I'm dropping a truth bomb here: 

Customers are lazy. That's the honest truth. Before you disagree, listen for a second.

They don't want to be bothered with multiple steps and several clicks or to be brought here and there and everywhere. They don't have the time and chances are, someone else will be doing the same thing as you in less steps and in an easier way that they'll buy from instead. 

Personally, I don't consider myself a lazy person in any way except this one. If I have to go on some extravagant freaking man hunt to buy your product, let me tell you, I'm going somewhere else. Make it easy for me to purchase and I will be back time and time again.

Limit the number of steps to purchasing or receiving the offer to as few as possible. The fewer the steps, the greater your conversion rate. That's all there is to it. 

This is a novel concept to a lot of people, which is funny to me because it's always just seemed like an obvious approach to business marketing in my mind. But you should be treating yourself as a small business even if you aren't. Think: dentists and doctors with their own practice, salesmen, realtors, insurance agents, etc. This is how you set yourself apart from all the others in your industry even if you aren't technically a small business. 

Create business accounts on social media for yourself, spend time engaging with your ICA, create behind the scenes videos, go live, post entertaining, thoughtful content, develop a loyal following, and the in-person business will come easily. 

Hardly anyone in any of the industries that aren't conventionally considered small businesses are marketing in this way. Get started and get ahead of the game before everyone else catches up and the return on investment will be tenfold. Even small businesses in the trades such as plumbers and electricia...

Maybe your product sucks. But if you're confident it doesn't and you're not making the money you want, then you need better marketing.

If profits aren't where they should be, you're either not reaching enough people, not reaching the right people, or not resonating with those people. That is where effective marketing comes in.  

So how do you reconcile this? It's simple. It's not necessarily easy, but it is simple.  You need one or more likely, a combination, of the following: 

+ a stronger brand

+ more relevant content 

+ a defined and strategic marketing plan in relation to specific platforms (email and social media)

+ a more memorable customer experience

These encompass what I call "The Profitable 5 of Digital Minimalism." That is, the five pillars of marketing that will actually move the needle forward in your business. The other so-called strategies and trendy "must-dos" are time-wasters that can be decluttered and purged.

If you're intrigued and could use some more mon...

Let's chat freebies. Do you have one? How many? Are they working for you?

A freebie may not make you money directly, but it will be the most important resource you create in your business because this is what will "hook" people and get them interested in what actually does make you money. Freebies are also known as list builders or lead magnets. 

You want your lead magnet to be straightforward and simple, something that can provide your audience a quick, immediate win. Freebies commonly take on the form of checklists, templates, or worksheets. Quizzes are another direction you can pursue to obtain leads. They don't offer the value that the other freebies might, but for some reason, everyone loves a good quiz and they typically work extremely well. 

My best performing lead magnet to date has been a free welcome email template. I've also had a lot of success with an entrepreneur-related Harry Potter quiz (yes, I'm a huge HP nerd).

Now, my Harry Potter quiz was extremely successful, b...

Marketing is all about connecting right? And nothing fosters connection better than stories. They have the ability to get people to relate to what you're saying on an emotional level like no other marketing strategy can. This is where the power in stories lies. 

 Any story can be used to further develop your marketing strategy, from the things that completely change your life to the every day situations we all come across. No matter the kind of story it is, I highly suggest including all the details you can. The details are where connection happens. For instance, if you're recalling a time from your childhood, and you mention the old Coke machine in the corner... that brings with it a whole feeling of nostalgia for so many people. Maybe the Coke machine isn't technically pertinent to the story, but that's something your audience can connect to. This is not to say, however, that your stories shouldn't have a conclusion or point...they absolutely should. A story with no conclusion is ki...

Even as a kid, I was always responsible with money. I grew up with parents that dealt with finances completely differently, so finding a healthy balance between the two when it came to a relationship with money was challenging. But I was always counting the coins in my piggy bank, keeping track of how much I had and scheming ways I could make more, like the lemonade stand at our garage sale or selling toys I no longer wanted.   

My relationship with money is still a work in progress and I'm no financial advisor, but the following is how I paid off $40,146.11, if we want to get specific, in just 3 years. I had saved up all through college, because I knew come graduation, I'd have some significant loans to pay off and the thought of paying interest makes me want to dig a 6 foot hole right here and now. I had even received multiple academic scholarships and the sad part is, my loans were relatively insignificant compared to what many graduates come out of school with. 

If you're familia...

Email campaigns are a great avenue to utilize in marketing your business, but it's only effective if the campaigns are executed upon several important pillars. They are: 

• a sense of community  
• it reads in a personal voice authentic to you 
• offers value that your audience is looking for
• consistency 

If you're not going to commit and build your email marketing strategy upon these pillars, you might as well save everyone time and just put your own email in the "to" box. 

Fostering a sense of community can be done by getting vulnerable with your audience, using your email platform's specific tags to insert people's first names into the copy, or asking questions and inviting readers to reply.

Using your unique voice throughout the email is very important. This might come at the expense of some professionalism but it's well worth it. Your voice will set you apart from your competitors and make you more memorable to those reading your emails. Phrases that you often say when speaki...

How do you know what words and phrasing you should be using in your content? Let me let you in on a little secret. The language you should be using is the exact language that your audience uses. For instance, if you hear them complaining over and over again about needing help meal planning, or not being able to find the motivation to turn off Netflix and get off the couch, create content that not only revolves around those topics, but uses those exact words. Maybe you create a freebie that is titled "Motivate Yourself To Get Off The Couch in 3 Easy Steps." See? In this way, you don't need to come up with your own content! Your ICA will tell you exactly what they want from you without even knowing it. And by using their actual words, you ensure your content will resonate with them too. You could create the same freebie with the title "How To Exercise in 3 Easy Steps" and even though it might contain the exact same content, chances are it won't get nearly as many clicks in the first plac...

Whether you're aware of it or not, you are leading your customers through an experience every time they purchase from you. It can be positive or negative, purposeful or not, but it's there. What I want to show you though, is how to create a purposeful and strategic customer experience that will increase your brand loyalty and get you remembered by everyone that buys from you.

Chances are, other business out there offer something similar to what you do. So how do you set yourself apart from them? How do you get noticed in the crowd? Two words: customer experience. 

I have a digital marketing course for small business owners that I launch a couple times a year. When someone purchases my course, I send them a surprise gift package that goes along with the course material. How many other course creators do that? This is one aspect of my course experience that my students rave about. Do you think they're going to forget me and their unique experience any time soon? Nope! I want to make th...

Content creation can quickly become this dreaded thing, this thing that makes you feel like you're stuck on a content hamster wheel and can't get off for fear your business will crumble. But I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way, and shouldn't be that way. The answer? Repurposing content. However, you have to do it in a way that makes sense and not one that comes off as repetitive and boring.

Here's what a typical content "cycle" might look like for me: 

1. Live video on specific topic on Facebook page. 

2. Save live video and upload it as an IGTV video on Instagram account.

3. Upload live video to Pinterest linked back to my website.

4. Create blog post on same topic. 

5. Share blog on Facebook page and Pinterest.

6. Create 5 different blog post graphics, each with a different but relevant title relating to said blog. 

7. Add one blog graphic to Instagram story and save to "Blog" highlight.

8. Use graphics strategically on Pinterest and Instagram to recycle blog...