A few weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I promised to bare my online marketing successes and failures on this blog. 

I got a lot of great feedback from that post. Now, it’s time to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Wish me luck. 🙂

In coming months, I’ll start off with a review of the goal I set the previous month, what worked, and what didn’t.  But since there is no previous month’s goal to evaluate this time around, I’ll give you a quick overview of my current online marketing successes. And then I’ll set a goal for next month.

 

Where My Online Marketing Is At Today

Having just celebrated my three year business anniversary, I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am now and where I want to go.  So first, let’s focus on what’s going well.

I Know My Ideal Client

My ideal client is a new-to-online marketing entrepreneur who’s about a year into their business and has realized that just having a website isn’t enough. She’s smart and willing to figure it out, but she needs help, both with the tech side of things and also the “how does this all work?” piece. Enter moi.

I Have a Great Website

After several iterations, I really love my website. It reflects my personality, it’s clear about who I am and what I do, and it’s appealing without being fussy or overdone. It’s even (slowly) breaking down my anti-pink barrier.

My Free Email Incentive is Live

I launched my free Facebook video training series in April, and it’s been a great generator of new email subscribers. I’ve also gotten great feedback from folks who’ve taken the program and loved it.

My Email List is Growing

To be fair, it’s rather slow at the moment. But there are several places to opt in on my website in exchange for the free training, including in the header, the footer, the area under the menu, the bottom of blog posts, and a pop-up as well.

That may seem like overkill, but you never know where people will find your free stuff. Plus, they usually have to see things 5 – 20 times online before they take action. I think I have my bases covered. 🙂

My Social Media Presence is Growing

Although I don’t recommend this to any of my clients, I am on 5 social media sites: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Facebook takes up the lion’s share of my time, because I belong to several alumni groups for various business courses. My followers are slowly but steadily increasing, with Google+ definitely in the lead.

So now that I’ve gone over what’s going well, let’s talk about what I’d like to accomplish in August.

 

My Online Marketing Goals for August

I don’t know if you noticed, but I used the word “slow” to describe both my social media growth and my email list growth.

While I don’t mind the social media stuff being slow, I definitely want to ramp up the number of awesome new people who are joining my email list.

To do that, I’m going to make time every week to actively engage people on social media. That means not just posting stuff to all 5 of my accounts, but actually commenting in the Facebook groups, on people’s Google+ posts, sharing and linking Pinterest images, chatting with people on Twitter, and joining a couple of groups on LinkedIn.

In other words, my focus for August will be on talking to people online, the way you meet and talk to people in real life.

 

It’s All About Talking to People

The purpose of this “actually talking to people” plan is two-fold.

First, I start building relationships with people that have audiences that might need my services.  These relationships will, if done correctly, lead to guest posting opportunities, which is how I’ll really grow my list.

Sure, I could skip the relationship part and go straight to cold-pitching someone for a guest post, but that feels really icky to me. I’d hate to be cold-pitched from someone I’ve never heard of before, and I’ll bet most online business folks feel the same way. So relationships first, then guest posting.

Second, this whole talking to people thing will inevitably net me a few new clients. At least, that’s what happened in late May & early June when I tried this focus out for the ifrst time. I have a few client openings available, and I’d love to fill them.

 

Please Hold Me Accountable

I’ve committed – publicly – to focusing my online marketing efforts on talking to people to lay the groundwork for list-building. I gotta say it’s a bit scary, since I might well have to report a failure sometime in the future. However, I’m trusting that you will hold me accountable next month when it’s time to report on how well I’ve done. 🙂

 

What is Your Online Marketing Goal for August?

It’s a bit lonely out here on the public accountability limb. If you’d like to join me, leave a comment below and let me know what you’re focusing on in August. I’d love to help in any way I can!

~ Felicity

photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc