Note: This is a guest post from influencer marketing extraordinaire Zoe Linda! This gal is all about helping you create meaningful connections with brands and customers. She loves a good pun (a girl after my own heart) and I’m so excited she’s on the blog sharing her tips on influencer marketing!

You’re ready to get started on a PR strategy for your business! You’ve got your ideal audience avatar, you know what magazines they’re reading, what TV shows they’re watching, what radio stations they listen to – but do you know what blogs they read and which influencers they turn to for recommendations?

PR isn’t just about reaching out to journalists and getting yourself on a podcast. It’s also about connecting with bloggers + tastemakers within your niche to build more brand awareness and reach a targeted audience ready to buy your products and invest in your services! Keep reading to learn four key reasons influencer marketing should play a part in your PR strategy.

4 Reasons Influencer Marketing Should Be A Part of Your PR Strategy

What is influencer marketing?

Before I get started, let’s make sure we’re both on the same page! Here’s the scoop:

Influencers are authorities within your niche that have a measurable* influence over your ideal audience. These could be bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers, people with a large Twitter following, etc.

Influencer marketing is all about forming relationships with said influencers and collaborating with them to get your brand in front of their audience.

*Don’t just take their word for it! You should be able to measure their influence by looking at their engagement rates, asking for past campaign experience, and monitoring their comments to see if your ideal audience are influenced by them.

My influencer marketing mantra is all about engagement – ‘Count the impressed, not the impressions.’

What’s the difference between PR and influencer marketing?

Well, the two are very closely linked. I would say that PR often encompasses influencer marketing but not the other way around.

Let’s say you’re starting a new organic skincare range. Your PR strategy would likely focus on building brand awareness – so you might be appearing on beauty + wellness podcasts, emailing out press releases around your launch, and sending products to journalists for review – often focusing on the story behind your brand and products. You usually have little to no creative control over how the journalist or platform features your brand.

Your influencer marketing strategy would be about forming meaningful relationships with influencers within the beauty + wellness niche to get your brand in front of a targeted audience and sell more products. You would likely collaborate with bloggers + Instagrammers to feature your brand in return for a fee or gifted products. You will have agreed beforehand if you are giving the influencer free reign to write about your brand or if you have any elements the influencer would need to include in their content (i.e. link to your website, unique discount code, etc)

There can be quite a bit of crossover here, though. For example, some influencers within your niche may have a blog or podcast they’d like you to appear on, which crosses into the realm of PR.

Let’s dive into the four key reasons you should incorporate influencer marketing into your PR strategy:

1) Individual recommendation vs. branded feature

As part of your PR strategy, you’ll likely be pitching to online + printed magazines, local TV stations, and podcasts, which is great! However, consumers are much more likely to trust an individual who recommends your product over a magazine feature.

Let’s look at the stats:

• 92% of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source
• 84% of consumers say they trust peer recommendations more than all other sources of advertising

By working influencers into your strategy, you’re dramatically increasing the chance that a potential customer will actually trust the source’s recommendation of your brand.

2) Increasing contact with your audience

You’ve heard that, on average, a consumer has to see a brand or product 7 times before they decide to invest. By incorporating influencer marketing into your PR strategy, you’re increasing the probability that they will see your brand more and more times.

For example, an ideal customer could first see your new skincare products in your Cosmopolitan feature but they don’t take much notice. Then they hear their favourite beauty YouTuber mention the same brand – they recognise the product from Cosmo but now someone they know, like, and trust is recommending them? Time to learn more!

Sometimes a consumer could have seen your brand around a fair few times but they just need that one recommendation from someone they trust to take the leap!
3) Reaching a dedicated community

Sure, you’ve got your own social media following and mailing list subscribers but what about expanding your reach beyond your current tribe?

Forming relationships with influencers in your niche means that you will be exposing your brand to their dedicated and loyal communities. If you collaborate with the RIGHT influencers, your ideal audience and their actual audience should align, which makes for a perfect fit.

I don’t mean that you’ll necessarily be reaching 100k Instagram followers – quality over quantity, folks! Sometimes micro-influencers with around 10k followers provide much better results (and are less likely to have fake followings)!

If your business is especially niche, influencer marketing will work even better for you. Working with bloggers within a small niche means you’re directly targeting your ideal customers + clients through someone they already know, like, and trust!

4) Become a trusted brand

Because they’re learning about you through someone they already trust, your ideal audience will see your brand as trusted and recommended instead of ‘just another product placement’.

It’s important to note that influencer marketing is, what I like to call, ‘welcomed advertising’. Audiences are actively seeking new content from their favourite audiences and, organic or sponsored, they are usually happy to read/watch/view any new content from them. This makes influencer marketing already more engaging than a regular ol’ news article that many consumers may be likely to scroll past.

Next time to sit down and have a strategy session for your business, take a moment to think about how influencer marketing can work for you!

If you’re interested in learning more about influencer marketing, I have a free 30-minute training you can watch over here!

Zoe Linda helps mindfulpreneurs make meaningful connections online. Zoe wants to change the way influencers and brands work together and is ALL about creating authentic + long-term relationships. As well as being an influencer marketing wizard, Zoe is a coffee drinking, lasagne-loving, Netflix binging, film buff who loves quoting Harry Potter in everyday conversation. To keep up with Zoe, follow her blog and social media profiles below!

Website | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Facebook

Hello and welcome to Q3 of the year! So what if it started over 20 days ago…better late than never, right? Right! 😜

So if you’re new around here, I started sharing quarterly updates about my business to give you all a peek inside what it’s really like to start a business from the ground up.

They say to write blog posts that you like reading and I love reading these types of blog posts.

My hope in sharing these with you is to inform you on what it really looks like to intentionally build a business, encourage you when you’re feeling like you can’t go on, and help you realize that this ‘ish is a twisting rollercoaster that is always evolving and changing.

If you want a bit more background on my business as a whole, check out my update from last quarter.

Q2 Business Update + Goals For The Next Quarter

Review of what happened in Q2

Lost a client

Unfortunately, one of my biggest retainer clients and I stopped working together. There was nothing bad or negative that happened, it just turned out that they didn’t need my services anymore.

To be honest, I felt relieved. It was a social media client and in full transparency, my overall business goals and vision has shifted from offering social media management as a service.

I’ve been doing social media management for 7 years, yes, that is literally since the beginning of time for social media management for businesses, and I feel like I’ve moved on professionally from creating social media content and managing company profiles.

Now that the PR side of my business is exploding (more on that later), I don’t have the mental capacity to also be keeping up with the latest social media trends and all of the different platforms. My passion for social media isn’t there as much and I’d rather focus on other services.

Lesson learned: A huge lesson I’ve learned this year is just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should do something. While that’s not the most unique thought anyone has ever had, I had to learn the hard way.

Gained 5 new clients

Holy cannoli how did that happen?!

Nearly all credit goes to my current clients. They are awesome and refer me to their network and I’m so, so grateful for that.

This isn’t to say I had nothing to do with it. Obviously, I had to be doing great work for them to refer me

Lesson learned: Deliver awesome work to your current clients and they will refer you to their network. Also, talk about want you want out loud (whether it increases your number of clients or sell more of one of your products) and watch what happens.

Hired a Virtual Assistant

Say what? Yup, I now have a VA and she’s awesome. Her name is Jessie and you can check out her Day in the Life here or check out her website here.

Hiring out to an independent contractor is not something I take lightly. I struggled with this for months, just ask my mastermind about it 😂

But one day, they challenged me and asked: “Do you want to continue being a solopreneur….or do you want to build a team?”

At first, my answer was, “Umm…I don’t know?” But right after the call, I knew what my answer was.

I wanted to build a team. I didn’t want to do everything on my own. I didn’t want to be a solopreneur.

I struggled with this realization though, because that’s kind of what I built my business around, being a solopreneur that can “do it all.”

And by golly I can’t EVER change my mind because then what would the world think…that I’m flaky? Inconsistent? Indecisive?

Yes, I thought people would think all of those things and maybe some people do, but you know what? I DON’T CARE ANYMORE.

I’ve been working through some MAJOR mindset roadblocks because I realized I was constantly working from a negative headspace and having negative thought patterns and low confidence in my abilities to run a profitable business. I even started seeing a therapist earlier this year because dudes, if your mind isn’t well, how can you expect the rest of your life to be?

There were other reasons I struggled with hiring out and can be narrowed down to three mindset shifts I’ve had to make (and am currently making to be honest).

1. I don’t like giving up control: Yup, I said it. I think many business owners don’t like giving up control whether it’s because they think they’re the best person to do every job or they just straight-up don’t trust other people. For me, it wasn’t me thinking I was the only person that could do the job well, it was that I overcomplicated outsourcing help, thinking it would take me for-ev-er to teach but the time it’s saved me after those initial few weeks after hiring has been so worth it.
2. I didn’t want to part with the money: Yup, I said that too. This statement is kind of the elephant in the room that I find not many people want to admit, but it’s the truth. Investing my money in someone else is a lot of pressure for me to continue at least making the same amount of money. Since I don’t outsource lightly, I don’t intend on only working with these people a few months and then letting them go. Investing more money into my business is scary but I know it will be worth it in the end.
3. Who am I to be hiring someone?: This is the biggest mindset shift I had to make. I had always dreamed of one day building a team of my own to help me grow my business, but I never really thought of what it would be like when I actually did it. I’ve often had the feeling of “well who the heck am I to be hiring someone? I don’t make millions. I should have to suffer through and do it all on my own.” You want to know what that is? Freaking ridiculous! Why am I punishing myself when I have the ability to outsource? Why shouldn’t I take advantage of building a business that has the capability to comfortably outsource a few tasks each month?

Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid to hire and don’t let the fear of the unknown keep you from outsourcing. Also, be confident in your abilities. You can do more than you think you can.

Review of Q2 goals

Let’s quickly review my Q2 goals before we get to the good stuff: what’s coming up for Q3!

1. Get one more PR client
   Well…you can say I DEF accomplished this one. Not only did I get one more, I got 5!
2. Launch a podcast
   Nope, didn’t launch but took A LOT of steps toward making this dream a reality. More on that below!
3. Grow my affiliate income streams
   While I did increase my affiliate earnings, it’s not anywhere near it could be. I didn’t have enough capacity to focus on this.
4. Launch a digital product
   I launched my first paid masterclass on August 2nd, so I’m counting that as a goal win, even though it’s two days short of the end of the quarter. If you want to learn more about using PR to grow your business, you can check it out here.

What’s planned for Q3

Podcast launch

Guys, the podcast is launching. Like, for real launching. Omg it’s like a dream come true!

To say I love recording the episodes is an understatement. It feels so natural to me.

K but let’s back up a second. What the heck is the podcast about, Brittney?!

Glad you asked 🙂

The podcast is called Day in the Life and will be launching on September 26. You can sign up for my launch email list if you’re interested or you can join the Facebook group to get sneak peeks of the episodes.

What’s it about?

Well as you probably I know, I have the Day in the Life series on the blog, where I feature business owners from all over the world, in every kind of industry, sharing what a day in their life is really like.

The podcast is based off the series, but features a wider variety of people, including people in all different industries (not just small business owners).

I’ve been interviewing people over the last few months, including a Speechwriter for the Dept of Defence, a counterterrorism expert, a DJ, an online life coach, an entertainment assistant (like Lloyd from Entourage), a productivity expert, and more.

I’m SUPER excited about this passion project of mine and I can’t wait for it to launch.

Join the launch email list or the Facebook group if you want the inside scoop!

Find me time again

It’s no secret I’ve struggled with finding a balance between being a business owner and being an interesting human being that does stuff outside of their business.

There are a lot of things I’ve pushed back to the back burner in my personal life that I’d love to get back to.

I don’t have a desire to build a huge empire where my life is solely focused on my business. It works for some people but that’s not the life for me.

I’m excited for an upcoming vacation in September so I can take some time to reflect and figure out how I can better balance everything. I know there isn’t a perfect solution to balancing everything at once, but I’d like to be in a better mental space after this quarter.

Work smarter, not harder

I know there are a lot of missed opportunities for me to work smarter, and not harder and I really want to hone in on this area, which I think will, in turn, help my goal of finding me time again.

I’ve never really setup workflows for my business and to be quite frank, have basically flown by the seat of my pants for the past year and a half and I’m tired of doing that. I need to set up some order and structure for my business so I don’t have to waste brain space on tedious, repetitive tasks.

I also think this goes hand in hand with focusing on some affiliate/passive income strategies. Most of the work I do is currently tied to my time, so if I’m not working = I’m not earning money.

While that’s fine and dandy to start, I think it’s time for me to look over all of my potential opportunities and be a bit smarter about the tasks and projects I do take on.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my Q2 business update and getting a behind the scenes look at what’s coming up next for my business.

It’s interesting, because my word of the year is “Growth” and I am definitely growing in a variety of ways: outsourcing, bringing on new clients, mentally, and emotionally. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds!

Welcome back to my beginner’s guide to PR series! If you’re just joining us around here, I’m doing a 3-part blog post series all on how small businesses can begin to use PR for their business. Today, I’m going to share how you can get featured on popular websites and podcasts.

Here’s what I’ve covered so far in the series:

• Why PR is Important & How To Start Using It
• How To Authentically Connect With Media & Influencers
• How To Get Featured On Popular Websites & Podcasts (this post!)

Getting featured on popular websites and podcasts can absolutely catapult your business.

Why should you want to get featured on popular websites and podcasts? Here are just a few reasons:

1. Traffic growth: Having popular websites and podcasts feature you will get your brand and business out there on the web. Having these links back to your site will provide you with more traffic and better SEO.
2. Audience growth: Naturally as your traffic increases, so should your audience. Having more people visit your site will increase your email subscribers and social media followers.
3. Be seen as a trusted expert: Getting the “stamp of approval” from these popular websites and podcasts will elevate you as a trusted source for your industry. People prefer buying from a trusted expert as opposed to someone completely random.
4. Faster growth: Getting hits from popular websites and podcasts can grow your business a lot faster than if you have no press at all. It’s a lot harder to stand out online these days, so getting help from sites that already have a large following can help you grow faster.
5. People get to know you better: This one is especially for podcast features. When you hear someone’s voice, you automatically feel more connected with them than if you read an article about them. Shortening the time it takes to let your audience get to know you can shorten the buying process too.

After reading this post, you’ll have a clear idea how you can start approaching popular websites and podcasts. Don’t forget to download the free podcast pitch template!

Beginner’s Guide To Using PR For Your Small Business: How To Get Featured On Popular Websites and Podcasts

Identify 6-8 topics you can speak on

Before we get to pitching, we need to do a little exercise. And this exercise is the most important, so don’t skip it!

In the first post of the series, we briefly talked about coming up with topics you could pitch. If you didn’t already do that exercise, we’re going to do it now.

Whatever industry you’re in, whether you run an online shop selling knitting supplies or you’re an author that writes about golf, there are certain topics that you can easily write about or discuss on a podcast.

Need help figuring out exactly what topics you can talk about? Here are some questions to answer to help you gain clarity:

• What is it that you want to be known for?
• What is your business already known for?
• What industry do you have experience in?
• What do your friends and family ask you questions about constantly?
• What do you enjoy talking about for hours on end?

Now once you have your topics, write a brief paragraph on each. 4-6 sentences are plenty.

Related post: Beginner’s Guide To PR For Small Businesses: Why It’s Important & How To Start

Identify relevant platforms

Now let’s get to the good stuff, finding those sites & podcasts that you can get featured on!

While many have the dream of being featured on ginormous sites like Huffington Post and Entrepreneur, we should also identify niche specific sites.

As they say, the riches are in the niches. This is especially important if you’re just starting out, as you will have a harder time getting onto major websites in the beginning.

Here are some tips on finding relevant sites for whatever business you’re in:

• What sites does your ideal audience read? One of my clients is an online life coach for women in their 20s. While it’d be awesome to get her featured on Fast Company, it’s not our primary goal because her audience isn’t there. They follow brands such as Cosmo, The Every Girl, or Advice From A Twenty Something, so those are places we’re focusing on targeting.
• What media does your ideal audience follow online? You can start to get an idea by looking at who people follow on Instagram or Facebook. When I start with a new PR client, I pick out a site their ideal audience would follow (let’s say The Every Girl for example), and then I look at the related profiles on Instagram.
• What books does your ideal audience read? Amazon is an amazing resource to conduct research. Keeping with the life coach client example, her audience would love reading Jen Sincero’s books. I’d go to Amazon, look at her book, and then look at the related books that pop up. Now we have an entire list of authors we could potentially work with, guest blog for, or collaborate with. You can also use this as a way to search for places the author has been interviewed to get ideas of places we could pitch my client.

Here are additional tips on finding relevant podcasts:

• What podcasts does your ideal audience listen to? If you already have an audience (even a small one!) ask them! If not, you can search in relevant Facebook groups to see what podcasts people recommend or simply Google “‘your industry’ podcasts.”
• What podcasts would introduce you to a new, yet related audience? This is where my Amazon tip above could come into play. You could get a lot of ideas from people that are in your same industry and where they’ve already been interviewed.
• What podcasts are related to ones your audience already follows? The iTunes search is another amazing resource to find relevant podcasts. I’ve found that their related suggestions are mostly on point.

Know the right person to contact

Knowing the right person to contact can make or break getting a feature on a popular site or a podcast. Below are my tips for finding exactly the right person.

• Tips on finding the right person to pitch for a podcast interview: Some podcast websites will list exactly what it is you need to do to pitch a potential guest. Here’s an example from the 5 AM Miracle podcast:

As you can see, he has an application for potential guests to fill out.

For this particular podcast, I would not try and email him because he clearly states this is how he would like potential guests to be submitted.

Other sites don’t list any application process, so for those, I find their email address (or at worst their contact page) and submit that way.

Preferably you find an email address, but some people don’t list their email addresses on their site.

Tips on finding the right person to pitch for a popular website:

This can vary greatly, as each website has its own process for selecting people to interview, people to write a feature article or people to mention within an article. Here are my general tips:

• First, if they are a huge website (Huffington Post for example), I’d search “pitching to Huffington Post.” With a big site like that, you’re bound to find articles that have been written how people got featured on their site. This can go for pitching to large magazines too.
• For smaller sites (Modern Mom for example), I’d search “write for us Modern Mom” or “contributors Modern Mom” to find potential opportunities to write for them.

Pitch at the right time

If you’re just starting your business (aka you have almost no content on your site and haven’t sold a thing), you probably aren’t going to get accepted onto high-profile podcasts & websites. The key to get featured on popular websites and podcasts is to start small and work your way up.

How can you tell if a podcast has a smaller following? Well, for one, you should have at least listened to a few episodes of the potential podcasts you’re pitching. Once listening you can have an idea of how large they are.

Another way of telling is how many reviews they have on iTunes. Podcasts with hundreds of reviews are probably pretty popular.

Times to not pitch:

• You’re in the middle of doing a re-brand
• You’re changing your services/products
• You just started your business (0-6 months in)
• You don’t have the time

Times to pitch:

• When you have your 6-8 topics outlined
• When you have something to promote (But do NOT go into only thinking of promoting your product or service. You need to give the audience value first.)
• When you have done your research into relevant websites and podcasts to pitch
• When your website is prepared for the potential increase in traffic.

Write a unique pitch to each place you contact

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Nobody wants to read a boring, irrelevant pitch email. And if you’re pitching major websites and podcasts, they especially don’t want to see a boring pitch email because they receive a ton of emails every day.

Writing a unique pitch will help you stand out from the rest of the boring emails in their inbox.

But! With that said, there are a few things you will want to include in every email, so you should using a pitch template to save time.

What are the elements of a great pitch?

• Quick description explaining why you’d be a great guest on their site/podcast (remember, you’re selling yourself, so work it!)
• Bio including any other places you’ve been featured
• Something specific about the place your pitching (a recent article or podcast episode you loved, something you have in common with the person you’re reaching out to, anything that shows that this isn’t a copy and paste email)
• 4-5 potential topic ideas with descriptions
• Quick closing without a hard sell

Know when to follow up

I don’t follow up with every pitch I send for my clients.

Shocker!

But it’s the truth.

Not every pitch warrants a follow-up, but sometimes me following up is what gets my clients onto a podcast or a website, so it is important.

When to follow up:

• You contacted them via email, you haven’t heard back and it’s been about 10-14 days since you pitched.
• They responded yes, but you haven’t heard back anything in 10-14 days since.

When to not follow up:

• You filled out a contact form.
• You get an out of office response that they’re on vacation. Give them time to get back into work once they’re back.
• Their site specifically states to not follow up.

Related post: Beginner’s Guide To PR For Small Businesses: How To Authentically Connect With Media & Influencers

If you get a yes…here’s what to do!

Share the heck out of it
Would you believe that sometimes people get featured on popular websites and podcasts….and they don’t share it with their audience?

It’s true, I swear! My friend Jess has a podcast and she realized half of her guests did not share when they were on her podcast. Uh, what? That’s whack!

Getting featured and then not sharing it is like getting a box of chocolates to share and then you eat all of them yourself. No fun!

As they say, sharing is caring. Your audience wants to know of places you’re mentioned because, hello they love you!

The podcast or website you’ve been featured on also will appreciate you sharing it because it’s a two-way street.

And if you get a no…here’s what to do.

Know that it sometimes takes time
When you first start pitching yourself, it can be super intimidating. You might have imposter syndrome feelings, such as:

“Who am I to pitch this huge website or podcast?”

“They’ll never pick me. Why would anyone want to feature me?”

“I don’t have any value to add.”

You need to stop these thoughts and get out of your own head. You must put yourself out there to get featured on a popular website or podcast.

Will you be turned down? Yes

Will you be turned down by everyone? Most likely no, unless you’re being unrealistic with who you first pitch.

It’s unlikely that you’ll get all of the features you pitch, but that’s part of the process.

You definitely won’t get a feature without trying, so what’s the harm?

Here are a few more tips to keep in mind:

• Sometimes no means no, but sometimes it means something else. Like, no, not right now or no, not this but maybe something else. I’ve pitched clients for podcasts that they didn’t get on but were asked to speak at a conference instead. Is that still a win in my book? Heck yes!
• Don’t take it personally. I understand the initial pang of disappointment that can happen when you get turned down, but as time goes on it will get easier. Don’t take offense to them saying no, it just wasn’t meant to be at this point in time. It doesn’t mean you and what you have to offer isn’t valuable, it just means it wasn’t right for them.
• Be kind. The worst thing you can do after getting a no is to start ranting about why you should be featured and having a chip on your shoulder. Every podcast and media platform has their own values, mission, and purpose and perhaps at this moment what you pitched doesn’t fit into that. Be gracious and move on.
• Keep trying. I lied in my statement above. The worst thing you can actually do is to stop trying.

Final thoughts on how to get featured on popular websites and podcasts

I think this is my longest post yet! There’s nothing I could leave out though. It’s all important!

You should now feel confident in pitching popular websites and podcasts and that you’re prepared to start putting yourself out there.

Don’t forget to check out my other two posts in the series and grab your free pitch template!

Why PR is Important & How To Start Using It

How To Authentically Connect With Media & Influencers

Welcome back to my beginner’s guide to PR series! If you’re just joining, I’m doing a 3-part blog post series all on how small businesses can begin to use PR for their business.Here’s what I’ll be covering throughout the series:

• Why PR is Important & How To Start Using It
• How To Authentically Connect With Media & Influencers (this post!)
• How To Be Featured On Popular Websites + Podcasts

Today, you’ll learn how to make authentic connections with media and influencers and how to build these relationships over time.

You know how important and business-changing getting media hits can be, but how do you get started?

How can you grow and cultivate an actual relationship with the media and get your stories featured?

How can you get media features when you’re just starting your business?

We’ll be covering all of this and more in today’s post!

Be sure to download the free workbook to help you along the way by clicking the button below.

Define your goals

Yup, we’re talking about goals again. Making authentic connections with the media and influencers is important, but you first have to have a game plan and a purpose.

Getting featured on Pat Flynn’s podcast is cool and awesome, but if you don’t have a goal you’re trying to achieve by being on his podcast you won’t see much return.

This is a big misconception about PR because often people think if they are featured on a major site like Entrepreneur.com or popular podcast like The School of Greatness that their business will finally “take off.”

The fact of the matter is, it takes a lot of work to get on these major sites and more times than not you don’t see a long-term increase in revenue just because you were featured once.

Unless…you have a plan.

People consume so much content these days, and if you don’t have a specific plan for what to do after you get these media mentions, you will be forgotten in about 3 seconds. That’s an exact scientific answer, by the way. 😂

Laying out your goals ahead of time will help you achieve greater success than if you go about it with zero plan.

Here are questions to consider when deciding on your goals:

• What are you looking to promote? If your answer is “uh…I don’t know” don’t bother reaching out yet. When you’re initially pitching the media and influencers, you won’t off the bat say “THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO PROMOTE” because that’s sales-y and gross. We don’t want sales-y and gross. We’re going for authenticity, remember? However, you do want a strategic purpose in the back of your mind for connecting with a particular media or influencer.
• Where will you be targeting? To properly answer this, you’ll need to do some research into where your target audience spends time. If you’re reading this post you’re likely a small business which means you only have a limited amount of time. While it’d be great to target #allthemediaoutlets you don’t have time for that. Identify the outlets that make the most sense for your brand and stick with those.
• What is your strategy? Your strategy can be broken down into a million more questions, but let’s talk generalities to start: How often will you reach out? When will you start reaching out? Who is in charge of reaching out?
• What is the overall goal for getting featured in the media/connecting with influencers? Your goal can be a number of things, but let’s pick out one main goal:
  • Is it to increase traffic to your site?
  • Sell more books?
  • Get more clients? Be specific as possible with your answer.
• What does success look like to you? Let me break some bad news to you: You will not get featured on everything you reach out to. You definitely won’t get a response from everyone you reach out to. You will be disappointed by the number of people that don’t even read your email, let alone reply back. The key is you need to define success for your PR strategies in your own way on your own terms. Some people define success as just having the guts to reach out period. Others identify a specific number of yeses they want and keep reaching out until they get it. Whatever you define as success, write it down and lock it in your memory. This will help keep you motivated through all the times you don’t hear back.

Identify people you already know

There are people already in your life that have connections to places you want to be featured. Yes, you. Stop shaking your head like you don’t, because you do. You just don’t know it yet.

Here’s the thing, to create authentic connections with the media and influencers, you need to build a relationship with them. Relationships take time so a great place to start is with people you already have a relationship with.

You know the theory of 6 degrees of separation (or maybe better known as 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon 😜)? Yeah, that’s like, a real thing.

Here’s how to start identifying people you already know:

• Write out a list of 10-20 of your closest friends and family:
• Scroll through your friends on Facebook:
• Look at who you follow on other social platforms: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook groups
• Think of past co-workers, high school/college connections,
• Write down a list of blogs you read / podcasts you listen to:

Schedule calls with these people, hop on Skype, let them know of your goals.

I grew my business entirely through making authentic connections with people I followed online or met in person. My family and IRL friends still have no clue what I do and I imagine they think I do this every day:

Don’t give me the excuse that you no one in your circle knows what you do and they don’t understand and it’s pointless to reach out.

Questions to ask yourself while identifying people you may know:

• Who is your target audience? Think demographics like location, age, gender, likes/dislikes.
• Where does your target audience spend time online? We slightly covered this earlier, but let’s dive deeper. Not only should you define what social networks they use, you should also be figuring out how they use them and where else they spend time. Do they use Facebook groups? What entertainment sites do they read? What influencers do they follow? This might not be the same as who you follow, so keep that in mind.
• Who are your competitors and where are they featured? This step will quickly start giving you ideas of where to start pitching first. Googling phrases such as “competitor’s name podcast interviews,” “competitor’s name interview” will give you a good start. Also, going to your competitor’s site and looking at their press page will give you a great idea.
• What makes your brand different from your competitors? This is where you really need to do some pondering. Obviously you have similarities to your competitors, but there has to be something that makes your brand stand out from all the rest. What is your unique pitch? How is your story different from all the rest?

My biggest suggestion is to remember you’re connecting with other human beings. Treat people like people, not robots or people on pedestals.

Research, research, research

Do you want to how much time I spend researching for my PR clients? Do you really want to know? Okay fine, I’ll break it down for you:

30% of the time I am sending emails. Lots and lots of carefully written & targeted emails.

The offer 70% of the time? Research.

PR is ALL about research.

Okay, so it’s not all about research. It’s also about the pitch. But making authentic connections all starts with research.

Here’s just a handful of things I’m constantly researching for my PR clients:

• Magazine editorial calendars (more on that below)
• Relevant podcasts to pitch
• Journalist contact information
• Magazine editor contact information
• Influencers relevant to the stories/brands/products I’m pitching

Here are a few tips on making research a little easier for you:

• Journalists primarily use Twitter (see, Twitter isn’t dead yet!), so I typically look their first for more information. Hunter.IO is also a great tool to use if you’re trying to find an exact email address.
• Instagram is also a place where people list out their email address
• Not sure who writes for what publications? Search on a publication’s website and you’ll see the bylines of who wrote what article.
• Not sure who is the correct editors for a magazine? Google “magazine name masthead” and you’ll at least find the name of the editors.

Find out what’s on editorial calendars

Did you know that you can find out what magazines will be writing about well in advance? Yup, it’s true. Most print magazines publish their editorial calendars online for anyone to view.

Some will require you to sign up for it, others are just open online.

Print magazines are looking for content about 2-4 months prior to the release date, so you need to plan ahead.

Here’s what happens when I Google “Cosmopolitan Editorial Calendar”:

Often a magazine’s editorial calendar is included on their media kit page, so let’s click on media kit.

It then leads you to a page that has this header. We want to click on calendar.

Bam! The entire year of Cosmo’s print editorial calendar right there.

Now not every magazine publishes their editorial calendars, but most do. Sometimes you have to do a little digging, but you can most likely find it.

You can also sign up for a paid service like Media Bistro to get extra tips on how to pitch certain magazines. Right now it’s only a one-time fee!

Perfecting the pitch

Now it’s time for one of the most important steps: perfecting the pitch. Having the correct contact information for editors is great, but if your pitch stinks it won’t matter.

People get intimidated when they hear the word “pitch” because it gives the impression you only have one chance. While that’s partially true (you obviously don’t want to say something rude that insults an editor), crafting your pitch takes time. This is why we want to start with smaller publications and websites before working up to the big guys.

Here are some tips on perfecting your pitch:

• Make sure it’s relevant to their audience: For example, you wouldn’t pitch an exercise related product to a recipe-only blog, right? Right. This is why research is so important so you know you can accurately pitch the right people and publications. Mention something specific about their site/publication so they know the pitch is specific to them.
• Make sure it’s timely: If you’re pitching to print magazines, it’s all about timing. This is why you are going to look at their editorial calendars so you can know well in advance when to pitch a certain story.
• Share why you’re unique: Websites, magazines, and popular bloggers get pitches all.the.time so you want to make sure you share from the get go why you and your story are unique.
• Be concise, yet descriptive: Only give them the most important information they need to know. Don’t drone on for paragraphs of how awesome you and your product is. We want to be descriptive, but brief.
• Use an email template: Every pitch you send should be unique to the person you’re pitching, but that doesn’t mean  you can’t use a template to get started. Check back for a how-to on writing a winning pitch email template!
• Don’t forget to include important links: Website, product pages, social, media kit, etc.

Related post: Beginner’s Guide To PR For Small Businesses: Why It’s Important & How To Start

The fortune is in the follow-up

You have to follow up. No seriously, you have to follow up.

People don’t like following up because they feel rejected from not getting an initial response. I know this because I used to feel this way.

Now that I have over 7 PR clients that’s not the case.

The fact of the matter is, people are busy and their inboxes are full to the brim. Sometimes emails fall through the cracks. Emails get accidentally deleted or lost. People thought they responded but didn’t. And sometimes people are intentionally ignoring you.

All of those reasons I just listed? Only 1 is because they didn’t like your pitch.

Here are general ground rules you should follow when following up:

• Depending on how you send the message (either via email or a contact form) should determine if you follow up. If you filled out a contact form, you shouldn’t follow-up If you sent an email, you should probably only follow up once. I suggest waiting 10-14 days to follow up in order to give some time for them to respond.
• Keep track of who you’ve sent pitches to: You don’t want to pitch the same person multiple times in a row. I have a spreadsheet for each client I have that lists the media that I’ve reached out to, who was contacted, on what date, and if there was a response.

Here is an example of an appropriate follow-up message:

“Hi NAME, 

Hope you’re having a great week! I wanted to follow up on an email I sent a couple of weeks ago. I know you’re a busy gal/guy and that sometimes emails can fall through the cracks! Anyways, just wanted to touch base and see if you were open to my proposed partnership/feature story/whatever you’re pitching.

Thanks so much for your time!

Signature”

Here is an example of an inappropriate follow-up message:

“NAME,

I sent you an email last week and I still haven’t heard back. What gives?”

I seriously hope no one would ever send  an email like this, but I no joke got something very similar. Uh, chill out dude.

Final Thoughts on Making Authentic Connections

Once again we covered a lot in this post but I couldn’t leave anything out! Building solid relationships with media and influencers can take some time, but it is well worth the initial investment.

Don’t forget to grab the workbook that accompanies this post. I’d love to hear of any additional questions you may have, leave them below!

Congrats! If you are reading this new post on the blog, then you have likely started a successful small business and you are looking to grow.

But first, let me guess. You’ve created a strong email list, you dedicate hours to creating blog posts, and you are constantly scheduling out social media posts… but you realize there is probably more out there you can do to cultivate your business.If this sounds familiar and you are ready to improve, then grab a pen and start taking notes on these proven tactics I’ve used to get my clients featured on Brit & Co, Glamour, USA Weekly, The Washington Post and more.

You may be thinking ‘sure, PR is great, but I am a small business. How can PR help me?’

As my PR services have exploded over the last 6 months, I realized that not a lot of business owners like yourself, truly understand the power of PR for small businesses and I immediately wanted to share my knowledge on the subject.

Many business owners out there assume that PR can only be used by companies with big followers or celebrities when they’re going through a crisis (we all remember Britney’s breakdown of 2007, right?)

The fact of the matter is, PR is far more credible than any other type of advertising out there.

I know what you’re thinking, and yes social media is important, email marketing can transform your business, and paid advertising can increase your bottom line but it’s always more powerful for someone else to recommend you, and that’s exactly what PR is.

This series will consist of three blog posts:

• Why PR is Important & How To Start Using It (this post!)
• How To Authentically Connect With Media & Influencers
• How To Get Featured On Popular Websites + Podcasts

You can download the free workbook that helps you along below.

Definition of PR + what it means for small businesses

We’re going to start at the very beginning, in case you aren’t familiar with PR whatsoever.

PR stands for public relations and is defined as, “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Public relations can also be defined as the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics.” from Wikipedia.

So in laymen’s terms, this means …

PR can, in fact, be the way that you drastically improve your business. One media mention can catapult your business and can absolutely change the trajectory of where your business is headed.

I’m a believer that a small business like yours benefit more from using PR than bigger businesses.

And the best part is? It’s usually free.

Why PR for small businesses?

Here are three reasons why you will want to consider using PR to improve your business.

• A credible way of getting your business noticed: PR is someone else with influence giving the “approval” of your business by mentioning them in an article, podcast, magazine, etc. The readers/listeners/viewers of those media outlets already trust the media outlets, otherwise, they probably wouldn’t be reading/listening. Since they trust those media outlets, they, in turn, trust the people and brands that they feature (aka you!).
• You can develop deeper relationships with your audience in a short amount of time: Anyone that’s mentioned on Oprah’s favorite things list immediately has a rapport with her readers because her readers 100% trust whatever she suggests. This is a lot quicker way to develop a relationship with a new audience that may not have known about you before.
• It can be a free way to promote your business vs. paid advertising: Most PR for small businesses (or any business for that matter) is 100% free. Yup, it’s free y’all. Yes, there is product placements that people pay for, but for most editorial features, podcast interviews, mentions in articles, etc it’s all free, bay-bee. Paid advertising has its time and place, but you’re a small business and you don’t have extra money to be throwing around.

So now you’re probably thinking … okay, great, but what are the different types of PR and how can they be used for me?

• Media mentions (national tv & newspapers, product placements in magazines)
• Editorial features (local and national magazines)
• Podcasts
• Working with influencers (social media influencers, YouTube, relevant industry influencers)
• Community relations (local tv, connecting with local brands, going to local events)

These are the primary types of PR for small business that are most influential right now. Just like with online marketing, PR is always changing so naturally these will update from time to time, but in general, these are types that are here to stay.

Now, before you get started, remember that there is not a one size fits all PR plan for each business. Every business should have a unique PR plan.

Getting Started

Define your purpose for pitching

Before you can craft your pitch, you need to define your purpose for pitching. It’s amazing to be featured on huge websites like Entrepreneur or Oprah’s Favorites, but if you aren’t strategic with your pitches you won’t see the return you desire.

To define your purpose for pitching, you’ll need to answer the following questions:

What are your overall business goals for the next 6 months – 1 year?

The whole reason for even getting PR for your small business is to help you achieve your business goals, right? So you need to make sure to define those before you start pitching like crazy.

What are your goals for pitching that are in line with your business goals? More brand exposure? Increase email subscribers? Land speaking gigs? Drive more traffic to your site to increase sales?

For example, if your primary business goal is to increase sales by 25% this year, then your goals for pitching should be to drive more traffic to your site and get more exposure.

If your primary business goal is to grow your speaking platform, then that’s what we’ll focus on pitching you for, ya see how it all aligns?

What are relevant websites, podcasts, magazines, tv, and local media you can pitch yourself to that makes the most sense for your PR goals?

Yes, it’d be awesome to be featured on the Today show, but if your ideal audience doesn’t watch the Today show it won’t move the needle much for your bottom line.

Brainstorm relevant places that make sense for your brand and your goals, not just super cool features that aren’t aligned with your purpose.

Craft your pitch

Now let’s start crafting your pitch! You’ll first want to do some brainstorming. This is a step that is often skipped because many see it as a “waste of time” but you couldn’t be more wrong.

You need to start writing down potential pitches for your business before you can go out there and expect to be featured on the Today show. Media often move fast and you don’t want to be caught like a deer in headlights not knowing what the heck to say when they ask you follow up questions.

Journalists and media can sniff through the fluff, they want to see the real story of your business, so don’t hold back.

Here are questions to ask yourself while you are crafting your businesses pitch:

What are topics that you are an expert on or can speak about? What do you want to be known for?

Let’s say for example you’re the CEO of a web design agency (ahem…actually one of my clients, hi Andrew!). The questionnaire I had him fill out asked this exact question, and after a conversation, we decided to focus on the following:

• Web design (obvi)
• Branding
• Social media
• Starting a small business
• Struggles being an entrepreneur
• Starting from nothing
• Failing as an entrepreneur

Answering these questions will help you when you’re looking at places to pitch. You don’t want to get sidetracked and read about all of the places you could pitch in the world, because not all of those will be relevant to you and your business. For example, I won’t be pitching Andrew for any story that is pet related because pets aren’t a part of his story.

What makes your story unique and newsworthy?

You may say, “Nobody will care about my story,” “My story doesn’t matter.” Not true. You just haven’t found the right angle for your story yet.

Everyone has unique story angle because we’re all unique individuals with different strengths. You just may have a hard time crafting your story because you haven’t been taught how. You’re in luck because I’m here to help you!

When you’re thinking about your story, think of your entire life. Think of all the trials and tribulations you’ve had to go through to get where you are now. Think of how your experiences led you to your business. Physically write down (or type out, whatever you prefer!) all of these stories that come to mind.

Or maybe you’re going through a trying time right at this very moment. Write out the feelings that you’re feeling. The self-doubt, the fear, the unknown. All of this can be a part of your story.

Once you have rough drafts of these stories, it’s time to start crafting them into the categories of topics you listed above.

Write a paragraph for each category related to the stories you just wrote down. Weave those stories into the description of each of these categories.

You’ll most likely write more than a paragraph because you won’t have room to fit it all in 4-6 sentences. That’s okay.

I say start with a paragraph because some people feel like they aren’t the best at writing and saying to write a full page would scare the bejeesus out of them. Start small and you can always edit, change, remove, and update your pitches later. We’re just working to get something on paper to start with.

Why should people care about what you’re pitching?

While everyone’s story is unique and interesting in its own way, we must remember that we have to put it into the context of what journalists are writing about now. You will have much better success if you submit to journalists or media if you’re pitching something that they are already looking for. That’s why we have you create your pitch stories first before submitting, so you can know what to be on the lookout for.

Sign up for HARO

Okay, now that we have our stories, let’s find some places to pitch!

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a great free resource to check out. Everybody likes free, right? Right!

HARO is an online service that connects journalists and bloggers with sources for the articles and stories they are writing about. Anyone can sign up and pitch themselves (or pitch clients like I do). It’s awesome because these are stories that are already being written. You don’t want to blindly pitch yourself, you want to be targeted and timely when you pitch.

Here’s how to sign up for HARO:

Go to their website & click on “I’m a Source”

Click on “Subscribe now” & select the free option

Fill out the information & receive confirmation email

Confirm your subscription and start pitching!

Here are a few tips on using HARO:

• Remember, you’re only looking for topics that are relevant to your unique pitches.
• You will get three emails every weekday, which yes, can be annoying but it’s also very necessary. These journalists move at a fast pace and they need a quick response. Don’t bother going through a backlog of HARO emails because they will already be expired.
• Journalists don’t often reply back to you, even if they’ve used your quote. Sad, but true. They’re busy people and have deadlines, so I get it. This means you are responsible for keeping track of ones you’ve submitted. I found that several of my clients were mentioned on Redbook, Bustle, Glamour, and Brit + Co without getting a notification.
• Only send them the information that they ask for, period. If you add your entire life story and how much you love their magazine, and blah, blah, blah, they will not pay attention to it. Be concise, yet descriptive.

Send out your pitch

Now you’re ready to send your pitch! Here are a few nuggets of advice I have:

• Don’t start with the big guys if you just started your site 10 days ago. If you aren’t as established yet, there’s still an opportunity for you to be featured on other sites. But what you don’t want is to submit to a huge media outlet like New York Times or Cosmo, get featured, and your site comes crashing down because it can’t handle the web traffic. Start with smaller publications and get used to pitching before you pitch the big boys.
• Keep it as short and sweet as you can: Make sure to link to appropriate pages on your website or social media profiles.
• Follow up: I say this with caution because there are some pitches I would not recommend following up with (example: HARO, do not follow up because they will not answer). But if you are pitching directly to a magazine editor (more on that later in the series), you will want to follow up a few weeks after sending your initial pitch.
• Don’t get discouraged: Your pitch will not be accepted by everyone. Yep, it’s true. “But isn’t that a waste of my time, Brittney?!” Nope! Not at all. You’re learning from your mistakes and previous pitches. No one lands every pitch they send, but sometimes one is all you need to give you a boost.
• Keep trying: It can be discouraging to hear crickets after you’ve sent pitches out, but you have to keep trying. Maybe you need to try a different angle, maybe the timing isn’t right for the pitch (more on that later in the series), maybe you contacted the wrong person. No matter the reason, keep going!

Final Thoughts

Whew, this is probably the longest blog post I’ve ever written but I felt like I needed all 2,000+ words to really educate you on what I know when it comes to PR for small businesses.

In the next post, I’ll be sharing how to authentically connect with media and influencers. Don’t forget to download the free workbook!

If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them below!

Hi there! I’m trying out a new type of blog post where I share the ins and outs of what goes on behind the scenes of my business.

In all honesty, I’ve been hesitant to share these types of posts because it’s intimidating to me. I don’t have a huge following. I’m nowhere close to making millions. Who would care what’s going on behind the scenes of my business?

But then I realized these types of posts are my favorite to read. And just like how I started the Day in the Life series, you should write posts you like to read.

So, here I am, writing a post that I would want to read if I were just starting my freelancing business. Hope you enjoy!

Q1 2017 Business Update + Goals For The Next Quarter

But first, a little background

I started my online marketing business in January 2016. I had just moved to Dallas with my husband and dog, and we decided now is as good as time as any to start my own business, since I had to quit my job in Wisconsin to move here. We had zero connections in the area and I also had no online presence whatsoever and had never freelanced before, so I was building this thing from the ground up.

I initially offered social media services, but ironically most of my clients hired me for other online marketing services. Below is an explanation of the types of clients I work with and what my services look like.

Retainer client services

Most clients I work with are on a monthly retainer, where I do the same type of work each month. I occasionally do one-off projects (website copy, email funnels, podcast research, etc) but I primarily stick with monthly retainer clients. Here’s a breakdown of what my current clients look like (by the way, these are in no particular order in which I got them).

Client #1: Online Marketing Manager

I started primarily ghostwriting blog posts and email newsletters for this client. Then it progressed into other one-off projects (content audit, online shop audit, etc) and eventually, she asked me to come on as basically her online marketing manager. A lot can fall under that title, but here are a few of the tasks I do: Ghostwriting for their blog, email newsletters and funnels, create and launch marketing plans, grow their affiliate program, brainstorm and implement new ways to market their business…the list goes on.

Client #2: Social Media Manager

My only social media only client! I was introduced to a local real estate group that needed help maintaining and creating content for their Facebook and Instagram profiles. It’s been fun having a local client and a great way to get to know Dallas! I go into their office about once a week for an afternoon. I’m also starting to tour houses with them, so that will be really fun!

Client #3: Assistant to her clients

One client, whom I met via Craiglist (strange, but true), I help with her clients. She is an amazing copywriter and needed extra help with social media content creation, copywriting, launch planning, etc. So she is technically my client, but I get to work with her clients which has been an exciting way to connect with even more people!

She now lives locally so it’s nice to work with someone in person, instead of my usual virtual meetings.

Client #4: Ghostwriter

This client, who ended up being local (we met in a non-local Facebook group!), has me ghostwrite her blog posts every month. I’ve also written her email funnels.

Client #5,6,7,8, 9: Public Relations and Outreach

Holy public relations, Batman! Public relations has been booming for my business and for that, I’m so thrilled (and grateful!). PR wasn’t even on my mind as a service to offer when I first started but now it’s probably one of my favorite services.

Public relations and outreach can mean a lot of different things. I think when people think of PR they automatically think of a publicist for a celebrity, and while some of my clients are pretty big in the online world (not celebrity status…yet 😜), I also work with some clients that are smaller than you’d think.

Here are some of the PR tasks I’m doing for clients:

• Podcast outreach (getting them as a guest on a podcast)
• Podcast guest management (helping them get guests onto their own podcast)
• Writing pitches to media (this can be magazines, local media, websites, blogs, etc)
• Campaign management (for any special launches or projects they have for their business, i.e. a book coming out, a new series, etc)
• Influencer outreach (I use the term “influencer” loosely here because I believe making connections with all sorts of brands and industry people is important…not just people with a “huge” following)

As you can see, I do a variety of tasks but it all relates to online marketing and PR. I personally think small business owners can really benefit from using PR as a way to help grow their business. Perhaps I’ll do a blog series on it? Let me know if that’s something that interests you!

I put it out into the world that I wanted to sign on one more PR client this current quarter, and I ended up with 3 in one week (I talk about this later in the post). Talk about putting your goals out into the universe!

One thing I recommend to anyone starting out

My biggest tip for people just starting out is to talk about your business to everyone you know. Go to in person meet ups, talk with people on the phone or on Skype. Almost all of my clients have come from some sort of networking or referrals.

I’m currently coaching a small group of women and I gave them this advice, and what do you know…after only two weeks of coaching they all had potential clients come out of the woodwork and hired them for their services. This works, people.

I strongly believe that not enough credit is given to building relationships with other people to grow your business. You never know who you will meet, who will be introduced to, and what kind of work will come your way.

So currently a majority of my income comes from client work, which is awesome! However, now that my client work is on somewhat of a routine, I’m ready to dive into other revenue streams, which I’ll talk about below!

What’s coming up next

I have four big goals for Q2, which is probably not attainable but I like to torture myself 🙃. I’ll be super happy if I accomplish 2 of them, #justbeingreal.

1. Get one more PR client

My PR clients are so fun and I’m really hoping to grow that part of my business.

Ironically, at the time that I wrote this I didn’t have any prospects for this yet but now that I’m editing it, I’ve landed not one, not two, but THREE new clients! Writing your goals down actually works!

2. Launch a podcast

I’ve wanted to launch a podcast for years. I never had a solid topic idea but I knew I didn’t want it to be strictly marketing related. Once I launched the Day in the Life series, it hit me, this could make a really good podcast.

Several people (strangers even) say I should launch a podcast because I have a nice voice (ha!) so maybe that’s the universe’s way of telling me to start this dang thing.

Since I’ve already accomplished goal numero uno, I’m moving forward with the podcast. I’m sending out emails this week for potential guests, fingers crossed they say yes!

3. Grow my affiliate income streams

I should probably put an amount of money to this but to be honest, I just want it to grow at least some amount, ha. I feel like I’m established enough now that people can trust the products and services I recommend.

I take this very seriously and am only going to ever recommend products I know and love. I’m not looking to make a quick buck, I’m looking to grow authentic relationships with my followers, no matter how small my little group is.

4. Launch a digital product

I’ve had this on my list for…6 months? And I’m just now getting around to it! I think my biggest struggle I have had is maintaining my client work in addition to growing my own business. Client work is a priority for me right now, so anything new I want to launch always gets put on the back burner.

To help out with this, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I need help. Up until this point I’ve done everything on my own.

Yes, I have a list of services I invest in, but I’ve never hired out or outsourced for any work and after a long discussion with my mastermind, I realized I don’t want to be a solopreneur working by myself.

I want a team that works by my side (either virtually or in-person). I don’t know why it took me what feels like forever to admit that but now that I have I’m hitting the ground running outsourcing #allthethings.

Currently, I’m in the midst of working with a graphic designer (ugh, I HATE doing graphics), a project manager (I can somehow do this for other clients perfectly well but for my own business? Nope. Not happening and nothing gets prioritized), and a virtual assistant.

I’m feeling better already starting these conversations with these potential contractors because I know once we get going I’m going to feel even more motivated to continue to grow my business. It’s true that “it takes a village” and I’m sure at the end of this quarter I’ll be wondering why I waited so long.

So that’s a comprehensive look at where my current business is and what I’m hoping to grow in the next 3 months.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below!

One of the mistakes I failed to mention in my 6 mistakes I made in my first year of business post was that for most of the first year, I was flying by the seat of my pants (aka I had no business plan whatsoever).

My “business plan” (if you can even call it that, ha!) was “find clients who will pay me.”

While finding paying clients is absolutely important (check out how I got my first five), I wouldn’t really call that much of a plan.

When you’re just starting out, I don’t think there’s any reason why you need an 84-page document on how you’re going to build your business but I do think it’s important to have a bird’s eye view of what you want your business to look like and how it will function.

In today’s post, I share the aspects you should be thinking about to create an actionable, revenue producing business plan. I hope you enjoy!

Building An Actionable Business Plan For Your Solo Business

What is your why?

Defining your why is so important. Actually, it’s the most important step to take while you’re creating your business plan.

Let me tell you, if you’re going into small business ownership solely because of money…you need to figure something else out.

Money cannot be the main focus of your solo business. It will not work. You will get burnt out and you will end up despising the business that you built.

On the days when you are struggling, when money isn’t coming in, when you’re having a hard time, when you feel like you can’t do this anymore (and rest assured, you will have ALL of these days at some point), money is not what will keep you going.

Hence why you need to define your ultimate why.

• What is your ultimate purpose for your business?
• Why do you do what you do?
• Why do you help who you help?
• What is that you want to accomplish with your business?

Answering these questions will help you define your why so you can push through the rough times and truly savor the best times.

What do you have experience in & enjoy doing?

If you’re just getting started with your solo business, you may be still figuring out what the heck it is that you’re even going to do.

I recommend thinking of the things that you’re already good at and enjoy.

• What do you have experience in?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• What are you good at?  
• What do people know you for? (Think of friends and family too!)

Considering all of these questions together, at the same time, will help you figure out what niche you belong in and what you will succeed in. Sometimes a business idea is staring at your in your face, you just need to recognize it!

Related post: Building A Social Media Strategy For Your Solopreneur Business (Cheat sheet included!)

How are you different from everyone else?

The fact of the matter is, there are hundreds if not thousands of people out there that offer something similar to you. This isn’t to compare yourself or feel bad because someone is better at something than you, it’s to realize that there are people out there that already offer what you want to offer.

So how are you going to set yourself apart?

This isn’t to scare you and make you think you shouldn’t try because there are other people offering similar services/products, it’s to get you to think strategically about what you can offer the world that’s unique.

• What makes you different?
• Why should people buy your products or services?
• What’s your story?

Writing out your past experience in life (whether related to your professional job or not) can help you start to see your unique perspective and how you can offer something different to the world.

You do have distinguishing characteristics that will make you stand out, you just need to be able to clearly define what those are so you can find the right audience that will love and support you.

What are you selling?

Now that you’ve defined what makes you different, it’s time to figure out what you’re going to sell.

It basically boils down to three options:

• Products
• Services
• Mix of both

There are pros and cons to each. I initially started only offering services, because that’s what I was comfortable with and knew the best. I would advise you selecting what you are most comfortable with and what makes sense for you.

You can always add or take away in the future, but don’t try and overwhelm yourself with doing everything at once. Remember, you’re just getting started!

How much will you charge?

There is a lot that goes into pricing products and services. Charge too little and you’re viewed as a novice and people take advantage of your low prices leading you to burnout, charge too much and your customers will go to someone else that charges less for the same product or service.

My personal opinion is there’s no right pricing for anything.

Some people pay $10 for a cell phone. Some people wait in line for days and pay $800 for a cell phone (hello, iPhone).

I know a lot of people feel conflicted about pricing, whether they feel like they’re charging too little or too much.

Your circumstances also play a major role in determining pricing for your services and products. Are you relying solely on your income? Do you have children to support? How much of a nest egg do you have? Where do you live and what is your lifestyle?

Here’s how I do it: I know how much I want to make in a year. It is a reasonable salary, something I could obtain if I were working a regular 9-5 job in this same field.

Once I determined that number, I worked backward and figured out how much I would need to make per hour to get to that salary. Then, when I’m pricing out clients for projects, I make it based on that hourly rate.

I’m sure some people think I charge too much. Others think I charge too little. I charge what I know I’m worth. Whether that fits into someone else’s budget is up to them.

What does the client/customer process look like?

Your client/customer process is important to consider while you’re building up your business. Say someone says yes to your pricing (yay!), what are your next steps?

I send mine a contract, detailing out everything we have already discussed and any other stipulations depending on the project.

Then, I have different processes for each type of client.

For ghostwriting clients, I use Google Docs to share a folder with the client and get them set up as a project in Asana.

Determining the tools that you will use (check out mine) and how often you will be communicating and what you need from them will help you stay organized and always one step ahead of the game.

If you’re selling products, there is still a customer process that occurs.

• How do people receive their product?
• What information do you need from them?
• What is your follow-up process with customers?
• What happens if a customer wants to make a return or is unhappy?

You don’t have to have all of these things figured out before you get started, but spending some time considering how you want to handle each of these situations will make it easier for you in the long run.

How will you market yourself?

Ah, my favorite part of the business plan! You can have the best services or products in the world, but if you aren’t marketing them you won’t get very far.

First things first, most solo businesses (especially an online business) will require some type of content creation on your part (or you can hire someone to help you!).

Content doesn’t have to mean blogging. Some people hate writing and don’t want to upkeep a blog. The great thing about right now is that you don’t have to do blogging.

You can create a podcast. A YouTube. Webinars. There are a lot of different options right now so pick one that you love doing.

Next up is your email newsletter. It’s funny, I have friends that work in other industries and they’re like, “email marketing still works?!” Uhhhh yes friends, yes indeed.

Particularly if you run your business online. You need to have an email list. You’ll then have to think about what type of content you will send them (gotta give them a reason to stay subscribed!).

Social media is another way to market yourself. I recently saw on a Facebook group a question about how important social media actually was to growing a business.

Here’s my take: can you build a business without a social media presence? Yes. Social media has only existed roughly over the past 10 years and obviously businesses have succeeded without it.

However, you’re going to miss out on a lot of business if you aren’t on social media. Why? Because that’s where people spend a lot of their time.

You may not like that answer but it’s the truth. The fact is, people spend a ton of time online, and specifically on social media platforms. It’s going to take you a lot longer to build a presence online without social media, but it is doable.

Related post: How To Be More Consistent With Blogging, Social Media, And Basically Anything In Life

What does success look like to you?

Last thing you’ll want to determine while you’re building your business plan is what success looks like to you.

If you’re building your solo business, you’re probably doing it for a reason. Everyone has their own reason. Reasons can include:

• Freedom with time
• Money
• Work from wherever
• Spend more time with family

Comparing yourself to other’s successes will not get you anywhere. This is why it is crucial for you decide what success looks like to you.

Maybe you want to spend more time with your family. Maybe you want to travel wherever you want, whenever you want. Maybe it gives you more free time to do other things you love.

Whatever it is, it’s important to keep this as a reminder for when times are tough. You may have a different idea of what success looks like compared to other people, and that’s okay.

Final Thoughts

I hope this post was helpful for you. The point of building a business plan is not to have a document that you are tied down to and have to follow to a T, it’s to give your business some guidance and a path to follow to create your own successful solo business on your own terms.

Click the button below to get access to a free workbook to help you figure out your solo business plan. It’s time to get to work!

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I’m writing this post as we travel to visit family for the holidays. As we trek along for the 12-hour drive (yep, we’re crazy), I think back on my first year of business.

If you haven’t been reading for long, I started my business in January 2016. I began as a social media specialist for small businesses and then grew into offering a wide variety of marketing services for online business owners.

In just one year I’ve grown my client list (check out how I got my first five) and connected with so many people across the globe. It’s been a wild ride to say the least and I’m so grateful for it.

I’ve discussed the highs and lows of business ownership, and I’ve even shared what a day in the life is like, but I haven’t yet shared the mistakes I’ve made throughout this first year.

My hope in sharing these mistakes is that for those of you just beginning your journey to learn from, however sometimes you need to make the mistakes to really learn. Mistakes are a part of life but it’s how you learn from them that really matters.

The 6 Mistakes I Made In My First Year Of Business

I didn’t create time for my own business

In the beginning, I was solely focused on getting client work. Which was great! That was what was going to increase my income and get my name out there. It was necessary for me to focus on getting clients.

However, at some point, I stopped focusing on my own business.

I stopped blogging. I stopped writing email newsletters. I ignored my social media profiles.

Client work always took priority and while most times that is absolutely important, I also needed to give the time for my own business and treating it like my own client.

It can be hard, because when you work with clients, that’s primarily what pays your income. But if you continue to never dedicating time to work on your business, it can end up growing into something you don’t enjoy doing.

My hope for this next year is to make sure I spend time on my own business while still dedicating the proper amount of time to my amazing clients.

I compared myself. A lot.

Gosh this one is hard to admit. But it’s true. I compared myself often to other business owners and it’s something I continuously work on.

“Look at what she’s doing. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Why did they get more email subscribers in their first month of business?”

“I wish I just made half as much as her in one month!”

It feels gross to admit these thoughts but I’m all about sharing the good and the bad of running a business.

Comparing never gets me anywhere except in a negative headspace. I’ve recently unsubscribed from a lot of blogs and email newsletters that were causing much of the comparison. I also try to spend my time wisely on social media.

Because you can end up spending all day comparing yourself and where does that get you? No where.

Stay in your own lane, focus on your business, and celebrate the wins of other businesses. Other people winning doesn’t mean you can’t win in your business.

Related post: My Struggle With Finding Balance As A Solopreneur (And What I’m Doing About It)

I did a lot of tasks that I didn’t need to

When I first started, I didn’t want to spend money on anything. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat, especially if you’re just starting out.

While keeping things low cost is great when you’re just getting started, at some point you do need to invest in services/people to help you do things that you don’t have the time to do.

I mean, let’s get real, I was manually pinning 30-40 pins a day on Pinterest. That is crazy. And I don’t have time to do that anymore.

So I invested in BoardBooster for $10/month and it saves me so much time.

As my business continues to grow, I’ll continue to invest in my business to save me time, effort, and money.

I stressed way too much.

Man, I stressed way too much about everything.

“Did my email subscribers like my email or was it stupid?”

“I just need one more client to get to this amount of money each month!”

“I don’t have any good photos to share on Instagram. Ugh!”

Yes, in all honesty I stressed out about Instagram photos. Instagram. People. If you’re stressing about Instagram photos it’s time to take a step back and evaluate your life.

Fortunately, when I started, we relied upon my husband’s income to live on (read our debt paying story to find out how!).

That means I didn’t have to stress about earning a living wage to be able to feed, clothe, and house us.

So if you’re in that situation your stresses are valid and very different from mine.

But I was stressing about things that did not need to be stressed about. I’m slowly learning to take a chill pill some times and realize that it takes time to build a profitable business. Not everything is worth stressing out over. Especially Instagram photos. Yeesh.

Not investing in a web design

I don’t think I talked about this on the blog (but I did on Instagram stories, follow me!) but I had a major breakdown about my website.

Long story short, the free WordPress theme I initially used on my website was banned from WordPress earlier this year.

This free theme had thousands of users, so I thought I was safe from that ever happening.

In fact, I had no idea it was banned. I tried to update it and I kept getting errors. I put a call out on Instagram stories and the wonderful Jess from Jess Creatives told me that my theme had unfortunately been banned.

Uh, what? How is that possible?!

I quickly purchased a new theme from Bluchic (amazing, feminine WordPress themes!) and installed it in a weekend.

I should have done this WAY earlier than I did but lesson learned: You always get what you pay for and free is not always the best.

I didn’t network with people sooner

I think this may have been my biggest mistake of the year.

I didn’t realize that one of the things I missed most about working in an office was interacting with my co-workers.

I should have known. I’ve always loved collaborating with other people and always think two brains are better than one.

I’m also an introvert so I recharge by being by myself.

I figured since I didn’t mind being by myself that I would be totally fine working alone as a solopreneur.

Wrong. So wrong.

After about a month I was going crazy. My husband travels often for work and while my dog is a great coworker he doesn’t talk much.

I started feeling really isolated and alone.

Another contributing factor to feeling isolated was that my friends and family don’t really get what I do.

I mean, they understand I work for myself, and they know I do marketing, but they don’t really get what it’s like to run an online business.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to talk about your business all the time.

Two of the best things I did for myself and my business:

1. I found a group of girls in Dallas to meet up with.
2. I started a mastermind group.

These two things alone have helped immensely in feeling better during my days. My mastermind especially has been amazing. There are just three of us, but it is so incredible to have two other people who get what it’s like to be a business owner.  They have both been so incredibly supportive and helpful and I can’t wait to see what the next year holds for all of us.

If I could recommend anything to you for the next year is to find a mastermind group, or even a business coach, to talk business with. It will do incredible things for your mindset.

Final Thoughts

Part of running a business is making mistakes. There’s just no way around it and the mistakes you make help you grow as a person and as a business owner.

I hope in sharing my mistakes that you remember to take time for yourself and make you a priority. How can you run your business if you aren’t taking care of yourself?

I’d love to hear about your mistakes from the past year and what you’re hoping to do for 2017. Please leave a comment below!

Can I admit something? I feel like I can be honest with you all, especially since revealing a business update and what’s going to be changing around here.

Over the last few months I’ve had a hard time with finding balance as a solopreneur.

I’ve felt tired. Burnt out. Overwhelmed. And just kinda down.

There are so many articles out there about how important it is to have work/life balance but it’s hard to come across ones that actually reveal how hard it is to create that balance, especially as a business owner.

I’ve always had a regular 9-5 job, where I could literally turn off at the end of each day. I know not everyone is fortunate enough to have a 9-5 like that, but I did. And at the time I guess I didn’t realize how awesome that was. Because now I can’t turn my brain off.

I’ve slept horribly and I’ve felt more anxiety about work related things than I ever have before, so I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it. I thought I was alone but when I started actually asking other solopreneurs, they’ve been through the same thing I’m going through right now.

I’m still a work in progress, as we all are, but I’d like to share some of my struggles and what I’m attempting to do about it in hopes of helping someone else out there that might be going through the same thing.

My Struggle With Finding Balance As A Solopreneur (and What I’m Doing About It)

Struggle #1: Never having enough time

I think everyone struggles with this from time to time (or maybe all the time).

Time.

There never seems to be enough of it. And when you run your own business there’s always something you can be doing. Always. There’s always a blog post to write. A new product to create. An email to send. An email to respond back to. An Instagram post to publish. It’s never-ending and it’s made me feel more pressure than ever before since this is my business.

My solution: I’m trying to be better about recognizing that there’s always more time and I don’t have to get everything done in one day.

Struggle #2: Shiny object syndrome

Social media is amazing but man can it drag you down fast.

Within minutes of hopping onto social media I can start feeling unaccomplished, unworthy, and left behind.

Shiny object syndrome is when you have a new idea that captures your attention in a way that gets you distracted from what you are currently working on and not staying focused on your current goal.

Of course I love seeing other business owners launch new products, sell new services, revamp their websites…but then a small part of me sometimes thinks “hey wait, I should be doing that right now too!”

But in all honesty, that’s not what I need to be doing. I need to stay in my own lane, and focus on my priorities for my business.

I am already a very strategic person, so I don’t often do things just to do them. But it can be difficult to not get distracted when everyone around you is creating new and awesome things.

My solution: Focus on my priorities and remember my why. Instead of focusing on what I’m not doing that I think I should be doing, I’m going to focus on what I have and what I can do right now.

Related post: Building A Social Media Strategy For Your Solopreneur Business (Cheat sheet included!)

Struggle #3: Prioritizing

Speaking of priorities, oof. I’ve always thought I was someone who knew what to prioritize, but I’m realizing it’s a whole different ball game when I’m running my own business.

Because here’s the thing: Everything is important. My client work is important. My website is important. This here blog is important. My relationship with my husband is important as are my relationships with my friends and family. It’s ALL important and they are ALL priorities, but I can’t have them be priorities every single day.

I’m only one person and I’m the only one running my business right now and I simply can’t be the best business owner, wife, friend, daughter, dog owner, and any other title I have every single day.

That’s why prioritizing each and every day is so important.

My solution: Every day I have three main priorities. Sometimes they are all business related (such as send a client a project, write an email newsetter, etc). Sometimes they include working out or going out for date night. Sometimes my priorities include hanging out and reading. It all depends. What matters is I’m taking a look at everything I have going on in my life and I pick out the top three for each day. This helps me focus on what matters for that particular day, so I don’t feel overwhelmed with having to do #allthethings.

Do I have an ever-growing to-do list that I’d like to get to after those three things are accomplished? Of course. But if I never focus on any one particular thing, nothing will ever get done. Having the three priorities helps me stay focused and not too overwhelmed.

Struggle #4: Never feeling accomplished enough

Since there is always something us solopreneurs can be doing to improve our business, it can be difficult to feel accomplished. There isn’t a boss that’s there to pat you on the back. There’s just you.  And sometimes we can be pretty mean to ourselves.

“That’s not good enough.”

“There’s no way someone will like this blog post.”

“I only worked 7 hours today and feel like I did nothing.”

We have to learn to know that what we’re doing is enough. We all have off days. Nobody is productive 100% of the time (and if you are, I guess you’re a robot.).

You’re probably accomplishing a lot more than you think, but you end up focusing on all of the things you didn’t get done instead of the things you did. At least that’s how it is/was for me.

My solution: Instead of only having a to-do list, have a “I did” list. I started writing down each time I finish a project, task, blog post, whatever and then at the end of the day I get to see all of the things I actually did accomplish throughout the day.

Struggle #5: Never turning completely “off”

I’m kind of ashamed to admit this about myself, but when I would see other online business owners say how they worked “18 hours a day for a month straight!” I felt resentful.

Who do they think they are, working 18 hours a day? They’re probably doing it to brag.

And for a while, I would work in the evenings and on the weekends not because I wanted to (or even needed to) but because I felt like I should. And that’s ridiculous. I decided to be a solopreneur business owner because I wanted to control my schedule and not work 80 hours a week.

So I’ll admit, I take most evenings and weekends off. Are there times that I work in the evenings and on weekends? Absolutely. But many times it’s because I want to, not because I feel like I have to.

Though I love running my own business, I also need a break from it. Some people can work all hours of the night and not burnout and that’s great for them. A saying from one of Brene Brown’s book (can’t remember which one so if you know please leave it in the comments!) is “Great for her, not for me” and I repeat this to myself often.

You don’t have to do it like everyone else. You can pave your own way.

My solution: Have designated times to be working: this includes checking emails, being on social media, responding to comments. Take most weekends off.

Related post: A Business Update: Sharing My Wins, Struggles, And What’s Next

Struggle #6: Not openly talking about my struggles

I’ve barely just revealed these struggles to my husband, and I’m obviously just now sharing them here on the blog.

For a while, I thought these feelings would just go away. When they didn’t, I started to think that maybe I wasn’t cut out for this whole running your own business thing.

Now I realize that everyone has their own struggles that they go through, but many don’t share. I’ll admit, I didn’t want to share. I didn’t want to seem weak, or ungrateful, or unprofessional.

But then I realized I’m part of the problem if I don’t share my wins and my struggles.

So here I am. Sharing what’s been on my heart and mind. Hoping to help just one person out there who’s feeling alone as a solopreneur working to build their business.

My solution: Open up more to my husband, friends, and family more about the internal struggles I go through each day as a business owner. Find other solopreneurs and talk openly with them about the struggles we go through.

Final Thoughts

I never want to come across as ungrateful or unappreciative of the opportunity I’ve had to build my own business, but I also don’t want to act like everything is glamourous and perfect when in reality it’s often, well, not.

I plan to continue sharing the good, bad, and funny of being a solopreneur business owner and I hope you’ll join me by sharing more openly the struggles that you’re having. I can guarantee you that you aren’t alone.