Are you feeling overwhelmed by your marketing strategy? Do you struggle to find time to connect with your audience in meaningful ways? In this episode, I chat with Katie Kastner, a content writer and marketing strategist, who breaks down how to create a streamlined marketing strategy that works for you. Discover the power of long-form content and effective email marketing to build relationships without relying solely on social media.Key takeaways include:

- Long-form content is foundational for SEO and leads.

- Email marketing remains a powerful tool for building trust.

- Find a balance in social media without overwhelming yourself.✦ Connect with Lauren: 

Free Resource: Efficiency Advantage: A Comprehensive Guide to Streamlining Your Business - https://laurenglynn.com/efficiency 

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@laurengconsulting 

Show Notes: https://laurenglynn.com/41

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8XMK0lXUeE 

Mentioned in this episode:

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Realistic Week Planning for Delusional Entrepreneurs

Katie K Interview

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My guest today is Katie Kastner. Katie is a content writer, marketing strategist, business owner, elder millennial mom, and your content cheerleader. With a background in sales, marketing, and education, Katie combines all three to create content for her clients that build brands and generate sales. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago, best city in the world, with a husband she's still obsessed with.

Those are her words, not mine. Don't come at me. Two kids who are such fantastic little weirdos and a deeply neurotic golden retriever. Aren't they all neurotic?

It's, you can have a lot more fun with emails than I think anything else. Um, so yeah.

I really like what she has to say. I like what she does. This can help me in some way. All that entire audience is listening to you. And I think people sort of forget that When your biggest focus in your marketing is social media, it's like, my favorite analogy is like, you go to a big, giant lake, and you just like, throw a bunch of stuff into the lake, and then a huge net. And the fish you get are the fish you get, and then you have to sort of like, sort through all those fish to make sure, to like, find your fish. Or, you can take your fish. specific bait a smaller pond or lake where you know that those fish love that bait. Which, now that I say it out loud, I feel like it sounds worse than it, like calling like your followers fish, but you know what I mean?

Like, it's just the specificity and the really like intimacy that, that happens in an email. Um, and And I think, and a lot of the pushback I get all the time is like, well I don't read my emails, and I'm like, I get that, I understand, there's lots of emails I get that I don't read. But, I also don't opt in to email lists that I don't want to hear from that person. You know what I mean? Like, it's really helping your audience understand that hearing from you, what you're going to bring to their inbox, is going to be really good for them. They're going to enjoy it. They're going to get something out of it. There's going to be value. There's going to be entertainment. They, you like me, you're going to love my emails type stuff. Um, that's hard for some people too. Like you said, your, that's, writing is not your forte. Cool. That's why I exist. Yeah.

They have to be posting constantly. They, you know, they think that that is the only way. Yeah.

But, by hitting post, you are agreeing to the, the rules, the regulations, and any of the decisions that that platform is going to make. And so if you are putting all of your fish into the social media pot, somebody turns off the stove, those fish go bad. There's nothing you can do about it. And all of that effort you've put in, and all of the work you've put in, it, it goes away.

Because you have no say. When you can funnel them onto your email list, which you own if you are using an email marketing platform or using an email platform, that is your list. You own that list. Nobody can come and take that list away from you. Um, that's in my opinion. That's business security. And I, you know, I use, I do use social media. It's not, you know, It's not my main social, it's not my main marketing, uh, platforms, a big part of my strategy is taking the people who find me on social, because it is a great, it's a great visibility platform for sure, but find you on social and then get you, get those people onto your email list so that you can start to build more of that connection and speak directly to them instead of like hoping you pop up on their FYP.

What would you say to people who think that?

Like what does that actual nurturing look like?

I don't think that's true. Um, if you can get a strategy in place that a social component, should have a social component. Every marketing strategy should, but needs to be sustainable and doable for you and your business, especially, like I said, if you're somebody who's doing it all on your own, if you don't have a content writer, if you don't have somebody doing your socials, it has to be something that feels good. So the first thing I tell my clients is, um, what is the platform you hate? Like, what is the platform when you think about, like, I would rather chew glass than create content for that platform,

It's, it's, I talk about this too. I have this sort of like, we're old college roommates. Like we used to be really tight and best friends, but we've just grown apart and we're very different people and we don't get each other anymore and we've just gone our separate ways. That works best for me and my business.

I am a text based girly. I always have been. So I love threads. I love the sort of spontaneity of threads. I love the conversations that happen on threads. I'm also a former theater kid. So propping up my phone and hitting record On TikTok is so easy for me. But I've worked with clients who are like, I'm struggling on TikTok, and I'm like, well then we're going to take you off. Because that struggle comes across in your content.

Like, this is not a pair of jeans that everybody, that's, I feel like that's such an elder millennial reference.

Like, what does that look like? How does it all kind of work together in your ecosystem for your marketing?

There is a lot of sort of just like, I needed to talk about this, so I'm going to say this right now. Mixed in with more strategic content. And you can do that. There's the thing about it is like, there doesn't have to be hard and fast rules to it, and it will evolve. I worked with a client last year, um, who really wanted to make TikTok work for her, that she really wanted that to be her main platform. But a lot of what she was putting out there was just sort of like, like throwing stuff into the wind, throwing stuff into the wind. And. of the first things I said to her is like, I mean, it's good, but like, I don't know what to do from it. Are you trying to build familiarity? Are you trying to build trust?

Are you trying to build your authority? Are you trying to viewers to your lead magnet? Are you trying to drive them to, you know, book a call with you? Or, you know, like, what are you trying to do with that piece of content? there is a time and place for relationship. You know, building for brand

This is who I am. This is what my business is. Um, but I think finding that balance is really important. So I, for example, right now, on tick tock, I post 3 to 4 videos a day, which is very doable for me. For other people, that's terrifying, and I 100 percent understand that. So if so for but so for me, it's Um, I do one that's like very sort of just like personality, brand building.

This is who I am. Um, right now as I am starting to, or getting, getting ready to launch, um, it's called the Haven. It's a mom, a community for entrepreneur moms. I have a piece of content that is about the Haven that is, um, sending, um, Viewers to a link for that. Um, I have a piece of content that is about small business marketing, something under that umbrella. And then I have a piece that is more about content creation, that umbrella. So I know every day, like these are the content pillars or content buckets that I'm going to touch on. Um, As I'm, and for example, as I'm coming closer to the launch of this community, that the, the, the, the content that I'm recording on Tik TOK is going to get a little bit more specific. a little bit more topical. Um, but that's, but I think really the biggest thing is knowing the point of that content, especially if you were a business. It's another thing if you're just a content creator, but if you are a service based business, that content has to have a plan. It has to have a purpose. and so a couple of times a week I am talking about, um, this lead magnet. a lot of times if I want to do sort of like a big email push, I will, the content will be around what you get when you sign up for my, for my newsletter. Like this is the stuff I talk about. This is the stuff that's going to end up in your email box. Email box. Inbox.

And there hasn't really been. Any sort of strategy beyond that. So how would you recommend someone who's sort of just trying to, like you said, they're probably a solopreneur just trying to like get through the day and do something,

I mean, I know you talked about, you should only be on places you actually enjoy, but like, I don't love Instagram, but I'm on it because I feel like I Kind of have to be and it's somewhat easy to create the content. So how would you recommend people sort of get started with thinking more strategically around the repurposing of their long form content?

And I do this with clients where we literally just brain dump. We have our three categories, three or four max for like, if you're doing it on your own max four pillars. Um, we have our Headings, and then we just start writing topics down. Start there. If you're not quite sure where to go, start there. And then, give yourself, well, move back up. do a little bit of research into where your target audience is. For some people, um, I think because social, there's so many options, you really, I mean, for the most part, you can reach people your industry or what you do is so niche, um, there's an, there's a, there's an opportunity anywhere. I always say start where you are the most comfortable and content creation and marketing is a muscle, just like anything else, and it takes practice. once you have that, okay, I know my pillars, I know my topics, I know what I'm going to talk about. I understand, uh, my client. I understand that. Dream client that I'm trying to reach. I understand what they are searching for. Um, the challenges they have, all of that. I understand that. I understand how I address those things. Taking those three things and then just creating content where you are most comfortable to start. So if you know, if you've been on Instagram forever, you understand the platform. You can start there. Start there. And maybe it's break up your days. Each day you cover a different topic. Create one piece of content on that one topic on Monday. then on Tuesday, create one piece of content on that topic. And then just rotate through for a bit. Just rotate through. I, the thing about it too is I um, I really encourage my clients to not cling so much to a hard and fast plan. Because Marketing is so much more an art than it is a science. And yes, you can have data, and I am, I love data.

I love, I love some good data. But you're also dealing with humans, and there is nothing more fickle and unpredictable than a human. And so there is going to be some trial and error. There is going to be like, if you go back, especially on my TikTok back when I first started almost two years ago now, of that content was like, who are you?

Who are you talking to? Like, what are you doing? Because it took a little bit of time for me to really like, Get my practice in, refine my message, it to that platform. It takes some time and practice, so you have to have some gracious, grace and patience with yourself. And flexible expectations. Cause you might get into a flow and you're doing it for a couple of months and you realize, this isn't doing I want it to. Okay, well we change it up a little bit. Maybe we get more specific with our content pillars. Maybe we get a little bit more focused or maybe we've recognized that this platform really isn't the best platform for me.

So let's like, let's try something else. Let's pivot a little bit. And that's okay. Um, there's a lot of, what I've noticed is there's a lot of fear around doing it wrong when

Lift approach, or how can you make it a low lift approach and still achieve the goals that you want of driving people to your email list so that then you can nurture them, like, how do you balance that?

I think that's an untapped, uh, and powerful marketing strategy and it absolutely is a marketing channel and a marketing strategy. I, and I see where you're, I totally get where you're, what you're saying cause, like figuring out that social strategy feels like a lot. But once you sort of have it on lock, you know, let's say for example, your choice is to only do IG, you're just going to focus on Instagram. And we go back to that, you know, choose a topic and do one post each day on that topic to get you going. If you sort of like out, that's, it's really, you're not spending a whole lot of time on social. It is a piece of a bigger puzzle. it all really just depends on how much of that puzzle you want to give to social.

You know, I have clients who I consider low social, but if, if we're dividing up the pie, they do spend a lot of time on their social. Okay. I think you have to determine what's best for you. My interpretation of low social is sort of like the Gary Vee approach, which is be everywhere. Be on every platform.

Be visible on every single social media platform. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. Facebook, Instagram, like that to me is the most overwhelming thought ever and I do marketing. So

I'm just me. What I can do is like post two videos a day and write a blog post a week and record a podcast episode and attend a virtual networking. That's the, that's what I can do. And so for me, low social means sort of taking this, the massive importance off of social media because there are other options.

I actually wrote a blog post a couple months ago and I think there's like 17 or 18 other things that you can do besides social media to market your business. So, for me, low social is a Still using the power, using the power of social media, getting that particular strategy sort of locked down that you can diversify. really it's, it's in response to this. You have to diversify. You can't put all of your eggs in the social media basket. And I, you know, I want to encourage business owners to Really figure out what works best for them and their audience and their business. And design your marketing strategy around that. Because again, there is no one size fits all template. Especially in entrepreneurship. If you're building a corporation, probably yes. With the team and with systems and everything else, probably yes. Um, but when you're doing this on your own, it really has to work for you and your business and your brain and all of that.

And I think, you know, I'll, I think much more so lately we have come to the realization that not every business is the same and not every business owner is the same, and we all need unique approaches to these things. You know, what the bigger names have been touting for years may not work for you and your business.

Um, you know, I'm not Gary Vee. I don't have a big 10 person social media team, so I can't do all of the things like he can. So how has this approach been working for you and your business? Have you seen a difference in, you know, either an increase or sort of the steady sort of in incoming of your people on your email list for this, doing the sort of more low lift social approach or, and do you find that the people who are coming in are still good, high quality leads?

They're still people who want to invest money. What does that look like?

O. I on that at all. Um, I also So, to answer your question, um, it's remained pretty steady. There's actually was an uptick with threads, which was great. Um, and I'm also seeing a boost on my website as I'm getting back into a regular blogging cadence. Um, a really, actually a really good boost on my website. Um, and also as I have taken a lot of other socials away, I guess you could say TikTok is my biggest social. Um, the content there has gotten better, because I'm only really focused and creating for that. I'm not thinking about, how am I going to turn this into a reel on Instagram? How am I then going to post this to a YouTube short?

It's too long for that. It's, it's quieted my brain quite a bit. And it's been really beneficial for me to really hone in and focus on that message that I'm trying to get across. Um, so just I think across the board it's been really good for me, for me and my business. Again, you might be somebody who loves social, like you love everything about it and you love the, that's great.

Like if that's, and that's one of those things where if that is where your, your genius lies, I love that. Use, like follow that. Um. But it comes back to understanding what's best for you.

Like, you have to understand that you're, it's going to take a little bit of time and you're going to mess up and you're going to have to try again. And know, the expectations you set have to be well aligned to you. And then you have to understand that sometimes you might fall a little bit short and the, and the expectations have to pivot. But. I have done it myself where the harder I beat myself up about something, the harder it is to want to keep going. So grace, patience, and flexible expectations.

And, um, I will talk to you again soon. Bye. I got to work on my ending because I'm awkward.

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