If you’re tired of showing up on Instagram and ready to delete you’re account permanently or you’d just like to spend less time on the app—you’re in the right place. Contrary to what some people say it is possible to grow your business without social media. Instagram is obviously the easiest social media platform to hate—but I’m talking about any social media platform that you don’t like.
Now instead of just taking my word for it (I’m still working on getting my business to this place BUT I’m definitely making progress) here are a few examples of entrepreneurs who don’t use any or very little social media for their business.
And I don’t know about you but if they ^^^ can grow their businesses without social media I don’t see why I can’t *shrug*
How to market your business without social media
Add new blog content to your website
Every new year it seems like someone poses the question “Is blogging still worth it?” as if blogging has somehow become obsolete overnight because the clock struck midnight. And let me just set the record straight that…
As long as there are people searching for things on Google blogging is still worth it.
One of the most common reasons why business owners get frustrated with blogging is because it’s a long-game strategy. On Instagram, you *might* get quick results after a few weeks but it’s a short-game strategy because the content only has maybe a 48-hour shelf-life. <<< And you’ve gotta keep creating content over and over again to combat this problem vs. a blog post that can potentially rank for years.
AND just like any successful marketing strategy, the key is being consistent. Regardless of whether you’re on social media or not. While not as flaky when it comes to consistency compared to Instagram—Google still likes to see fresh content added to a website.
Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into ranking on Google and a LOT of posts can and will rank for years. BUT if you really want to double down and focus on improving your Google rankings—you’re probably going to want to blog at least once a week.
Why You Need a Blog on Your Website
Make sure your website is SEO-friendly
Contrary to what might think—websites don’t rank in Google but rather website PAGES rank in Google searches aka. you need every page optimized for best SEO practices on your website. Your main website pages (home, services, about, etc.) need to be optimized in addition to your blog posts. The only difference is that some of your blog titles for example might be more in line with verbatim keywords vs. your home page copy might have more flavor and creativity to the wording of things.
Doing keyword research for all of your website pages and blogs will make a huge difference in how your rank in Google searches. You might think that someone is Googling about a topic using entirely different words than what someone is actually looking for.
For example, let’s say that you’re a brand photographer. You might think that you’re potential clients are typing into Google “best brand photographer” (<<< and let’s be honest some people probably are searching for this term.) BUT in reality, they’re actually searching for a “fine art branding photographer in Seattle, WA”. The search results are going to be dramatically different for both of these keywords (trust me I checked ;P).
Build your email list
You’ve probably heard this ^^^ over and over again, but if not—you need to build your email list!! Your email list is one of the few pieces of business “real estate” that you own. Unlike your Instagram account. Yet again this a long-game strategy so more patience is required—but if you don’t focus on these strategies, you’re going to regret it later.
Things mail list building and blogging take longer to start getting traction—you need to start sooner rather than later. <<< Because it takes at least 3-6 months if not a year to start seeing results.
I know this ^^^ sounds intimidating but the longer you wait to start doing it it’s just going to delay your results even further into the future.
Which Email Marketing System Should You Use?
4 Things Keeping You from Growing Your Email List
How to Grow Your Email List With Instagram
Start a podcast or YouTube channel
Another way to market your business is by starting a podcast or YouTube channel. Okay *yes* YouTube seems like it’s social media but because it has a search engine component it goes into a similar marketing bucket as podcasting. If you do better talking thru things instead of writing this might be a better opinion for you than blogging.
The one caveat with either of these marketing strategies ^^^ is that along with posting your video or podcast—you also need to post a corresponding blog post with the transcript to really get the most out of your SEO. <<< THIS is partially vital with podcasts! While YouTube videos can rank in searches without a blog transcript—podcasts will almost never rank on their own. You have to advertise your podcast on some other channel (blog, Instagram, Facebook groups, etc.) to get any traffic on it.
Create an online community
Creating an online community is another way to grow your business. <<<And no—it doesn’t have to be a Facebook group. There are other platforms that you can start online communities on—Circle is a popular option in the creative entrepreneur space.
Again though the caveat to this ^^^ strategy is that you have to promote your group on another platform or have a stellar way to entice current members to refer friends to the group.
Host a virtual summit or online workshop
A more complex way to grow your audience is to host something like a virtual summit or online workshop. The nice thing about hosting a virtual summit in particular is that you can build your audience using other people’s audiences that are in complementary industries.
Paid advertising leading up to the event is often needed so if you’re newer in business this may not be the right fit for you right now. But if you’ve got the option to spend some money that’s a different story.
Setup a referral program with past clients
If you’re just starting out this might not work for you but incentivizing past clients to refer you can be another way to grow your business.
Join networking groups
This is my least favorite way on this list but I had to include it because it does work for some people so didn’t want to not mention it. Networking can be a great way to get more leads in your business but more importantly, it’s a good way to grow your business friend group of people who may not necessarily need to hire you BUT do no a lot of other people who could benefit from working with you.
Pay for advertising
And last but not least you pay for ads to grow your business. Obviously, this is the best way to go so before you go out and start shelling out ad dollars you kind of need to know what you’re doing. Or you need to hire someone to help you which is going to cost even more money. That isn’t to say that ads aren’t worth it. It just means that if you’re short on cash this probably isn’t the best option for you.
