Test case. Me.
Scandalous? Maybe. Risky? I don’t believe so.
Social has become a drain on my energy. LinkedIn is filled with people trying to show how smart they are. Facebook has become a slam book for political sentiments. My IG feed consists of ads for bras and weight loss injections. It’s impersonal, and it doesn’t build actual relationships or allow for brainstorming over lunch.
So what do you do then if you don’t want to continue to feed the social media machine? Let’s dive in!
I’m going to test this with my own business, to show you that it can be done and also to give me a much-needed mental break from looking at it daily.
Email. Not dead, there is some strategy and testing required to make it work well with your selected delivery tool. Depending on your business type (corporate, b2b, retail, service, medical, creative), there are many available email builders and management tools out there today with beautiful templates and easy customization for non-coders. These options give you a way to update and manage new subscribers quickly.
**For this to succeed, you need compelling content that is useful and pertinent to your targeted list. If you work across markets, you must be able to tag subscribers to know what they will be most interested in reading.
Some of my favorite email tools right now are: Flodesk, MailChimp, and HubSpot.
In-person events. These have come back strong post-COVID. Find local groups that might benefit from what you can offer and create a presentation. Working in a larger market? Set aside budget (you do have a budget, right?) for travel and conferences. You can also investigate potential outlets for sales, distributors, and get fast answers.
PPC/Digital ads. Talking about Google, Meta, YouTube, or remarketing ads. There are more types, but that is a topic for another time. Every platform offers paid ads. You could argue that Meta and YouTube are social media, and you’d be correct. Select where your market lies.
Videos are alive and strong and continue to play well for all audiences, capture attention, and allow people to choose if they want short bites of information or long formats. Both work well, but for different topics.
Podcast Channels. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and NYTimes podcasts. So many ways to stream today. Once you create your recordings, use an RSS feed to push out new episodes automatically.
Share your knowledge. Offer to present at in-person events or online webinars in your market. Positioning yourself as the leader in your area is a great way to connect with people and build trust.
Last but not least, PR. PR covers so much ground, and I tend to lump it under marketing. However, PR is its own area of expertise used to position your brand as a trusted expert source.
Some examples of PR to build authority, visibility, and trust that you could use are:
- executive interviews
- white papers and case studies
- award submissions
- milestone news
- video case studies
- bylined articles
