17: Marketing vs. Promotion, LinkedIn + Does Email Really Work? [Marketing Q&A]

Aug 18

Aug 18 17: Marketing vs. Promotion, LinkedIn + Does Email Really Work? [Marketing Q&A]

Today’s episode was SUPPOSED to be about how I manage business finances - my money. I use a strategy called Profit First, based on the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. This philosophy is kind of the business equivalent of the personal finance concept “pay yourself first”. It’s awesome and I love it and I WILL do an episode on it… but when I got myself ready to record… I just wasn’t feeling it.

And this is one of the beautiful things about being a small business owners that I encourage you to lean in to: be kind to yourself.

Sometimes you wake up and whatever it is you had on your plate that day just doesn’t sit right with you for whatever reason. Sometimes what we need is to just give ourselves a break and follow what we feel called to do in the moment.

I could have talked about Profit First today, but I just didn’t have the right energy to bring to the table. And I know that when I do my episode of Profit First, it will be a lot better than if I’d forced myself to do it today.

When you work for yourself, you’re your own boss. Be a good boss!

So, instead of business finances, we’re talking about one of the subjects that I love love LOVE! Marketing. And specifically, I’m answering some of your marketing questions. I put out a poll to find out what questions related to marketing you have, and I got some great questions! I’ve pulled a bunch of them to answer here today!

Questions & quick summary of responses:

Q: LinkedIn: Should you use it? Should you be on it?
A: Yes, you should at minimum have an up to date and optimized profile! It’s great for personal brand building and SEO.
Q: Do mailing lists really work?
A: A million times yes. More info in the episode.
Q: What’s the most effective platform?
A: Email, and wherever your audience is. There’s no one answer to this.
Q: What’s the difference between marketing and promotion?
A: Promotion is when you’re actively selling, which should only be 10-20% of your content. Marketing is the (extremely wide) field of communicating (verbally and visually) what you have to offer.
Q: What’s necessary and what’s fluff?
A: Everyone has to figure this out for themselves… but I share some ideas to get you started in the episode.
Q: Do you have any systems for efficiency and focus?
A: Yes! Pomodoro technique + controlling the sounds around me.

Links and resources mentioned:

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
The Jasmine Star Show episode with Marcus Murphy on LinkedIn (episode 54)
Focus@Will
The Pomodoro Method
Focus@Will playlist on Spotify
Making Good episodes:

ACTION STEP: I mentioned a couple of resources in this episode. Download them and get to work!

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