As a creative business owner it’s so important to make time to work on your business. Working with clients, it’s so easy to spend all your time working in your business but then how does your business grow? What happens when the time comes to stop working with your current clients? How will new clients find you?
At the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey I was in a constant circle of working in my business and then on my business. When client projects finished, I would then spend time marketing myself to bring on new clients and would then go back to working in my business again. This was not a sustainable way to grow a business and I soon realised that I had to make time to work in my business.
I now set aside one day a week (Monday) to work on my business. Mondays are spent marketing my business and getting myself set-up for the week so I can then spend Tuesday – Thursdays working in my business. I still dip into each of these platforms during the week but by spending Monday working on marketing and self development, I know I’m going to be better placed to serve my clients.
So what platforms am I using to grow my creative business? I share these below and go into a little bit of the strategy behind them.
Blogging
My blog allows me to reach my ideal audience of creative small businesses and starts to build the know, like and trust factor. By sharing my knowledge with my ideal clients, I’m showing that I have a strong understanding regarding the elements surrounding business and my services.
I publish two blog posts a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays but these are always written by the Monday of that week, if not before.
I blog about topics relating to four key subjects relating to the services I offer; branding, websites, marketing and business. I’m not scared of giving too much away as I know that there will always be clients out there who would much rather hire a professional in their field to do the work for them leaving them to do what they do best.
In the last three months, my average daily impressions on Pinterest have grown by 1,870% and my average daily viewers have grown by 910%. Pinterest is also the number one source of traffic to my website.
I spend about 45 minutes a week scheduling pins to Tailwind and this then pushes pins out to Pinterest at the times specified. I pin a mixture of inspiration pins such as logos, website designs, colour palettes; business related pins on topics such as marketing, business and websites and of course my own pins. My own pins include pieces from my portfolio as well as graphics from blog posts I have created. After the initial pin to Pinterest, my work is then pinned to various boards vastly expanding my reach.
Facebook Groups
At the start of Fleurir Creative, I pretty much gained all my clients through Facebook Groups. If you’ve read my other blog posts or followed my journey from the beginning then you’ll know what when I launched my business, I ran a Brand Scholarship. This was a program I ran offering two businesses the chance to work with me on their branding and website design. Over 70 businesses applied to this program and from those 70, I selected two that I felt were best suited to my business. This enabled me to build my portfolio, fine tune my processes and start bringing in referrals. I posted about this program in a few Facebook Groups and from there the applications started coming in.
I am now in a select number of Facebook Groups relevant to my ideal audience and spend a little bit of time each day networking and answering any questions I have the answers to. This enables me to get my name out there and for me to begin to be recognised as a thought leader within my industry.
I’ll admit that it took me awhile to get into Instagram. Whilst I loved it for personal use such as posting pictures of my little boy to my private account, I struggled with creating a cohesive theme that matched my branding. It’s not that I didn’t know what to post, it was finding the time to create a selection of photos that I could then use. Then came my day scheduled to working in my business and once I found my flow, it all became so much easier.
I post a selection of images ranging from client snippets such as moodboards, logo designs and website designs; blog post graphics when I put out a new post and also general images that match my brand’s aesthetic. Then by using carefully thought out hashtags, I have begun to grow my following to my ideal client.
Email Marketing
I knew from day one that I needed an email list for my business. I’ll do a whole post on email marketing however having a email list allows me to get in the inboxes of my ideal clients and keep me fresh in their mind. I then have a clear strategy of how I keep in touch with my email list by ensuring I am sharing good content and not spamming them with sales related emails 24/7.
So there you have it. An overview of the five main platforms I’m using to grow my business. I’d love to hear how you are marketing your business and reaching out to your ideal clients so don’t be shy, leave a comment in the box below!
Fleurir Creative is a small branding and marketing studio for online and service based businesses. I work closely with clients on a complete brand and marketing experience with my signature offering, The Flourish Experience. This intensive four month offering includes everything you need to grow your business and reach the next level.
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