This article features an excerpt from my IGTV interview with executive leadership coach Ginna Christensen. In this recap, we chat about the essential tech tools and tips that all small business owners should know to create a stand out brand online. Watch the full IGTV interview @sauritcreative
GINNA CHRISTENSEN: Hey everybody Ginna Christensen here. I’m going to be joined shortly by Ericka Saurit of Saurit Creative.
And today we’re going to be doing a tech check – dispelling myths and making things easy for you as you grow your brand presence online. I’m really excited about this conversation with her!
ERICKA SAURIT: Hey, hey! Happy Thursday.
GC: I’m really excited to have this conversation with you about this idea of dispelling myths about technology because, well, one I do not think of myself as being a very tech-forward person.
ES: But yeah you are! I think people say that, “I’m not a tech person. I feel really uncomfortable.”
But it turns out, you have a social media presence and you have a website. You have a podcast and you’re sharing your message across all these channels and guess what! You’re a “tech person!”
GC: Okay mindset – I’m in denial. It’s all about perception. You know when I think about someone who’s tech savvy, I think about people that are very interested in technology and up-to-date with the latest apps, etc. all of these things in the beginning do feel unfamiliar. In the beginning, you know taking things step by step can be manageable.
Last week we were talking a little bit about how to create a manageable digital marketing strategy and you talked about three key points that we needed that should be a part of these strategies which is website, email, and social media.
So my first question is this:
What are the myths that you come up against with your clients in terms of managing the technology around those three tools – email, your website, and social media?
ES: So the first one obviously is mindset, you know getting over the hump of thinking “I’m going to break this or it’s going to break me.”
That’s not going to happen.
There are so many tools right now that have been created over the last few years to make the process of online creation more intuitive for people who feel the fear of technology.
For example, last week we talked last week about that customer decision journey – AKA the marketing funnel, remember? Well companies like Squarespace (which is a web design platform) and Planoly (which helps you to plan and automatically post your social media content) really looked at every part of that customer experience and made it as simple and easy as possible for anyone to use their services. They’ve gotten to know how a new user’s experience might be different than someone who’s coming with a little bit more savvy or a little bit more experience or a little bit more confidence. They looked at how their product can be used by a huge spectrum of users and they’ve made it really simple to build out an incredible website. So now I think there’s not really any reason to be afraid – you don’t have to know how to code to make a website anymore.
They have made it so easy to make a beautiful website – and even more than just beautiful, it’s also very functional. You can add a checkout cart if you want to sell something, or add a blog of course (which I believe is fantastic and every brand should have one). You can add a newsletter, etc.
You can add all these enhancements but you don’t have to do it right away. You can add these things incrementally as you feel more comfortable and as you have more time. And they have covered the setup and the backend of support is done for you. It’s invisible to your process, and in that way they’ve made it really easy for anyone to do it.
The key is that they have made you feel really comfortable on the platform. And in that way they’ve brought a whole lot of users into web design who might have felt like they couldn’t do it before. Planoly has done the same for social media.
If you take away that fear mindset, you are able to come into it with excitement. You begin to ask: how can this help me in my business or in my personal life? How can technology become my friend?
GC: Yes! Mindset is everything. It’s so important.
So my next question is what do we need to know to make technology work for us?
ES: So we’re all aware, especially as entrepreneurs and business owners, that technology allows us to reach a broader audience than ever before and a way to share our messages with those new audiences.
So I’m going to share a way to use three platforms that most business owners are probably already using right now – email, social media, and your website.
How to think about using all three and how they can all work together to save you time and effort when reaching new audiences without creating new content for each one separately.
For example, let’s say we are going to record this IGTV broadcast right now. Of course it will be archived on both our Instagram feeds, but let’s also put that recording on our website. Because not everyone who follows us on social is going to make their way to our websites, and everyone who visits our website isn’t going to follow us on social. They are different audiences, that’s important to realize.
Let’s then extract the audio from the video and turn it into a podcast and that podcast on our website or iTunes or Spotify wherever you host your podcasts.
I would then take the transcript of that audio and use it to write a blog post (that’s exactly what I’ve done now dear reader 🙂, which is then hosted on your website.
So now you have created four new pieces of content just from one IGTV interview!
But you can keep going – take a few, 2 or 3, great quotes from that interview and turn them into graphics, or quote cards. Use your brand colors and fonts to make them look really beautiful, and then post on all your social channels – Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, wherever you are.
Link those quote cards back to your website: to your blog post, or podcast.
The last thing I would do is to send out a quick eblast to your newsletter subscribers letting them know the new blog or podcast is up on your site.
And just like that, from one piece of content (the IGTV video), you’ve got people swirling and circulating all over the internet for your content.
You’ll reach so many different audiences each time with each separate approach. AND you haven’t killed yourself to create all those new pieces of content for each channel.
GC: That makes sense! And you know, I love the idea and it’s something that I forget. I think getting in the mindset of thinking about how to use that piece of content more than once is great!
ES: A lot of people think they put something out there – like they create a social post on Instagram and they then think “oh everybody’s seen it, I don’t want to post about this again because I feel like everyone will think it’s repetitive”.
And I say, never assume that people have seen your content. You have different audiences on all your channels – it’s likely most of your Instagram or social media followers are not on your email list. The people following you on LinkedIn are different than the people following you on Instagram, and Facebook. And TikTok. Each platform has a different segment, or type of followers.
So never feel like just because you put things out there one time that everybody’s seen it. If you’re putting the effort into making really great content, which you should be by the way, you really need to be vigilant about promoting it across all your channels to reach as wide an audience as possible.
GC: That’s right. I just want to add one more thing to what you said about assuming that people have seen it because I think that you know, this is something I hear from from people a lot too – they say “I’ve already posted about that” and I think even if you’ve posted about something on Instagram doesn’t mean you can never post about it again or that you can never repeat it.
Post that picture again if it’s important to your brand! You know, there are a lot of people who are afraid of sounding repetitive or looking repetitive. But to me the way I look at it is this: it’s consistency of message.
You know that rule, people have to see something seven times? That’s the number of times before they even begin to remember your brand and message.
I also believe and there’s nothing wrong with changing up the wording – you can keep the message the same and consistent. If you change your wording a little bit to make it sound a little fresh and match the platform guidelines. For instance, on Instagram my bio is a little different than other platforms because I only have a certain number of characters I can use. It’s about just distilling the message and making it work for each platform.
ES: YES to everything you just said!
GC: Ok, let’s get back to the questions. What tech hacks can really help us here on social or with email?
ES: First I recommend to automate automate automate!
So I’ll put this into the analogy of banking. Each month, do you go to the bank and pay your mortgage or to your landlord to pay your rent or utilities or car payment? Like give them a check? No, no no…you spend the 15-20 minutes getting your account set up online so it’s all automatically withdrawn each month, and you don’t have to think about it. Or remember to do it!
Like I mentioned, I really love Planoly for automating social media content on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. It’s so easy to automate your evergreen content – that’s the kind of brand content that won’t lose its leaves haha, or change every season. It’s your brand ethos and key messages. Plan out what those posts will look like throughout the month and automate them in Planoly, and then you can focus on your stories and creating spontaneous posts for things you want to share with your followers throughout the month. You also can focus on the engagement for all your posts because you won’t be tied up thinking about what you’re posting on a day-to-day basis. That’s really stressful, takes way too much time and brainpower, and is just completely avoidable.
GC: So so if there’s anyone new that’s just joined us and just want to just let you guys know again, we’re talking about technology here as it relates to your digital marketing strategy and we’re demystifying and dispelling myths around those technologies and and talking about how we can make this easy for you.
So, okay, so we have a plan for social media. What about email? What do we need to know here about email?
ES: Oh my gosh, email! I could talk about email all day long. It’s so important for your business, and the only way you can (aside from in-person events) where you can actually talk directly to your audience.
And there are so many great platforms that help you to automate your email marketing. I really love ConvertKit – it’s just so easy to use and has higher deliverability rates than others. It’s my favorite email marketing platform for small and medium size companies hands-down.
You know you can’t do an email campaign from your Gmail account – just don’t even think about. You’re going to be spending a lot of time consolidating emails and lists. And you won’t be able to create automated sequences or lead magnets or landing pages.
A lead magnet is what you would offer subscribers in exchange for their email address. Something of value, because giving up your email is very personal. And we all get enough email, so if I give mine to you it’s because I’m expecting something of value to me in exchange.
For example, if you have a retail store you could be giving away 15% or a discount on your next order. This is something we’ve all see right? If you’re a service business, it could be like a free call or consultation to discuss how you might work together. Or a style guide. Or a product guide, or something that only your brand can offer.
So when someone signs up for your newsletter, the email service provider manages all the backend stuff – like keeping your list tidy, sending out an automatic thank you email, etc (of course you’re writing these messages but the technology is managing all the operational stuff for you!). And when someone signs up for your newsletter list, even before they get that first monthly eblast you can send them an email to thank them, to nurture them, and to build a relationship with them. That’s called a nurture sequence, and it’s completely automated. You write it once and then each time someone signs up they get this beautiful, personal email from you thanking you for signing up. It’s building that relationship which is super important, and part of your brand that you control. I’ve heard it explained similar to like going to a party – it’s the difference between when the host greets you at the door, gives you a drink, takes your coat, and introduces you to several groups before moving on to tend to her other guests, verses you showing up at the party and everyone ignores you. Which brand, in this case, is one you’ll want to keep coming back to?
GC: Yeah, I think I think you know, it’s so funny. I was just having a conversation with a new client on a discovery call right before this and we were talking about social media and you know, one of the barriers that I see very often to people posting or even creating like we’re talking about an email marketing strategy is that they feel like they’re selling themselves. I find they really don’t like it. They don’t like selling. They think it feels icky. They don’t like promoting themselves.
Yeah, however, there is an antidote and the antidote always is tapping into the value of your work.
So the magic question I often ask is you know, what is it that your work does for your clients or what do you hope it does?
And if you can really tap into that space of the value that you offer it’s not going to feel icky. You’re going to love talking about what you do. I’ve seen the change that it’s made doing this kind of work in my life and in my business and in the lives and businesses of my clients. I know that it works, so I want to share it with as many people as it’s possible.
That doesn’t feel salesy.
ES: I completely agree with you! I think that is a constant struggle for nearly all creatives. It’s a voice for a lot of us and I think the value of getting down to the purpose of what you’re doing.
If you have a purpose to your business, if you have a reason right you want to help people reach their fullest potential and that is your purpose and that is what you are doing in your business.
So at the end of the day you don’t feel guilty or you know, self-conscious about putting that message out there because you know that like, Once someone sees that in themself and their own business, you’ve helped them make that transformation.
It’s like if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it. Did it fall? When you create something and you don’t put it out there then you know, what’s the value of it?
GC: Thank you so much for sharing all of this insight because I know like it’s daunting, you know, it is for people who don’t spend their day using technology, so it’s really helpful just to hear that.
It doesn’t need to be as scary as we all think.
ES: Yes, there are far scarier things in the world right now, and technology shouldn’t be one of them. So have fun!
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