You’ve lived through a recession, a pandemic and lumpy sales sessions. When it comes to marketing your business, you can spend thousands to make it happen. You also can tap into resourcefulness and market your business for $0. As the CEO of a successful, multiple six-figure agency, it’s my job to tell you the value of marketing. We work hard to get clients results and firmly believe in what we do. However, we also know there are seasons where you need to pair back a bit. If you find yourself needing to go lean and simultaneously get loud with your marketing, this article is for you.

1. Add a screensaver and wallpaper with your logo on your computer screen.

Spend at least one day a week working in public. This could be working at a coffee shop, co-working space or shared office with a friend. Anytime you’re in a meeting, chatting with someone, or briefly step away from your computer, this is visible to everyone within the coffee shop. (This is a phenomenal tactic in small towns and neighborhoods and one I use often.) People would walk by and often remain staring at your screen. By placing hot corners on your screen, you can quickly switch to a desktop when you walk away for a brief moment or simply to establish brand presence (and make sure someone no longer is staring at your work.)

2. Always ask for business cards.

Anywhere you go have at least 3 business cards on your person. This allows for someone to take multiple cards as a referral and no leave you empty handed for other conversations. Now it’s commonplace for people to have digital business cards as well. I encourage you to use both. This will allow someone after a long night of networking a physical reminder of the conversation the next day.

3. Go to networking events.

If you live in a city and own a small business attend networking events. If you’re a service based business, this is necessary and shouldn’t be missed. From BNI groups and attending as a guest or networking events that have free admission cost, this is a phenomenal way to market your business. (Last year over 86% of our inquiries came from in-person networking events or word of mouth referrals.)

4. Show your work on social and keep showing up.

Most people have social media accounts. But the crazy fact is this – less than 6% of all Instagram account holders post in a given week. What does this mean? Even with the algorithm on ANY social media network, by simply being consistent and posting high quality, high converting content you are massively ahead of your competition. When it comes to building accounts, brand loyalty, and a compelling narrative, it takes salt of the earth, grinding it out kind of work. It’s no secret that content creation is a full time job. Yet, even after 4 years as an agency, we were asked about our brand name today. It seems we can’t stop telling our story enough. This year we’re thoughtfully showing our work, on all our social media platforms, providing amazing and engaging content. Every. Single. Day. It means playing with type, sharing a unique point of view, personal brand development, sharing behind the scenes process of the design, and a newsletter focused on the hidden stories called The Process Doc. While we absolutely love bringing beauty to the everyday, we love working with small business owners and watching them flourish.

5. Make it easy for someone to work with you.

Your potential customer has loads of options when it comes to your services. They could hire you. But they could also hire your competitor. They could opt-out and not hire anyone at all. Or they could collect multiple quotes shopping around for the lowest price. Whatever the case, make it easy for someone to work with you. Offer clear calls to action with a link to your calendar using a CRM like Dubsado or an appointment scheduler. On your inquiry form, only add form fields that include essential information and require the customer to burn the least amount of calories possible. (Some of you have inquiry forms that read like job applications. The goal is to get the inquiry with the information you need. On the call, you will be able to vet and determine if the potential customer is good fit with your additional questions.)

6. Join in industry Facebook groups.

Does it make sense to engage in Facebook Groups? Yes, a thousand times over. I find in these Facebook groups, focus on adding value, offering freebies, and serving others. There’s a community component, but with 5 years of content on this site, we most likely have a post that is directly related to someone’s question. I have watched my website and email list conversions skyrocket due to answering peoples questions and giving advice. (We have booked 5-figure accounts from Facebook groups. That being said, don’t sleep on Facebook groups. It is one of our best outbound marketing strategies. Not to mention, it’s phenomenal for lead generation, potential client conversations, and positioning yourself as an expert in your industry among other like-minded professionals.)

7. Use Instagram Stories to Sell and Connect with Followers.

Gone are the days for a need of professional video 24/7. Use a variety of curated and uncurated Stories to engage your audience. We use this both to send engagement to and from our feed, but we’ve seen countless feeds filled with people sharing the behind the scenes of their products, business process, and even their date nights. It’s fun, entertaining, and keeps us coming back for more. Never underestimate the power of showing up consistently on your Instagram Stories. (Learn how we plan out 30 Days of Instagram Content in a Single Day here.)

8. Connect, collaborate and share audiences.

Gone are the days of only relying on follower counts to do the hard work for you. Tap into the power of your relationships and watch your business grow quickly. It’s easy to talk about what you do (and truthfully can feel exhausting.) The goal here: to get other people to talk about you and what you are already doing. We approach this through a few ways: 1) connections, 2) collaborations and 3) sharing audiences. When it comes to connecting with others, think about how you would start any adult friendship. People want to know that you care about them and can smell a mile off when you are about ready to sell something. Think about relating past a transaction and you will watch your relationships grow in a massive way. Keep things simple. Start by asking someone to a meeting or a cup of coffee. See how things evolve and how to take things from there. When it comes to collaborations, don’t think about this as working for free. Rather look at it as a way to do a different type of work, build a portfolio and tap into the resources of another creative genius where there is synergy. Sharing audiences is another great way to build and collaborate with someone. We love doing this on both social media content and through IRL events that are focused on building deeper community and connection offline. 95% of the time when I have collaborations and concepts in mind (with existing relationships), people are willing to collaborate and do organic cross posting that serves both parties. (It’s a win-win for everyone.)

9. Show, don’t tell.

We are firm believers in using words and copy to engage a potential customer. But here’s the honest truth, a potential customer will spend less than 3.5 seconds on your feed or website before they leave. Imagine counting down from 3, 2, 1 and it is exactly how long they take to make their decision. Will they take the next step? The next click or will they bounce off? However, When it comes to reading, most individuals are reading less and less. Visuals draw customers in. Copy is what makes them want to buy. Create great content and watch your revenue soar.

10. Tell better stories.

Every day, I see entrepreneurs post to Instagram stories to-do lists tagging clients with a low exposure picture of their coffee. And to be honest, it used to work. Now, it falls flat due to everyone doing the same thing.

Most of us are pretty tired of seeing the same types of content again and again on the app. However, few creators are telling stories.

How do we tell better stories? Of course there’s the story of your company, however that’s not what we’re talking about. To build your brand, focus on telling the stories of your customers, their lifestyle and speak to their aspirations. It changes everything. We love using the StoryBrand framework by Donald Miller and believe in it so our CEO is a StoryBrand Certified Guide. Need help? Hire us.