How We Helped A Local Consultant Get More Visibility (And Become A Bestselling Author!)

A Case Study On Douma Leadership
Apologies if I sound like a broken record, but there are some things that are so important in the world of digital marketing, that I can’t say them enough.

One: you need a good website.

And two: a good website isn’t enough.

Even if you know this, of course, there’s a difference between knowing and doing. And it’s easy for small business owners and entrepreneurs to struggle with information overload when it comes to marketing.

That was the case for our client, Yvonne Douma.

Yvonne is just about the friendliest and most knowledgeable communication coach and HR professional you’ll ever meet.

But she came to us with lackluster marketing materials that we’re serving her. She didn’t have any kind of digital marketing strategy, and she was unsure how to get one.

Yvonne knew something wasn’t working, but she didn’t know how to get to where she wanted to go. If only she could connect with the right people, they’d see what amazing qualities she brings to the table. And that’s where we came in!

Over the past year, we have helped Yvonne with brand redesign, responsive website design, copywriting, social media marketing and advertising, and content marketing for her professional services company, Douma Leadership.

We also provided the absolutely necessary cherry on top of all these services – strategic consulting (my favourite!).

Throughout the process, we’ve helped Yvonne clarify her services and her brand and discover an online voice she can be proud to share with the world.

Oh, and we also helped her become a best-selling, self-published author, too (no biggie!)

It’s been our pleasure to work with Yvonne, and we look forward to even more success together in 2022.

“I needed to completely rebrand my business and reached out to us for help,” she says. “My website is professional, easy to navigate and looks great! Susan and her team have been supportive, encouraging, and are challenging me to put myself out there and have the courage to be seen.”

If you’d like to help your small business achieve happy people and healthy profits through leadership development, HR consulting, and conflict resolution, we can’t recommend Yvonne highly enough.

And if you’d like to know more about how we’ve helped Yvonne develop her online voice to reach more clients, keep reading!

Step One: Strategy
You wouldn’t put together an Ikea bookshelf without consulting the instructions first, and that’s just a few boards of wood and some screws.

Yet many small business owners jump right into the deep end of the digital marketing pool, without any plan at all. Sometimes they can’t even swim!

And that’s where business marketing strategy consulting comes into play.

As a personal business marketing strategy consultant, I work one-on-one with my clients to make their marketing more powerful and effective than ever before. I LOVE seeing people have big breakthroughs and finally understand what to do and how to do it (and when these people are as delightful as Yvonne? Bonus!).

For Yvonne, this has meant regular meetings to gain clarity on her business model, define her ideal target market, and brainstorm develop marketing strategies best for her business.

Yvonne and I still meet regularly, and I always look forward to our Zoom sessions. We use them to ensure we stay on track and keep innovating.

Step Two: Refining Yvonne’s USP & Refreshing Her Website

Many times, clients come to my team with a website and brand that just aren’t up to snuff. This was the case with Yvonne, who’d already put some effort into her online marketing.

Thankfully, all we needed to do was tidy up her logo, but she otherwise had a brand that we both agreed suited her well.

But her old website was not serving her. Not only did it look dated, but it also didn’t give a complete picture of the services and quality that Yvonne brings to the table.

So our team went to work, building a responsive and SEO website that did a much better job explaining Yvonne’s unique selling position (USP).

One of the many great things about having a web development company on your side is that your website can be easily updated. Over the months and through our sessions together, Yvonne and I further whittled away at brand, coming up with new and improved services and offerings.

And since we built the website, updating it with new content and services is a simple and pain-free process.

Step Three: Create A Landing Page
Websites are great, of course, but they’re only one type of online property that can help grow a business. That’s why we like to help clients launch landing pages as well.

A landing page is a stand-alone, one page website with a very specific purpose. They’re a very useful tool to have in your toolkit.

For Yvonne, we created a landing page around a special webinar she created to help women in the workplace take their power back. In order to get the free presentation, people had to sign up with their emails.

So the specific purpose of this landing page is to collect email addresses so that Yvonne can grow her mailing list. And while we’re doing that, we’re sharing a great resource that personalizes Yvonne and helps potential clients grow to know, like, and trust her. Win-win-win.

Step Four: Promote, Promote, Promote
Even when you have a great SEO website like we prepared for Yvonne, it can still take months to start showing up in search results – that’s just the way Google works.

And most business owners I know aren’t willing to sit on their hands for a few months!

That’s why we coupled the launch of Yvonne’s website and landing page with a smart social media strategy.

This included carefully curating content for her Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, which showcased her expertise, her experience, her services, and her personality. We did this through custom graphics, as well as by an assortment of different content.

We’ve also encouraged Yvonne to put herself out there as much as possible – and when she does, she always gets great results!

Step Five: The Book
When you have as much knowledge and information to share as Yvonne does, a book is often a next logical step – especially when you’re concurrently trying to grow your business and your social media following.

A book is one of the best ways to really connect with potential customers. In this way, it’s an invaluable piece of marketing in its own right. And simply having a best selling book is a great way to establish yourself as an expert (not to mention crossing a ‘to do’ off the bucklet list!).

First, here is another big kudos to Yvonne. You can tell from the first page that REFRAME is a labour of love, and that Yvonne knows her stuff when it comes to relationships and communication. If you could use a blueprint to better communication skills, we highly recommend you check out REFRAME: How To Change Your Conversations To Resolve Those Messy Conflicts.

Moreover, marketing a book takes a lot of effort, even when you’ve got a marketing team by your side. We all rolled up our sleeves to market the heck out of REFRAME this past summer, and those efforts paid off. For Yvonne, this meant getting outside of her comfort zone to make online videos to promote the book launch.

First, we started with (you guessed it), a landing page, which we released prior to launch day. We used it to drum up excitement, introduce readers to Yvonne, and encourage interested people to sign up for notifications.

Next up, we developed a campaign with special bonuses to encourage people to buy on launch day. This included paid social media and Google ads, a concerted email campaign, a press release, and extra organic social media.

The end result? Yvonne shot up to the top of the Amazon best seller list in her category, and she can now proudly call herself a self-published, best-selling author.

And not surprisingly, REFRAME is ranked 5 stars!

Step Six: The Sky’s The Limit
One of the things I love the most about my job is how much my clients inspire me. When I think about everything Yvonne has accomplished in the past year, I get goosebumps! I also get exceptionally proud of my team, who have worked hard to help make Yvonne’s vision a reality.

And of course, that vision continues to grow!

We’re proud to support our clients throughout all their unique journeys. Working for yourself is definitely challenging, which is why it’s helpful to have an award-winning digital marketing agency in your corner.

If you could use help creating your brand, showcasing your business, and nurturing your dream to a reality, please reach out! We’re a full service agency, and we’d love to help you, just like we helped Yvonne!

To Your Business Success,

Susan

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