Pre-Episode Clip
Vivian:
Part of our responsibility is to mitigate risk, right? You do this whether you're, let's say you're hiring somebody, an employee, you're going to try to find the best candidate because you understand that you're taking resources to train them. You're going to try to keep them there as long as you can because that's good for your customers, right? So you're mitigating all these risks. You're setting, you're making good decisions to set yourself up for success. Like Chelsea said, relying solely on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, any platform that you don't have access to on the back end means that you're allowing risk to enter...
Intro
Chelsea: Hey everyone and welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing podcast. Where we celebrate to S.O.B. you are, and if you haven't figured it out yet - we mean Small Owned Business, we don't mean S.O.B...
Vivian:
Listen, we know that as a small business owner you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.
Chelsea:
Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, and promoting your business. And then what doesn't really work.
Vivian:
And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.
Beginning of Episode
Vivian:
Welcome back to another episode. Today apparently I'm wearing jean on jean and Chelsea said it's a whole look, very what Chelsea?
Chelsea:
2000s.
Vivian:
All right. Y'all. So I'm kicking it back to 2000's today. Not what the episode is about, but before we hop into our topic, which Chelsea will introduce here in a second, just want to remind you guys first and foremost, thank you so much for listening. We love every single one of you for coming here every week and just listening to the marketing information that we're sharing with you. Be sure that you're going in there and leaving us a review. Please, please, please tell us what you think of this podcast. Only if it's good stuff, you know, we don't want to hear the negative bad stuff. You can email us that kind of information.
By the way, don't forget we have a TLDL section. Too long, didn't listen. If you are, you know, just kind of busy right now, in the middle of stuff and you just want a quick recap, we always recommend that you come back and you listen to the full episode. But Chelsea does give us a quick recap at the end of every episode in our TLDL section. So, baby sis, what are we talking about today?
Chelsea:
Okay, well Vivian before we get into what we're talking about today, I have something I want to share.
Vivian:
Oh no. This is very early in the episode to be...
Chelsea:
No, this is not, this is between you and me. In the last episode, you said...
Vivian:
Do y'all hear how she talks to me? First of all, this is between you and me. All right, let's hear it.
Chelsea:
Yeah, in the last episode, you said Dad never said that our life was a loan. We asked Hector, he has mediated.
Vivian:
Hector is our brother by the way.
Chelsea:
Yes, middle brother.
Vivian:
Yes, Chelsea's older brother, my baby brother.
Chelsea:
Yes, he's the mediator. We pulled him into this and he came with the receipts of the comic strip that Dad got that joke from. So yes, Dad did say that to us. Okay. I just wanted to put that out there.
Vivian:
Yeah. All right, my pants have literally caught on fire because I was a liar. Dad apparently...
Chelsea had included in our previous episode just a saying that dad would always say to us and I was teasing her and I said no he never said that to me because I was a perfect child. As you guys would imagine I was not a perfect child and so yes I was included in that discussion.
Chelsea:
I just wanted to get that out there first and foremost, but...
Vivian:
First and foremost thanks for airing out our dirty laundry.
Chelsea:
You're welcome. That's what people want to hear besides the marketing stuff.
Okay, well, today's episode is a real great one. We're talking about small business marketing without social media. I want to make it very clear. We are not saying give up on social media. We're saying if you're feeling burnt out, if you're feeling like your time would be better spent doing something else, do that. Here are some ideas. That's what we're talking about.
Vivian:
Yes, and I will say even if you are doing social media, let's say you're not burnt out. We always just remind you guys, you want to incorporate some of these other marketing options just because it's a good, it's smart. All right. It's the one way that you're diversifying. And so today we're going to bring you some paid and some free options. What we're hoping is that you will listen to this, jot down the ones that intrigue you enough to look into in 2025. Then, just kind of maybe get some comps, get some rates, figure out if it's something that you could do and you would want to do and if that's where your target audience is. All right. So that's the important part.
Chelsea:
Yeah, that's the key right there. Is your target audience interested in this form of communication. Also want to go back and say, remember, nothing is actually free.
Yes, something might not cost money. It's still going to cost you time. It's still going to cost you effort. That's not going to cost you money but it's still going to cost you something.
Vivian:
Man, you said the word cost a lot there.
Chelsea:
I know!
Vivian:
Cha-ching.
Chelsea:
Vivian, this first one I feel like is a huge opportunity that is regularly overlooked and it's sponsorships.
Vivian:
Yes, I love me a good sponsorship, when it makes sense.
Chelsea:
That, that is key. That's important. Yeah, sponsorships. I feel like...you know what it is. Sometimes people who are looking for sponsorships can go about it in an uncomfy way.
Vivian:
What's uncomfy? Expand on that.
Chelsea:
Pushy. Yeah, I feel like sometimes when people are looking for sponsors for their events, they can be a little pushy. They can be a little aggressive. And so that gives, you know, small business owners like a bad taste. You're kind of like, well, now I don't want to be involved in sponsorships. Don't let that stop you from doing sponsorships. Maybe don't do a sponsorship with them, but still consider them if it is where your target audiences. That's always the key.
Vivian:
Yeah, so I love sponsorships for a couple different reasons. For one, you're able to help the community. All right, so think about it. Local schools offer a ton of sponsorship opportunities, whether that's through their athletic program. So let's say you could do a sponsorship of the soccer team. Depending on what level you do, $250 for the year.
What they will do is in turn print out a banner and have it at the soccer field with your logo or whatever information that you send them. So it's giving you visibility at the actual games. Then on top of it, you feel good about doing, you know, supporting your local teams and the kids. But the key, like you said, is to be sure that for one, it aligns with the type of business that you're doing. For example, let's say that I am a car insurance agent. It makes sense.
Chelsea:
God, you love insurance.
Vivian:
I know, I don't know. What can I say? Let's say you're a car insurance agent. It would make sense to show up in the local high schools because that's when kids are starting to get their driver's license, right? They're looking for coverage, and it's top of mind for the parents. Just figure out ways that your business can get in front of people that potentially will be primed or are primed to buy your product or service.
Chelsea:
Yes, and Vivian, I want to go back and touch on how you said, you know, $250 for a year could get you yada yada. Sponsorships can be very cost effective and they have great range. Like you can find a sponsorship for $2.50.
I don't think you can find a sponsorship for $2.50. $250, you can find a sponsorship or you could get a sponsorship with a big event that's probably going to be closer to like $2,000. There's a range so you can find something that works best for you. It also is, we've already touched on this, but just a really, really great way to demonstrate your love for your community, which I think you should absolutely not downplay as a small business.
Vivian:
Yeah, and so you can also tie it in to maybe some of the values that your business, you know, in a recent episode, we talked about a mission and a vision statement for your small business. Well, if you have, let's say part of your mission is to somehow, you know, affect a certain community, whether that's small business owners, or it could be people with disabilities or something along those lines.
If any of that is part of your mission or your vision, then it would make sense for you. One of the ways that you can just solidify that and remind people of that is for you to choose organizations or businesses through sponsorship that you can partner with. The reason I bring that up is we have really great friends that launched a nonprofit organization here in Charleston, Be The Change Charleston. They work directly with people with disabilities to find them jobs and just give them programs that they can learn to, you know, to succeed in life. And I love that mission that they have. They have sponsorship opportunities for businesses. And so it's nice to be able to, you know, say like, if that's something that's near and dear to me, then I want to contribute a certain amount. And then in return, I get some visibility, right?
Because they're out there promoting the event that they're putting on or they're out there promoting the programs that they have available and somehow my name is tied to it or my business is tied to it.
Chelsea:
Yeah, I'm really glad that you brought that up because I know we just said it has to be related to your business. It doesn't have to be related to your business in the field. Like in that sense, if it is related to your core beliefs. You still need to find a way to get there and still needs to be a connection.
Vivian:
Before we move on to the next opportunity that's not social media that businesses have to promote themselves, I do want to add a little asterisk here and just remind you guys that there are so many different ways to go about this with the sponsorship. Even if you're saying like, hey, I don't have a whole lot of funds. Like we said, there are different tiered levels, but you can also partner with other businesses and let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
Let's say I'm a chamber member. Every month the Chamber of Commerce has a, what do you call it, like a business after hours. Okay. I can't do, I can't host it on my own. I don't have the $2,000 that's required to host it and I don't have a space because I don't have a physical storefront.
So instead though, what I do is I approach the chamber and I say, hey, even though I can't sponsor this on my own, I'd be interested in partnering with other businesses that would like to band together to sponsor this. So then you're getting a little creative because you and maybe two other small businesses could band together. You could find someone that does have the space, the physical space for it. You could find someone that's willing to pay for the food. And then maybe you could be responsible for paying for you know, the drinks or the promotional items, whatever it is. And so I just want to encourage you that if you're a newer business or you just don't have a large budget, don't count yourself out on these.
There are many different ways. What I would do is be sure that you're active on, whether it's Facebook or social media or just in your community asking around like, hey, what are good sponsorships? What, you know, do you have any opportunities for me to be engaged and to tap into, you know, something like that?
Chelsea:
Love that example. Okay, so let's move on to our next marketing initiative that does not involve social media.
PR in general, absolutely. I have a very specific example that I feel like people don't, I feel like small businesses don't consider. Podcast appearances.
Vivian:
Yeah, that's a really good one. So in the traditional setting, when we think of PR, because all small businesses know what that is, right? We're like, that's a good PR opportunity, right? Then some of us, well, not me, but some people think all PR, even bad PR, is good PR, right? That's not me. I do not believe that.
Chelsea:
Are we making a stand right here officially. The Seasoned Marketer. The Seasoned Marketer does not believe that all PR is good PR.
Vivian:
Yes, exactly. We think that PR opportunities, just like marketing initiatives of all kinds, should align with your mission and vision. If you're getting bad PR, sure, that's going to make you popular, but probably not in the ways that you want to be, right?
So in the traditional sense, when we think of PR, we're always thinking, hey, it means my name was mentioned on the news or someone came out and interviewed me for a publication. But to Chelsea's point, so much of that has morphed over the last like 10 years because of the way we are consuming information.
So whether that be a podcast, whether that be you appearing on someone's YouTube channel, what's another one, Chelsea? Blog. You could be like a, you know, a partner writer or contributor, partner writer. A contributor to a blog post, right?
Chelsea:
I love that example. I didn't think of that. Yeah, just getting creative and thinking outside the box when it comes to PR. Like it doesn't just have to be magazines and appearances on the news or stuff like that. Reach out to podcasters, I bet you they want to have you on there. We want to have you on our podcast. If you're a small business owner and you feel like you have something you want to say about your marketing, email us. We'd love to have you on here.
Vivian:
Absolutely. One recent example though that I do want to use is we have a very delicious donut shop here in Goose Creek, South Carolina y'all. It is called Donut Connection and Philly Cheesesteaks of Goose Creek. right.
Chelsea:
Okay. Ooh, I want a Philly cheesesteak now. Okay.
Vivian:
Oh my gosh. They are delicious. I mean, their donuts are even better, but their cheese steaks are pretty darn good too. So Joanna happens to be the owner of the store, very active on TikTok. I mean, she'll do like TikTok lives because they have to get up at like one in the morning to go in because everything's fresh. They're not doing, everything is made from scratch. So they get up at one, go to the store and then they bake everything for that day until they sell out and trust me y'all they sell out, okay. But she was recently on a program here in South Carolina. It was in Palmetto Life.
She got like, I don't know if it was a 10 minute or a 15 minute segment, very, very well done. And that was free PR on her end because I promise you she ended up sharing it. Right. So it came out, she was like, hey, look for us in Palmetto Life.
The very next day, I'm almost certain she wrote on her Facebook that they were so busy because people were coming in because I guess they saw the segment, but that's the way good PR can work to your advantage. It could definitely, if potential customers or clients read, watch, and they're interested in that type of information that you're sharing, then it definitely can correlate to increased sales.
Chelsea:
I still haven't tried Donut Connection. The thing is I live in like Nexton area, Summerville. So it's like a 30 minute drive for me. One day I'm just gonna have to do it.
Vivian:
They have this delicious thing called a cronut. It is a cross between a croissant and a donut. So, so, so good. Yeah, it's delicious. My favorite.
Chelsea:
That sounds so good.
Well, I have an example of us kind of practicing what we preach. As you guys probably know by now, we have the SOB community and once a week we do a hour-long Zoom call to talk with our community members just to help them talk through marketing, answer any questions they may have about marketing.
One of our community members has an event that she has planned. She's trying to get the name out there. She's trying to find ways to really promote it. We suggested to her, hey, reach out to local news stations. Like it would be great if you created a press release, but you don't even have to do that. Just send them the information that they need in like, I mean, they have what like, leave a tip here, they have forms that you can fill out. Just doing that, here's the thing, news cycles are 24/7. We've had this conversation. They're looking for news. If you focus on your local news stations, I promise you they're probably going to want to run your story.
Vivian:
Yeah, they definitely, it's almost, I would change my perspective because it used to be, you know, we used to say, pitch someone a story. I would almost argue now that you're doing them a favor. You're helping them out. So change your perspective in thinking, you know, if you have an event that you're planning, if you have something newsworthy to share, you're actually helping that reporter that's going to cover the story because you're giving them like a lead for something that they can put in the programming. And so it's a win-win on both ends.
They're not going to pick up everything, but I do think the probability is very high, especially these days. As Chelsea mentioned, if you feel a little eerie or a little like this is uncharted territory, I've never done this before, it's OK because I'm telling you as someone who's been doing this for a long time, it is as easy as it's ever been to be able to connect.
What I would recommend, like Chelsea said, first go to their website, see if there's a Submit a News Tip section, or sometimes they will actually list like, I think it's newsroom at then whatever the handle is. Or you can also go onto their page that shows all of the reporters and see if any of those reporters have an Instagram, because most of them now have a professional Instagram page that they use for reporting the news. Send them a DM, give them all the details. The more details you give them, the less they have to like go scrounging for it.
Chelsea:
If you still feel a little uncomfortable about it and you want some extra help, you can join the SOB community. We are there to help you.
Vivian:
Oh yeah, we'll look over any press releases or give you formats or templates for you to copy and paste and then insert your information so that way you can get it in front of the right people.
Chelsea:
Yeah, super simple, super simple. So Vivian, what is our next example or next marketing initiative, I guess.
Vivian:
For this one, we're gonna teleport back in time to the early 1900s. I'm joking, no. It's good old fashioned networking because y'all, some things just never go out of style. I get it, it takes a lot out of people, especially if you are just not someone like me who enjoys talking their life away. If you're a little more of an introvert, we promise you, you can gain a lot of value out of attending network events. So Chelsea, correct me if I'm wrong, when we did our 2025, you know, going into the new year, or no. It was our Christmas special, we were talking about the 12 days of Christmas? We actually included a tip for how many events for people to attend? Was it five?
Chelsea:
Yes. I think it was five.
Vivian:
Yeah, so try five networking events at the very least throughout the year in the next 12 months because that's gonna give you enough opportunity to get really comfortable with it, right? Or at least then you're getting those reps into where it starts to feel a little more familiar. There's just so much value in rubbing elbows and meeting people face to face. Internet is great, social media is fabulous.
But you know, there's just something about being able to show up in front of somebody and see them in real life 3D.
Chelsea:
Vivian, I also want to leave this tip with our listeners. If someone is not your ideal target audience, that does not mean you stop the conversation right there and walk away. You still need to be professional and polite. You know, even if they're not your target audience, they might know someone who is your target audience and they can go back to them and say, this person was really great. I think you'd love what they have to offer. Go check them out.
I say this because y'all, if you haven't listened to our networking episode, please go back and listen to it because one, it's really great information. We give you tips on how to network both as an introvert, because I'm an introvert and Vivian's an extrovert. So from two different perspectives, but Vivian gives an amazing example about something she experienced. She has an insurance story. Vivian, could you tell that insurance story again? Because I think it's a great one. It's a great example of what not to do.
Vivian:
Okay, so I was at a local chamber event and basically...
I was talking, engaging with a gentleman who, we had just introduced ourselves like, Hey, what do you do? Who do you work for, this and that. The low down, small talk that you do. And then he says to me, he's like, well, are you in need of insurance? Like, do you have house insurance or whatever? And I'm like, yeah, no, we've been with the same insurance company now for years and we don't plan on switching over. He literally just stopped talking to me, turned away and went on to a different conversation. I was like, what? That's kind of rude.
But I think his problem is he was so short-sighted in his goal of attending that networking event. I understand that you feel like if this is a marketing opportunity, you go out and you network, which means I have to go find people that are interested in insurance that then the next day I can pitch to and say, hey, let me be your insurance guy.
What I told Chelsea was a couple different things. Number one, you ended a conversation with me. If let's say I wasn't looking to switch my insurance company today, but something happened, my rates increased, and maybe next month I suddenly was looking for one. I now am definitely not going to call you because the other part of it is you somehow expect me to believe that you're going to deliver excellent customer service when my house burns down and I'm calling you frantically at 2 a.m. in the morning because I don't know what to do and that somehow you're going to be compassionate enough to help me. I don't think so sir. You couldn't even finish a five minute conversation with me. All right. When you found out I was not going to hear your pitch or wasn't interested in hearing it.
So my thing to people with networking is: yes, there is a direct goal in the sense that you're going to create relationships or potential prospects to buy your product and service, but there's a longer term goal of creating relationships or meeting people that maybe right now do not seem like they might be interested, but down the road, continuing to nurture that relationship, they could be.
This is the same thing, you know, we talk about how I'm still working in a corporate setting. When you talk about nurturing relationships over time, very rarely are you going to get what you want in the first pass. Sometimes it takes a couple months of you reaching out and just building that relationship and you helping them, doing them a favor, doing whatever, and then eventually they'll switch their business over to you. But it's not immediate. They have to trust you in order to take a leap to say, I'm gonna leave what I know for this business because I know that person will take care of me. Or I know that person will do, you know, provide excellent customer service, whatever that is.
Chelsea:
Can I also say - who doesn't already have insurance? You know, like I feel like that's the first thing you do. So for him to be like, oh, do you have insurance? Oh, forget it. Like. You couldn't have asked more. I'm sorry. You couldn't have asked more questions like, oh, do you enjoy your provider? What do you like about your provider? Maybe you could learn more things about what people find is good quality insurance. You just ended the entire conversation. Wow. Okay.
Vivian:
Yeah. Networking, just expect that it's the long-term game. We tell you with a lot of other marketing initiatives, YouTube, long-term game, podcasting, long-term game, email list, long-term game, y'all. Networking, treat it the same way, right? I can tell you because for one, I do enjoy going to networking events. I find them to be fun and also if you go to enough of them, you start to maybe see some of the same people. Then that's where you really do start to find out more about people and more about their background. It's one hell of a thing because we still live in a world where it's who you know, not what you know. 'm just going to tell you, that's still the case in a lot of business settings. You just need to provide yourself opportunities to be in those types of environments and rooms.
S.O.B. Community Commercial
Vivian: You know what we keep hearing from you fellow S.O.B.s?
Chelsea:
Small Owned Businesses.
Vivian:
Yes, small owned businesses. You guys are so overwhelmed with your marketing.
Chelsea: And we totally get that! You didn't start your bakery, or your boutique store, or your jewelry business to become full time marketers or content creators, or ad designers.
And marketing can feel really overwhelming.
Vivian:
Oh yeah. Then you S.O.B.s try to go figure it out, because that's what you do. You Google stuff, watch videos, and end up spending hours trying to figure it out, only to sometimes end up more confused.
Chelsea:
This is my full time job and trust me, the way marketing is talked about on the world wide web can be really misleading.
Vivian:
Let's not even talk about trying to hire an agency for help. It's daunting, they don't know your small business like you do, and so they are not as effective. And let's not even talk about the cost.
Chelsea:
We understand why a lot of you S.O.B.s feel ready to give up. That's why we even bothered to create The Seasoned Marketer.
Vivian:
That's also why we started the S.O.B. Community. We wanted to create something practical and affordable for people who can't, or simply don't want to, outsource their marketing.
Chelsea:
Right. So for $50 a month members can get free downloads and templates, step-by-step tutorial videos, a weekly live Q&A call with both of us marketing professionals and other S.O.B.s. You also become part of a supportive community to bounce ideas off of.
Vivian:
It's like having a boardroom of like-minded individuals and marketing professionals where you can talk through all your marketing questions.
Chelsea:
Without having to pay boardroom marketing agency prices!
Vivian:
So if you're tired of wasting time trying to figure it all out on your own...
Chelsea:
Or spending money on things that don't work, join us over at the S.O.B. Community.
Vivian:
We'll help you turn your marketing stress into marketing success. And hey, it's just $50 a month.
Chelsea:
So click the link in the description to join, and we can't wait to see you in the S.O.B. Community.
Vivian & Chelsea:
Now back to the episode.
End of Commercial
Chelsea:
Love that you brought up email lists because that is my next example. It's email marketing.
We are huge fans of email marketing. I am a huge fan of email marketing. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you've heard me say it's not about you when it comes to emails. Even if you don't open your emails, your target audience might. So definitely consider email marketing. One of the key reasons is because you are in control. That's one of the biggest problems that I have with social media. This whole TikTok ban.
For those 12 hours, you lost that audience. You were not in control. There was nothing you could do.
Vivian:
Yeah, and let's also talk as a small business owner because I think we all have to think like this. Part of our responsibility is to mitigate risk, right? You do this whether you're, let's say you're hiring somebody, an employee, you're going to try to find the best candidate because you understand that you're taking resources to train them. You're going to try to keep them there as long as you can because that's good for your customers, right? So you're mitigating all these risks. You're setting, you're making good decisions to set yourself up for success. Like Chelsea said, relying solely on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, any platform that you don't have access to on the back end means that you're allowing risk to enter which we're not telling you that's not a good risk. That's great. Being able to leverage what they're doing on these platforms is fabulous. You're tapping into a market. However, in order to balance that risk, get them onto your email list, because then what you're doing is you're transitioning those potential customers from a platform where if it shuts down tomorrow, you have no access to them to then a platform where like if TikTok shuts down tomorrow, you can still email them, right?
If you were saying like, Hey, I have some really pressing and important information to share with them. Well I could send them an email. That's the whole thing is look at it as, an email list is a good way for you to mitigate risk. So that way you can always communicate with your target audience.
Chelsea:
Y'all, also want to bring up traditional marketing. Okay. Traditional marketing is not obsolete. People still be on TV. Okay. Some people still listen to the radio.
Vivian:
Some people be on the radio still, some people be on the TV.
Chelsea:
My bad. Some people still watch TV. Some people still listen to the radio. Even these new twists on traditional marketing, you can now advertise with Hulu. You can advertise with Netflix. You can advertise with Spotify. You can send out postcards. Traditional marketing, not only, one, has modernized, but it's also even if you don't do those twists on traditional marketing, it still works. It's not obsolete.
Vivian:
Yes, and so they are not obsolete, right? But now even they are doing things a little differently. So perfect example of this is newspapers. You know, earlier we were, we talked about community sponsorship opportunities. Surprisingly enough, newspapers do a lot of this. Okay. If y'all don't know, let's say you wanted to do newspaper advertising. You would have a couple different options that they would put in front of you. For one, they now have banner, digital banner ads that they're doing on their digital publications. So if you're going to news2.com, they have that stuff on there. Summerville journal scene, they have the ads running on all of their web pages.
So now you have digital ads that you could do through them. You could do traditional print ads. You can also do spotlights, right? Where let's say I want to be, I'm a healthcare company. I want to be their healthcare contributor. So they will allow me to pay to be able to sponsor content and write content for their health section. There's also, you're laughing, Chelsea.
Chelsea:
I had a memory. Do you want me to? Okay, so...
Vivian:
I like how she says, : do you want me to yeah, okay", I'm moving forward with it without your response.
Chelsea:
I worked for an allergy office. I was once asked to write a press release, except for we didn't have anything to share. It's just that it was spring, so allergies are bad. So write a thing about how we can help with allergies. I was like, well, that's not really a press release. I'm going to send this to them and they're going to come back asking to do what you just explained, like a sponsored article or something like that.
"No, no, no, no, no. Just send out a press release." Guess what happened?
Vivian:
Sponsored article.
Chelsea:
They wanted to do a sponsored article and the provider that I worked for said, no, I don't want to spend money. I don't want to pay for anything. I wanted this to be free. Sir, that's not how this works. Maybe if we had an event.
Vivian:
Or if you, if there was something new for that spring season, like let's say there was new data or information to share, right? Then you can kind of like wrap it around that something that's newsworthy. Yeah, and they would print that for free, but if it's just like a long ad for your business, they're not going to print that. To your point, Chelsea, which is rightfully so, the newspaper came back and was like, "hey, we will gladly print this under our health section as a sponsored content or sponsored article, but you're gonna pay us like $600, $1,000 to do it", whatever their price range is. So that's just the way it works right now with some of these traditional mediums.
So on top of the sponsored content, they also now do events. I don't know how many of you know this, but like our local newspaper has this really fabulous Christmas event that they put on where they bring a Santa Claus out. They have all the kids. You can actually sponsor it, right? Or be like a, you know, a person...
Chelsea:
The way that you said it...The way that you said it made it sound like they brought the Santa and they brought the kids. Like they brought their own kids in and they brought their own Santa Claus. I'm sorry.
Vivian:
These kids are hired help.
No, that's pretty much it. So just know and understand whether it's television who now offer streaming services and let's take television. Perfect example, they do the same thing. So now when it comes to television ads, you not only are talking about like programming on like channel four, if you're doing something through them. They now also have a website, which means that your commercial shows up on their website now. Now all of this is in the contract. You negotiate the terms and you negotiate where your ad shows up, where your commercial shows up. But these are things that they've adjusted and now include because of the way things have changed and the way people are consuming information.
So just know if you're poo-pooing on traditional advertising opportunities, we want you to quit that and just think if it makes sense, then maybe it's something for you to consider. If it doesn't make sense, do I want to be doing television advertising? No. That doesn't make sense for what we're doing. We'll get much better return on investment spending our money on digital ads or somewhere else.
So moving into, speaking of digital ads, let's go ahead and talk about that, Chels.
Digital ads are another great avenue for small business owners outside of social media. Now, some people, when I say digital ads, they may be thinking Google ads. That's correct. You could go in there and spend Google ads to highlight certain keywords or phrases and ensure that your business gets populated at the top.
Remember though, we've had in a previous episode a discussion about SEO, search engine optimization, and how it's changing moving into 2025 because now Google's integrating AI. So those ads are now going to be somewhere else on the page, but it has been said that potentially Google ads could become increasingly more expensive just because less and less people are going to be going to Google.
So that's still to be determined, but it's a viable option for now. The other part of it is digital ads, as I mentioned, when they're under the umbrella of that traditional advertising, whether it be through the local newspapers or through the local television stations, or also social media. Let me introduce an idea to you if you have not heard this term. It's called cross network in a digital ad.
What that means is I could go into, let's say Facebook and Instagram, and I can choose to run a campaign where I upload my ad and in there, there's an option to do cross network. All that means is they partner with other websites online to provide opportunities for your ad to show up there. All right. This is why sometimes if let's say you're on a blog for a recipe, right? You're making a recipe. You're on that blog. You're looking at it and you'll see a familiar ad come across for a local business. And you're like, oh my gosh, they're advertising on that blog. No, they're doing a cross network ad that they just inputted, right? The network said, hey, just stick this ad here because that lady is within 20 miles of that store or something like that. So you do have really great opportunities to customize something that works well for your small business.
Chelsea:
Love that you gave all those examples of digital ads. We're going non digital now and for our last example. We're focusing on community and community specific opportunities. So what do we mean by this. Vivian, we grew up in the Air Force community. Our father was in the Air Force. We moved around a lot. Air Force bases have...
I don't want to say community again! But Air Force bases have their own ecosystem. You know, they have their own newspaper, they have their own gym, their own events, their own stuff going on. You can be a part of that. Let's think of a less exclusive community. We have the new Nexton community here in Summerville.
They do an amazing job of hosting events. They had a tree lighting. They have like a, well, I don't know if they have a third Thursday. That's a Summerville thing, but they have things going on in their little community that you can be a part of as a small business.
Vivian:
I'm so glad we're not drinking. We're not doing a drinking game right now because I feel like I would be on the floor for as many times as we said community there.
Chelsea:
I know, right? People have to be so tired of us. I'm sorry.
Vivian:
Not true, not true. Yes, well to your point, let's go back to the military base thing. If I'm a small business owner and let's say I'm on the outskirts of an army base, okay, Fort Jackson here in Columbia, South Carolina. I own a little donut shop outside of that. The one way I can tap into them is to: for one, contact their local newspaper for Fort Jackson specifically and say, hey, how much are ads? That could be a great way. The one thing that we used to do, as a long time ago in a previous healthcare company that I used to work for is - I made through one of the networking opportunities, I made a connection with the lady that ran all of their family programming on the Air Force Base.
I flat out just told her, said, look, anytime you guys want a healthcare organization there, if it's for a family event, if you are doing anything health related for the airmen or whatever, we'd be more than happy to do. The reason that was such a good connection, and we did it for many, many years, but at their gym on the base. She would try to, she was in charge of trying to engage with the airmen, right? And just provide opportunities for them. So she would set up little events, and they were early in the morning, girl. I mean, I would have to get up super early, but she would reach out and say, hey, if you guys want to be a sponsor, here's how much it would cost, but you'll be able to come set up a table. You can give promotional items. You can bring snacks, coffee, whatever you want to do. So for us, it worked well because for one, I know for a fact they all have TRICARE. What a great target audience, right? For a healthcare company, that's like a dream come true, right? That was a great opportunity for us to tap into that community.
So I'm just saying, yes, I hope you guys are playing a drinking game by now. So we're just saying, if there's any type of close knit niche down audience that you want to target, then consider reaching out and just asking. The other one that I think a lot of people don't think about, and sometimes these are super, super cost effective, and then in some areas they're not as cost effective. They actually get a little more expensive.
I used to live in a neighborhood called King's Grant. This was a smaller neighborhood, but we had a monthly, what do you call it? Little newsletter that came out. I had asked them one time. I said, "by the way, like, do you accept sponsors for this?" Yeah. $25. Okay. Well, all day long, I'll pay $25 for you to be, to let me put an ad of one of our physicians in there. Very targeted. It was a captive audience because it was a, I don't want to say older neighborhood, but it was people that checked their mail. Okay. They read their mail. It was still print, and we happened to have an office right down the road. Bingo. Check, check, check. Checked everything off for me.
Also think of it like that, which is why Chelsea brought up the Nexton community here, because it's a newer neighborhood, a very big neighborhood where, actually I would call it a development. That's a better word. So it has shops, it has businesses, it has grocery stores, restaurants, neighborhoods.
Chelsea:
I'm going to be honest, at this point it's going to be its own little town. Summerville, Goose Creek, Nexton.
Vivian:
Yeah, I'm surprised that they don't have a Nexton, South Carolina. But right now it's still a big sprawling development. To Chelsea's point, go in there. I know the one thing that I've also done there is, and it was really cute, mom and dad came out to this because it was on a weekend and I worked it and it was early morning. They do these health classes every once in a while. So maybe two to three times a year, they'll invite everybody that lives in that surrounding area in their neighborhoods and they say, hey, we're going to do yoga on the green, right? We're gonna have vendors there. Because I know lots of families live there, I set up a table on behalf of the organization and it's always kid friendly, right? We bring little goldfish out or whatever it is just to...
Chelsea:
The snacks. Just saying.
Vivian:
I'm not transporting little fishies. Well, and then I do like a little photo op. We did a little styrofoam board that was like a fish in a fishbowl and they can put their little face in and had our logo and they could take a picture. All those things because at the end of the day, it provides value for them to know that we're there and available, but it's tapping in to everyone that lives in that geographic area.
Chelsea:
Okay y'all, let's go ahead and do the TLDL. Too long, didn't listen. So if you have skipped all the way to this chapter, thank you for listening to our little summary. When you get the chance, go back and listen to the entire episode, maybe play a drinking game because we say community way too many times. But here is the lowdown of what you need to know.
Small businesses, you are not required to do social media marketing. We're not saying it's not a good option, but if you're getting tired of it, or you just want to diversify, which is very important, here are some options that are not social media. We've got sponsorships. We have PR in general, networking, email marketing, traditional advertising, community specific opportunities, and digital ads that includes cross networking and geo fencing, all of that stuff. So these are all options that you can use to grow your small business. These are all marketing initiatives that do not involve social media.
So again, to really understand each of these marketing initiatives, you want to go back and listen to this whole conversation. But thank you guys again for listening. If you have a topic you want us to talk about, please let us know. Send us an email at help@TheSeasonedMarketer.com or you can send us a DM, you can leave a comment in the comment section, whatever works best for you.
If you're a small business owner who has something they want to say about marketing, we'd probably love to have you on the podcast. So just reach out to us and go be the best SOB you can be.
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