Marketing Without Social Media

Can you run a business without social media? This is a tricky topic for me to answer because this last round of quitting social media coincided with me going into a bit of an early retirement (at least from my embroidery and design business), but I can tell you about the first time I took a hiatus from social media and how it affected my business. Simply put, my sales increased threefold while I was off social media.

Marketing Without Social Media

That is an impressive number, isn’t it? I was surprised. Like anyone else, I bought into the belief that social media was the only way people would find me was through social media but when I sat down and really looked at my numbers, my sales were NOT coming from social media. Pinterest (which I consider a search engine rather than social media) and my newsletter were the biggest referrers to my website. With that knowledge, I decided that I would focus on my newsletter, blog, and a few traditional marketing tactics to grow my business.

Newsletters

Instead of writing social media posts, I wrote high-quality content for my newsletters. It felt good to create content for people who liked my work enough to trust me with their email addresses.

When I was creating content for my Instagram account, I was putting hours into posts would be viewed by a few random people, and then only for a few minutes, before it was buried in an avalanche of other people’s posts.

But when I created content for my newsletters, they were more likely to be read by subscribers. If someone did not have time to look at my content right away, they could save it in their Inbox for later. It felt like I was being more respectful of their time and attention. Personally, when I receive newsletters from other artists and writers, I save them in a special Inbox file, then pick an afternoon to pour myself some tea and read them. It feels as relaxing as flipping through a magazine. With that in mind, I made an extra effort to produce newsletters that were high quality and inspiring.

I always made at least one sale when I sent out a newsletter. I was not getting that return on investment with my Instagram posts. I was writing content to put money in Meta’s pocket, not mine.

Blog

Goodness, my blog. You are here. You know I love my blog. It is the heart of what I do. And, when I had a business, my blog was a marketing tool. My primary focus was not to sell on my blog but to connect. I wanted to connect with my clients and my blog is a great place to introduce myself.

I know what some of you will say…that you use Instagram in the same way. And that may very well be the case. For me though, I want to share more photos and text than Instagram allows. I also want to own and control the content. Plus, I know I am weak. I will not just put up my post on Instagram and then leave. I will scroll and lose hours. Just because I am weak in that area does not mean you are, so maybe social media is a way for you to connect with your clients. It was not for me.

Traditional Marketing Strategies

Teaching and Networking

During my first social media detox, I was teaching, going to gallery openings, and belonged to some local artists groups. These were all ways to connect with clients and people who can help you get clients. The tricky part of this marketing strategy is that I had to decide if I wanted to be “world famous” or if I would be okay with the idea of having a successful, local-based company. And I was. Community is very important to me and being with people in my geographic location is especially important to me. I get a lot of joy getting to know my neighbors and supporting my local economy. Every time I go to our little downtown, I run into someone know. It is so joyful to stop and talk with a friendly person.

That is not to say I did not go outside my community and make friends. Whenever I would travel somewhere, I would see if there was an event I could go to, an embroidery shop to visit, or even a chance to teach a class at my destination.

While I know in-person have events have been difficult the past two years  I have watched many people teach in online platforms and continue networking online through blog comments and mentions. All without using social media.

Press

I have been an entrepreneur long before social media existed and press releases were the life blood of my marketing strategy back then. They have proven to be successful even now. Whenever a newspaper ran an article about my business, I would see traffic to my website increase and sales go up. You can send press releases and press kits out to traditional newspapers as well to popular blogs and websites.

Offer to do guest posts for a fellow blogger who shares your target market and invite other bloggers to do guest posts on your blog, write articles and tutorials for magazines. These are all great ways to get your name and business out into the world.

I truly believe you can build a business without social media; you just need to be creative about it. I would love to hear some ways you might market your business without it. Leave a note in the comments.

Read More

If you want to learn more about starting a blog, I recommend checking-out my friend, Anne Butera’s, Skillshare Blogging class.

Nicole Cicak shares an honest account of the effect quitting social media has on her business.

Alexandra Franzen has a put together a great list of ways to market without social media.

Kristin Sampson has a some interesting links and lessons about the topic as well.

Did you miss the first two parts of my story about leaving social media? You can read about why I left I social media and how to stay connected with people.

Join my Newsletter List. In addition to getting reminders when I put up new posts here on the blog, I am also thinking about bringing back my monthly newsletter which will be filled with content only subscribers will receive.