21. Five tips for making online marketing easy

Laura Higgins is an online marketing strategist and the founder of LaLa Social Club and My Marketing Playbook. She’s also a marketing expert with over 19,000 Instagram followers and a thriving online business.

Originally having studied design, Laura discovered her passion for marketing when she failed at her sales job for a coffee business, and they asked her to move into marketing.

What’s refreshing about Laura is her approach to business marketing, particularly when it comes to online business. She believes that marketing shouldn't be hard work, and that it should be fun to build your business and drive growth in your business. And I couldn’t agree more! Read on for her top tips for marketing a small business, her favourite content creation tools, and more.

Here are Laura’s top tips for marketing a small business:

Consistently show up
Now more than ever, people are very aware of people trying to sell to them, so the best way to grow your business is to attract your ideal customers. It’s less about the pretty pictures and flash-in-the-pan campaigns, and more about showing up, day in and day out.

Be smart in how you use your resources
Laura says that a big mistake she sees many small business owners making is that they invest money into a big piece of content, such as a brand video, then they post it one time. They don’t repurpose it, they don’t put it anywhere else, and they don’t post it again after that one time.

Particularly in the startup and small business phase, you need to be smart in where you invest your money, and in how you repurpose your content.

Play to your strengths
Small businesses and startups can be nimble and adapt to changes quickly. You’re not going through the corporate hierarchy to get decisions approved, so take advantage of being able to have an idea in the morning and act on it by lunchtime.

Show some personality!
You don’t have to be too stuffy or hide behind brand guidelines when you have a small business. Take people behind the scenes in your business, show them the day-to-day of your operations, bring a bit more of yourself to your content.

Be everywhere, and be passionate
Show up in as many places as possible to be seen. If you create a YouTube video, repurpose that content into 15 second Instagram videos, or a carousel post. Take snippets from a webinar to create a teaser for your next product launch - the possibilities are almost endless!

It takes over 18 times for someone to see your brand in order for them to consider a purchase, and it works a lot better for small businesses when you have a clear position on who you’re speaking to and who you’re not speaking to. Have a solid position, a clear message, and a niche audience. It’s easier to scale up than to narrow down.

Laura believes that the fastest path to online success lies in providing helpful, educational, entertaining content that serves your audience. Audiences need to know, like and trust you in order to start to interact with you and, ultimately, invest in your products or services. You can 

Laura’s thoughts on free opt-ins:
You want to give something away for free that’s valued at $20 - $40. They say that an email is worth around that amount. In terms of crafting your free offer, you want to do your research on what people are searching for - if there’s a blog or eBook that addresses the commonly asked questions - and uses the search terms that your ideal client uses - you know that it’s a viable idea for your own freebie.

If you’re stuck on what to create for your freebie, consider a downloadable with a clear headline, such as:

3 common myths about...
5 ways to… 
The top 10 tips for...

These are definitive, they demonstrate authority, and they engage people online.

Laura’s favourite tools for creating content:
Canva for creating Instagram posts
Later for scheduling
ActiveCampaign for email marketing
Lightroom for editing photos 
Mojo video for editing video content

Laura’s philosophy? If a program or tool is complicated and not straightforward, there’s usually a better option out there. While you may need to spend a bit of time navigating a program when you start, such as with an email marketing platform, if it’s not particularly user-friendly, explore other options.

My chat with Laura was jam-packed with helpful tips - including the best piece of advice she’s been given in business - and I know you’re going to love it.

To listen to our conversation in full, click here.

To find more episodes of the Lady Leadership podcast, click here!