2022 Marketing Predictions from a Brand Strategist and Coach

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

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Marketing is always changing! Every single year it feels like there is a new focus on what we should be focused on to succeed.

As someone who studies this work on a regular basis, looking for trends, changes, and ways to excel, I can tell you it's exhausting! The way platforms change suddenly, right after it feels like you've gotten the hang of it, to new "must-know" platforms popping up regularly can be a real pain.

But, a few years ago I started to look at marketing differently. What if we didn't just focus on the fads and trends and what was working right at this moment, but more on longevity. The tried and true practices that had been working for years?!

My entire approach to marketing changed at that moment and so did my business. Over the past two years, I've experienced incredible growth in my business sales and leads, without sacrificing my time or spending an insane amount on a marketing budget.

So, as we enter another year of marketing, which is sure to be full of fun changes, I'm sharing my top predictions from the year ahead. What to see how my 2021 predictions played out? Check those out here.

In Episode 31, of the Brandmerry Podcast, tune in now to hear:

• The biggest lesson we learned from 2021 when it comes to marketing our businesses and what every single entrepreneur will need to succeed in 2022.

• How I really feel about video marketing in the new year and if every entrepreneur really needs it.

• The tried and true approach to marketing that just hasn't changed and why it's more important than ever!

Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.

P.S. Good news! All of the marketing predictions shared in this podcast episode are covered and taught in great detail inside of Brandmerry Academy. From storytelling to video marketing and even your brand foundations, The Academy helps you market without relying on social media! Learn more and join the waitlist at brandmerry.com/academy.

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Top Marketing Tools for Solopreneurs

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

Today, I want to share with you some of the top tools that we use over here at Brandmerry to improve our marketing. These are tools we're using every single day, as well as ones that we intertwined into our weekly workflow.

If you don't already know, I am a big, big fan of productivity. 

I'm a big fan of simplifying and streamlining the process of marketing, and these tools that I'm sharing with you today are lifesavers. 

The combination of these tools and weekly workflows save us so much time, when I say my existing workflow not only saved my sanity in business but also resulted in more revenue I’m not exaggerating. 

In 2019, I got serious about my systems and the data and results were clear. Now, as part of my membership Brandmerry Academy, I teach entrepreneurs daily how to master their content and marketing workflow as well.

So let’s briefly talk about that process before delivering the tools.

DESIGNING YOUR MARKETING WORKFLOW

So essentially, over here at Brandmerry, we have a weekly marketing workflow. We've been fine-tuning this strategy for about two and a half years now. 

What this means is that every week I'm creating content and every week I'm creating the same amount of content. Unless we're going through a launch or promotion, the content always stays the same. 

For us that means a video is getting released, a blog post is going on the blog, social media content is going out there, and every other week we've got podcasts going out to my audience as well. So we always have this very, very clear idea of the things that we're repeating week after week. 

This gives us a roadmap, complete with checklists, that make sure my team and I are going through the motions in executing these workflows. 

Every week, I and the team know exactly what we need to do in order to get that content out there, and we're repeating this process week after week after week. 

I’ll be breaking this entire process down in an upcoming episode, but I wanted to just share this concept with you if you have not initiated a marketing workflow for your business yet. 

I’ll be referencing this concept throughout the blog, so now you know!

TOP TOOLS FOR MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS

canva

The very first tool that I want to share with you today is Canva. Now, you probably know about Canva, this is not some revelation of this amazing tool, but I find that a lot of people aren't using Canva to its fullest potential. 

We use Canva for just about everything over here, even though I and multiple members of my team, including our marketing manager, have a background in graphic design. We know how to use Adobe, InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, but we come back to Canva time and time again because it's so accessible. 

It's something that we can work on together in a project, we can access it from anywhere that we need, and that makes it really, really awesome as a digital nomad who is working from anywhere that I can get internet access.

We primarily use Canva for our graphic design. 

We use it for Pinterest images, for our social media content that you see going out, Insta stories that we have pre-designed. 

We’re using it for workbooks that we create for our courses and for our freebies. Really anything that has some sort of a graphic design element to it, we are using Canva for the most part.

Now, you might be familiar with the platform, but where I find people aren’t using it to its greatest potential, and what will ultimately help you with your weekly content workflow, and that’s utilizing the templates. 

When you're a solopreneur and you're not hiring a graphic designer, or maybe you don't even have a lot of graphic design background, you can use Canva to create templates to repurpose week after week.

They have designs ready for you that you can customize with your brand colors and your brand fonts, but you can also go in and create your own from scratch. We save these so anytime we need to update something, we just go into that template and update it.

Many of my clients who are getting started on Pinterest, because it's such an amazing platform for entrepreneurs, will create six to seven pin templates that they can just go into week after week, change out the colors, change out the title, and switch out the photo. 

So it's only taking them 10 to 15 minutes every week to make sure that they have graphics for their blog. 

If you have workbooks that you're updating every week or every quarter for a program, creating a template for that, and then just reusing it over and over again can save you a lot of time as well.

So I highly, highly recommend Canva. They have a free version and then they also have a paid version. We use the paid version because we can save the brand colors and the fonts and have a million different folders and all these different things for organization, which is super nice.

ubersuggest

The second tool I want to share with you today is called Ubersuggest. Now, this is one that's a little less known but it's one of our favorites. 

If you don't already know, my program Brandmerry Academy teaches entrepreneurs how to market their business without relying on social media. The program puts a really big emphasis on evergreen content through blogging, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google. 

All of those platforms rely heavily on keyword research. 

Ubersuggest is a great way to do that research, as well as get those secondary keywords that you can use in your blog posts. 

With this tool, you can get a good idea of how easy it's going to be to rank for that particular keyword or industry, you can look at competitors who have done something similar for inspiration. It's truly a whole plethora of information that's so important as a content creator.

We use Ubersuggest in a lot of different ways, but one of the things that we love to do is use it as a way to come up with our content strategy for the next 90 days. Every quarter (or slightly before) we type in some important keywords that we know we want to rank for and get some content ideas to put into our content calendar for the next 90 days.

Then we dive a little bit deeper within each one and use the information from Ubersuggest to craft our titles, our headers in the blog posts, what we're going to use on Pinterest and so on. 

As with most options, there is a free version with limited searches and then you can also pay for it for a year for unlimited, which is very nice.

Again, as I’m sharing these tools I’m also stressing the importance of being strategic with your content creation. So many entrepreneurs are just creating content because they're like, "Oh, I think this might be nice," but there's data and there's research there on what people are searching for and you want to use that to your benefit. 

Ubersuggest is just one of the tools that you could use, but it's one of our favorites over here.

convertkit

When it comes to email marketing, I have been a fan of Convertkit for a very long time and I still love them so much. I've been using Convertkit since I made the switch from MailChimp back in 2017.

When you are running a business, you need an email marketing platform because you need a way to gather your leads and put them into an email funnel. 

You need a way to tag them and segment them. 
You want a way to track what they're doing, what they're clicking on. 
You want a way to send those weekly broadcasts, whether that's sending your blog post or a video, or just a nice little newsletter. 
You want a way to email your community when you are launching and actively selling…

...and Convertkit is one of the best. 

They have awesome deliverability which results in a higher than average open rate and click-through rate. One of the reasons is because they've stripped away a lot of the fluffy things that come with email marketing. 

So, yeah the emails are pretty basic, although you can add some coding and photos, the less that you have the more it's going to improve your deliverability.

Convertkit is also super intuitive when creating sequences, funnels, and automations. Everything is able to be customized and you can send subscribers, based on interest to different funnels and track behavior for future promotions.

I say it a lot, but every entrepreneur needs an email list and needs an email platform, and Convertkit is one of, if not, the best.

social media scheduling

Speaking of Convertkit and scheduling emails, let's talk about scheduling some social media content. I want to share two tools with you here for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest (remember when I said I loved it?)

LATER

Later is what we use to schedule Instagram and Facebook content. Now, you can schedule natively through Creative Studio on Facebook and we do use that to schedule weekly IGTV videos, as well as upcoming Facebook Lives, but for weekly posts Later is what we prefer.

The reason we love Later as a team is because of their note feature. Oh my gosh, it's like our favorite thing.

You can go into your monthly calendar and you can add notes to your calendar to preplan your content. So we can map out the entire month and say, "All right, this month, this is what we need on each of these days. This is the topic. This is the photo that we're looking for." 

It’s really great because then I know what photos I need to plug in there, the team knows what other graphics we need, and we know what copy we need to add in there as well. Then we can add the tasks to ClickUp, which we use to manage tasks as a team.

In addition to the note feature, which we love for planning in advance, just being able to keep all of our photos in a nice organized folder to then schedule wherever it fits is amazing. I can add photos from my phone or desktop so we always have a reserve of photos for social media. 

The ability to pre-schedule social media content via Later allows me to spend my time doing other things and not logging in, etc to Instagram and Facebook multiple times a day.

TAILWIND

Now, Tailwind is the scheduler we use for Pinterest. They truly are the best of the best when it comes to Pinterest scheduling and as marketers, they give you so many different features that are essential to marketing on Pinterest including awesome analytics, Tailwind communities, and Smart Loops.

I'm not going to do a whole post on Pinterest because it truly is a beast, and there is a very, very strategic way to take on Pinterest. 

In fact, it's one of the things that I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, so join the waitlist if you’re interested in learning more, but know that Pinterest isn't just about pinning your most recent blog posts one time and then crossing your fingers and hoping that someone finds it. 

There's a clear strategy, and that requires consistent pinning and creating new, fresh content. 

Because of this approach to fresh content you want a way to organize all of that and to pre-schedule it so that you're not going onto Pinterest every day for 10 minutes to put fresh content out there. We don't want to live on these platforms to grow our business otherwise we’ll never be able to serve paying clients, so utilizing these tools will help you get in front of your audience, while also protecting your time and energy. 

Tailwind allows you to schedule your pins for an entire month and you can do fresh pins with your new blog posts that are coming out or whatever works for you in your business.

veed.io

All right, I've got another one for you, and this tool is called VEED.IO. 
VEED is an amazing platform to repurpose your video content. 

This blog is a great example. 

You might have seen this video on Facebook as part of Mondays with Michelle, if you didn’t you can check out what I mean below. 

Remember that workflow I was talking about in the beginning? Well, most of our content starts as a video. So we have this video, we upload it, we schedule it as a premiere on Facebook. 

We also take this video and we release it on YouTube. 

We also take this video and we release it as an IGTV. And for IGTV specifically, we want to adjust the formatting. With VEED you can adjust it so that it's a full vertical or I personally like to have the captions at the bottom and the title at the top, and we're able to do all of that in VEED.

VEED is a really awesome platform because you can upload the video from your computer, or you can pull directly via a link on YouTube. Then you can edit the video, you can crop it if you want to, you can cut out a section if it's not relevant to that specific platform, you can format the size, you can add the title, a transcript, all kinds of cool stuff. 

Again, this is the whole idea of marketing and using a workflow, repurposing your content so you're not creating one video and putting it out in one place and hoping that people find it. You're putting it out everywhere that it can be discovered so you can get in front of your ideal customer. 

If you go to my Instagram feed at michelleknightco, you'll see my videos that have been edited in VEED.

rev.com

The next thing that I want to share with you is actually for your transcripts. One of the things that we're doing with my videos is transcribing those videos into blog posts. Again, this is all part of the workflow that I'll share in a later post. 

There are a lot of transcript services out there, but we really love Rev.com. They are a little bit more expensive, so it depends on your need, but we really want someone doing it for us because I don't want to spend a bunch of time having to cut out all of my ums and my ahs and we’ve found Rev to be the best. 

We upload the video and typically have the transcript back within 24 hours. 

We’re then able to edit that transcript and put it on the blog. 

There are a lot of alternative options, they even have a cheaper option available if you just want an automated transcript for a video. But that's definitely something that you want to look into when you're creating video content or podcasting and you want to turn that into written content on your blog because it helps your content get discovered by more ideal customers and enhances SEO.

CONCLUSION

That was a lot of tools, but I hope it helps you understand just how possible it is to invest in a few great tools as a solopreneur so you can optimize your time more efficiently.

I know it's really hard to find the right tools for your business, especially when it comes to marketing. There are a million options out there, so hopefully, this takes some of the mystery out of it, gives you an awesome place to start. 

If you missed the other two posts from this series you can read about my top tools for Operations and Productivity here. 

If you want to get a headstart on your workflow, I have a free repurposing guide for you. You can go to brandmerry.com/repurpose and snag your free repurposing guide. 

And in the next few weeks, we're going to be talking more about content creation and creating your own custom workflows, so make sure you’re checking back weekly on Thursdays for new blogs!

Watch the full video below!

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Marketing Secrets: 3 Repurposing Mistakes to Avoid

Marketing Secrets: 3 Repurposing Mistakes to Avoid

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

If you don’t already know I’m obsessed with simplified and minimalist marketing strategies.

Starting my business with a newborn, then scaling my business while traveling full time has taught me to streamline my business faster than most.

I learned very quickly that extending the life of my content, through the art of repurposing my content was the secret.

Mix the strategy of repurposing with the strategies I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, to create more evergreen traffic to your website and you’ve hit the marketing sweet spot.

However, repurposing is a broad term and honestly many entrepreneurs do it wrong or miss out on some key pieces which result in mediocre optimization. Seriously, I want you to get the most impact from your time and energy, so avoiding these mistakes is key.

Read on to learn the 3 repurposing mistakes to avoid.

Content Repurposing Mistake #1: Thinking Too Small

One of the mistakes I see entrepreneurs make when repurposing is thinking too small. They limit themselves to the amount of content they can create from their core content.

In case you’re not familiar with the strategy I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy, all repurposed content comes from a core piece of content (email, blog, video, podcast, etc…) and then is expanded to additional platforms and additional posts.

Once you have this core piece of content, the possibilities are endless.

A single podcast could become:

• A new podcast episode

• A transcribed blog post

• 5-6 Pinterest images

• A Reel for Instagram

• 3-5 social media posts for Instagram

• 3-5 social media posts for Facebook

• 3-5 tweets on Twitter

...heck, you could even go live about the podcast episode answering questions or record the podcast episode for Youtube.

See? The possibilities are endless if you take the time to map out your strategy.

And, this isn’t just about creating more content, it allows you to spend less time creating content every single week, gives you more opportunities to reach your ideal customer, extends the life of your content (most social media content lasts a few hours, where blogs can last 2+ years) and did I mention it saved you time? Because it definitely does!

Content Repurposing Mistake #2: Not Optimizing For Warm and Cold Audience

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to content creation is not considering your audience at every single stage of the buying process.

I see entrepreneurs who only think about educating their audience (i.e. at the Problem or Solution Stage) or only creating content for those ready to buy (i.e. the Purchase Stage). When in reality, there is a way to produce content that serves your audience at every single stage.

Stages of the buying process is something I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy and is important when creating content!

Let’s take a video example into consideration. 

You create a new live video every week (by the way this could be a blog, podcast, etc...I’m not saying you have to do live video for this to work, but you get the idea).

So, you create a live video every week. 

That live video has a pretty specific title, it’s based on what your audience has asked about and leads to your current offer. Maybe it’s something like, “How to Repurpose Your Content for Social Media.”

It’s specific to your audience and what they’ve been asking for and designed for your existing audience, as live video doesn’t typically attract new people! This is most likely for people further along in the buying process as their seeking out solutions and product/ services to solve their problem.

Now you have this video content and you’re transcribing it for your blog, because you’re smart, but the people you want to attract to your blog will come from Google and/ or Pinterest and be a cold audience (i.e. people who don’t know you and your brand just yet).

The key here is to optimize for those at the beginning of the buying process and use Search Engine Optimized keywords and titles to do just that. 

After research, you might adjust the title to, “4 Ways to Save Time on Social Media and Plan Your Content for a Full Week!”

It’s more specific and rooted in research.

This is what I want you to remember. Choosing titles for content isn’t based on a feeling, it’s based on research - if you want to be discovered. This is why taking the time to research your content before creating and adjusting your titles for different platforms is important.

It’s one of the reasons I teach advance content creation inside of Brandmerry Academy, so your content doesn’t just sit there, but is actually discovered.

Content Repurposing Mistake #3: Consistency is Lacking

Although it may come as a shock to those of you that know me and my message, I’m not talking about the consistency in content, timing or even your message.

I’m talking about the consistency of your systems!

Your systems are everything and these daily, weekly and monthly habits are the difference between wasting hours and hours in your business and making money.

So, what do I mean by lack of consistency? I mean a lack in workflows!

Once, you’ve decided on your repurposing plan (i.e. your core content and additional platforms you’ll be optimizing) you can create a weekly workflow that can be duplicated week after week.

I feel like I don’t have to tell you how much time and energy this will save in your business!

And the best part, you don’t need a team to master this (although when the time is right, this can save even more energy), but just having this weekly workflow outlined will allow you to do more as a solopreneur.

I suggest using a platform like ClickUp or Asana to create your weekly content workflow and save it as a template.

This includes listing every step of the process from idea generation, writing, editing, formatting, graphics, scheduling and more!

You then can adjust the content topic, titles, and descriptions every week, but have a clear and optimized work flow. This can allow you to create your content for the entire week in a single day!

And as you grow your team, you can assign weekly tasks to members just further optimizing your time and making sure your energy is best spent on content and marketing!

CONCLUSION

Well, there you have it! 

If you’re making any of these mistakes it’s time to adjust your content and repurposing strategy.

It doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but it does need a little strategy behind it, which just so happens to be one of my specialties.

If you’re interested in not only learning more about repurposing your content, but also how to market without relying on social media, then check out Brandmerry Academy.

This monthly marketing membership was created to help entrepreneurs maximize their time and learn the true art of marketing, which isn’t really dependent on social media!

Your marketing can’t wait, it’s required to not only grow your audience, but move your audience through the buying process which, you guessed it, leads to profitability!

Learn more about Brandmerry Academy here and happy repurposing!

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

---

- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

2020 Marketing Lessons and Changes We’re Making for 2021

2020 Marketing Lessons and Changes We’re Making for 2021

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

One of my favorite things to do as I approach the end of another year is audit the heck out of my life.⁠⁠

I'm talking full life and business audit which includes my relationships, health, sales, systems, progress towards my big vision, marketing and more!⁠

And, one of my favorite areas to dive really deep into is marketing because there is so much data to make a super informed decision, but since I'm all about creating a business that also improves my overall quality of life I take it ALL into consideration!⁠

So even though 2020 was a difficult year for so many reasons, the truth is my marketing felt good. I was so happy with how simple, streamlined and actionable the Brandmerry marketing was last year, I still went ahead and changed it for 2021!

You might be questioning why I would change something that was working, that resulted in an increase in email subscribers, doubling our revenue and increasing website traffic by over 300%, just to name a few, keep reading!

Marketing Lesson #1 - Protecting My Time as a Business Owner

How it came to be: I doubled my cash revenue from 2019 and as this started to happen I found myself dreaming more about simplifying my business as it continues to grow. Rather than adding more to my plate and more things to do, I want to minimize.

Yes, I’ve always had the mindset that you can grow without doing more. I’m also a believer that more isn’t always better and from my experience the more you simplify the more space you have to expand.

It’s important to me that I never sacrifice my time for money or progress. So as we saw the revenue increasing, I was very concise of what was working and what wasn’t.

We evaluated the programs I offer, how I was showing up, our systems and more. This started happening around June 2020 and we worked behind the scenes through the end of the year.

What I learned: In order to make this goal of growth without sacrifice happen, I began to release I needed to release some of the control in my business. I defintely struggled with this and find that many solorpreneurs do. In the beginning it’s just you, just like it was just me creating the content, the materials, marketing, videos, email...all the things.

However, as I’ve slowly outsourced in my business it’s become clear that it’s required for growth. I quickly learned it was time, amped up my mindset work around releasing control and started to brainstorm ways to hand off more projects that didn’t require me. 

What’s changing in 2021: Brandmerry has always had the vision of growing into a company, so this decision actually felt really good to implement. It was difficult to navigate, but always felt like the right decision.

We’ve created new positions for my existing team members, who have been with me for years and I trust fully with the Brandmerry and Michelle Knight Co. brands. This looked like creating an Operations Manager role for tech, systems and customer support, although we plan to hire someone to take over customer support and community care in the second quarter of 2021. 

In addition, I created a new Marketing Manager role to take off some of the requirements for me to come up with content ideas, implement workflows and add a new platform...yep, we’re coming back to Youtube.

Marketing Lesson #2 - Getting 30 Days Ahead With Content Creation

How it came to be: One of the things I love creating for Brandmerry are videos, it’s my favorite way to create content for my audience and show up. Over the years, I’ve mastered my repurposing flow to center around video content and last year in 2020 it freaking shined!

In 2020, I went live every Monday for my weekly show Mondays With Michelle and used this content to create a weekly blog post, Pinterest graphics, multiple social media posts for Instagram and Facebook, as well as emails to my community.

However, this strategy still required a lot of my time to make it happen. And as I aim to free up more time for travel and take the pressure off to create weekly content, it became clear we needed to shift.

What I learned: I realized it was time to elevate my marketing production and create workflows that require less of me in real-time, plus taking the bulk scheduling to another level by getting 30 days ahead with created and scheduled content. 

As we elevate and add new roles and responsibilities to the Brandmerry team this became even more possible. As we navigated this lesson I wanted to make sure my marketing efforts weren’t compromised.

What’s changing: At the end of 2020, we went back to what I teach inside of The Brandmerry Academy on repurposing and scaled our entire strategy. 

Big picture 2021 this looks like being an entire month ahead of schedule with content. Rather than just having 90 days of content planned and creating the content weekly, we’re now switching our focus to having the 30 days of content planned, created and scheduled a month in advance.

This allows me to maintain one of my favorite elements, video creation and passing over everything else! You’ll see these changes role out with Mondays With Michelle and more throughout the year. 

This definitely was an exciting and scary decision. It’s an investment in team to free up more of my time and energy, but the ROI in extra hours every week to focus on growing Brandmerry, engaging with my community and supporting my clients, including adding more time to take on new clients will be incredible.

Marketing Lesson #3 - High-quality, Consistent Content Increases Sales

How it came to be: This lesson actually started back in 2019. When we first started traveling, I took a break from consistent live video. I switched to Youtube, but at the time it was hard to maintain consistent Youtube videos on the road. I noticed my consistency and quality began to lack.

So, in September 2019 I started to reevaluate how I was showing up and marketing Brandmerry. Something felt like it was missing in revenue and it became clear it was all centered around my content.

What I learned: As I mentioned before video marketing is my favorite and content in and of itself is my Queen Bee (something I learned from the book Clockwork). In 2020, I committed to showing up multiple times a week, with live videos pretty much every Monday.  

As I made this commitment and started implementing, it became clear that this high-quality content that was delivered consistently to my audience increased revenue. 

The combination of evergreen lead generation, SEO and Pinterest to be specific, and weekly videos to support my clients my sales grew, as well as client retention and ease in signing new clients.

This consistency built trust, making it easier to sign highlevel clients without a Discovery Call. In fact, we switched to an application for my VIP Intensives and found even when I offered calls for my live program Roadmap to Freedom, I didn’t do a single one.

What’s changing: I’m taking more of a hands-off approach to attracting new leads. The evergreen marketing strategies I have are working and don’t require me to show up daily. There the same strategies I teach inside of Brandmerry Academy in case you want in on this awesomeness.  

So with this shift, I’m able to focus my energy fully on nurturing my existing audience. Focusing my energy and attention on building deeper connection, Brand Affinity and trust. I’m so excited to be at a place in my business where I can elevate this entire experience!

Marketing Lesson #4 - Pinterest and Google Are a Marketing Must

How it came to be: In 2019, I noticed that my website traffic was climbing and after making some small tweaks to my SEO strategy. In addition, we put more emphasis on improving our Pinterest strategy, being more intentional and tracking analytics and noticed that more than 90% of traffic was coming from this platform.

What I learned: This was a pretty easy one to see happening, I mean my website traffic grew by 374% with over 120,000 website visitors in 2020.

Not only could we see that more people we’re finding and visiting my website, but after a brief analysis discover that Google and Pinterest we’re bringin in more high-paying clients. VIP Intensive clients we’re coming from Google where they wer’re searching for my services and many of my course clients were coming from Pinterest.

The reason for this is these platforms attract customers further along in the buying process and ready to invest. 

What’s changing: Not much from my end, because my attention is showing up for my existing community, but our overall company marketing strategy is shifting to put more emphasis on these platforms which are changing constantly. 

We never want to lose this edge so continuing to scale our efforts and modify with any changes is important. It’s also important to me that the marketing lessons inside of Brandmerry Academy are updated in real-time to support members, so this is good for business on all levels!

Lesson #5 - Marketing Always Works When You Have Data

How it came to be: In 2020, I increased my monthly budget for ad spend and it paid off! I spent $32,239 on ads and made roughly $75,000 on my program last year. That more than doubled my investment and doesn’t even take into consideration client retention when many of my clients moved from You! Branded to Brandmerry Academy, Roadmap to Freedom or my VIP Intensives.

What I learned: Marketing works. 

If you take the time to set it up and you’re constantly looking at your numbers and consistently following your plan in front of you, it will work. 

I only knew to invest that amount of money because I had tested my product organically, then I scaled it month to month watching my ROI with ad spend. I made adjustments along the way based on my numbers, never starting over or scraping the entire thing, but making small adjustments.

This isn’t just for advertising it works for email marketing, engagement, sales conversions all it and can be one of your best tools as an online marketer.

What’s changing: I’m continuing to scale my marketing budget and even hired someone to take it over for me. This was a decision that not only supported the ROI of our marketing budget, but again allows me to free up time in my schedule for more creative tasks.

It also prompted us to create more marketing and system trackers, as well as SOP’s (standard operating procedures) so we can take a hard look at all of our growth and numbers this year. 

I also set team projections for many of our marketing goals for revenue, email subscriber count, Pinterest monthly views, website traffic and more.

CONCLUSION

It was so rewarding to look at this audit and feel so confident in our marketing changes. It’s one of the many reasons I love marketing because it is measurable!

So many entrepreneurs are mindlessly marketing, when it needs to be one of the most intentional practices in your business not to mention required if you want to create consistent revenue.

Marketing is where 50% of your energy and time needs to go to build a successful business, but if you're not optimizing your strategy it probably feels more like 90% of your time.

That's why I love teaching entrepreneurs how to use advanced marketing strategies to get off of social media and on platforms that make a BIGGER difference. ..think consistent traffic to your website

...consistent leads and subscribers
...and you guessed it, consistent sales!

That stream of traffic and leads is so important, but also hard to do when you're relying solely on social media or worse Facebook Groups 🤪

I’ve always loved advanced marketing and have seen the incredible results, not just in revenue, but also in time freedom. It’s why in 2020, I launched my membership Brandmerry Academy.

Brandmerry Academy teaches entrepreneurs how to master their marketing without relying on social media or wasting time. Doors are opening soon for our 1-year anniversary and you can learn more and join the waitlist here: brandmerryacademy.com

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

2021 Marketing Projections for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

2021 Marketing Projections for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

As we head into 2021, there are so many lessons that we learned throughout 2020 that are going to impact how we market our businesses.

Of course, marketing is always changing, but the good news is that the predictions and trends we’re seeing for this next year have been building for quite some time, so none of them should require a complete overhaul of your existing strategy.

To be honest, I’m so excited about the following five trends because, as you’ll notice, there is a great deal of emphasis put on human to human marketing and focusing on building experiences as a brand. This is one of my favorite things about being a business owner and one of my favorites to teach.

So get ready because we’re going to see the following trends in full force and if you’re an online business owner and entrepreneur you want to make sure these are part of your marketing strategy moving forward.

To support you further, we’re sharing the five trends below and actionable steps and recommendations you can take within your business.

#1 Marketing Trend of 2021
Video Will Explode

At Brandmerry we love video. It’s my favorite strategy for creating core content for my brand and I’ve been so excited to see the changes and new additions to video marketing over the past few years.

Video marketing won’t be slowing down anytime soon we’re seeing more and more platforms embracing video options. According to a Cisco study, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content.

One of my favorite platforms Pinterest is making video a top priority. Releasing Pinterest Stories and more short video content within the feed (similar to Instagram Reels) to create more brand awareness and community feel.

In 2020, we saw the catapult of TikTok during the pandemic, followed by Instagram Reels later in the fall. These short-form pieces of video content meant to educate and entertain our audiences will continue to rise and be favored within the algorithm.

TAKE ACTION IN 2021: 

Make sure you’re creating consistent video content for your brand. If you struggle with consistency, be sure to check out my Consistency Guide here.

Hubspot found that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support

No matter what platform you’re most comfortable with there is a video option available or coming in 2021. This includes an increase in video use on Pinterest, Twitter (their new app called Fleets) and LinkedIn, as well as some of our favorites Facebook and Instagram.

BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:

Have fun with your video content. Think of ways to give incredible value to your audience while also sharing your personality to build a stronger connection to your brand. We love Instagram Reels for this and plan to repurpose those same videos to multiple platforms in 2021.

#2 Marketing Trend of 2021
Marketing OFF of Social Will Increase

2020 brought a lot of changes to social media and while it’s not going anywhere soon, we are hearing a lot of buzz from people taking time off of social media.

You’ve probably seen this happening within your industry and circle as Instagram rolls out a new Privacy Policy and more information becomes available 

Am I suggesting you stop using social media? Absolutely not! I highly suggest all online brands have some social media presence (one platform is enough) for nurturing their existing audience.

However, with these changes and more consumers spending less time checking on social media it’s important to have alternative marketing methods in place.

Way too many entrepreneurs are using social media as their only form of lead generation and communication for their brand and that’s some risky business.

TAKE ACTION IN 2021: 

If you’re not already focusing on search engine optimized platforms now is the time. These search platforms were specifically designed for consumers and users to search for very specific resources, products and information and get results.

Unlike social media, the intent is to point users in the right direction, which means more trust and a better user experience than most social platforms. Not to mention content on these search engine platforms lasts much longer than on social media. A blog can continue to deliver results for 2+ years, while a Facebook post lasts a few hours.

BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:

Inside of Brandmerry Academy, we focus on equipping entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to grow their business off of social media. 

Three of my favorite tools to use are Website SEO (to make sure you show up in Google Searches), Blogging (to create a stream of content that lasts and increases your overall Google ranking) and Pinterest (to drive consistent cold traffic to your website).

Not to mention, small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth. (Content Marketing Institute) 

Youtube is an excellent search engine platform for video content, but I find most of my clients prefer to start with blogging as it’s a little less time consuming than weekly video.

Curious to know more about Brandmerry Academy? Find out what trainings are included, the incredible support and more here.

#3 Marketing Trend of 2021
Brand Values and Human Connection are Top Priority

77% of consumers buy from brands that share the same values as they do (HavasGroup, 2019).

And we are going to see the importance of brand values and emotional branding play a major role in 2021. The reality is, consumers, want brands that they can trust and more and more consumers are looking for brand affinity.

And this level of trust and desire for brand affinity will impact revenue generated by brands. 64% of consumers said they would buy from a brand or boycott it solely because of its position on a social or political issue (Edelman, 2019).

TAKE ACTION IN 2021: 

The importance of branding, with an emphasis on values, mission, messaging and connection, will continue to increase as we move through 2021 and beyond.

The old methods of branding and marketing, just focusing on the same, are going bye-bye, which I’m incredibly grateful for!

One of the best things you can do for your business in 2021 is to focus on human connection with your ideal customer. This includes being clear on your brand values and mission and sharing them, sharing more stories that focus on connecting these values and life experiences with your audience and focusing on authenticity as the driving force of your brand and business.

BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:

One of the best things you can do for your business is build a solid foundation and this includes, and should be centered on your values and mission.

These can be some of the best marketing tools for attracting your dream customers and keeping them engaged as part of your brand. This form of branding is centered around emotional branding, which is one of the foundational pieces I teach inside of my program You! Branded.

Motista found that emotionally connected consumers have a 306% higher lifetime value.

So aside from identifying your values and mission, how do you build an emotional connection? That’s all in the art of storytelling. Learn more about storytelling here.

#4 Marketing Trend of 2021
Virtual Events Will Increase

As someone who made it a goal to book public speaking engagements in 2020, the events of the pandemic definitely threw that off course. My guess is you noticed as more and more businesses adapted and turned to virtual events.

Well, this shift has resulted in what is sure to be an increase in virtual events in the year to come. 80.2% of event organizers were able to reach a wider audience with virtual events in 2020. (Bizzabo, 2020)

However, this isn’t likely to replace in-person events but does open the door for more small businesses and brands to have the opportunity to add events when in-person events are not in the budget.

TAKE ACTION IN 2021: 

Thanks to 2020, more consumers are familiar with online virtual events, so if you’ve been thinking about hosting an online event now is an excellent time to begin planning. 

On the flip side, this also opens the possibility for more features, as you can submit yourself as a speaker and expert for virtual events that don’t require travel or a major time commitment.

BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:

Make a list of in-person events in your industry and follow them on social media or via their website. Keep a lookout for when they release details regarding applications and submissions for their 2021 virtual events. 

63% of organizations are moving to digital conferences and events. (TOPO, 2020)

Weekly public relations pitching is an excellent strategy to increase brand awareness and authority. 

With a degree and background in public relations, I can tell you it’s one of the best ways to increase your ROI on your marketing efforts. Often, these virtual events bring in new email subscribers and paying customers and don’t cost you, the expert, a penny - bonus points if you’re paid!

Curious about building your public relations strategy for your brand? This is one of the twelve trainings available inside of Brandmerry Academy. Learn more here.

#5 Marketing Trend of 2021
Email Marketing Will Still Rule

When it comes to converting your warm audience into paying customers there is nothing more powerful than email marketing, and despite all the new social platforms and changes, email marketing is still the best way to communicate with your audience.

Emails are typically the first check of the day for consumers, and statistics show that the average person checks their email 15 times a day.

And since I know convincing you to put more emphasis on your email marketing is always a little difficult (I’ve worked with enough entrepreneurs to know), here is some information to get 100% on board:

• 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. (SaleCycle, 2018)

• For every $1 spent, email marketing generates a minimum of $32 in ROI. (Oberlo)

• 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. (Emma, 2018)

You’re ready to improve your email marketing now, aren’t you?

TAKE ACTION IN 2021: 

Growing your email list of community members and showing up for them weekly should be a top priority. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be overly complicated.

At the very minimum have some sort of opt-in for your ideal customer to provide their name and email address. I love to give a free gift to new subscribers and suggest you do the same to increase conversions.

From there, have a simple onboarding email series that introduces your brand, values and mission - remember marketing trend three from above! Also, provide value for your audience for a week or so.

From there, make it a goal to share one email a week (minimum) with your audience and use email marketing as your main tool for sales and promotions.

BRANDMERRY MARKETING TIP:

I encourage every entrepreneur to focus on growing their email community in 2021. So many entrepreneurs, before working with me, are overwhelmed with one more thing to do in their business, but simplified marketing allows many of these strategies to work in the background for you.

For instance, inside of Brandmerry Academy, we teach you how to create a consistent stream of leads through evergreen content (think blogging, Pinterest, Youtube and more). With this consistent stream of new potential clients, your focus is on nurturing and connecting with your new community members.

Through the art of repurposing, you learn how to take a single piece of content and extend the life of it on multiple platforms to expand your brand awareness and brand connection. This includes repurposing that same piece of content for email.

Every week you can follow the same structure, think rinse and repeat, to take the overwhelm out of marketing. This small shift allows you to focus more on connecting with your audience, creating and serving your paying customers at the highest level.

To learn more about Brandmerry Academy, just click here.

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

---

- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

---

- READ THE LATEST POSTS -

---

MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.