Staying ahead of the curve is your number 1 objective in business. In this episode of The Hayley Osborne Show I am sharing some great ideas on how you can use marketing to your advantage and get smarter as a small business owner on what and where you invest money.
It’s time to learn how to leverage marketing your small business to work for you and it’s return on your investment, because when you do, the world is your oyster.
The numbers speak for themselves, listen to this episode to understand where to spend your time and what will provide you with a high ROI, and what you can leave behind.
Join me in my new 4-week experience, Superhero Storytelling. Sharpen your pencils and unfold your capes as we prepare to take off on a creative adventure. It’s time you create the confidence you need in your messaging and understand the power in your story.
My proven, storytelling framework will reignite your origins story which in turn creates a better foundation for your audience to know you, like you and trust you. When they trust you, they buy from you.
Take a peek at:
www.superherostorytelling.com to learn more, enrolment is open, and I can’t wait to see you power up your storytelling and leverage your small business story for a big impact. We start June 11 2024.
Summary:
0:00 Introduction and welcome
0:03 Importance of practicing your craft and being nimble
0:11 Developing a clear story for business growth
11:45 Reducing costs while increasing
13:30 Content marketing – Producing valuable, consistent content – Building long-term brand presence without paid media
15:30 Search engine optimization (SEO) – Weekly optimization increases online presence – Higher relevance scores boost conversions
17:15 Email marketing – Direct communication at low cost – Versatile growth tool to promote offerings
20:30 Closing remarks on investing in strategic areas – Going “all in” on content, SEO, email marketing
Hayley Osborne
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show.
This is episode 111. And I am coming to live here. If you didn’t know I have a YouTube channel. So if you like to consume media that way, I would encourage you to go over to YouTube and follow the Hayley Osborne show, just Hayley Osborne superhero marketer on YouTube. And subscribe. Because today, if you’re watching the visual, I’m actually in Sydney, I’m in my hotel room.
And I’ve set up such a cool little space here to record that I’m staying at the w which is so fabulous. And so behind me there. I’ve got this really cute shark that they had. It’s kind of like their signature move at the W. It’s quite a funky hotel. And there is a beautiful backdrop of Yeah, it looks so stunning. And yeah, I’m really ready and excited.
And there’s so much like, just good vibes right now, in and around my business. If you weren’t aware when this came out, so it’ll be last week, I would have recorded a segment on cautious Business Builders. And that will be airing late June. So be sure to have a look at that and tune in. It’s on Channel Seven, when it comes out. I’m sure that I will tell you when it is.
But yeah, so I’m in Sydney at the moment. And I’m taking this opportunity now to record some podcast episodes. And this being one of them. But I’m really excited because what I want to talk to you today is recently as well, I was featured in an inside small business article. And within that article, I discussed some really important things, namely, just hold on a second. And that’s the beauty of going live right is that, you know,
I generally have taught myself really well to be able to do one take of things. And that hasn’t come without practice. And I think that was the number one factor in me being able to succeed. Yesterday, which was yesterday in recording a TV segment, because I think when you know your zone of genius, and you’ve been practicing for a really long time, and namely this podcast episode, it becomes a lot easier for you to be, you know, responsive and reactive and nimble and just go with the flow while maintaining like a significant level of composure.
And so today, I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about that article, because I wrote it for a small business. And I thought, you know if he didn’t get to read that I really wanted to elaborate a little bit more about that here on the podcast. But one of the things I wanted to talk about first is the best thing that I’ve ever done for growing my business. And that is to get really clear on my story. And I feel like since I have done that things have started to move and evolve very fast inside my business.
And you know, my story has changed over the years from where I started to where I am now and I’ve had to morphine change with the times. But you know, I started this business with no kids, a different name, a different style of business, to where I am now with kids.
I’m six months pregnant with my third child and I’m working under my personal brand. And my personal brand is set up in a way where I have a very small sort of an agency model on one side of my business where I have retainer clients that come in, and I manage them, like their holistic marketing strategy and everything within that. And then I have one on one coaching that kind of sits in the middle, where I have my high level coaching clients.
And then I also do marketing strategies, social media strategy, and VIP days. And, you know, they sort of sit in the middle. And then on the other side, I have my membership in superhero marketing, where I support small business owners to have the biggest growth with hopefully the least amount of time and effort using my templates and tools and frameworks, to be able to create activities and strategies within their business around marketing.
And so the business is made up of a few different things. And recently, based on what I have found a lot, most recently is that when you do get your story right, you know, a lot of beautiful things can happen. And that is when wow, I want to officially welcome to the table superhero storytelling, which is my four week experience for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
And thought leaders really who are ready to discover the superpower inside their business and frame it into a really dynamic story to tell. I think when you have clear storytelling, that means you have more beautiful messaging. And therefore when you have more beautiful messaging, you have an increase in sales, and both of them go simultaneously.
So within superhero storytelling, you’ll learn the best frameworks and tools that I’ve built and created to develop really what my story is today, so that you can use them in your business to create your story to it’s been designed to be able to help you understand what your unique strengths are, and how to harness them through storytelling storytelling with strategic thought is the key to growing your business. I’ve worked with so many businesses over the years.
And this is one of the things that keeps coming up as massive blocks. So I feel that, you know, I have seen that once this element is really nailed, the rest becomes so much easier for you, in every facet of your business. So yes, throughout your marketing, yes, definitely throughout your selling, because, you know, selling in your marketing is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine. So you have to get really good at storytelling. But how do you do that through superhero storytelling, which is why I’ve created this four week experience. So you can really nail your story.
And this will help you to develop the setting and the environment for you to have a really good narrative so that you’re aligned everywhere in your business everywhere your business shows up, like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, tick tock, and most importantly, your website. This is the key that will show you how to do that. And, you know, how would you feel to develop the techniques your business needs for crafting, engaging and relatable, you know, superhero and villain characters that resonate with your business and your audience pretty well, I would say. And, you know, it adds yet another thing for you to talk about in your story.
And this is a really great way to explain it. But it doesn’t specifically mean that you’ll have superheroes and villains inside your business, but more along the lines of being able to confidently describe the pros and cons inside your business without always having to refer back to selling. So really get comfy with storytelling, people buy from people and from stories. Okay, so all of us can create really amazing stories behind our businesses.
And it’s that story that is your origin story, discovering what your superpower is inside your business that ultimately works to attract your dream clients. And I found doing this for myself was such an amazing process. And that’s why I want to teach you how to do it as well. And it does work for my one on one clients, it works for those inside my membership. And this is such a beautiful way to be able to craft that for yourself in such a short space of time, because we’re nearing the middle of the year. And, you know, if you haven’t extracted a digit and gone all in, now is the time to do that.
Because if you want to move the needle in your business, it’s not going to happen without work. Okay, so you do need to put in the work but if you didn’t know storytelling is the currency of humanity and if I can do it and craft something incredible for my clients, I know that you can take so we start this experience on the 11th of June I would love to welcome you inside and you know take you through the process.
So we go through four different master classes live with me, plus workbooks plus extra additional things to help you really succeed and nail what this looks like for you. And it will really help you get clear on your messaging, your content pillars, and how you kind of speak to your audience and your target audience. I would love to see you on the inside, go to superhero storytelling.com for more details. All right, so let’s get into today’s episode. So, like I was saying before, recently, I wrote an article for inside a small business.
And I talked about ways, because what I talked about is ways that you can reduce the cost of running your small business. And it was based on the fact that, you know, right now, it’s chicken and egg for business owners. And so, you know, we are living in a time where the cost of living is increasing, and, you know, everything around us is getting a little bit more. And so I thought that this was a really great time to elaborate on this also inside the podcast and kind of connect the dots.
But when you become really innovative, and clever within your business, it creates momentum. So yes, you want to, you know, find ways to be able to slash the cost of running your business, but you also want to create more sales. So I’ve come up with some cool ways that you can slash the cost of running your small business and without compromising on being able to tell your story. Shit. recording stopped. Okay, recording in progress, okay, sorry, these things happen.
Obviously, I am recording in my hotel room. And it’s super cool. Like I said before, if you are watching on YouTube, you can see the background is very cool. It is almost equally as cool as the neon inside my office. But it’s different. And it still fits the vibe. So I’m okay with that. I’m okay with that. But the housekeeping just rings the doorbell.
And so I was like, I need to stop. But what was I saying? So to continue on with that, you know, it is important that you weigh in, where you can and weigh out where you can inside your business from a, you know, cutting the cost of running your small business. So I really want to emphasize the fact that, you know, this is when you run a business, if there is no glass ceiling, okay, so your income potential is endless. And you can pretty much as a small business. So I want to teach you where you can save money and where you should spend money in your business. And I’ve come up with three surprising ways to slash the cost of running your small business.
And, you know, when you can get really innovative in reducing the cost of running your small business, it’s a match made in heaven, right? If things aren’t going great in your business, marketing is always the first thing to go because it’s perceived as expensive. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you use marketing to your advantage and get smarter, as a small business owner on what and where to invest your money, learning how to leverage it to work for you, and its return on your investment. Pretty much the world is your oyster.
And so yes, I am, you know, I do what I do. I help business owners to create activities and strategies around marketing to help you have the biggest growth with hopefully the least amount of time and effort. And yes, I run a business and yes, these things are paid for. Because you know, this is my zone of genius. And this is how I make you know, my contribution to the world.
But you know, the numbers speak for themselves when you take things out of your business and lean into other things in your business. And so it does, it does make sense to invest in certain things and take out others. But studies have really shown in 2024 that short form video content provides 31% of return on investment. And, you know, high quality images provide 22% blog post provider ROI of around 15%.
And like case studies, punk podcasts and other audio provide a return on investment of around 14 to 15%. But what I do know as a solo small business owner in the digital marketing area, is that these are some of the strategies that I use with digital marketing to help me create more brand awareness and raise awareness in and around my business and I know that they can help you too. So here are some of my three ways to slash the cost of running my business and increase my profit. I thought that they might be able to, you know, work for you as well. So the first way is content marketing. And it’s not going to come as a surprise to you.
But, you know, it’s emerged as a beacon for me as a small business, to reduce my operational costs while effectively being able to reach my target audience. And, by creating and distributing really valuable, relevant and consistent content, I can attract and retain a really clearly defined audience, which ultimately drives like profit inside my business.
Without breaking my bank, I have just been very clever and strategic around my strategy in order to do this. So with really clever creativity and strategic planning, my business has been able to produce awesome content that resonates with my audience, that doesn’t break the bank. And you can do this too.
And it not only slashes my marketing costs by focusing on on my own, rather than my paid media, but also builds, you know, quite long term brand presence that really continues to like gathering results over time, because I am so consistent, okay, so consistency is free. All right, you just have to have your own strategy. And you can do this through storytelling.
And, you know, with my content marketing strategy that I’ve built for myself, it continues to deliver results. So I do know that content marketing is free, especially when you are not paying for paid ads or anything like that, you just have to have a strategy, but it’s worth going all in because the world is your oyster. And if you can master what that looks like for you, it’s really limitless.
The second thing I want to talk about to be able to, you know, reduce the cost of running your small business is SEO, search engine optimization. So it is such an invaluable tool to use, effectively, that it doesn’t cost a bomb that will help you increase your brand awareness, and your overall return on investment of your customers when you get this right.
So I work on my SEO every single week, it is a cost effective way to boost my online presence without the hefty price tag. Okay, so associated with, you know, the big price tag that’s associated with traditional advertising methods, the higher my relevance score in Google, this increases the likelihood of conversion for me, which turns my customers, which turns my visitors into customers, and my customers into loyal cost customers. And really, this is a fraction of the price of paid advertising campaigns.
And so when I, every week, look at optimizing my website content, structure, page flow. And on page elements, like keywords, and you know, the meta tags and everything, I can constantly move my search engine rankings every single week, and I’m constantly in my website, which means that it is always up to date, it is always active, it is always got relevant and reliable content, which really helps to improve the SEO ranking.
And it helps make your potential customers like helps give them the ability to find me so much easier, which is like, above all really important. And you know, especially as a solo business owner, in this space, it can be quite challenging. And so I, I make an effort to make my mark in my website every week to keep it up to date, because a stagnant website, something that you don’t tap into, at all week in, week out month in month out, you’re going to get left behind down the pages. So it’s important that you maintain that from lots of different angles.
Now, the third thing that I want to talk about that will help you, you know, it is a cost saver, these things will all take your time, but they will help you to have a big impact. While you know not breaking the bank is your email marketing. So, email marketing is a standout for my small business and as such a remarkably cost effective strategy that does not impact your operational costs, but does maintain a really strong connection with your audience. It offers a direct line of communication with your customers for a fraction of the cost.
And, you know, if you can continually build and leverage your email list crafting really targeted messages that deliver personalized content straight into the inboxes, don’t forget of your potential and existing customers and clients, you can really carefully through storytelling, promote what you sell, without the need for expensive advertising campaigns. And this is the beauty of email marketing you are, you have a warm audience that you are reaching every single week, and I love it so much. And this has helped me to be able to tell my story. And for people to generate that know, like and trust within my business, to be able to trust me to be able to work with me, just touch my microphone, I hope that didn’t make any impact on the noise.
But it’s affordable. And its versatility is amazing. I could be anywhere in the world and still like connecting with my email list, which is so beautiful. You can actually see who’s opened the emails to the right. So it’s measurable. And that’s something that is priceless as a business owner, because you can measure how many opens, how many clicks, how many bounce rates, and then you can fine tune it.
And then you can adjust your strategy to max out that impact at a really, really minimum cost. So unlike traditional advertising that often requires substantial financial investment, for short term visibility. These three things, such as content marketing, SEO, search engine optimization, and email marketing, offer such sustainable and cost effective alternatives to producing content for yourself and marketing your business.
So they’re the three things I really wanted to talk about today. And really amplify how you can lean into these things to move the needle in your business to be able to work towards that North Star that you have as business owners. So you know, lasting remarks go all in guys in these three areas because they are free. You just need to know how and I am your go to girl. If you do need to know how superhero storytelling starts on the 11th of June, I would love to have you on the inside.
Otherwise, I love working with my clients one on one and I would love to support you. And that’s it guys, I gotta go. I will see you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode. If you have hit subscribe so you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday. And while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it. Also, don’t forget to tag me at Hayley K. Osborne over on Instagram and share this post with your audience so they can learn to share.
If you want more, head over to Hayley osborne.com.au forward slash podcast for today’s show notes and links to catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show.
