Intuitive Marketing Podcast

#23: Beyond Social Media: Finding Your Marketing Sweet Spot

• Chelsea Fournier + Meg O'Neill • Season 2 • Episode 23

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We examine whether social media is truly essential for business growth and explore alternative marketing approaches that feel more aligned with your values while still effectively growing your business.

• Marketing channels should align with both your natural energy and strategic business needs
• Consider combining one "scroll" platform with one "search" platform rather than trying to be everywhere
• Email marketing remains non-negotiable - it's an asset you own and control
• Content repurposing maximizes efficiency across platforms without requiring constant new ideas
• Success metrics extend beyond platform analytics to include opportunities like speaking engagements and collaborations
• The discomfort of being a novice on a new platform is temporary and worth pushing through

Journal questions to explore: What marketing channel feels most aligned with your natural energy? Where have you felt the most flow in the past when generating leads? Choose one traffic strategy to focus on for the next 30 days and observe how it feels energetically and strategically.


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Want to connect more with the hosts?

Follow Meg on Instagram @megoneill10

Follow Chelsea on Instagram @intuitivebusinessmentor...

Speaker 1:

Do you really need to be on social media to grow your business, or is there a better way that actually feels good to you?

Speaker 2:

What if you could ditch the overwhelm and stop chasing the algorithms and still consistently attract clients? We are here to vulnerably talk about this topic and share some new iterations of traffic sources we're exploring and what we're learning, in case it can help you too.

Speaker 1:

Hey there friends.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Intuitive Marketing Podcast, where we ditch the bro marketing BS and bring you big sister vibes instead. I'm Meg.

Speaker 1:

And this is Chelsea, your new biz besties.

Speaker 2:

We met on TikTok in 2023. Fast forward to now and we have teamed up here to guide you through the wild world of marketing your business with heart and soul.

Speaker 1:

Are you feeling lost or overwhelmed, maybe unsure of your next steps, but you have a big vision of where your coaching, healing, speaking or writing career could be in the next five years, 10 years. Don't worry, we've got your back. We'll help you tap into your intuition, build a brand that lights you up and leverage proven marketing strategies to grow towards a six or even seven figure business in a way that won't make you cringe.

Speaker 2:

We're actually here to help you bring the magic back into your marketing.

Speaker 2:

Because marketing should feel good, not gross Grab your favorite drink, get comfy and let's get started. So part of this conversation came up because recently I got a question into my email inbox from a client who I just adore and it was basically saying Chelsea, give me your gut instinct. Would it be absolute suicide for my business to like completely ghost social media? And this is. This client is based out of Maine and she runs an in-person, basically outdoor, school, like an unschooled situation. She's a former therapist and she also has online stuff like an online membership for moms a really cool course. We're working on some online funnels and she wants to have van life eventually with her kiddos and her husband and live that nomad, just gypsy style.

Speaker 2:

I can just picture her. And so for her she's like I can't like qualitatively or quantitatively track the benefit to my business of all the effort I put into social media and like she knows that there are so many people say you need so many touches and so, yes, is social media one of the touches and maybe someone joins her mom hive or comes and signs up their kiddo because they are like reminded by social media, maybe. Or comes and signs up their kiddo because they are like reminded by social media, maybe. But for her and I think that a lot of people are feeling this for different reasons. For her, she's almost like being on meta feels contrary to her values and what she shares in her business, right? So she specifically has a whole course around helping teens and tweens navigate social media and online pressure and like how to be grounded and how to be present.

Speaker 2:

And so she's like how, what am I modeling to my almost tweens of me being on my phone every day to create social media for my business? And, of course, you can pre-batch and schedule and do all the things, but I think that there's a lot of people having this internal conflict I'm putting time and energy in. Is this the best use of my marketing energy? And or I don't want to participate in this big matrix of all these people who own these social media platforms and not owning your list, right, if your account? We've. You and I have both had friends and clients in the past year who've had Facebook accounts completely shut down and you can't do anything about it. So I feel like this conversation has also really brought up for me, like, how do I want to handle answering this question? We own a marketing agency that also has content packages like we still think it's a good idea.

Speaker 2:

Right. But then how do we want to handle it? You and I looking at, how are we diversifying our traffic, like how are we getting in front of more people? And I know you and I have had conversations like businesses have been marketing for decades Right, without social media, correct. And so how do you, if there's no one size fits all, is it a death knell to your business to not be on social media? It's such a nuanced answer I feel like and it really you can really look at.

Speaker 1:

you have to look at your business how, where are most of your clients coming from, things like that and then decide whether or not it's something that fits within your marketing ecosystem. But there's many different traffic sources that you can kind of explore and see what feels good to you. I was talking to somebody on one of our content calls this week and I was telling them about Substack, because they really like writing long form content, they like writing for Facebook, but they don't like making videos. So you know, do you like writing old school blogs?

Speaker 1:

They're not really old school, but if that's what feels really good and aligned to you and you don't feel like I hate hearing so many people say I have the pressure of social media like they just feel like it's like this have to on on their shoulders.

Speaker 1:

We've been going back and forth between where you're focusing and where I'm focusing, and you're learning more about SEO and YouTube and I'm learning more about TikTok and Pinterest, and just deciding what feels good to us and what feels like available during this season to be able to also learn and get under our belt. And then the other thing is, too is like what we've said before, but people have. You could knock on doors if you want.

Speaker 2:

That could be your marketing right.

Speaker 1:

You could go around to every business in your town, you could join networking groups and you can do collaborations. You could just do a whole podcast speaking tour. There are so many different ways to market that don't have to do with social media. But what I like to remind people is pick one or two of them and get at it for a while, like actually try it. And not everyone is going to feel comfortable, and that doesn't mean that, like you shouldn't do it necessarily. But if you are like the client Chelsea was talking about and really feels like against your like moral code or really feel like, then you do not have to do it. Right, we can. We can talk through, we can brainstorm with you in a way that leads you to something that actually feels like you can put some creative energy into it and it feels good and aligned for you.

Speaker 1:

And then, ultimately, I think that in this day and age, like people will say, do I have to be on social media? No, but I do think you have to have some kind of email marketing. That is, you know that is a way, unless you're like writing letters to people, having owning people's email emails, like getting them from social media or getting them from if you're doing in-person expos or something like that. And getting their email is a way that you can stay in touch with them and you can do it at your own pace and it doesn't have to be a heavy, heavy lift, but it is a way to protect your business. Not having an email list, I do think, is pretty detrimental to business at this point.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2:

And just how quickly you can see just an account disappear and then you're like if your only method of staying in touch was Instagram and your Instagram gets shut down and you can't be in touch with those people. You are effed. But if you can just go to your email list where you think at least a large portion of those people have opted into something over the years and be like, hey, this is what happened you can continue the conversation about just putting too much energy into it and not knowing if there's going to be a return on investment is to choose one true social media platform and one evergreen or searchable social media.

Speaker 2:

To say I'm going to try Facebook and blogging on my website or I'm going to master Instagram and YouTube, finding something where, like YouTube being more searchable, that someone could go to YouTube and search. How do I manage the picky eating of my toddler? I'm thinking about one of our members, misa, and if they see your video and they're like, oh my gosh, they found you because you're creating specific content, whereas if someone is just scrolling on Instagram and sees something where you're sharing a reel, right, right. So if you can limit yourself to saying I'm going to learn one scroll social media and one search content piece, I think that's a really good goal to have.

Speaker 2:

Of course you can do all the repurposing and stuff, but even just to say okay, I feel overwhelmed with thinking I need to be on every platform. But let me just come here and I think one of the hardest pieces on this is the FOMO. Well, I see so-and-so, crushing it on TikTok and I see so-and-so is to like see peers, see colleagues and have that, just that FOMO or that comparisonitis. But it's so important to honor what feels good, that also feels strategic. If it feels good to you to create content on Substack and you take a little bit of time to actually understand the strategy of Substack culture and how to drive conversions from that, then that kind of fills both buckets for me. If it feels good and you understand the strategy, so you're not just like throwing spaghetti on the wall, understanding the platform and then understanding the importance of your own rhythms. You know like I'm definitely in a season where if I can batch and schedule things, it just fits better for me.

Speaker 2:

I'm exploring YouTube and I'm like mapping out topics so I can sit down and record two or three at a time.

Speaker 2:

And then I'm editing them and I'm like mapping out topics so I can sit down and record two or three at a time and then I'm editing them and just like creating a whole workflow system, whereas in past seasons I have leaned much more heavily into just Instagram and Facebook, when just popping on in the middle of the day felt OK for what was going on in my life maybe pre-kiddo, and I could bring really good energy to that. I can bring really good energy to. Okay, I've cleared my space, I've cleared my energy, I have my scripts, I can do my YouTube and you don't want to just like ping pong between things too quickly and then abandon because you're not going to get momentum. But I do think that, honoring the season that you're in, for health, for parenting, for launching, if you're, I would say there's some things that you hear. Oh, those are long games, like I've heard so many people say, seo is great, but it's a long game.

Speaker 2:

Like you don't really see results for three to six months of traffic coming in, or YouTube is a long game. You got to train the algorithm and I think I've put off both of those things because I've heard long game. But you know what else is the long game? My business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2:

Like. I'm not desiring for this to be closed in three months, and so I think, especially for a lot of women that we work with, it's almost like the slow and steady can be so beneficial. And if something is working for you right now, don't abandon it. Instagram is where most of your clients come in right now, unless you have that ethical moral code or some specific reason why you just can't bring yourself to do it anymore. Keep doing what's working.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Is there one other thing you want to layer in? And then how can you?

Speaker 1:

repurpose that content. So if Instagram is working, so that is where I feel really comfortable. I know the platform really well, so I understand how I'm going to create content weekly. That's how I look at my content creation system. How I'm going to create content weekly, that's how I look at my content creation system. And when I'm doing that I'm not as naturally inclined to go to TikTok, but I know that's where I want to push my boundaries around, where I'm showing up. So then how can I repurpose whatever I'm doing on Instagram and not necessarily just post the video on like? How can I repurpose it with intention?

Speaker 1:

Or how can you write an email to your list weekly and pull three different topics from that email that then can be repurposed into a post for Instagram or Facebook, and then from that Facebook or Instagram post, how can you then turn that into 10 threads? So it's really what happens. I think that feels overwhelming is people think that they have to have constant new ideas for each platform, and what you really what would be the easiest and make the most sense in sales wise too, is to distill your conversations and your content down to four or five pillars and keep repeating them. Your content down to four or five pillars and keep repeating them. Yeah, so you could show up in more places and not feel like you have to be learning as many different platforms, but it's very easy to do email to YouTube, to Instagram, all with one topic and not take 20 hours of your week.

Speaker 2:

And just seeing what you've been doing. If, let's say, you create for Instagram and so maybe you create a carousel, you've been doing really beautiful and thought-provoking carousel posts, and so you could take that same content and then open up TikTok and maybe you don't do it as a script but talk through the same topic and then I've also seen that you will then take the copy from the actual carousels, like the slides, and bring it over to Facebook as a longer caption. Yeah, because that's more like culturally available in the.

Speaker 2:

Facebook culture, if you will. So you literally can just spend a little bit more time with the one thing you created and splinter it off, exactly.

Speaker 1:

And this is where AI does come in very helpful. Exactly, and this is where AI does come in very helpful, because if you think of a script for TikTok you're like, oh, that would feel so not authentic. But I often take something like a carousel and put it in to my already programmed thread on ChatGPT and say, make me a script for TikTok and it will just break it down into more bite-sized sentences. And it will just break it down into more bite-sized sentences. So I'll keep my computer open by where I film and just use that to be more succinct in my message. And it doesn't sound scripted. It sounds like something that I would actually say, but it keeps me on track for not being a 10-minute video. So that's another way that you can make it easier to show up. Just take some written content and ask it to make it into a video script so that you can show up in one more place.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that, and I think one of the if I'm honest, one of the mindset fucks for me is that I don't like being a newbie. I am a line one in human design, I like to be an expert at things, I like to dig deep and then be leading from example, and so being a newbie at something makes me uncomfortable, and I think it makes a lot of our audience uncomfortable, Like people can visibly see. Right now I have a YouTube video that I actually spent time editing and I'm like I think it actually came out well. I think the one view on it is me and I don't know if it needs a different thumbnail or different title, and maybe I'll go in and tinker today, but it makes me cringe to be like. I own a marketing agency and if someone is looking at my channel, they're going to see I have a video with one view. They probably know it's me, but everybody starts somewhere and I have some videos that have 800 views and for some one, Everybody starts somewhere, and I have some videos that have 800 views and for some one it's that particular video was the first time that I've dropped a video into my channel. That is for something I'm an affiliate of. Oh, I'm like maybe I need to bring more storytelling to that. I do think it's like a good like introduction to why someone might want the thing I'm an affiliate of. But you know that mindset around being a newbie at something if you're comfortable with Facebook. But you know you want to try Substack, or you know you want to try SEO and just something to share.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if you know this, Meg, but for three years my husband was a door knocker, Like he was a door to door salesperson. Everybody hates them, right Like you go into the Facebook group in a neighborhood and they're like there's a door knocker, close your door. But and I always used to think about this that business was thriving even though X percent of people hate the door knockers. Some people are like, oh, this is super convenient. I've been wanting natural pest control. Cool, Come on in and chat. Like everything can work. It's just the dedication and the commitment and the consistency. And that's where it's really hard, when it's social media as opposed to door knocking, because it's so public.

Speaker 1:

It's so visible.

Speaker 2:

People can see that you've only had five views on your reel and it's embarrassing. Why is it embarrassing, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think that's where I try to model on social media too, that, like I've been creating a little bit more lifestyle content, yeah, and that's uncomfortable, but it's going to be uncomfortable until it's not right, like I don't think there's too many people that just show up and are like, oh, this feels really good and I'm really great at it, and then so I think, surround yourself with people who are trying, because if you can do that, you can feel more comfortable in your like trying to and in your putting your youtube videos out, putting out stuff that doesn't feel like it comes super naturally to you, because we have. I try to look at social media as an opportunity, and it's this free opportunity to get in front of people that might be really really aligned with what you have to offer and really be able to uplift your mission in this world, and I think it's like worth the shot to look cringy to get in front of the right people.

Speaker 2:

I agree and you really lead by example with that and it's really inspiring. And you also never know, like maybe there's maybe five people will see this YouTube video that I did. It's it's on how, like the five business benefits to writing your own book and then the affiliate is where, affiliates of a program called the Self-Publishing Center. That's an amazing course about how to write, publish and launch your book as a self-published author. If you don't want to go pay Balboa Press and big companies big money, and if out of the five, one person like actually jumps into that and then is able to bring their book out to the world and it helps people like I always try so much of this as ego, like dropping out of the ego and into your heart of what is your mission, what is your purpose? My purpose is to help people's ripple effects of their big work be bigger and fall on the right people they're meant to help and in order to do that, I need to be cringy a little bit sometimes and that's okay. Well, and it's just then in the ripple effect. They need to be cringy to find their people, whatever. But really thinking through, like, where do you feel most in flow? Where and share and, you know, try something new and then to stay consistent with it long enough to really see if it's going to work for you.

Speaker 2:

It's been really cool for me to see one client recently was feeling so stuck on Instagram. She owns she's the minister of a embodied microdosing ministry and so she does breath work and microdosing with psilocybin and she was feeling so stuck on Instagram even though that had been her bread and butter for like a decade through different iterations of her business. And then she had been resisting TikTok and she was in my membership, had been encouraging her to try TikTok and then she finally did and she loves it and she's getting so many new people and collaborations and podcast guesting and I think that's something else to remember that if you are not necessarily quote unquote, seeing trackable results from social media, are you getting invited to speak? Are you getting collaboration or referral opportunities Because you're so clear and speaking really well about what you do on that platform and maybe getting into bigger rooms because of it?

Speaker 1:

Because that's something you're here to. That's what I try to remind people too is like you don't always measure just on the analytics that you see behind Instagram or TikTok or, something Like when you're first starting out and you're sharing about your business on Facebook and Instagram.

Speaker 1:

When you go to one of your kids' events or when you go to a family party, how many people are saying like oh, tell me about your business, I see you're sharing Like. Measure it on the human interaction. Then start measuring it on the podcast. There are different ways to measure success and I think it's important to remember that, yeah, yeah. So if you want some extra homework to kind of dive in here, I would love to just offer you some journal questions. So the first one is what marketing channel feels most aligned with your natural energy? Second question is where have you felt the most flow in the past when generating leads Such a good one to tap into Like when it's been really working and feeling really easy.

Speaker 1:

Where have you been spending your time? How can you tap back into that? And the third question is choose one traffic strategy to focus on for the next 30 days and observe and note down how it feels energetically and strategically. We would love to hear what comes up for you around these questions. And you can reach out to us on Instagram.

Speaker 2:

And if you're stuck on the visibility, Meg's visibility audits are amazing. We just saw a testimonial or just a shout out from one of our members who hired Meg for a visibility audit and was like I had no idea I would get so much guidance. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I love doing it and I love like really strategizing on what feels good to you already. So let's make a plan for there and have this feel easy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, we hope that you found this episode of the Intuitive Marketing Podcast as inspiration to help you bring the magic back into your own marketing. Our goal is for this podcast to be a compass in the chaos. We know you get bombarded with information options and conflicting ideas out there on the internet streets. We hope you tune into the next episode, where we'll be diving into a topic that we've both been very excited to explore together. It's the power of being willing to be misunderstood as a business owner, now embracing that can shoot you forward, and how rejecting it or avoiding it can become a problem. So this will also I can't believe it be the last episode of this season. We're doing 12 episode seasons and then taking short breaks. We'll be taking a short break for the summer and I think ending on this topic is going to be a really juicy and inspiring. So we'll see you on the next episode.