The 5 pillars you need for online marketing

Website TipsMindful MarketingEmail Lists

Jul 5

• This article contains affiliate links •

I’ve been selling my books, knowledge, and services online now for over 10 years. In that time I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know many different folk with different business goals, and different lifestyle dreams. More recently, as a website designer, I’ve had the honor of an in-depth look at the strategies and tactics of both authors and coaches.

And here’s why I’m worried about you

You know you need an attractive, professional website, and by working with me, we take care of that. Usually, in the process, we address other parts of your business strategy and marketing plan, too. But I still worry that, even when you have a stellar website, some other essential marketing pillars are missing.

Am I doing you a disservice by creating a wonderful website for you, without requiring a conversation about how you’ll promote it, once it’s finished?
Am I leading you astray by setting up your Mailchimp email list, but not then holding you accountable for actually sending messages to your subscribers?

These are just 2 of the questions on my mind, in how I best serve and support my 1:1 clients. I worry that some, although they finish with a fabulous, professional website, are missing the mark with other vital pieces of the equation.

In the wider online business community, it’s even worse

In other interactions I see, especially among folks who are newer to this type of marketing, I notice a wider confusion. I fear that some of the bigger picture conversations are getting lost entirely in the hustle to do more, more, more.

There’s so much online noise these days, and too many promises of astounding results by those who assure you that they were just-like-you before they tried the tactic they’re now teaching in a course or coaching program. And since there are so many ways we could grow our business, I’m anxious too many of us are asking “how do I?” instead of starting with “should I even?”.

In the last few weeks, I’ve talked to folk around topics like:

How do I initiate a second stream of income? …before they’ve even got the first one off the ground;
How do I make time for blogging? …without asking their ideal audience if they pay attention to blogs these days;
Could I start a new Facebook page for this? …without considering that they themselves dislike being on social media.

So instead of blindly asking how do I at every turn, I believe you need to take a step back and get super clear on which marketing ingredients you actually need, and how you’re going to check the box in each case.

When you tackle this logically, you find there are 5 marketing pillars you must have. There’s no point putting far too much attention into one, while neglecting any of the others.

The 5 pieces you absolutely need:

(1) Clarity on the action you want

You can certainly get started building your online audience before you're ready to sell (books? services? digital products?) but don't go too far before you know:

What it is that you want people to do?
Who is in your ideal audience and how should you be talking to them?
What’s your process for either working with someone, or selling a book to them? You’ll use this to determine the primary Call to Action on your website.

(2) A simple website

I’ll be happy to work with you to create an attractive, compelling website.

If you’re ready to play big, you need a professional website design. Unless you’re incredible talented, creating it yourself will hold you back from being taken seriously and building a large audience with media attention.

However, if it’s still early days, it is within your reach to build it yourself, if you keep it simple and pared back. Get used to iterating, so you don't get paralyzed by chasing "perfection". Then, hire me when you’re ready!

(3) One great method for being discovered

Choose here from guest articles, speaking appearances, collaborations, podcast interviews, live events, client referrals, networking, SEO, possibly paid advertising, and many more. The key test for the method you pick is it must help you get in front of people who don’t already know you. For this reason, I’m not automatically including blogging and social media in this category: if you only reach people who already know about you, these tactics may not grow your business. You can post on social media, for example, all day long, and still only be noticed by your six closest friends.

Don't fall into the trap of trying to be everywhere: it's exhausting and you’ll undermine your results by diluting your efforts. If you find a method that gets great traction with your ideal audience, and do it repeatedly, you will get results. But, what the course and coaching peddlers don’t tell you is it’s almost always a marathon, not a sprint.

(4) A way to keep in touch

An email list is the strongest contender here, and much has been written about the importance of having permission to land in someone’s inbox directly. However, it’s possible you could make social media work for you, if you’re aware of the risks and can live with the possibility that algorithms and pricing might change. If you only ever talk to your folk on Facebook, for example, an overnight algorithm twist could ruin your business or make it prohibitively costly to reach them.

(5) Regular nurture that actually happens

When people have told you that they want to hear from you, either by joining your email list or following you online, make sure to keep in touch. Chances are you'll need to build the relationship, nurture their willingness to buy, and remind them of why and how they should pay you for what you do. The higher the price of what you're selling, the more time you'll typically need to allow, before someone is ready to buy.

In other words, if you’ve set up an email list, you need to use it. I don’t care if you only have 5 people on there, and one is your sister: find a frequency that you can sustain, and write to them. It’s fine if it’s brief, and you don’t need a fancy magazine-style design. Perfectionism is your enemy here.

The danger of missing any one of these

What happens when you skip one of these pieces? In my experience:

When clarity (1) is missing, a client comes to me for a website and the project immediately stalls because they don’t know who they serve, what to sell, and what service packages to offer. It’s impossible for me to build you a site that gets results, if you don’t know what that result should be. Symptoms I see include an agonizing delay when the client tries to write their services page: this always signals trouble with pillar 1.
When your website (2) is missing (or looks horrible dated), you simply don’t communicate that you’re professional. I understand that when you’re testing ideas, iterating, and making your first few sales, a Facebook page (or similar) is fine. But to move beyond that, these days, people expect you to have a website. When your total investment can be as low as $31 and a single weekend to launch www.yourname.com, it’s easy to understand why.
When you lack the method for being discovered (3), you’re keeping me awake at night! I worry like crazy when delightful clients hire me for pillar 2, but they don’t then understand the importance of an additional tactic to get found. Yes, I create all my client websites with SEO firmly in mind, but it usually takes a while for this to start working for you, and if your niche is broad, you may never get close to the top of the search results.
When you’ve overlooked how you’ll keep in touch (4), you might have worked really hard on the first 3 pieces, but then you’re waving goodbye to people who visit your website once, or come across you in another way. It’s vital you have a (polite) way to remind the people who weren’t quite ready for your books or services yet.
And when you have all these other pieces but never get around to nurturing (5)? Well, you’re falling at the final hurdle. It’s vital you identify what’s holding you back from keeping in touch. Whether it’s fear of being annoying, or lack of confidence using your email tool, or not knowing what to write about, please dig into this and fix it. Otherwise, you’ve spent time and money getting almost all of your pillars in place, without ever seeing the benefits your hard work could bring.

Where I see my clients go wrong

Without naming any names, the pillars where my website clients most often flounder are:

(2) not realizing you need an effective, sustainable method to get discovered, and
(5) actually sending out email newsletters, reminders, and announcements.

Is that you, as well? Let’s focus for an hour and get you moving forward.

The extras you could have, maybe…

So, you’re feeling confident you’ve got all 5 pillars sorted out? Congratulations, that’s excellent news. When these aspects feel under control for you, you might consider adding:

A “lead magnet” or free resource, to encourage people to join your email list. I include this for most of my clients, but don’t stress about it if you don’t have it yet. However, I’d suggest you as email subscribers to request news and updates instead of join my newsletter. That second one is a really weak Call to Action, these days.
An additional way of being visible (remember, I advocate for quality over quantity for your platform). Please don’t spread yourself too thinly here.
A second source of income, so you’re not only selling one thing through your website. Examples include adding a short online course to your in-person services, or creating a digital product to expand on your book. If you’re a fiction author, however, please just write the next book!

Curious about my 5 pillars?

If you’re curious about my own 5 pillars, in brief they are:

Pillar 1: clarity - I offer premium website design to authors and coaches.
Pillar 2: website - this blog and site are created with and hosted by Squarespace.
Pillar 3: getting discovered - to date, presenting and speaking about effective websites is my most successful method of starting a conversation with potential new clients.
Pillar 4: keeping in touch - I started with Mailchimp, but my email list now uses ConvertKit.
Pillar 5: regular nurture - at present, I email my list every two or three weeks, and I send a special client update once a quarter.

You can also download the complete list of the tools I love for my business.

In conclusion: your next steps

You need all 5 of these pillars, but each of them can be extremely simple until you’re ready for more.

Get clarity (pillar 1) on how and what you’ll sell, and the next step people should take. Typically, this is to buy a book or schedule a consultation call.
Create your simple website (pillar 2), either on your own or with help. Plan on taking weeks, not months, for this. When you work with me, we’ll prepare carefully, then your website will be ready in 2 weeks.
Set up an email list (pillar 4), with a free account somewhere like Mailchimp or ConvertKit. Take no more than 1 weekend for this.
Do 1 thing each week for your chosen tactic for getting discovered (pillar 3). Don’t add extra methods here, before you’ve addressed the other pillars.
Once a month, send a nurturing update (pillar 5). If you’re a writer with limited news to share, drop this to quarterly.