Chat
Black Illustrations – not photos but vectors (think quality clip art) that are free to use for web and other marketing purposes.
Our marketing needs graphics and quality photos. Photos are everywhere – from book covers (e-books too), to blog posts and social media. And we have long had to turn to stock images to use in marketing – and those images have often been underwhelming, inauthentic, boring, or laughable. But there are options out there and thankfully more being added every day. You CAN safely find and use quality, inexpensive (even free), representative images in your marketing.
We can’t keep using the same old photos in our marketing. We must create experiences that welcome everyone in, and not leave anyone out. There are resources out there – as shown here – that can allow any small business owner, solopreneur or marketer to be inclusive in their communications and marketing. Show your audience through your image choices that they matter too. Celebrate your mighty marketing mojo with thoughtful, quality, representative images.
10 Tools for Social Media Success
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How Solopreneurs Can Be Good Guest Blog Posters Today in 2020
First up – submitting and writing guest blog posts is not dead nor banned by Google! But yes, the rules have changed somewhat and we need to know what it means to be a good guest poster in today’s environment. How can solopreneurs still take advantage of the opportunities for extended reach, visibility, traffic and list-building that creating guest posts offer?
Let’s see what experts have to say about guest posting!
If you want to keep up with what is legit in terms of SEO or anything else search, plus what Google smiles or frowns on, then Search Engine Watch has long been the go-to source. SEW did a roundup of 10 tips for improved guest posting in 2020 that takes in to account the current environment for guest posts.
Neil Patel has long advocated for guest posting as part of content marketing, or inbound marketing, and he’s known for deep dives of long form content on marketing topics. His post on why guest blogging is the best inbound strategy is no exception. [NOTE– I can’t confirm when this post was written or updated – so specific techniques or tools may need to be double-checked for 2020.In the comments Neil acknowledges the post is several years old but stands by the overall strategy].
I do love that right upfront Patel notes that guest posting is NOT “a shortcut to grow your blog” nor a “quick route to taking your search rankings to #1” Guest posting is one tool among several and it takes time. But it can pay off!
While Google is paying more attention to guest posting [it’s the mass-produced, low-quality crap they’ve cracked down on], the strategy is not dead. There’s still value in seeking out opportunities to create content for, or share content to, other blogs. There are opportunities to be guests on podcasts, videos, in social media groups, and via email. This round-up looks primarily at guest blogging and the most current advice on do’s, don’ts, and how to be a good guest poster. One of the biggest changes is there’s just more blogs, more content, and more quality for any top site to choose from among guest submissions. Starting out, you’re unlikely to get in the door to the top sites out there as easily as years ago. But it’s still worth seeking out guest post opportunities as part of smart solopreneur marketing.
So, what could a starting-out, growing solopreneur do? Do your homework!
Look for opportunities with quality sites, whose audience is your niche and your ideal audience, and who aren’t the biggest out there. It’s gonna take a little more research, looking for quality over quantity/size, writing quality material, promoting the guest posts you create, sending thoughtful outreach letters, and generally being a ‘good guest’ in someone else’s home.
First Step in Homework – Searching Potential Posting Opportunities
If you’re feeling stuck on finding guest opportunities – time to turn to Google.
“yourkeyword” + “guest post” [and yes – keep the quote marks so Google searches those words together]
“Yourkeyword” + “write for us” [for those sites that don’t mention ‘guest post’]
“your topic keyword phrase” + “become a contributor”
For example, if you’re a coach to busy moms and you want to write a post on “bedtime routines”, you might try:
“bedtime routines” + “guest post” and see results like these:
Need more basic search tips for finding guest opportunities? Check out the always comprehensive folks at QuickSprout and their 2020 Ultimate Guide to Guest Posting – search string ideas are near the top. [NOTE: even though this says it’s updated for 2020, QS still mentions Google+, which has been dead for nearly a year. BOO!]
HINT: also check out BlogSearchEngine and use your keyword terms.
Where Else Could A Solopreneur New to Guest Posts Look?
Use the same search strings on Twitter
Google search those authors or bloggers you frequently see popping up as guests “guest posts by [name]”
Look for blogs on aggregators like AllTop, Flipboard, Feedly
Look for sites or round-up posts that list blogs that accept guest posts, such as this list from the UK
CoSchedule advises that guest posters who have never published a guest post start with blogs near or below your own level of Domain Authority (see below for what that is).
I think that’s a great tip for solos who may feel overwhelmed at the idea of guest posting – start smaller, start with people and websites you know, start in the communities and circles you are already part of and ask who has your audience and needs some quality content. Be of service to other small businesses and growing organizations by providing them excellent content as a guest poster. Build your track record so you have something to show and say when you start reaching out to larger sites or content producers.
Second Step in Homework – Digging in to Potential Host Sites
One key tip from the SEW list – researching the website that you are approaching to do a guest post. Look at the authority levels of the sites where you’d like to have a guest post opportunity. When you move beyond your circle of friends, of other solopreneurs with the same audience as you, and you’re trying to get bigger for more reach – you’re looking for sites with greater reach and authority.
This article from MOZ explains what Domain Authority is (a search engine ranking score that predicts how well a site is likely to rank in search results) and how to check another site’s DA. Why would DA matter? You want to look for guest post opportunities on sites that help you be seen by your ideal target audience and to not end up on any sites that have negative attributes. Add a check of Domain Authority to your research for guest post opportunities if you don’t know anything else about a particular site.
Do Competitor Research – What Posts Do They Take, Where Are There Links To + From
SEW advises to check out the sites for your competitors and others in your same niche. Oooh, yeah, competitor content research is good stuff!
See what kinds of guests posts they allow, what their post submission form looks like, what that website’s traffic seems like, and do some backlink checks to see who/where point to them (those other sites could be guest posting opportunities in your niche!). Not all inbound links from other sites to your competitors’ blog will be guest posts, but the links can still give you good ideas. SEW recommends backlink tools like Moz, SEMRush and Ahrefs. You can run a few domain-based backlink searches for free at Ahrefs. [NOTE: all the backlink/SEO tools have primarily paid plans and you’ll find limits on free searches or trials]
I ran a search on a site I know accepts guest posts, has awesome quality content, and probably a ton of backlinks – LovePeopleMakeMoney.com from my coach Kelly McCausey! 😁 The pic below is a snapshot of the results from Ahrefs.
After doing homework on possible places with the same audience as your ideal target audience, if they take guest posts, what their site is like, who/where else is connected to them (more posting opportunities!) you may be thinking it’s time to send in some guest post pitches. Not so fast! You want to be a good guest poster and that means treating your potential host with respect and not just as one more place to send a blind pitch.
Before You Think of Pitching Build a Connection with the Content Host
Don’t blindly send out pitch emails – that’s spam! Establish some kind of a connection first with the site or host where you’d love to be a guest. Most times, those cold email pitches don’t work – whether to giant blog or to another solopreneur. [E.g.: I filter most of the emails like that which I get right to spam – for some of the reasons outlined below – and because they never bothered to see if I have ANY guest posts or what my audience is].
The folks at OptinMonster agree and their tip #3 on their ultimate guide to guest blogging strategy is to ‘form a connection with the site owner’. I’ve expanded that to content host because the same rules apply if you want to be a guest on a podcast, guest on a video, guest in social media groups, etc. It ties in with the tips on research.
OptInMonster also recommends following or connecting with the content host on social media in addition to the rest of your research. Share their posts, give a thumb’s up, leave comments on why you love their comment, and sign up for their email lists. But above all, create a real, authentic connection. There’s another person on the end of that email or blog post! They started just like you.
Want to know the top 3 reasons that guest post/article pitches fail?
Irrelevant – the guest submission was unrelated to the audience and niche of the blog, or the beat of the journalist. People failed big time at doing basic research!
Boring – why is your submission newsworthy, of quality, attention-grabbing (without being click bait or misleading), or valuable to the site’s audience.
Too self-promotional – sites don’t want tired old news, or navel-gazing, or something that’s all about YOU when it’s going on THEIR site. They’re putting quality, helpful content up as news articles or blog posts – they aren’t ads.
It takes more than one outreach email to get the attention of a publisher. A lot of emails wind up in Promotions or Spam. Others don’t have a compelling enough subject line. Inboxes are busy. If it’s a big site you’re pitching your post to, they may only read 20% of the email submissions they get on any given day. Find new ways to write about your potential guest post and to send emails to your target sites.
And I couldn’t do a round-up of top tips on guest blog posting without checking in with another master of the deep dive, research-based, search-optimized content – Brian Dean of Backlinko. And his Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging has been updated as of winter 2019. Like the other top resources – his number one step is research. You have to find and know your guest targets.
After you’ve done research as mentioned above and in these awesome posts – go to Brian’s post and click to Step #3 – Send Your Pitch because he has an email template that works! One that’s respectful and shows you’ve done your homework.
ADDED:The very day I posted this, a super smart solo pal, Karon Thackston of MarketingWords.com, published a guest post … about guest posting! Her guest author is another solopreneur I know from overlapping online communities, Ellen Finkelstein. Ellen’s guest post echoes most of the advice given here and from the larger sites and blogs that I researched. She also includes a few points on how it’s key that both the host and the guest poster have a promotion plan to make sure that piece of content gets shared, seen, and read/watched/listened to.
Keep guest blog posts as part of your solopreneur marketing strategy in 2020
Be smart in looking for opportunities with sites that speak to the same audience you are trying to attract (not necessarily in your same niche), research those sites to learn about their topics, their visibility and authority, check out what your competitors are doing in sending or accepting guest posts, and create real, authentic connections with host blog owners well before you send them an idea for a guest post. If you follow those steps, you’ll build a reputation as a smart, savvy, good guest and be invited back and to more spaces.
I Keep Coming Back to Trello After Trying Top Alternative Planning Tools
Yes, I’m a pretty unabashed Trello fan and longtime user. Well, I’ve been using it since at least 2014, so that’s a LONG time in tech time! 😊 I’ve tried a lot of planning and project tools but Trello is the one I return to because of ease, simplicity, flexibility and it’s FREE! I like Trello so much I’ve created my own mini-course to help my fellow solopreneurs use it to get more organized in their marketing so they can more consistently do the work that attracts clients.
Why I’ve Checked Out So Many Planning + Project Tools
But by now you know I’m a geek, a techie, and a researcher. I try nearly ALL the tools. Back when I wrote a regular tech tools column for a print newsletter and did monthly tech training webinars, I was always hunting for options. My solo pal Scott once asked me during a webinar why I tried so many tools, especially if I loved Trello and used it most. I’ll tell you same thing I told him and my audience back then …
Because my brain and your brain work differently, so a tool that’s great for how I think and work may not be so great for you. As a researcher and a trained info pro, I’m compelled to research and then show you your options.🤓
So, I keep my eye out, test tools, and tell you what’s cool or not. What YOU need or how YOU work could be different from me. That’s cool and I respect that. But flexibility is a big reason I like Trello so much and recommend it to others. Why might you want an alternative though?
What Are Some of the Top Alternatives to Trello
You may want something with a more prominent calendar, visual tracking for goal progress, or linear task tracking (Asana). Maybe you’re like my consultant pals who work on longer-term projects with big B2B clients and need teams and Gantt charts for timelines (Teamwork). You might like the combo of to-do list + calendar in a mobile app (TickTick). And maybe good ‘ol Google Calendar is enough for you.
Asana’s project task list main view
Teamwork has Gantt chart timelines for projects
Some of these tools – like Asana and Teamwork seem more oriented for teams (especially those inside of larger organizations) – so we solopreneurs may not use half their features. Honestly, that’s true of Trello as well – it has a lot of add-ons that are very software/developer oriented. Oh well. There’s a place for those types of tools – and with some work, a solo can make them work.
Both Asana and Teamwork feature examples of use cases in how their users get the most of those tools. Ahem – it’s just good sales and marketing to show off real examples and case studies of how your tool works! 😉
Super-powered to-do lists like TickTick, or ToDoist can be cool – but what if we want to attach graphics for social media projects, brainstorm, collaborate, or something other than remember ‘to do’?
Hah! Putting my Trello training to-do in TickTick
And as easy-peasy as Google Calendar is (love color-coding) – we need more than just a calendar. (besides – you can connect Google Cal to Trello!)
What About Other Alternatives to Trello?
There are as many project management tools out there as people it seems! Many, many more than the 3 or so listed here (looking at you Zoho, Podio, Basecamp, MS Project and a dozen more)!
In the past I checked out Zoho Projects for a nonprofit I worked with. I wanted to like Zoho – because it has a tool for everything! Email, CRM, surveys, projects, invoices, etc. But back then, all the tools were meh or over-complicated. A quick look recently says it could be worth checking out again – but still seems more than most solos want or need. For my library conference nonprofit we paid for Basecamp for two years (after using Trello for 3+). Some folks loved its simple design, some were ambivalent, but by year two the team wasn’t using it consistently. That’s a big fat NO for me. We’ve since switched back to Trello and G-Suite for everything. And some consultant pals I know swear by Microsoft, including Sharepoint, for doing all their planning and collaboration. I get it – Microsoft still ‘owns’ a lot of headspace inside corporations. Use what already works for you and your clients.
Time management, productivity and projects are HOT topics so it’s natural that software folks have created a TON of tools – each one claiming to be the holy grail. I admit it – searching for the one “perfect” tool is part of why I keep searching and testing! I KNOW better and yet I keep looking. 😄
I also KNOW that Trello isn’t perfect and is missing some things. It has Power-Ups and add-ons that are suited for enterprise and software developers, not so much consultants and coaches. But I ALSO know that there’s no one single ‘best’ tool – so I’ve doubled down on using the easiest-for-me tool that I’ve known for years.
Trello. I’m sticking like a virtual Post-It to Trello!
I believe that Trello is the easiest to get started with and is flexible in how it’s setup and is used by different people. That simplicity mixed with power is why I’ve done webinars and live chats about Trello. I like Trello so much I created my Mightier Marketing with Trello training course and also the 10-day Kick Your Biz in Gear with Trello Challenge. I want to share what I’ve learned and how I use Trello with my other busy solopreneurs so they can get it to work for them. So, they can do more in less time, market more consistently, and pull in awesome clients more consistently.
Whichever tool you choose to use – use it consistently. Use it to keep yourself – and your marketing – on track and moving forward. Keep your thoughts clear, your actions simple and repeatable. You’ll find your mojo that way.
Why Email Is Still Smart Marketing for Solopreneurs
Email has always been one of the most powerful tools in a business’s marketing toolkit. Yes, it’s been around for what seems like forever (I got my first email address in 1992) and there are newer, shinier marketing tools. But it’s still going strong. Email marketing can be personal, direct and one-to-one, cost effective, has a high ROI, and your email list is an actual business asset. If you only build your online community via social media, it’s like you’re building your house on shifting sand. Email is a more stable platform – even today when our inboxes are indeed getting more crowded. Let me show you the objective numbers behind why email is still smart marketing and also why I’ve personally embraced it as part of my marketing mojo.
The Stats Behind the Continued Power of Email Marketing
But what about chatbots, Instagram, influencer marketing, live video and all those other shiny neat marketing tactics we hear about all the time? They have their place. And let’s face it, some of that advice to grab shiny new things is by people selling you … shiny new things!
Email is alive and kicking. Stop believing the myths of its death (which seem to show up every year)!
Sure, there are more digital marketing tools than ever before and they are in the reach of small business and solopreneurs in all niches. I love that we have so many affordable tools! But not all tools are necessarily equal or easy or great at building relationships.
Don’t discount email as a key tool in your marketing toolkit. Far from disappearing, recent statistics show email is evolving and even growing. According to one of my fave sources of research and stats, Statista, email usage is predicted to grow by 2-3% each year from 2018 to 2023. Businesses are spending more money, not less, on email marketing.
Even given that email is still a reliable, proven, winning marketing tactic for all sizes of business – online + offline, solopreneur + big brands – it’s not so easy to have email marketing that is consistent or brings steady results. But it’s possible! And consistency is indeed a key to email success.
I’ve put together some templates to help you get started with targeted email follow-up – get them for freehere
Why am I enthusiastic about email?
I’ve seen it work!
I’ve bought loads of things personally and professionally via email marketing.
I’ve grown my own business and community via email.
I can share more stories, more tips, more links via email than I can a social media post. It’s more targeted than a blog post.
I see it’s power to share the right messages to the right folks, easily, quickly, and cost-effectively.
Businesses Sell Things – Email Marketing Helps Sell the Right Things to Right People at the Right Time
Let’s start with an assumption. You are a smart, savvy solopreneur who is in business to be profitable, not run a charity. To make money and be profitable you need two basic ‘things’. First, a product or service to sell. Could be a course, monthly coaching, writing services, low-content journals and planners, homemade Christmas cookies, or amazing social media graphics. Second, you need an audience, a niche market of interested people who want and need what you offer, who will benefit from your expertise and knowledge. And who will pay you for your knowledge, services, and goodies.
There’s a lot of ways today to find potential buyers and to sell your awesome stuff. In some way or another, you’re going to make use of digital or online marketing tools, even if your business lives mostly offline. But you can’t treat your business like Field of Dreams – if you merely build it, they won’t just come. You need promotion, traffic, offers, targeted marketing and getting in front of the right people with your stuff. And even then your conversions and sales not be so high. People need to know, like and trust you before they pull out their wallet.
Email gets you in front of the cookie buyers at holiday time, the parents of a toddler who need some new bedtime tips, the folks starting up new exercise routines in January (and again in March after they fell off the wagon), and those who need your service, but maybe not right now. Email helps you stay in touch so they remember you, and trust you, when all of a sudden they DO need you.
The power of email is in the follow-up and nurture
I’ve written about the power of a planned, consistent follow-up with prospects, current and past customers. Don’t wing it or leave it to chance. You need a consistent way to stay in touch with the targeted audience who needs you, but is still getting to know and trust you. Enter email marketing.
These businesses use email to build and boost that Know-Like-Trust factor that’s key to business success. Yes, it takes more strategy and work than it used to – but email nurture campaigns are vital, practical, and do-able.
Be Useful, Be Helpful and Be Proud of What You Send
Don’t apologize for sending emails and making offers! You’re in business, remember?
You’re out there helping people – whether as a wellness coach, a career coach, a parenting coach, a resume writer, a technical writer, a content marketing ghost writer, a website builder, or a graphic designer (whew – just some of my biz pals and clients). You can’t help more people with your coaching or writing if they don’t know you, trust you, and see the value in what you do. And you can’t keep helping people if you do all that work for free!
Please don’t treat your emails, tips, and offers like something you need to apologize for sending. You are sending valuable info as well as ways to work with you get even more valuable results. Go share your mighty self! Give tons of value but don’t de-value any of what you sell in the process.
I hope you see that keeping email marketing in your toolkit will lead to some marketing mojo for you. There’s lots to learn and work on – and we can work on it together! If you’re stuck at any stage of the email process, let’s get you unstuck and list building and sending those nurturing follow-up emails. Build your Know-Like-Trust factors with prospects with smart and mighty email marketing.
Naturally, this is where I ask if you’d like to get my stories and marketing tips via email. 😉 I’ll send you a pack of templates for faster email follow-up if you join my Mighty Marketing Mojo community here.
Need to see even more email marketing stats? ‘Research’ is my middle name and I got you covered:
If You Aren’t Consistently Following Up, What to Do About It
Marketing isn’t ‘one and done’ – you can’t create a single blog post, a webinar, or a single email to promote something and be done for good. Big brands don’t even stop at running a Super Bowl ad just during the big game – nope, you see that ad through the year now to make the most of all that money spent! Your marketing and communications need to be consistent and repeated to see success. A frequent marketing quote is ‘the money’s in the follow-up.’
I had a chance to have brunch and chat life and business some super smart solopreneur pals and one thing we questioned, nudged, brainstormed and supported each other on was about if, and how, we were following up with clients, customers, and our community members. Each of us had recently offered a training, a webinar, a course, some live coaching, or a challenge. And each of us had had less than 100% enthusiastic participation and worried we had left some of our awesome clients stuck or even just unaware of what had gone on during the challenges and training.
We hadn’t done a good enough job at following up. 🙁
We needed more follow-up.
Following up and checking in was the answer and all of us needed to do more of it! We had all fallen in the trap of assuming our people had seen and read all our emails or social posts about what was happening and when. Or we assumed the dates and times we picked would be ok with the majority of our people. We just plain assumed stuff … and you know what happens when we assume! 😁 D’oh!
We whipped out our notebooks (ok I grabbed the Trello app on my phone – I’m a techie geek, you know that’s how I roll!) and made notes about how and when to do more follow-up, including one-to-one, with our folks. [Psst – I know we’re taking action as I got two follow-up emails from these same fine ladies 24 hours after our meetup!]
Time for you to pay attention too – because the marketing success (and the money) is in the following up.
Building relationships gives you unlimited opportunities to deliver content and opportunities to serve.
Building relationships gives you the go-ahead to sell to them.
Building relationships gives you access to your customers any time.
It’s 7x harder/mores costly to acquire a new customer vs. retain an existing, happy customer.
In today’s digital world there are plenty of ways to connect and build relationships – but the only way we ‘own’ and control is email. You’re only renting that space on social and your followers don’t belong to you, they belong to the platform (and of course to themselves). Here’s one more admonition from me to not build your business on the shifting sands of social media – have a solid website, a blog, and your own email email list where people have clearly opted in to receive good stuff from you.
If you want the one solid way to keep in touch, to nurture and build that long-term customer and client relationship – it’s all in the email. Sending one-to-one emails to prospects, colleagues, connections, past clients, and referrals sources. Building a list and sending emails from one-to-many, to nurture prospective customers, talk directly to all past customers, and generally give great service to the community you are building.
And email is still a powerful, money-making follow-up tool of choice among small businesses, solopreneurs, and yeah big brands too. (there’s a reason my personal email account fills daily with emails from Wayfair, Penzey’s, Southwest, BookRiot, and plenty of charitable causes – because it WORKS!) Email is also a way to follow-up with your blog post readers and subscribers – letting them know you have great new content.
But this isn’t wholly a post about email marketing – it’s about following up- and email is a great tool for that!
Consistency is Crucial to Successful Follow-up
People who read your blog, who follow you on social media, and especially those who have subscribed to your email list and have purchased something from you (products, courses or services) love you want to hear from you. Yes, really! We have to remind ourselves of that. And remember they want the advice, knowledge and expertise we each have and that we promised them when we asked for their email or they purchased from us. Deliver the great stuff they asked for and want! When they give you permission to reach out to them, it is vital that you consistently connect with them.
Want some help doing your email follow-ups? Click here!
Consistent follow-up is important for a few more reasons.
One – we are busy, distracted, squirrel-brained folks. Shiny objects and information are everywhere, and we dart here, there, everywhere in our lives. We forget. A lot. So following up reminds people of the good stuff they want, that they signed up for, that they purchased, and then got distracted from completing, attending, or using.
Two – building those customer relationships is a lot like dating. No one realistically gets married on the first date! You may get a nice hug but it’s not a jump to commitment right when you meet. Sometimes things click instantly, and you can’t get enough of each other. You anxiously wait for the phone to ring or the inbox to alert you that a new message is waiting.
Other times, it takes a while for things to click. Sometimes a customer may not seem interested at all and then boom, they are all-in with everything you have to offer. Or they seem uninterested, but really they’re just distracted by all the other shiny new things and relationships and they forgot for a bit. But when we put something awesome in front of them, boom, they remember why they were attracted and ‘in’ to us! And they want – and NEED – what we are offering them.
No matter when you get a ‘yes!’ from someone, it’s oh so important to keep following up. Don’t drop that person because you got a hot date with someone new! 😁 Back in the days when I worked retail management, we always trained staff to ignore the phone if they had a customer right in front of them at the register. Ask a co-worker, or the manager, to answer the phone, but don’t ditch the person standing right in front of you with a question or holding their credit card.
Follow-up with folks before, during, and after any webinar, course, coaching program, product sale, or project. In the same way other relationships grow and flourish, your relationship with your community, subscribers, clients and customers must be nourished and cultivated.
Ways to Easily Follow Up
Stay In Touch– it’s easier to follow-up if your messages don’t come out of the clear blue. Whether your readers are leaving comments or sending you private messages, it is important to answer and connect with them. The more personalized you can be, the deeper the connection and the bond for your business or product. Don’t let those easy opportunities to follow up go by the wayside.
Asking for feedback- End emails with a call to action to connect or engage. Give invites to connect with you on other platforms Be ready when people do. Answer their emails and comments on your content.
Engagement- Offering opportunities to engage is a playground for customers who feel connected. You might consider hosting a social media group where your customers can have exclusive attention or special access to you. Group members will have a sense of insider knowledge and this is a great way to increase engagement and make your customers feel valued.
Making offers- Yes, asking for the sale is a follow up! And we can’t assume, we need to ask. It is important to know when and how. Following up with subscribers routinely with free information opens the door for making an offer from time to time. Don’t just give away for free – it’s an unbalanced relationship, your audience is missing out on ways to be helped further by working with you, and you want active buyers in you community. While it’s not best to only ask for sales, it is completely normal to ask for sales. You ARE in business after all! 😁
Being timely- Whether it is being timely with your email frequency or timely with what is current in the world, sharing content that is timely makes a difference. Customers who feel like you have your fingers on the pulse of what’s going on will likely trust you, which translates to sales when the time is right. Sharing tips and trends in your niche is a great way to follow up and stay top of mind with your prospective clients and your customers.
Add Value – A good follow-up is not only timely and consistent but it offers something of value to the recipient too. Don’t send generic, vague follow-up emails, especially after events. Give value that shows you listened and are thinking of their needs (a timely news article for their niche, a post with resources related to what you discussed, an introduction to a mutual connection, etc). [Some more tips on adding value from Ian Brodie – an excellent consultant and small biz marketing pro in the UK – I’ve been on his list for years and he always gives value!]
How much follow up is enough for success?
Like a lot of marketing – the answer is ‘it depends!’ 😄
But there are some tips from a variety of pros on how often your community should hear from you:
Weekly– at least once per week with general info and a check-in from you. No, they won’t ready every one but you need these frequent check-ins to just stay on their radar.
Monthly or so – for your older material and info if it’s still evergreen content.
Before, during, and after every event(including webinars – paid or free, events you host or where you speak) – follow up the day after an event, several days later, a week later, and of course wrap it in with your other communications after that.
Time-sensitive during promotions/sales – frequent updates may mean daily, even up to twice-daily on the last day of a big sale. Don’t forget multiple emails before your sale/promotion or launch.
Right away – when someone comments, reaches out, or otherwise significantly impacts your community.
Yearly or so – on anniversaries, important dates, birthdays, milestones for your business or relationship with a client
If you have a good offer – for an ebook, a free webinar, a course, a coaching call, your skills on a project – you share it! And if it was good enough to share once, it’s certainly good enough to share multiple times. Remember, your audience of potential clients, happy fans, and past customers are all busy, distracted, going a mile-a-minute and they need your reminders. Follow up before, during, and after your events, projects, and promotions.
Sustained success will depend on consistent follow-up so create a process that works for you and your business’s marketing.
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