I am so excited to share with you my recommendations for the 5 components every Mompreneur (and online entrepreneur!) needs to invest in first when ready to grow and scale her brand beyond social media algorithms!
With SO many different things you COULD invest your time and money into when it comes to building your brand, you may find yourself asking the question,
“What do I invest my time, energies and money in FIRST {or next}?”
With one million things to manage, and less time than ever, we don’t have time to be wasting time, right? I WISH I had a coach back when I was first establishing a brand to guide me through next steps – would have saved me SOOOOO much time!).
I made things infinitely more complicated than they needed to be, but now I’m here to help simplify for all the mamas raising babies & businesses.
Let’s discuss.
First, I am assuming that if you are reading this article, you already have a defined brand (the 2-3 categories of content you create to add value for your target audience – educating, entertaining, and/or empowering!), your brand colors, and maybe even out-sourced or created your own logo with software like Canva for your Facebook Brand Group or other social media promotion.
You’re ready for next steps to escalate getting your awesomeness out into the world and in front of the exact people who need what you’ve got!
BUT, if you have not yet defined your brand or message, you will want to get clarity on that BEFORE anything else.
Do not pass go, do not collect $200 : )
Before moving on to invest in anything else, invest in YOU to gain clarity in the direction you want to go with your brand + biz; go find a free resource, purchase and work through a course, or connect with a coach you resonate with, to help guide you through defining your brand, target audience, and message.
I offer a free self-guided, email video course called the Intentional Influencer Brand Bootcamp that will walk you through all of the above. If you’d like that sent to your email, just enter your info below. Did we just become biz besties?
Ok, now once you feel confident in the value you want to provide in the online space, it’s time to start building out a scalable framework to deliver the goods!
The first thing I think every Mompreneur with the intention to scale her brand should invest in is….
- A WEBSITE
I truly think that every entrepreneur who wants to grow & scale their brand, network marketing professionals included, needs to have a website.
I wrote this step-by-step article about how to start a blog, the non-complicated way.
Regardless of whether you want to be a “Blogger” or not, you really do need a website.
Why?
There are soooooo many reasons, but let me hit you with my top three:
First, a website is a place where you can repurpose and/or share the content you create (Live Videos, YouTube videos, Podcast Episodes, expanded social media posts, etc) where it can later be discovered via a search engine (Google!) and serve people for years to come.
Next, and arguably most importantly, you own your website.
You do not own Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, or any other social media platform. If for some reason your account was shut down, or the platform became obsolete, you’d lose contact and the ability to share your message, products, services, etc. with all of your followers.
Yikes.
This leads me to the third reason I think a website is essential. You need a place to capture the “eyeballs” on your social media content and get them onto your email list.
A website is a central hub for you to drive social media traffic, bring them deeper into your awesome content, and get them on your list (something else you “own”).
Which brings me to the next investment I recommend.
The second thing you need to grow and scale your brand is for SURE…
2) An Email Marketing System (ESP, EMS)
You’ve probably heard before about the importance of “growing your list”. With good reason!
“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches—at scale.”
– David Newman.
An email list lets you reach your target audience quickly and effectively, without relying on algorithms, group messages, or DMing!
Think mass communication for follow up, relationship building, and content sharing versus 1:1. Email marketing is both a way to save you massive amounts of time, as well as scale the impact you can make with your message.
Your email list does not have to be ginormous to be a very powerful part of your brand strategy. A smaller list of people who need and want exactly what you are offering, is far better than a large list who are like, “meh, I just wanted the freebie.”.
You own YOUR list. Your list of contact information can’t be taken away from you. If heaven forbid, your network marketing company and/or social media accounts got shut down…would you still have a way to communicate with your followers, teammates, customers, etc.?
If you launch a course or a podcast down the line, your list is there waiting for you – knowing the value you provide to them for FREE already.
There are free options to get started with, like Mail Chimp, or providers with more capacity/functionality like Active Campaign (I use them!), Convert Kit, or AWeber.
Enter your name and email below if you would like my email marketing system checklist sent straight to your inbox!
After getting a website & email marketing up and running, I recommend your next brand + biz investment be..
3) Landing page software (or use your blog pages!)
You can use your blog pages for this as well since that may already an investment you’ve made. I did that for a long time.
Some Email Management Services even provide simple landing pages you can use.
With landing pages you are able to provide more detail on whatever you are currently offering, capture email addresses (or payments as the case may be!), link from Pinterest directly, and drive fans back into your Facebook Brand Group.
I have personally used my own blog pages and Click Funnels (for launching and selling my own courses), but I am 99% sure I am going to migrate #allthethings (except my WordPress website) over to Kajabi which is pretty much an all inclusive platform...stay tuned!
Here’s an example of a super simple lead page I’ve used to drive traffic to my brand group.
This is an example of a lead page with information on one of my course.
Fourth, I recommend investing your TIME in creating high-value, weekly content via…
4) Video or Voice Marketing
This could be YouTube, videos on your Facebook Business or Personal Page or a Podcast (that’s definitely in my 1-2 year plan!!). Video and Podcasting are THE most effective content for your audience to get to know you!
You 100% need video, preferably live, to grow connection with your audience. As the saying I’m SURE you’ve heard by now goes, “people do business with people they know, like and trust.”
Your audience needs to get to know more of you – your personality, the way you share/teach, your unique perspective, and what you have to offer to help them along their journey.
And the shortcut is video or voice content.
And what are you going to do with those videos or podcasts?
Well, you’re going to expand upon your show notes or have them transcribed and put them on your WEBSITE/BLOG, and send out notification to your growing email list, so that your awesomeness can be discovered out on the interwebs and consumed by more of the target audience who has already signed up for more of what you got!
Just like this live video replay where I expanded upon points 1 and 2 with my Facebook Community for Mompreneurs:
Ah, full circle moment.
BUT you still need to market that content if you want to reach more of the people you want to serve + really grow your online presence, influence, and bottom line.
The #1 source for over 90% of my blog/brand traffic and the way I’ve driven eyeballs to my content is via what’s next.
The 5th investment to make is properly setting up and optimizing…
5) Pinterest (with Tailwind automation!):
Are you ready to overcome the algorithms without shelling out cash on IG or Facebook Ads? Well, you’re in luck because Pinterest is a FREE. And amazing. You can follow my Pinterest accounts here and here. The latter one is new, but I’m using the same exact growth strategies as I did with the former when I was still building that blog/brand, and love watching the growth!
Yes, I’m a HUGE proponent (and teacher of!) SEO within your website as a way to drive traffic to your content. But Pinterest is not only a great search engine + traffic driver in and of itself, it helps your content rank in Google if you optimize it correctly!
You can also use your Pinterest Business account to drive traffic to your social media platforms, affiliate products, Podcasts, YouTube videos, Etsy shop, and so much more.
Tailwind is a content scheduler for Pinterest that will literally change the game for your business. Automation is EVERYTHING. And I beleive this service is only $9.99 monthly at this point.
Over 95% of my website traffic comes through Pinterest, NOT social media! Social media is the place where you can really build close community with the audience you bring in through your Website + Email Marketing + Pinterest framework.
I can’t encourage you enough to invest in learning and utilizing Pinterest to grow your brand and business, for real.
To sum it all up,
once you’ve defined your brand and at the point where you are ready to invest in building a framework to grow and scale, here are what I recommend as your next moves:
- Create a website/blog + hosting
- Get your email marketing system up and running
- Landing Page Software, or create landing pages via your blog.
- High-value, weekly Video or Voice content
- Pinterest + Tailwind marketing
How much does all this cost monthly? Depending upon the service providers you select, all of this will only run you $100-200 monthly.
As a busy mama with big goals and dreams, and A LOT on your plate, these 5 things will go a long way in setting you up for the time freedom you need to be present with your family and still building a solid brand + biz.
So get out there, invest in your business like you mean business, and go grow that influence and impact the way only YOU can!
I am rooting for you!
If you liked this post, and these are components you’d like to add and develop for your brand, I would like to invite you to check out my communities where you and I can hang!
- My free Facebook Group, Elevate Academy for Intentional Influencers + Mompreneurs, where I go live once per week with a training or talking point relevant to building your online business!
- AND/OR My Membership, the Intentional Influencer Society!
This is a monthly subscription group (cancel anytime!) where you get access to an amazing community of message-driven Mompreneurs + Intentional Influencers, twice-monthly group Q&A Coaching calls with me, and mini-courses and/or resources on Personal Branding, Starting A Blog/Website, Email Marketing, Growing a Facebook Brand Group, and more – new content drops monthly and you have access to all of it for as long as you are a member!
You can learn more by clicking the image below!
https://ashleysamadani.com/membership