Hi, and welcome back to the podcast. Can you believe how close we are getting to the end of the year? This is crazy to me. So we're going to have three more new episodes, and then I'm gonna take a break for two weeks at the holidays because I'm gonna guess you're gonna do the same. Thing and then we'll reconvene here in early January, 2026. So today I want to talk about how you can market your business online, or online marketing tips for entrepreneurs. I want you to use these to think about what you might do with your business in 2026. Next week we're gonna talk about planning for the new year, and then the week after that we're gonna talk about the marketing numbers that matter. What I want you to be tracking. As you move into 2026 and we really start laying out this plan and this foundation to really grow your business. Alright, so today. How do we really start marketing your business online? Now, it's very possible you may have parts and pieces, and you may have done some of this, but you may not have done it all, and I want you to kind of take a little bit of time. I don't know about you, but for me, the business kind of gets a little quiet in December because. My audience. You are small business owners and you're working on things, and most of us have families, and so maybe we're going heavily into parent mode or family mode and a little less heavily into entrepreneurial mode, and that's okay. So I tend to take December as like a reflection period. I do take a nice long holiday break with my family. I do take off, ideally the week before school gets out so that I have a little bit of time to myself as well. So what I look at. Is what's working and what's not working, and what should I change and what should I do differently? So I've really been going through this because as you know, I'm creating this new offer, this Confident Marketers Club, and I'm so excited. But I've. Also really been thinking about how do you market it online and how do you create this and this tip. So I'm gonna walk you through this because I thought it might be beneficial for you because as I've been thinking about you and working on creating the Confident Marketers Club, I've realized that many of. My audience members are frustrated by marketing because you're doing all the different things and you're trying everything and you don't know for sure what's working and where things are working, and you're going on gut feelings, and sometimes you know, in your gut something's probably not working, but you're not really sure how to figure out exactly what it is. That's why we're gonna start talking about a little bit of that in the next couple weeks, and that's also why I've created the Confident Marketers Club because my friend, I want you to be a confident marketer because it's much easier to be a successful entrepreneur when you are confident about your marketing. Okay, let's jump right in. When you are marketing online. And the very first thing you need to do is really think about your dream client, your ideal customer, your avatar, whatever term you use, whatever term you've been taught, they're all really the same thing. But you wanna think about your dream client. Who is it that you want to work with? And I want you to go beyond. It's this person. They're 35 years old, they make six figures. They have this kind of education. I want you to really think about. Um, their psychographics more than just their demographic information. What sets them on fire? What lights them up? What questions keep them up at night? What are they struggling with? What are they trying to figure out? Like I know for the Confident Marketers Club, that program is really for a high achiever, a go-getter, an entrepreneur who. Is determined to succeed and they're doing all the different things, but they're not sure what's working. They're not confident in their abilities, and they really wish somebody would just tell them exactly what to do and make sense of the numbers and help them understand what everything means. So that they can stop doing the things that aren't working and like they want so bad to stop doing some of the things they're doing because they're burning out, they're overwhelmed, they're exhausted, but also they're terrified to let go of anything because what if that's the one thing that's bringing in the money and they don't know how to figure it out? And that's why they need somebody like me to help you be able to see and answer questions and know confidently. This is draining you. You are spending 20 hours a month on this particular channel, and you got 17 leads from it. You didn't even get 17 leads from it. You got 17 visits to your website and nobody signed up for a lead form or a consult call in a 90 day time period. 20 hours a month, that's not generating leads, is not time well spent, and you don't want to have that happening. So that's all the things that. I've been thinking about as I'm working on this. So what I want you to think about is who's your ideal customer? Who is your dream client? What do they need to know? What questions do they have? What are they struggling with? What keeps them up at night? What frustrates them? And I want you to write it out. And really challenge yourself. So I was having a conversation recently with Roberto, who's one of the guys that's in the Mastermind with me, and he is amazing, and he challenged me on my new offer on the Confident Marketers Club. He challenged me to rethink my ideal customer, and it was like. Okay, but I teach this every day. I know who my customer is. I do all of this, and at the end of the conversation, he and I agreed. It was like, yeah, I really do need to sit down and give a little bit of extra time to refine it even more, because I couldn't answer some of the questions I needed to answer. So if you are doing this and you're like, Rachel, I'm not quite sure, you are not alone. I just got challenged on it myself, and it did. Make it much easier. I always say, you need to know your ideal customer as well as you know your best friend. He said, you should know 'em as well as you know yourself and really truly think about them and what it is that they need. And so that's where I want you to start. So who's your dream client? What questions do they have? What do they need? How do you help them? What scares them? What keeps them from doing what they need to do? Let's say that you teach sourdough bread baking. You guys know I love. To bake bread. I love baking, period. And when I was first learning how to make sourdough, I was a little intimidated. I'm gonna be honest, because some of those blogs out there were making it crazy complicated. And so I'd get my tools and I'd do it and it would never quite turn out right. And I was frustrated. It was like, am I ever gonna figure this out? If somebody had had a guide that said. How to make beautiful loaves of sourdough bread. Even if you question if you're ever gonna figure it out, I would've signed up. I would've probably paid for a class if somebody had said, I'm gonna show you exactly what to do step by step to make the most beautiful loaves of sourdough bread, because I would've saved a lot of time, money, and energy in the long run versus trying to do it myself. So think about that when you're thinking about your ideal customer, what questions they have, what do they need to know? What are their fears? What are their concerns, all of that. Then I want you to think about where do they spend their time online, because it's gonna be important for you to find the right marketing channels. Not only do you need to know them, you need to know where they're gonna be. So if your ideal customer is a boomer, you don't need to be on TikTok because your boomer is probably not on. Talk. If your ideal customer is Gen Z, you probably don't need to be on Facebook because they're very likely not active on Facebook. They might be on Instagram, they're more likely on TikTok. If you have a millennial, they're more likely going to be on Instagram. They could also be over on TikTok, could potentially be on Pinterest, depending upon which type of client you're trying to connect with, what type of content you create, et cetera. So you really wanna think about. Who is my customer? Where do they spend their time? If you're not sure where they spend their time, I want you to just go and do a search. You can go to Google and search for social media statistics 2025, social media use statistics. All of the sites have that. Pew Research also generally has a. Good. Um, social media usage statistics report that they update each year, that'll give you an idea where your people are spending time. Also, think anecdotally as you are engaging with your ideal customer, where do they spend their time? Now, what I'm gonna want you to do is really focus in on one channel. I don't want you to try to be everywhere all the time because when we do that, we stretch ourselves too thin and we end up being. To, we end up burning out and being overwhelmed because we're trying to do too much. So pick one channel for your social or for your content. Now, if you are focusing on SEO, you've got a blog and you want a podcast. That's great. You can do both because you can repurpose your content. So, you know, my blog and my podcast, it has the same information each week, but it's different because the blog I've written out ahead of time and the podcast, it's you and I, it's you and I talking. It's me talking to you and sharing stories and tips and things that are not in the blog post. So I use my blog post as an outline. I write down the big points that I wanna make sure that I address on the podcast episode, because I don't wanna lose. Focus and I don't wanna meander and wander and be one of those annoying podcasters that you don't wanna listen to because they never get to the point. So I do have that to keep me on track, but you can do a repurpose. So if you're blogging, you can also repurpose and use that blog outline for your podcast. You don't have to script a podcast episode. You can do that and just add in what you need to. If you're on social, choose one social media channel. Don't try to be on all of them, because remember, there's a lot of time involved, especially with social media. There are images, there are videos to create. There are short form video, there's captions to update, there's connection. There's. You know, conversations to have in the dms, all of that, you are going to spend quite a bit of time on whichever channel that you decide to do. So really think about where do you wanna spend your time? Where do you have the best chance of connecting with your ideal customer? Then I want you to really focus in on what is it that they need. You want your content to answer their questions and provide value and be helpful, all those things that you wrote out when you were thinking about them and really putting together your ideal customer avatar, your ideal dream client, I want you to really think about what do they need, because that's the type content that you wanna be creating for whatever channels you're going to share it on. And if you're repurposing across multiple channels, which. You should be because you're creating the content. We wanna use it in multiple channels. You'll need to adjust it slightly to the different channels, potentially. Like if you're doing a podcast and you wanna do reels on Insta, or you wanna do tiktoks, you're gonna have to pull clips and edit and do stuff like that. So you wanna think about how involved you wanna get, how much time you want to allocate to this. Because remember, you're an entrepreneur, which means you also have a business to run. You can't spend all of your time marketing your business. But you're gonna have to spend some, if you want to grow, then what we wanna think about is really positioning you, your business as a solution for their problems, their questions, their concerns. You are there to help make their life better. You are there to teach them, to guide them, to help them. That's how you're going to not just create content, but actually grow a business because it all has to tie back. You always stay 100% focused on your dream client, your ideal customer. You provide value to them, and then you just naturally, gently. Let them know I'm here to help you. I can serve you. This is how we can work together. Go ahead and get my freebie. It's gonna help you with this. Let's go back to the sourdough baking example. You know, here's the freebie on the tips for sourdough bread making. Here's five tips to make your loaves look better. Here's five tips to score better on your design so that they look beautiful. My very first loaves were not beautiful, y'all. Now that I've been making bread, I've been baking for about five years and I've got a better understanding of it and I've got all the right tools. I actually made like the Christmas tree loaves last year for Christmas where they had them pop up and they showed, and you had the flour on 'em to make 'em look like snow. I did that and my very first loaves, they were ugly. So. Showing. Hey, I can teach you how to do this. I can show you, I can give you these tips. That's going to help. I buy most of my bread baking equipment and products and ingredients and things from King Arthur Flour because they do an amazing job with their content. They have lots of tips. They have videos, they have guides. They sell all the products that you need. So I do buy a lot from them because they've made it easier for me. So I'm a loyal customer to King Arthur Flour because their products work well and they help me achieve the goal of making beautiful loaves of bread. And I'll be honest, I really like it when I gift. Bread to somebody and they tell me it's the best loaf of bread they've ever had, or those are the most amazing cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life. I take a lot of pride in that. I think we all have something right? For me, it's people saying, oh my gosh, Rachel, your baked goods are so good. You should open a bakery. I have no desire to ever open a bakery. My dad owned one when I was a kid. No thank you, but I know that my stuff that I bake is as good, if not better than what you get most places. So think about that. Think about your ideal customer. What I want you to do for your homework for tonight or for this week, is just think about your customer and really hone in on. Who are they? And think about them way beyond just how old they are, how many kids they have, if they're married, if they're divorced, if they're still working, if they're side hustlers, you know, mom who wants to buy a new house. Like really think about them. And next week we're gonna talk more about planning for the new year, and then the week after that we're gonna talk about the marketing numbers that matter. And then we're gonna take a little break and we're going to enjoy our holidays. Whether we celebrate or not with our family, with our friends, whatever. We're gonna take a little bit of a break. We're gonna reconvene in January, and that's when we are gonna kick off the Confident Marketers Club. So if you are hearing me talk about this and you're curious and you wanna know more about it, send me an email. Just reply back to the weekly email. Or um, DM me on Instagram and just say, Hey Rachel, I'm curious 'cause I've been creating this with you in mind and I do hope that you join. It will be a six month program, so we're really gonna have six months of working together to really get in and figure out what's going on with your business and help you become more confident. Alright, I will see you back here next week. Bye for now.