BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 58.

Hi, there! Y'all, we are gonna talk about it. We're going to talk about how it is a big no-no for your entire marketing strategy to be based solely on social media. Now, can you build a business on social media?

Yes. Is social media a tool that you should use in your business? Most likely. But y'all, there is so much more to it. 

The inspiration for this episode came from my Instagram stories, yet again. If you're not following me on Instagram, you're going to want to go to @heybirdwilliams. That's where I hang out. And I did a poll on Instagram stories, and 37% of the respondents said that social media was their entire marketing strategy. They weren't really doing anything else outside of social media. Yikes. But, like I always say, y’all this is a no-judgment zone. What you'll learn here in this episode, will help you think more strategically about how to really reach your ideal customers. 

Before we get into the episode, tell me if this is you. You want more clarity and less overwhelm? Or you're done with Googling all of your business questions and you know that it's gonna take a lot more strategy and structure to make your dream business a reality. Or you're tired of not feeling confident and kind of tiptoeing around as you build your business, and you're ready to move forward in a powerful way. My friend the solution to your problem starts with having a framework in focus. 

All right, let's dive into the episode. So for starters, I want to mention two things. First, and most importantly, and I want you to really lean in here. If you're washing dishes or distracted doing something else, I want you to just pause and lean into what I'm about to say because it is that important. If you don't hear anything else, hear this. There is no one size fits all for marketing. Your marketing strategy should be unique to your brand. It should flow from the core of your business's purpose and values to the specific group of people you want to serve. What works for someone else might not work for you, even if they're in the same industry as you. And I'm going to give you some examples of how marketing strategies look for different businesses in a bit. But y’all, marketing takes work. It evolves. There's a lot of trial and error and being uncomfortable and putting yourself out there and messing up and having to try again. You're gonna have to be open and adaptable and consistent. That mindset framing is of supreme importance. I wanted to mention it before we got into any conversation around marketing. 

All right. Now second, not only should you not just think of social media as your whole marketing strategy. You shouldn't think of advertising more broadly as your entire marketing strategy. For example, your website, that's a part of your advertising or promotion. But that's just one piece of what makes up marketing. There are actually seven Ps of marketing. Here they are product, price promotion, which is what a lot of people think of the promotion piece. But also people, place, packaging, and positioning. And I really drill down into what each of these means and how it looks in your business in Episode 19. I'll put a link to Episode 19 in the show notes. You are definitely going to want to listen to that episode if you haven't yet. It's a really good one. And it's going to outline the seven P's of marketing. So we understand that marketing isn't one size fits all, and will take time to really get in a good rhythm. And we also understand that marketing is not just advertising, it's not just the promotion piece. It is so much more. 

Let's talk about the two main reasons why social media specifically should not constitute the entirety of your marketing strategy. Number one, you don't own it. Social media is a free service. Unless you pay to play, meaning you're going to be spending money for ads on these social media platforms, it's very hard to control people actually seeing your posts and seeing your content that you're working so hard to create. Get this, only 10% of your followers are actually seeing your posts unless you pay to play because of the way the algorithm works. And because that's always changing, it's really hard to make sure that you're in front of your ideal customers on social media, because you can't control it. You're subject to the rules of that social media platform and how it performs. 

Now contrast this with email marketing which is like a weekly newsletter You're going to actually pay to have an email service provider, some of them offer free trials or free packages up until a certain number of subscribers. But ultimately, you're going to be paying for an email service provider like MailChimp, or MailerLight, or ConvertKit, just to name a few. And you're going to have more control over your audience actually seeing your content because you're able to decide when you want to send out emails and who you want to send them to. You can get very targeted and segmented with your email list. And with email marketing, the average open rate for emails is 17.8%. You might see that and think that's kind of low. But it’s almost double the social media percentage of 10%. And this number is 17.8, which is the average open rate for emails. That's the number of people opening the email that you send them. This is going to increase if you do a couple of things. One, provide really great content. If you are showing up for your audience, if you're giving them real value, they're gonna want to open your emails. They're gonna want to hear what you have to say. Secondly, you're gonna increase your open rate if you cultivate an email list of your ideal clients, and not just random people, or friends and family. You got to check out Episode 37. It’s called “Should I Share My Business Posts On My Personal Page?”  And I talk all about how it's important to understand that, especially in the beginning of building a business. It's so easy to lean on the crutch of your family and friends as people who are subscribing to your stuff and following your pages. And that's all great. But if they're not really your ideal customer, if they're not the kind of person that you want to buy your product or service, they're not really doing you a favor by being there. So anyway, go listen to Episode 37 and kind of hear my take on how you should think of business and personal posting. Okay? 

So we're not going to just use social media, because it's really hard to control where our content is being seen, okay? Next, when you're deciding which marketing channels to use, like, “Where should I invest my energy and time and money in terms of marketing efforts for my business?” This is what you should ask yourself, “Where does my ideal client hang out?” And then you need to meet them there, right? So the second reason why you shouldn't just use social media as your marketing strategy is because that's not the only place your ideal customer hangs out. There are other ways you can connect with your ideal customer, whether it's through email, or through a video show on YouTube, or a podcast, or a written blog, which we're going to talk about in a little bit. But it's not just social media, so we have to really expand our minds to think beyond it. 

Now, I'm going to give you an inside look to two examples of marketing strategies in my businesses. I'll start with my first business, The League. Y'all, it's my first baby. It's a warehouse gym here in Houston, Texas, and it has its own proprietary circuit training program called PAC(K) training. It's just the best workout ever. And we have the best fitness community in Houston, just sayin’. So let's start with talking about The League's marketing strategy. When we ask, most of the people who come to our gym hear about The League through word-of-mouth and through social media. Those are just the most powerful ways people hear about The League. Now let's break both of those down. Let's start with word-of-mouth. Now, word-of-mouth, like organic marketing, in my opinion, is just the best way to grow a business. And if you focus on the other six P’s, like I mentioned, that I talk about in Episode 19, if you're not just focused on promotion, but you're focused on the other P’s like people and product and place, I think it really increases your word of mouth advertising. For example, if you have a great product, people are going to want to tell their friends about it, they're going to naturally just do that. If you have a great people element, and the customer service is just like rocking it, clients feel seen and well taken care of. So it's not hard for them to want to come back, not hard for them to want to share. 

Social media in terms of The League, y'all, the social media strategy for my brick and mortar service based business is so different from my online service based business. So first, I want to shout out my husband and business partner, Terry, for completely running all of the social media for The League. The images, the captions, the music, the fun games, he adds so much to the flair and fun of our social media, which again, is one of our biggest marketing channels. And so I'm so grateful to have him there because I am not the best with social media, which I'll talk about in a little bit. But he's just one of those freaks of nature, who just naturally loves it and is good at it. He's great with connecting with people in a way that's fun, and super creative. And he's just done so well with our social media. But, it's pretty simple, our strategy. We only designate two days a week for specific types of posts. And that is something we worked toward. We tried out different days of the week and some kind of fell flat. We actually looked at when clients have booked their workouts. We went to our POS system, and we saw what days are people most likely to book their workouts? And it was Sundays. As people were planning for the week, they're looking at their calendar, and they're saying, “Okay, I'm going to go ahead and register for Tuesday night, and Thursday morning” and on and on. So we said we want to be top of mind, and we're going to meet our clients where they are on Sundays. That's a really great example of what I was explaining earlier of practically meeting your ideal client where they are, okay? That's how we decided on our two days. Sundays and actually Mondays, we have designated posts for those days. And for the rest of the week, it's really just pretty natural. We'll share other stories that our clients have tagged us in and on and on. Terry will share different posts, of course, based on promotions that we might have, or a product release we might have. But we only really have two days a week that we designate for social media posting. And we've tested and found that the posts of our workouts performed so much better than other posts. So you can do the same thing when it comes to your marketing strategy. But it's going to take some trial and error. It's going to take some figuring it out and being okay with that.

All right. Other marketing strategies that we use in my gym business include a referral program. We at one point had a monthly newsletter that we actually might bring back. We'll do challenges. We do a lot of brand partnerships. And we did local events and community hangs, which we called League Life Events before COVID. We do retail. Retail is huge. By retail, I just mean apparel, which is huge for branding. I should probably do a whole episode on branding, because this is an intangible asset, meaning you can't touch it and feel it, but you really can sense it. And branding is obviously very huge, and one great way to spread your brand is through apparel. We even have our logo on the little key tags that you have on your keychain whenever you beep into class. 

Two quick stories. One, there was a Uber driver friend of ours who goes to The League. And he said that he gets someone in his car and they see his key tag and they're like, “Oh my goodness, you go to The League?” And it was this whole conversation about it, connecting people. And it was just because of the brand recognition around the key tag. Also, we had a client share on social media, a post with someone he randomly saw in a League t-shirt in the Midwest somewhere. And he's like, “What? Do you go to the league?” Or, “How did you get this shirt?” Like we’re in Houston and it was really cool to connect with him. And so it's cool to see your brand out in the world and people actually recognizing it. So that's a part of your marketing strategy as well. 

Now, let's move into Bird Williams. This is my business strategy firm for entrepreneurs who are launching and growing their businesses. It's online, so it's not a brick-and-mortar. And I realized I had to think about marketing a lot differently. I've learned all of this in the past few years and it's an interesting contrast. Before I get into my different marketing strategies, I'll say this. I hear a lot about how great folks think I'm doing in this area, from friends, but also from different people who follow me on different platforms. Even clients of mine in strategy sessions will talk about my marketing and how great it is and how great the business must be doing. I appreciate that so much. It is a lot of hard work. But I want to just say full disclosure, for anyone out there who's in the same boat. I don't love it, guys. I don't really enjoy it. Terry just enjoys being on social media and it's natural for him, it doesn't really feel like work. For me, I'm really having to make a conscious effort to focus on it. And to not just have these strategies on PDFs, and in presentations. But to actually put it in my schedule and make it in my face so that I remember to do it, as I'm planning the week or planning out my content strategy. My point is that because it's not something that comes so naturally to me, I have to be very intentional about it. And it's a lot for me to have to constantly choose pictures of myself to put out there. Because with The League, my gym business, I was used to just being behind the scenes, and I was so comfortable there. I'm an introvert honestly. And this business has really caused me to stretch over the last year. And I do it. I push myself to do it because I really remember my why. I remember why I started Bird Williams in the first place. It wasn't to be a super cool businesswoman. It was really because I wanted to connect with a struggling entrepreneur who just needed one piece of practical advice, or just something motivating that could get them through the day and be a game-changer in their business. That's who I have to keep top of mind as I push through the discomfort of putting myself out there and doing videos and being consistent in my marketing efforts. 

Back to people saying that I'm great at it or that it looks so great. What they're really seeing is consistency. And so I hope what you get from what I'm sharing is that you just got to keep showing up. That's why it's great. So it's hard, but I just keep showing up imperfectly. And so can you. You can do the same thing. I hope that encourages someone out there who's like, “Uh, I don't know what to say. I don't know if I'm going to say it the right way.” Guess what? You learn by starting. You learn by doing. You gotta just do it. And you'll get better over time, I promise. 

In terms of my marketing strategy, here we go. First things first, I have a main piece of organic content every single week, and you're listening to it. It's my podcast. There are a few different ways you can do this. You can have a written blog like a blog post on your website. Or you can do a video show through either Instagram TV or on YouTube or whatever platform and have a weekly video that you put out about your product or service. I chose podcasting. I actually talked about it in, I believe, one of the very first episodes. I think it was Episode Five, when I launched the podcast, explaining how I got to podcasting. It was a quick decision. I had no equipment, no experience at all. I didn't know what I was doing, didn't know how to edit, but I figured it out. And here we are 58 episodes later. So again, not easy, awkward, uncomfortable, but I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and doing it and showing up. And you get better, okay? 

So I have my main piece of organic content, and it's kind of like the main marketing machine behind my business. And what I mean by that is that my podcast each week helps to direct the rest of the content that I'm about to share with you. My podcast informs the weekly email that I send out every week as another piece of my marketing strategy, my weekly emails. I love to provide tons of value, so I go deeper in my weekly email. And back to the idea of being adaptable. I was really conflicted with email marketing when I first launched Bird Williams. And this is gonna sound funny because I just preached about how great it was at the beginning of the episode. And it is. But again, transformation, right? In the beginning, I was very averse to emails, period. I'm a business owner, I own multiple businesses, I have a busy life. I'm the kind of person who's unsubscribing real quick to emails, you know. I feel like I’m always bombarded with emails. The idea of having an email list and having to engage with people that way was extremely intimidating. Also, it felt like, well, I don't even like to get emails, right? But then I thought about it. I was like, “Wait, I don't unsubscribe to all of my emails.” There are still dozens of businesses who I love getting emails from because I'm actually really connected to their brand, and I'm inspired or educated or I benefit from what they have to say. See, that's what you want to do. You want to cultivate an email tribe of your people. I don't want someone getting on my weekly emails if it isn't going to actually help their lives or their businesses. I mean, I pour my blood and sweat and tears into developing beneficial content for entrepreneurs in that zero to three year range for launching and growing their businesses. I go all in with this. And if you're not in that space, or if you just don't connect with me, I think that's okay. I understand that I'm not here for everybody. But there are people of course, on my list who aren't unsubscribing. I don't unsubscribe to all emails, because I'm connecting with certain businesses. So again, going back to really honing in on your ideal customer and who you're serving, you're not here to serve everybody. But you are here to serve some people. Some people are going to want to hear what you have to say and that's how you're going to build that. 

I made a huge transformation from being very averse to having an email marketing strategy and not wanting to feel spammy or like a nuisance. But people are like, “No, I love your emails so much. They give me exactly what I need.” When I get that feedback from people, it is everything. Because it's like, “Okay, good. This is helpful.” If that's the heart behind what you're doing. It's helping people. And that's what we're doing in our businesses. No matter what business you have, you're solving a problem, right? You are the solution to someone's problem. So when you reframe it, you take the attention off of you. And you put it on the people that you're serving, and how you're helping them. It makes all of this a lot easier. What do they need? Show up and be that for them. 

We talked about my marketing strategy. We have my podcast. We have email marketing. My podcast helps to shape that because I talk deeper insights from the podcasts in my weekly emails, along with other goodies. Oh, and by the way, if you want to join my email list, you can go to birdwilliams.com/join. Again, not spammy, because as you know, I am like, not about that at all. Just super informative business tips. And like I said, I go a lot deeper there than I do on social media or other platforms. That's definitely where you want to hang out with me, as well. 

Okay, so my email list and then social media are a part of my marketing strategy. It's not the only thing, but it's a part of it. And I post at least three times a week, static posts on my page. And I also have fun with stories. I do try to do a certain number of days. Last summer, during my rebrand, I worked with an amazing marketing manager who helped me to develop marketing strategies. And so there are different numbers I try to hit here and there. If I'm honest with stories, I'm just really natural with it and just kind of pick up the phone and start recording when something hits me. A lot of times, I'll be on a consultation call or a strategy session with a client. And they'll say something that I'm thinking more people have that question, more people need to hear this. So I'll share it there. I have fun with social media. It is a part of my marketing strategy, but it's not the entire thing. 

And then another piece of my marketing strategy is speaking engagements, which have obviously looked a lot different with COVID. But even virtual events are really great for expanding my brand. I have so many thoughts and ideas around more marketing strategies in my business. But I'm a one-woman show. I find that so many entrepreneurs, so many businesses fail because they try to do way too much at once. You don't have to do all the things. You just start somewhere and hone it, refine it, make it better, and then build onto that. 

I have so many other ideas around marketing strategies. This is where I'm focused right now. And actually in Prove It Plan, which is my online course on developing a powerful business plan, one of the exercises is around the phases of your business, and we look at how your marketing channels even grow over time based on the phase that you're in, in your business. Because again, trying to do everything all at once up in the beginning, is going to be overwhelming and frustrating. And it's better to really think about your long-term vision and how that will play a part as well. 

You must develop a marketing plan that works best for you and your clients. As you start defining that process, you understand where to start in your business plan. I share more about different ways to think through marketing strategies and marketing channels with exercises like how to really think about how that's going to change over time in Prove It Plan. Prove It Plan is an online course where you'll get five modules, focusing on your foundation, financial, operations, and marketing. These are the four pillars of your business that I feel strongly that you should focus on as you're building a business, whether you're just launching or you've been in business for a while and you're trying to really grow it to the next level. So many entrepreneurs skip a business plan and it's like skipping making a blueprint into a house and just showing up and trying to figure it out and put doors where they're supposed to go and rooms where they're supposed to be. Your Prove It Plan, your business plan, allows you to go in and say, “Okay, how do all of these different functions in my business work together? What am I even doing? What are my goals? How is this gonna all be scalable? What happens at the next phase and the next? How does the money make sense?” You're really taking a deep dive into each of these four pillars. And I have seen this work not only in my businesses, but I've seen transformation for so many of my clients, which honestly just makes me want to, like, I don't even know. I get so excited about it because again, I'm here to serve. And it's exciting to be able to play a part in such an important precious moment of someone's journey. Again, this is what I wish I would have known, what I wish I would have had when I first launched my business. Someone who has gone before me and kind of helped pave a way and say, these are the mistakes you don't want to make. Here's where you want to avoid doing this. And that's what I do through Prove It Plan.

As you listen to this episode on marketing strategies and all the things, I hope you take away the thought of like, “Hey, I can do this.” Because I'm no superwoman. I'm a one-woman show, or mostly a one-woman show up to this point. Shout out to my brand new digital marketing assistant. I'm so glad to have some extra help over the last few weeks. But, I'm not special. There's nothing super unique about me. I'm just thoughtful and consistent and you can be too. You can do the same thing in your business. 

As always, thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast, or subscribing on Apple Podcasts, and following us on Spotify. Be sure to tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode so that they can really get to evaluating their marketing strategies, too. All right? Talk to y'all next week.