In the first year of business, we never know exactly what is going to work to create visibility and convert more clients – it’s all very much about testing and trialing different strategies until we find what works best for our business.

Before diving into our marketing efforts from this past year, there are two things that stood out to me that I needed to get crystal clear on to grow Golden Brands:

1. Figuring out exactly who our Ideal Clients is: This was like setting the GPS for our marketing journey.
2. Nailing down our Value Proposition: Knowing specifically how our membership helps our clients was like the secret sauce in our marketing recipe.

Before you start to invest money into your marketing strategies make sure you understand these two key things!

Now to the part you are here for!

Here is a list of all the marketing strategies I have used in 2023 to grow Golden Brands to a community of over 80 + members…

• Lead Magnets (Totally Free): These little gems grew our email subscribers to nearly 2000.
• Organic Social Media (Zero Cost) – The number 1 way we have connected with our audience and members. This has also been a great way to reach new audiences.
• Meta Ads (We’ve spent $4500 to date + $2000 on an Ads Manager):– A bit of a gamble that paid off—1300 new email subscribers, potential leads, and new Golden Brands members. (I will add though that while it worked well in the first half of 2023 it hasn’t been as effective in more recent months).
• PR (Spent $2000): I feel that we tried this one too early and didn’t get anywhere with it. Lesson learned.
• Collaborations (Another $2000 Down the Drain): Unfortunately, this one was a miss. Future plan: no more paid collaborations and instead stick to mutually beneficial partnerships without the money talk.
• Partnerships (Totally Free): Teaming up with other businesses turned out to be an incredible way to grow our brand, something we’re definitely doing more of in 2024.
• In-Person Events (Let’s Just Say $10,000+): I can’t pinpoint the exact cost without spending far too much time in my Xero, but it was a lot. Still, totally worth it. These events were amazing for growing our community.
• Webinars (Set Us Back $1000): Sure, the software costs us around $250 every time, but guess what? Webinars brought in new members—like, people signing up right there during the webinar! And I do love being able to give back to our community through free training when I can.
• Content Creation (Approx. $2000 spent): Getting photographers and designers on board to help create content has not only saved me a ton of time it has also been a great way to get more professional/high-quality content that helps to elevate our brand.

So that’s the tea on our marketing efforts so far.

I do hope it sparks some ideas for your marketing too!