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As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the Be a Marketer podcast! New episodes every Thursday!
On today's episode, you'll hear from an owner that knows you can't get there if you don't know where you're going. This is the Be A Marketer podcast.
Dave Charest:My name is Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact. And I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing. And on this podcast, we'll explore what it really takes to market your business even if marketing's not your thing. No jargon, no hype, just real stories to inspire you and practical advice you can act on. So remember, friend, you can be a marketer.
Dave Charest:And at Constant Contact, we're here to help. Well, hello, friend, and thanks for joining us for another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. As always, grateful to have you here and grateful to be with the one and only Kelsey Carter. Hello, Kelsey Carter.
Kelsi Carter:Hello, Dave. I'm grateful to be here.
Dave Charest:Today, we have the first in a series of conversations with Constant Contact Community Coaches. And I know, Kelsey, before you say anything, you're wondering, what the heck is a Constant Contact Community Coach? Well You
Kelsi Carter:beat me to it.
Dave Charest:I know. I know. Community coaches are distinguished members and leaders in the Constant Contact Community, who really go above and beyond. Right? They showcase their expertise.
Dave Charest:They engage with others, and offer guidance to small businesses in our community, online community, actually. And over the course of these 6 episodes, we're gonna be chatting about setting goals, email design, growing your list, creating multichannel campaigns, reporting, and segmentation. So, Kelsey, who is joining us today to talk about goal setting?
Kelsi Carter:So today, our guest is Tracy Lee Davis, the owner of Zingpop Social Media. So Tracy works primarily with women owned service based businesses as a social media coach and marketing manager. So she partners with our clients to help them get a better understanding of marketing online so that they can get more exposure, make more money, and look really great online. She's also a Constant Contact certified partner and, of course, a Constant Contact community coach.
Dave Charest:Tracy, she started her business in 2014 after many years in the pet care industry, but she was actually really reluctant to do so. Let's go to Tracy as she explains.
Tracey Lee Davis:I have been at the pet care company. There were 3 locations, 50 staff, 10 contractors, thousands of clients, and it was just so much. And I had been responsible for everything for the entire time that I was there, and I just was like, I don't wanna start my own business. I don't wanna be responsible for everything. I just want someone to tell me what to do.
Tracey Lee Davis:Yeah. And this was back in 2013, and I applied for so many jobs. So so so many jobs and didn't hear back from anybody. It was so just sad. And there was an issue with the California Department of Unemployment.
Tracey Lee Davis:There was, like, a glitch, and so payments didn't go through 1 month. And something like 80,000 Californians didn't get their unemployment benefits, and I was one of them. And so it's like, okay, Tracy. You gotta you gotta get something rolling here because this is not sustainable. I mean, not that I wanted to just be on unemployment forever anyway, but, obviously, I've been unemployed for 4 months or so at that time, and it's like I need something that I need to feel more secure.
Tracey Lee Davis:So a couple of my friends have really been pushing me to start my own business. It's like, alright. I'll just do it. And I am so glad I did. I love what I do.
Tracey Lee Davis:It's so much fun. Every day is a different day. And and now I you know, 15 years ago, I would never have been able to picture my life not doing something with animals, and now I just can't imagine not supporting small business owners every day.
Dave Charest:Well, isn't the secret to social media just like sharing animal photos anyway? So, I mean, I think you're you're probably right. That
Tracey Lee Davis:is a a big part of it. Yes.
Dave Charest:Well, so, you know, you're talking about loving your own business and all that. So what do you love most about running your own business?
Tracey Lee Davis:Well, you know, what's funny is that back before I was like, please, someone just tell me what to do, and now it's you know? Now though sometimes it some days, it definitely would be nice still having someone telling me what to do. I really do love that I get to set what happens with my business. I set all of my boundaries. I know exactly what I want to do.
Tracey Lee Davis:I work with the clients that I want to work with. I get to call all the shots. And so if something isn't working in my business, well, that's my fault, but I'm also the person who can fix it. So having that complete control over my destiny
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Tracey Lee Davis:Is definitely it's good. It works well for me.
Dave Charest:But what do you find most challenging about it then?
Tracey Lee Davis:I've one of the things that's so awesome about where I've gotten to at this point is that I don't feel like I struggle a lot, which I certainly did when I started. Being a brand new baby business owner is very daunting and overwhelming. I've been in my previous role for a decade. I had a tight knit community of other people in the industry who all knew me. You know, we were we're friendly with each other and going from an area where I felt very comfortable, very confident, very knowledgeable to a brand new industry where I didn't know anybody and I didn't have this community around me, that was the biggest challenge for me certainly starting my business.
Tracey Lee Davis:And now I have my community around me. I've found a home where I have that support, and so that's made all the difference in the world. You know, it's not like every single day is a breeze, but I have created the business that I wanted, and so it all works out pretty nicely.
Dave Charest:So, you know, you mentioned community, and, of course, you're also a Constant Contact community coach.
Tracey Lee Davis:Indeed I am.
Dave Charest:What can you tell me about that role?
Tracey Lee Davis:With the Constant Contact community coach, I was invited to take on a little bit more responsibility within the online Constant Contact community since I'm, you know, someone who I was part of the authorized local expert program when that was around and have just stayed connected to folks at Constant Contact. And, you know, I've been a a certified partner for it'll be 10 years next year, so didn't quite start it as soon as I started my business, but got in there soon enough. And it really is so wonderful being able to talk with other people who do something similar to what I do because we don't all do exactly the same thing. But having this group of folks who are knowledgeable, they have been utilizing Constant Contact and doing marketing for a long time too. So it's what I really love is that go into the community and see a question that someone has asked about email marketing or marketing in general, and somebody will have already answered like Melanie.
Tracey Lee Davis:She does a lot of commenting. And she'll say something great, and I'll be like, okay. I'm gonna piggyback on something that Melanie said. You know? She already gave you some really great ideas, and here's another little extra one.
Tracey Lee Davis:So it's nice that, you know, we've got this group of people who I trust to give good advice and sometimes struggle to be like, well, what can I add? But it it is really nice to have a group of peers who, you know, you just enjoy interacting with.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Kind of a cool moment too. I mean, like, when you think of how you kinda started and your introduction to Constant Contact and coming to training and learning that, and then and here you are kind of providing those services as a partner and then as a community coach, so we love that. So glad we've had such a long relationship with you too. That's amazing.
Tracey Lee Davis:Yeah. Thanks. It feels very full circle.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Right? Right? So well, speaking of, like, maybe things coming full circle, sometimes you gotta know where you're going to get to the end. Right?
Dave Charest:And, obviously, that has a lot to do with setting goals as a business owner. And so when it comes to marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, whatever it is, a lot of times people wonder, what does good even look like? Right? And so I think it's often a difficult question to answer because you actually have to kinda dig into a little bit more. Right?
Dave Charest:Because the reality is if, you know, we all have access to the same tools, and how we use them is actually gonna really be based on what it is that we're actually trying to do. Right? And so I think that's why it's important to set goals for your business. Right? And those business goals really help you start to figure out, okay, what are my marketing goals?
Dave Charest:Right? Then you can start to figure out, okay, what are the things that I need to implement? Are there things that maybe I need to improve? Right? Like, you start to get deeper into really figuring it out.
Dave Charest:Right? And so I often also talk about this idea of there's this constant state too of what you're doing with goals. It's just in terms of, like, you know, reviewing what you're doing, making a plan based on what's working or maybe what's not working to kinda help you reach a particular goal. And then I think even maybe the most important part is really putting time on your calendar so you can actually execute on whatever plan that you've come up with. Right?
Dave Charest:And yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Right? And I think even as we start thinking about, you know, you're starting to close out 1 year into the new year.
Dave Charest:Right? This is all really important stuff, particularly important now as you restart moving into the next year. So, Tracy, I guess my question to you in all of that is what does the goal setting process look like for you and your clients?
Tracey Lee Davis:Sure. Well, the big thing that I think everyone needs to think about is that my goals may not be the right goals for you, and your goals may not be the right goals for somebody else. They're all very personalized, individualized. I talk to some people and they say, oh, my goal is to bring in new clients. Some people say my goal is to just get more exposure.
Tracey Lee Davis:So there's no right or wrong goals per se, but the core of all of your marketing efforts should be your overall marketing goals. You should always be working towards something. Yeah. And so, you know, it could be that you are trying to drive new or repeat business. Maybe you are just looking for more engagement on your social media.
Tracey Lee Davis:Maybe you wanna be increasing your sales or your donations if you're a nonprofit, but knowing what it is that you are trying to accomplish is the first step. So if you just kind of have this vague idea of, I want my business to do better, well, what does that look like? You know? So think about what the goals are that you have. I mean, in order to think about the goals that you have, you wanna be thinking about the marketing objectives that you want to be working on and what you want to be doing.
Tracey Lee Davis:And so thinking about who is your ideal audience Mhmm. Like, who are you trying to reach? That's the first thing that you need to figure out. Because, again, I once was talking with someone who has a coffee company, and he was saying, oh, I wanna reach everybody that drinks coffee. It's like, no.
Tracey Lee Davis:You don't because you are offering a higher end product. So the person who gets their cup of coffee at the gas station every morning is a very different person who goes to a place like Starbucks or Peet's Coffee and get something really fancy versus just a cup of black coffee in a styrofoam cup from any place on the corner. So, you know, you need to think about the who it is that you are trying to reach, and then you want to be setting real numbers of what is it that you're trying to accomplish. You know, having something that is measurable, something that I learned from Constant Contact is if you're not measuring, you're not marketing. So you need to be able to measure whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish.
Tracey Lee Davis:So in that, you've got to set real numbers of what you want to do. So I want to get x amount of new clients. I want to have x amount of new people join my email list. I'm looking to sell x amount of my courses. Whatever that might be, that specific number.
Tracey Lee Davis:And then do you wanna think about a time frame to when are you going to accomplish that goal? Because if it's just never ending, then you never know if you accomplish your goal or not. But you're saying I wanna bring in 10 new clients by the end of the year, that's something that you can measure. And when you get to the end of the year, did you bring in those 10 new clients? And if you did, awesome.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Tracey Lee Davis:Rinse and repeat. And if you didn't, then obviously you need to tweak some things and go about it again in perhaps a slightly different way.
Dave Charest:Yeah. I like too when you start to really get into, like, the timeline and the numbers where it really actually allows you to kind of break down things in a certain way where you're actually able to break it into smaller pieces and say, like, okay, like, I can remember a time when I first started at Constant Contact, actually, you know, I was managing the blog at the time, and we were talking about, like, what do we wanna do from a growth perspective for that? And then it's like, all right, we picked a number, then we kinda backed into it. So we need this many visitors per week. Right?
Dave Charest:I got it down today. Like, if we're we're tracking towards this, so you can really kinda keep an eye on it. And you you have to have an idea of of what the trajectory is. You're gonna hit that. You're gonna come close.
Dave Charest:You're beating that. Right? So you can, again, review and and kinda make those adjustments as you need to. So that's a great point there. So I wanna recap some of the things that I'm hearing here.
Dave Charest:So one, right, goals really provide direction. They help you understand where you're gonna go and what you need to do, right, based on what it is that you're trying to do. And to that point, 2, goals are really personalized to your business and where your business may be at a particular moment in time. Right? They're always gonna change, and they're also gonna be driven by the people that or the audience that you're trying to reach as well.
Dave Charest:That's important. And then 3, really make sure that we have some way to measure results. Right? Set some numbers and the time frame because those things are gonna really help you gauge whether or not you're being successful or not. Right?
Dave Charest:And put some rigidity behind it in terms of, like, making sure that you get there within that set time frame.
Tracey Lee Davis:Absolutely. You got it.
Dave Charest:Tracy, thank you so much for spending some time with us here today, and appreciate your insights.
Tracey Lee Davis:Yeah. My pleasure.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, I'm gonna recap that discussion on goals one more time. Number 1, set goals to provide direction. Well, how will you get there if you don't know where you're going? Goals help you understand where you're trying to go so you can figure out what you need to do to get there. Number 2, focus on goals that are right for your business.
Dave Charest:Goals should be personalized to your business, where you may be at a particular moment in time, and the audience that you're trying to reach. And remember, it's okay for goals to change and shift as you attain them and your business needs change. Number 3, check-in on how you're doing. Tracy mentioned one of the things she's learned from Constant Contact is if you're not measuring, you're not marketing. You've really gotta review how things are going on a regular basis.
Dave Charest:So set some achievable numbers in a time frame in which you wanna hit them. Then you can gauge whether or not you're being successful. So here's your action item for today. Once you've landed on some goals, share them in the Constant Contact community for feedback. Or if you need some help with your goals, you can ask in the community as well.
Dave Charest:I'll also include some resources for you in the show notes. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. Please take a moment to leave us a review. Just go to rate this podcast.com/bam. Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show.
Dave Charest:That's ratethispodcast.com/bam. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.