So, I’m going to go ahead and rip off the bandaid here – You need to be marketing your business in more places than just Instagram in order to have sustainable success.

The platform is incredible for cultivating a warm audience and a community around your brand. And that’s why we’re not completely throwing it out. But, the constant changes in the platform and the fact that we don’t have much say in that algorithm should be a flashing red sign that it’s time to invest in some real estate outside the four walls of your IG comfort zone.

The goal here isn’t to shame you for [only] using Instagram. Instead, it’s an attempt to encourage you to use the value you’re already creating in other places that will serve you best in the long run. In other words, sustainable marketing practices that aid you in achieving your goals and don’t keep you glued to your phone screen 24/7– staring at the blinking cursor or meticulously curating your next IG post.

I’m someone that likes to do things with intention – so along with a list of options, I’m including a few indicators for you to know which option makes sense for you in this season of business. Because anything you add to a marketing lineup should pair well with the direction your business is headed in and have a defined purpose in reaching your goals.

And that’s what I want for you – To have a multi-faceted and purposeful approach to marketing that works for your business in the right ways. Not just adding yet another task to the already eternal to-do list that’s running in your brain [or a google doc if you’re more organized].

Before you get into the explanations of each of these, here’s those indicators I mentioned.

Do yourself a favor and jot down or review your top 3 business goals for the next 6-12 months. And while you’re reading through the list of options below – keep your goals top of mind and ask yourself these three questions:

1. Could this aid me in accomplishing my goal(s)?
2. Do I have capacity to add something like this into my workload?
3. Can I afford not to add this into my marketing lineup?

With that, let’s dive into to what you came here for: 3 Ways To Market Your Business that Aren’t Instagram

CONTENT MARKETING – I like to call this Cornerstone Content

Whether it’s a blog on your website, a YouTube channel or a podcast – long-form, information heavy content like this is a way to showcase your expertise in business as well as give back to your audience and thus solving their problems or meeting their needs. It also ensures what you’re creating is easier to find on the internet (ie. google) – thus making it possible for your audience to find you outside of Instagram.

The format you choose should:

1. Play to your strengths
2. Make sense for your business model
3. Be something you can commit to consistently creating for

Don’t know where to start? Pro tip: take note of posts that performed really well for you on Instagram and then consider:

Could I expound upon this in a long-form piece of content?

You’ll likely leave with more proven ideas than you thought possible.

Pro Tip: Once you’ve created that content for either the month or the week, think of ways to repurpose it however possible. Use the topic and information as the basis for your Instagram content, repost it to Facebook, or pin it to Pinterest – which leads us to our next option.

PINTEREST

This search-engine-like platform is surprisingly left out of many marketing strategies. It’s easy to write it off as a platform primarily used for creatives or bloggers. But, I bet you there’s a way you can leverage it for your business. If you’re creating helpful content online, you should 100% be re-posting it on Pinterest with branded graphics and descriptive keywords because it might just result in more eyes on your content and thus upping the traffic to your website – which boosts SEO (basically your reputation in the eyes of Google).

Pinterest is great for shop owners – the shop feature allows people to purchase or link directly to your store in the platform. It’s great for photographers – think of all the clients that already use the platform to plan things for their shoot. Why not make your work something they can pull from – and maybe even hire you as a result? Artists, strategists, educators, coaches, nutritionists, real estate agents, interior designers – the list goes on of types of businesses that would thrive in the Pinterest platform, so go ahead and give it a try!

Pro Tip: if you use Google Chrome, add/activate the Pinterest extension to make it easy to pin images from various places online! Think of posts from Instagram, content from your blog and anything else you’ve created & would like to categorize on Pinterest – here’s that link.

WORD OF MOUTH – aka an impeccable user experience

Word of mouth marketing has always been a force to be reckoned with – well at least in my opinion. Know why? Because recommendations from the people you trust go further than the suggestion of some random person on the internet. Think of the last time you were surprised and delighted by a service or product. Did you tell someone about it? More than likely you did.

Now think about it, if you told someone, don’t you think your clients would, too? My recommendation: do an audit of your user’s experience from beginning to end with you. Are there gaps you can fill or ways you can go above and beyond in serving them? (ex. taking the guesswork out of next steps by setting clear expectations in emails or maybe creating a client guide to answer FAQs or share best practices) Also think through: are there ways I can make it easier for my clients to share about me in their circle? (ex. sharing your bts process and tagging them to re-share).

Bonus Option – AN EMAIL LIST

An email list is a great place to get followers to commit to a deeper level of connection with you.

For starters, you own that space and control what funnels through there. Your content isn’t screened by an algorithm (though you might have to fight that spam folder for a hot sec) and you get the extra assurance that these are your people because they’ve opted-in to receiving direct communication from you. Plus, if you’re already utilizing something like a blog or YouTube to push out content consistently, it makes it easy to repurpose what you’re sharing there into an email to keep your audience in the know and ultimately add longevity to the things you spend so much time creating.

If you are hesitant to start an email list because of all the ways you’ve seen it done wrong, then take a minute to write down what you didn’t like about those experiences. Now on the same note, write down all the ways you could do it differently to serve your people well, solve their problems or simply be a voice of encouragement in their inbox. – My favorite example of email done right is Tonic Site Shop’s newsletter. I always look forward to opening their emails because what they send is such a natural extension of their brand as well as just straight up entertaining.

Now the question is – which one(s) will you be incorporating into your marketing strategy?

I encourage you to try one (or more) of these on for a while and see which fits the best. You may just find that all of these could work well for your business. And even allow you to create with more intention and make it last longer online than the time of day it sees in that Instagram algorithm!

Find this helpful? – I throw together brand & marketing strategy resources like these at least twice a month for business owners like you! Be one of the first to know when the next one drops by signing up for my insider list HERE.

Feel like you need more help than what three ideas in a blog post? – Maybe The Brand Plan would be right for you!

TBP is a six-week group coaching-like program where we’ll focus on understanding the WHAT and WHY of your brand so that you’ll then have a firm foundation to build a sustainable marketing system from.

A system that doesn’t solely say, post 7 days a week on IG, make 10 reels, show up on stories 24/7 and you’ll have clients busting out the seams – because honestly, has that really worked for anyone?

Applications for Round One of TBP are now OPEN & I’m only accepting 4 into this group to keep it tight-knit! If you’d like to put your name in this cohort of dreamers and doers just like you, then go ahead & CLICK HERE.