139: Beyond Social Media: Holistic Marketing for Small Businesses with Jenn Donovan
While yes, we love social media, there are many other ways to market our business…
Digital marketing often feels synonymous with social platforms, and our guest expert on this episode of The Essential Shift Podcast, Jenn Donovan shares with us refreshing and effective strategies to grow your business without relying solely on social media.
From building strong communities to leveraging traditional marketing methods, Jenn's insights are a game-changer for any small business owner.
So grab your notepads, because every conversation with Jenn is packed with actionable wisdom that you won't want to miss.
If you LOVED the episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift and @jenndonovan_.
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KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS
Marketing your business in other spaces other than social media
Building a holistic marketing strategy
Marketing your business from rural areas
SHOW RESOURCES
CHECK out the Small Business Made Simple Podcast - HERE
FOLLOW Jenn on Instagram - HERE
CHECK out Jenn’s website - HERE
Join our female entrepreneur community in The Circle Membership - HERE
FOLLOW me on INSTAGRAM - HERE
Find out more about how to WORK WITH ME - HERE
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Jenn Donovan, a marketing thought leader, coach, and mentor, is known for her impactful work in empowering small businesses. With multiple bestselling books, international speaking engagements, and successful ventures like Social Media and Marketing Australia, Buy From a Bush Business, and Spend With Us, she transforms clients from being invisible to invincible using strategic marketing principles.
Bless it be.
With love, Laetitia!
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
2:59: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Hey, Jen, thank you so much for being on the Essential Shift podcast. Thank you, Letitia. I'm really excited to have this conversation with you.
3:07: Jenn Donovan
It's been such a delight to get to know you through one roof and have these connections, so thank you for the invite. Oh, I, I can't wait for this conversation because I know everyone was gonna listen to this is going to take notes. 'cause every conversation I have with you, Jen, I'm like, Ooh, that's such a wise thing to note down.
3:28: Laetitia | @essential.shift
I need to remember this. So I'm not gonna say more for now. I'm gonna give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and I always love to ask our guest, who are you as a human being? If you'd like to share anything about your astrology, your human design or your faith, whatever, for them to connect with your essence.
3:49: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Yeah. Thank you. Um, so I'm Jen and I actually, I'm a farmer's daughter and a farm and a farmer's wife. So I grew up on a farm in Victoria. And um, then I moved about 40 minutes across the border into New South Wales when I fell in love with a farmer at the age of 15. And when you fall in love with a farmer, you can't move a farm.
4:11: Jenn Donovan
So, um, I've kind of, other than being at university, um, I started my career in law, so university in Melbourne and Sydney. Um, I've been a country girl through and through, um, I'm a Libra, so I'm very much about balance and I often, the older I get, so I'm 49, the older I get, the more I feel like that is definitely me. Um, I always don't like confrontation. I like things to just, you know, be nice and balanced.
4:40: Jenn Donovan
And I think that's what attracted me to the law in some ways as well. Mm-Hmm. So, um, but of course that's a long time ago now. So, um, yeah, I, I'm, I'm a marketer at heart. I love marketing. I'll talk marketing to anyone who will listen.
4:54: Jenn Donovan
And unfortunately today it's ticia turn to listen to my marketing rambles <laugh>. Oh, they're not rambles, they're amusing. Their wisdom. I, I love your take on marketing and we'll get into it very quickly, but how did you end up becoming a marketer from a farmer to a lawyer, to a marketer? What is the journey?
5:16: Laetitia | @essential.shift
What is the origin story of that? Yeah, so I, my origin story is really, I guess, um, my best friend and I, so I, my best friend has been my best friend since I was 14. She actually set me up with my now husband.
5:31: Jenn Donovan
Um, but basically one night and quite some years ago, we just had way too much wine to drink one night. And we decided that that was it. We'd had enough of working for other people, we were gonna buy our own business and we were gonna buy a shop. And I remember getting out the local paper and we like, oh, we could buy that business.
5:48: Jenn Donovan
And we did. It kind of happened really, really quickly. It's a bit like when I moved to the farm, we had a beautiful house on the water, and then one day I woke up and I wasn't there anymore. So I'm not really quite sure how these big shifts happened without me really noticing they're happening. But yeah, so my best friend and I, we went into business together and we went in, like I said, we were really, uh, rundown from our corporate job. So we went and played shop. That's what we wanted to do.
6:13: Jenn Donovan
We bought a very rundown business. We knew that we could do better. Um, but it was probably about three or four months in that it was kind of like, actually we could make this a really good business. This is actually a really good business. So we kind of flipped playing shop into then playing business or being in business and being real business owners. And, um, uh, it's just kind of where I fell in love with marketing. I think I sort of started to go to a few, uh, chamber of Commerce meetings and kind of got, you know, in with, you know, who are now my three other best friends that I met, you know, kind of one night and we started talking business and they would talk about this marketing stuff.
6:54: Jenn Donovan
And I think curious, I'm a very curious person, um, and I think I'm very much the type of person who doesn't like to not know something either. So I'm kind of, um, yeah, have those traits. So I think I got curious enough to wanna learn about marketing and, you know, uh, Instagram was only in a, in its very infancy. Um, Facebook was very different. Uh, but I've kind of grown with the platforms and I've also outgrown the platforms in some ways and, and like to talk to small business owners about what else they could do other than being on social media as part of their overall marketing strategy.
7:34: Jenn Donovan
So yeah, I got there from wine <laugh> and, um, challenging myself was probably the two ways that I got to being here. <laugh>, I love it.
7:44: Laetitia | @essential.shift
How far along was that? Um, so that was probably, I think we bought the shop in 2 0 0 9 and we sold it seven years later. Um, so yes, I've probably been doing this marketing.
7:57: Jenn Donovan
Uh, so being a marketing mentor and coach for about almost nine years now, I think that's beautiful. Yeah. I love it. Beautiful cycle.
8:05: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Thank you for sharing that story with us. I actually didn't know that story, so I enjoyed listening to it as well. And so you mentioned it, which is going to be the core of our topic today. And you've already mentioned it, uh, to the audience.
8:19: Laetitia | @essential.shift
So let's get into this now, which is, how can we, as small business owner or even bigger business owner, market our business outside of what is now known as digital marketing, which is only, so through social media, it's actually very reductive for what is digital marketing. But can you share with us, you have a beautiful book, which we will mention in a second, but you have a beautiful book mentioning hundreds different strategies. But what are the ways, so first of all, let me rewind. Sorry, I'm getting my brain together. Hello everyone listening to this. You know, I'm neurodivergent sometimes my brain goes everywhere.
9:00: Laetitia | @essential.shift
But the first question is, what motivated you to speak about marketing outside of the social media platform? Um, I think it was mainly because social media is just so busy and I think it's really hard to get traction on social media. Um, unless you, uh, you go in 100%, like the people who, um, you went in a hundred percent on reels early, built their business off doing reels, the people who, you know, went in hard with stories, built their business through stories. But for the majority of us, we're kind of the sheep. We are kind of the followers. We are not the people who get in there and do it first, uh, you know, that are first onto a new platform, et cetera, et cetera.
9:48: Jenn Donovan
So it is, it's a daily grind and it's something that people just like, you know, I post and I post and I post and I'm really not getting the traction that I need, or I'm not creating sales out of that. Or they just are looking for those free options. And they think that social media is, you know, that's what they do. Like, that's free marketing and without really having a strategy behind it. So I'm very much a marketing strategist. So I like to work with people who have been in business a little while that understand that they need to do marketing, but they don't understand what marketing can do for them, or they haven't managed to crack the marketing, uh, a golden ticket, I guess in some ways with some good strategy.
10:31: Jenn Donovan
Um, and when I look at my business model or what I teach my clients, it's kind of like, so you have like, um, the first thing where you are really just trying to attract people. So you, it's a numbers game in business. We need a certain amount of people to come in 'cause we know that not everyone's gonna buy. And, you know, every conversation we have isn't gonna turn into a sale, but we need to keep filling the funnel. So there's kind of that attract model.
10:56: Jenn Donovan
And then there's Nurture, convert, and Ascend. They're the four sort of pillars that I talk a lot about. And social media is really good for attract, it's really good for getting new people into your world for people. If you have a great community who will share your post, who will comment on your post, then there's every opportunity that you'll get in front of new people. But it's not a very good platform for nurturing, because unless you're paying, your content isn't getting as far as what it was. So you might get in front of someone once, but they might not see your content again, or might not see it for another three weeks or something like that.
11:32: Jenn Donovan
Because of, we are fighting an algorithm, we are fighting a, you know, a calculation that's trying to make us want to buy space rather than get all this space for free. Mm-Hmm. So I talk about, you know, one of the great things for Nurture is particularly is email marketing. Um, you know, it's a great space.
11:49: Jenn Donovan
So for me, I'm on social media to try and get people off social media, uh, you know, for my ideal client, like that's my goal is to try and get them onto an email list where I can nurture them and where I can convert them over and over again. 'cause again, people who play on social media tend to be always looking for a new person. And so it's like, Hey, what about all these other people who already know, like, and trust you who've already bought from you, who just need you to pay them some attention and they might buy again, or they might become your greatest referral in your business.
12:21: Jenn Donovan
Yes.
12:21: Laetitia | @essential.shift
And so it's
12:22: Jenn Donovan
all of that that's outside social media that we need to think about as small business owners. Yeah, definitely. And I teach this, uh, light framework as part of, it's in my book for intuition, and it's how I help clients drive the business strategy.
12:38: Laetitia | @essential.shift
But actually for sales, I'm against the funnel. I am all about the cyclical and the light framework comes into place here, which, uh, is exactly like your full pillar. And then from the recurring revenue, I have the loyalty, which is a five step, which is really like, how do you convert them into referring you to their friends and their, you know, family and all that.
13:01: Laetitia | @essential.shift
So I use a five step and which is cyclical, and that's what I love about future. That's my, that's my ascension.
13:08: Jenn Donovan
That's my ascension model.
13:09: Laetitia | @essential.shift
That's your ascension.
13:10: Jenn Donovan
Your ascension includes my two, uh, last steps of my framework. But that's what I love about you is you are a strategist as well and specialize in marketing, but you're really having this true knowing of what is real. And dancing on a real is, unless you're someone selling real courses to teach other, to dance on a reel, dancing on a reel is not going to make any sales for your, uh, online or brick and mortar or software business.
13:36: Laetitia | @essential.shift
You need to think a bit through all of that. So for in your book, there are like so many strategies, and I listen to your book and you know, it's really, really good to kind of know what are the different strategies that you mentioned in your book. But for anyone who's listening to this who's like, okay, great, so I need to get off social media. I need to, you know, start selling or marketing, sorry, because sales and marketing are different, I need to start marketing my business, uh, in a different ways. What are a few of your favorite approaches to marketing that are not so renowned yet?
14:11: Laetitia | @essential.shift
They're very efficient? Yeah, that's such a great question. And it probably really depends on, you know, what business you have and things, uh, you know, what industry, who, who are you targeting? Yeah, true. And things like that. But, you know, I like to talk about growing a community. So, um, not only do I grow a community of people who potentially will buy from me one day, but that community of referrers, that community of superfans, that community of people, you know, what is that saying? Hang around with people who will say your name in a room full of opportunities.
14:46: Jenn Donovan
Like, yes, that's the kind of philosophy that I'm trying to do. So, um, I don't worry about my numbers on my social media. Uh, I worry about, you know, what, how am I providing a community of people that I'm leading, but they're all talking to each other. They're all helping each other, they're all sharing, you know, that whole, I guess I'm a rural girl and that's how rural towns work.
15:08: Jenn Donovan
We work by being a community. Like, you know, someone has an accident, there's 20 people there cooking meals or, you know, knocking on doors or mowing lawns or doing whatever they can. And that's the philosophy I have in my business is how can I attract the right people for everybody else, but also who will want what I have at the end of the day? Because, you know, I'm in business, so I do need to make money from my community as well, but I want them to feel like they are part of something. It's a real, it's a need of us human beings, which I'm sure you are so aware of, and all your listeners as well, of, we wanna belong to something, we wanna feel like we belong. And so I'm trying to make that community as such.
15:49: Jenn Donovan
So I think one of the things that I would really recommend is people stop thinking about audiences. Stop thinking about how many followers you've got on Instagram, or how many people like a post, or how many people, uh, you know, are following you on LinkedIn or something like that. It's like, how are you providing community? How are you producing a community? How are you interacting with those people and having those people in your world interact with each other? Because that is one of the things that you can do that's different from everybody else who's just worried about how many Instagram followers that got. And yet it can really build your business.
16:26: Jenn Donovan
'cause you know, like I can tell you a hundred thousand strategies, but the best strategy is always gonna be word of mouth. You know, you do a great job. They tell people that is, it's very ancient way of marketing, but it still is one of the most powerful ways of marketing. And digital marketing is just tried to set that on fire, really. So rather than them telling 10 people, if you do a good job, they post it on their socials and they potentially tell a hundred people. Unfortunately, it's probably like a hundred thousand people if you do something wrong.
16:55: Jenn Donovan
So it does work both ways, <laugh>. But that's definitely something I would recommend that your, uh, listener starts to think about is, you know, that objective, building a community around them. Um, again, you know, people think of digital marketing and people will say to me, well, radio doesn't work and TV doesn't work and newspapers don't work anymore. But I'm like, well, they do work.
17:19: Jenn Donovan
If your people read them, watch them listen to them. Um, you know, like I talk about, uh, you know, several different avatars and how you can, um, market to those different avatars. Like, you know, if you're trying to, um, do a Spotify ad to a millennial or a, you know, a gen, um, y like they're gonna pay for premium. It's only us type bums of Gen Xs and baby boomers that don't wanna pay for premium that the app might work on type of thing.
17:49: Jenn Donovan
So, and where I live, um, 60% of my population is over 60. So newspaper advertising still potentially could work for you. If you are targeting people who are over 60 years of age. If you're targeting the local surfers or skiers or you know, people in their thirties, then yeah, it's not going to work for you. So I think marketing comes back to those real fundamentals of knowing who is your who, where do they hang out and what do you wanna be famous for?
18:17: Jenn Donovan
And if you can get those three questions right, and continually work on those three questions, then your marketing will serve you so much better. I like that. And this is really this obsession with who you serve, like this obsession with your customer and going back to the, the drawing board and you're like, who am I serving? What am I serving them with, and how am I serving them? And where are they and what are they reading and all that.
18:43: Laetitia | @essential.shift
And that's really, really valuable because a lot of marketer, and that's where, you know, there is good marketer and bond marketer, and that's where you have like the, the great marketer like you, Jen was like, let's go back to who you are looking to attract, because marketing is about attraction and marketing is about taking them from someone who doesn't know you, to someone who is regularly buying from you and being speaking about you. This word of mouth effect that you mentioned, and a lot of people forget about this, they just think about the first stage of attracting everyone, but then the things and the wind that is a cling. Oh, I've made a sale, but what is that sale when we know that actually the first dollar is the hardest to make, and what we want is we want those dollar coming in, coming in again and again and again. So definitely the word of mouth. So how can we, for anyone who's listening to this and like, yeah, I know I've heard about word of mouth.
19:40: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Thank you so much Jen and Naisia, this is pretty basic. Wait, we have more ideas for you <laugh>. What, how are we making this word of mouth powerful? Converting, nurturing and having loyalty buildups through this word of mouth?
19:56: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Do you have any? And you can use a case study and example for yourself, for clients, whatever helps you to make the point. But 'cause I know personally that's my best leads comes from word of mouth. Even if I have a podcast, even if I have many other ways to attract people into my world, the best, best aligned dream leads comes from word of mouth.
20:19: Laetitia | @essential.shift
So I could give my take on it, but what is your experience around how can we foster this beautiful word of mouth look? And I think, uh, some of it is really basic and some of it becomes a little bit complex, but at the, the most basic level, you have to do a good job like that. You know, you're not going to get good word of mouth if you don't do a good job. Um, and if you don't serve your customer or your client with the expectation, like, you know, maybe you overpromised and underdelivered or maybe you didn't turn up on time or, you know, maybe the work was subpar or wasn't, you didn't communicate with your client and their expectation was actually different to the deliverability that they actually got. Like, you need to do a great job and you also need to make them feel like they're part of a community, um, not a transaction. Like we can all have transactional clients, most certainly. And you know, I do some work for different government programs and things like that, and often that's transactional. But you know, anyone who comes to me out, you know, privately, then that is, that's more because they're looking for more.
21:33: Jenn Donovan
They've been inside the community. They haven't just been given my name and given me a call such as, you know, through a particular program for a, you know, five minute chat or a half hour chat or something like that. So I think you need to make them feel like they're part of, you know, something bigger. I think you need to do a really great job, but you also sometimes need to ask, sometimes, you know, like referral marketing or, um, you know, getting, uh, testimonials and things like that, which are part of word of mouth at the end of the day.
22:04: Jenn Donovan
Uh, you know, I remember talking to Katrina Mata who has her business, um, marketing to moms, and she was saying the statistic was something like 73% of people of women who shop online will read a review and buy based on that review, even if they don't know the person who wrote the review, they just wanna know that someone else thought that product or that service was worth it. Hmm. And so that's kind of word of mouth in some ways. Um, but it's online and I think that's, you know, people are like, well, how do you get reviews?
22:33: Jenn Donovan
And it's like, well, you just, just sometimes have to ask for them. They, you know, you can't expect a busy person to want to serve your business as such, but if you make it easy for them, if you make it simple, if you ask, then they're more likely to do it. It's no different to a social media post where, um, you know, I'll read an Instagram post and someone will say, double tap if you agree or write a comment. You know, let me know in the comments what you think.
22:58: Jenn Donovan
And I'm more likely to do it because they asked me, even though I'd probably want to do it if they didn't ask, but because they've asked me, it's in my brain and I'm more likely to do it. Sometimes we just need to ask for these things. And yeah, word of mouth marketing, it's as old as Jesus, and we sometimes, we just need to make sure that we are doing an exceptional job. We need to follow up with these people, make them feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. And I think then they're more likely to talk about you favorably in the world. And sometimes, and also it's about your messaging, having enough content out there that people know what it is that you do, because not everyone who will give you a word of mouth, um, referral actually has worked with you.
23:45: Jenn Donovan
Sometimes it's just like, oh, I need a marketer. So it's like, you know what, Jen Donovan wrote a book about marketing for regional businesses. Maybe you should look her up. I haven't read the book, but I've heard it's good.
23:57: Jenn Donovan
Like, you know, you just need the content out there so they know how to refer you, you know, know you saying, oh, you know, contact Jen Donovan, she's great at sales. You'll be bitterly disappointed when you get here. <laugh>, I'm not that good at telling people how to make sales. It's not my niche.
24:14: Jenn Donovan
Yes, I can take you so far and then you have to go to a specialist, but you know, I need people to know what it is that I wanna be famous for so they can refer and use word of mouth, you know, in that way. Yeah, definitely. And that is really powerful, everything you shared. And one of my, the three top value in my business is sustainability, community and impact. And I think if you really wanna be clear on what you are serving and what you're doing, you need to also be clear on your value as a business owner and what's really important for you.
24:50: Laetitia | @essential.shift
And as you mentioned, community was music to my ears because I really believe that having a village around you, having people that supports you and speak about you, you know, having your name mentioned in a room, as you said, is really powerful. And so it all comes down to being very clear to who you serve and also why you're doing what you're doing and, and all of the things that you've mentioned so beautifully. And word of mouth nowadays is just something people don't think about. To just think about dancing on a reel, when actually word of mouth is really, really powerful. It's, as I've said, it's how I get my best client. And it's also how I am encouraging any of my client to start, you know, when they're starting, launching a new offering, launching a new product, creating a new business, or growing their business into a new field, et cetera, it's like, who are the 50 people you know? And what about you send them a message right now telling them, I am open for business, or I am growing into this area, I am launching a book, or I am, can you support me?
25:53: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Because those 50 people that you know well are more likely to support you. Right? Whereas nowadays, everyone is shouting in a microphone to, everyone wants to hear them, but are they going to action? Right now I'm doing the South by Southwest application. Mm-Hmm. I have put in different groups where I don't really know the people. And some group may have thousands members, no one is doing anything.
26:15: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Whereas if I reach out to my 2050 friends or friends in business, people I know really well, they're all voting straight away, they reply to me like, yeah, voted. I'm like, see, that's better tight. Might, we're ready to do something for you. And big, big, big numbers where they're not ready for you.
26:33: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Uh, I'm sure you agree with that, but it's just to illustrate your point. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So, so well articulated.
26:39: Jenn Donovan
Thank you. Oh, it's beautiful. And any other strategy, because in your book you mentioned 107, I think I'm, I hope I'm right with number.
26:50: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Um, I actually wrote a book and just came through and then I was like, I, you know, need someone to read it to me because I'm not very good at, at reading. And so, and so I ask one of my VA to record some parts of it for me. So I listened to it. Um, you need to have an audio book, by the way. It's so good to have audio book <laugh>. I'm not promoting audiobook here, but I think it's so good for people like me who can sit down.
27:12: Laetitia | @essential.shift
But before having this chat with you, I wanted to go through the different strategies and so on, but what is your other favorites strategy that, uh, you may recommend for someone who's like, okay, great, I've mastered word of mouth. Well done, you've mastered word of mouth. What is something else that they can master? You mentioned quickly email marketing, or do you wanna mention another approach? Or is it anything else that you'd like to, uh, give them as another strategy, as a gift for them to then go and read your book?
27:42: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Of course. Uh, look, I think that we need to just take a step back into our business and realize that we all are marketers. If you are in business, you are in the business of marketing. Like at the end of the day, you're also probably a salesperson. You need to market and you need to make sales. So, you know, for people going, well, you know, I'm not a marketer, so, you know, it's easy for you. It's just like, well, we're actually all marketers at the end of the day because we all need to learn to market.
28:07: Jenn Donovan
So I suppose it's stepping back and going, well, what are the things that you do all the time that you don't have a marketing lens over? But if you did, it just might help. So what's in your email market? What's in your email signature? How many emails do you send every single day? What's your marketing message in your email signature? Is it, read my blogs, book a call, um, go to my website, follow me on socials, which isn't strong enough.
28:34: Jenn Donovan
I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to object to that one. It's okay to have it as well, but, you know, radio ads who are like, follow me on social drive me insane. I'm like, what? Social?
28:45: Jenn Donovan
Who are you? How do, how do you spell that? Like, come on. Um, so anyway, that's just my little bug bear that I have. I have these little bug bears, but you know, your emails, you send them so many every day. What's the marketing that you should have in your emails?
28:59: Jenn Donovan
If you send a lot of invoices, there is always that little box on an invoice that says notes. What do you put in there? What's the marketing message that you could put in, in every single invoice that you send out? Um, or you could use it to shout about another small business owner.
29:15: Jenn Donovan
Uh, one of the campaigns that I talk about in my book, which I absolutely love, is a local tire, uh, man who sells tires and he runs radio and TV ads, but they're not about tires. It's kind of like, you know, the local florist. Um, you know, I get them there, you know, the local, uh, I don't know the local funeral director. I get them there 'cause he sells tires. No car can move without tires.
29:38: Jenn Donovan
And it's such a beautiful community orientated ad that, you know, he's the tire seller, but he's also promoting all these other small businesses through his own marketing, who he's building his community. Who are you gonna recommend for tires? That guy? 'cause he's such a community orientated person.
29:55: Jenn Donovan
He's not trying to give you the fourth one free. He's just trying to, you know, make you think about, you know, tires in a totally different way. Um, look at your analytics and your insights. You know, so many people have come to me over the years with, you know, they've been on Instagram and you know, they've got this Instagram strategy, but it's just not creating sales. And then you go and have a look at their Google Analytics and Instagram's nowhere near driving any traffic to their website whatsoever.
30:25: Jenn Donovan
And yet that's where they're concentrating the most. Whereas most of the traffic is coming through searches. It's like, well, you need a Google strategy then. 'cause most people are googling your key keywords or your business, and that's how they're coming to you. So imagine if you put a bit of strategy behind that, how much you could, you know, build that up and get even more traffic and even more quality leads to come through. So it's kind of using the tools you already have in your business, but just giving yourself a little bit of time recognizing that you are a marketer and giving yourself some time to sit back and go, well, what do I do every day?
31:03: Jenn Donovan
That's not actually got marketing attached to it, but it could. Mm-Hmm, I love that. I love this invitation of taking a step back and this example that you shared with us, because so many business owner, first of all, they have this mindset shift that they need to embrace, which is we are all as business owner. When people tell me, I am not financial, I am not a salesperson, I am not a marketing. I'm like, welcome to the small business world.
31:30: Laetitia | @essential.shift
You're gonna wear all the hats. So let's learn the, the elements of each hat. So if you need to learn marketing strategy, Jen is here for you. If you need to learn business strategy, I'm here for you. It's just like learning those skills and then applying it to your business.
31:44: Laetitia | @essential.shift
And you mentioned the community and something, you know, I knew you before meeting you in a way, which was with your beautiful community initiative, which you launch, uh, during the, um, the bush fire in Australia, which was called Buy From the Bush, buy from a Bush business. Mm-Hmm. How does that come to life? And what is the story behind this?
32:08: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Because it's exactly like the time, man. Mm-Hmm. We were in that situation of drought and bushfire and all that. Or maybe it's another origin story than the one that I have seen being, you know, a member of this Facebook group when there were all of this horrible thing happening in Australia.
32:26: Laetitia | @essential.shift
I was like, I need to support local, rural businesses. So, you know, that's how I discovered you without knowing it was you. And then the dots connected those moments. So can you share with us that story? Because I think it is a beautiful way to show that you are actually embodying the values that you share around community and around doing marketing for good and all of that. So would you like to share that story?
32:52: Laetitia | @essential.shift
And we have some to know what based outside of Australia, so it's also important for them to know a bit around why you did that and all of that. Yeah, thank you. Look, it is, it's kind of, um, I I think my legacy story, uh, that hasn't finished yet, but it's definitely a, a really beautiful legacy that I've given to rural and regional Australia, being a rural person myself. Um, so basically the, the story really started with, um, as a marketing person. Remember in the pan before the pandemic, we used to do a lot of traveling. Well, you know, I used to do, uh, road trips. And this particular, it wasOctober, 2019 and I was doing a road trip round the Riverina of New South Wales, which is kind of the bottom half of New South Wales, going to a few country towns doing marketing workshops.
33:41: Jenn Donovan
And, um, the thing that we know here in the country is if farmers don't have money, towns don't have money. That's just the reality. If farmers are having a hard time, there isn't enough. There isn't as much money in the town to be spent. And so during this time, you know, I'm talking about Christmas and marketing for Christmas, and everyone's just kind of looking at me like, what Christmas? Like Christmas is not going to be an event because basically we've had five years of drought and no one's got any money.
34:10: Jenn Donovan
And it was really, it was something that I just noticed in the five towns that I went to all that week, they were really down. Whereas, you know, Christmas should be the time that retailers are so excited. It's the time to get the cream of the crop and also buy from the Bush was a trending hashtag at that particular time. I know it's turned into something quite a bit bigger now on Instagram, but at that time it was just a trending hashtag. And people were like, how do you use Instagram?
34:39: Jenn Donovan
I don't understand how I can use this hashtag and get found. And of course, I'm very much see a problem solver problem. It tends to be the way that my brain works. It's the way that my life works.
34:50: Jenn Donovan
And so I was traveling home from Hay, which is on the plains of New South Wales, so there's not a tree, there's hardly any fences, there's just nothing to look at. And I just got this idea of, well, everyone knows how to use Facebook, so why don't I start a Facebook group? And that's what I did. I got home Friday night, sat at my computer, made a Facebook group, called it Buy From a Bush Business, invited my friends, invited all the people I'd seen that week, and encouraged them to post in there, um, and invite their friends. And of course, you know, as history has it now, I think when I, I'm actually out of that business now, I, um, decided that that was, I was no longer the best person to lead that, um, movement anymore.
35:33: Jenn Donovan
Um, but when I left, it was at387,000 people. So it, and it had injected $8 million back into the regional economy. So, and yes, I was at the head of that, and yes, that was my community and I made it a safe space because I can tell you I saw the very best and the absolute worst of humanity through that group. There are some very nasty, horrible, evil people out there. Um, but that's a story for a very different podcast. But I made it a safe space for everyone.
36:03: Jenn Donovan
But really it was everybody encouraging other people. So, you know, Jody would come in and invite her 50 friends, and then one of her friends would invite another 50 friends. That's how it grew. It grew on that, that I, I guess the whole community. So community, supporting community.
36:22: Jenn Donovan
Um, of course little did I know in October that come December and January, we'd have some of the most horrific bush fires that the eastern part of Australia has ever seen, which would be followed by a mouse plague, which would be followed by floods, which, and then somewhere in there was covid. So it was kind of like these most unperfect perfect storm that this group had been created and that people could buy products without and support the small business owner. Um, and I guess for me, also, and I'm hoping this doesn't come off too horribly, but you know, I remember back to the times of the drought and the Today Show, which is one of the morning shows here, would be raising money. And they would be raising7,8, 10 thou $10 million for farmers.
37:12: Jenn Donovan
We never saw any of that money. Like my district and my farm, like I'm a fifth generation farmer. We never saw a penny of that money. Now I'm not saying it didn't go to places that it shouldn't, but at the end of the day, my group put money back in the pocket of the person who needed it. They didn't have to apply for funding. They didn't have to be gifted something from the government or from a Red Cross. They had a product, I had a buyer, and they got the money directly into the person. That to me, is a much better model than raising millions of dollars to go to a charity that's then distributed and potentially not to all the people who needed it.
37:50: Jenn Donovan
Mm-Hmm. Thank you for saying that. And we're definitely controversial here. So it's all good. It's a safe space. And, um, I discovered this group during the Bush fire.
38:02: Laetitia | @essential.shift
I didn't know it was, you know, something that you created. I knew it was coming from the drought and the bushfire and so on, but it, it's so, uh, powerful and potent. Thank you so much for sharing that, Jen, and for the legacies that you've created with this group.
38:16: Laetitia | @essential.shift
So, before I ask you the fire question, because we have fire question at this podcast, uh, do you have anything that you wish I ask you a question about that you'd like to share with our listeners? No, I don't think so. I think, you know, at this stage, it, it's tough out there at business at the moment. I've had so many conversations with people just this week, never alone every other week that's been in 2024, about how tough it is out there.
38:42: Jenn Donovan
And I, I guess I just wanna encourage people just to maybe sit back and have a look at your marketing. Have a look at the tools that you've got given to you, such as your, um, social media insights or your Google Analytics. And really that's the love of digital marketing, that you can make decisions based on real data. Um, you know, have, if you do email marketing, have a look, you know, do get an open rate on mobile or desktop.
39:10: Jenn Donovan
And if it's more mobile than the other, how does your emails look on mobile? Can you tweak them just a little bit to help that open rate, to help that click through rate? Um, you know, can you do a, you know, look at your Google Analytics and go, okay, um, Facebook is actually where most of my leads come from. Well, I, I'm gonna post more into some Facebook groups and, you know, share some tips and tricks as well as ask for some sales in there and to see if you can mix things up a little bit.
39:40: Jenn Donovan
I think, you know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And I feel like that's where we're at in a lot of people's marketing at the moment, is they've been doing what they've been doing, but us humans, we've changed. Your ideal client has potentially changed their, their shopping habits. And you need to go back and reflect on those rather than going, this isn't working before you throw in the towel. Really give yourself that space to go, well, what can I do that's just, it could be 1% here and 1% there. It's probably nothing that you're doing that's 50% wrong, but you just need to look for those little opportunities and get help. You know, I surround myself with amazing people, you know, um, that can help me and, um, you know, listen to me, celebrate with me, push me. And I feel like that's what, it's something that everybody needs, again, the community of people.
40:34: Jenn Donovan
Hmm. I love it. And yeah, I know why we connected so beautifully straight away for the shared value of community and impact, but also simplicity, but not simplistic. It can be simple.
40:48: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Yes.
40:48: Jenn Donovan
I love that. Mm-Hmm, and, uh, simple is not simplistic, but definitely looking at those data point and going back to the drawing board, and this is really a time and, you know, zero small business, release some data. And actually it was last month. Last month.
41:05: Laetitia | @essential.shift
The revenue generated by small businesses was as low as what it was inApril, 2020 when Australia went into lockdown. So that's incredible.
41:15: Jenn Donovan
Yeah. So I shared this on the podcast. If you feel the slow down, the slow down is real. It's not just you, it's also, you need to look at the conjuncture as the, you know, the macroeconomic and the microeconomic when you make decision. And I train in macro and macro and I'm telling you, it's like right now you can manage to get yourself out there and, you know, thrive in business.
41:41: Laetitia | @essential.shift
It's not because the data are telling you that business is going through lls, that you are going through ll but you're more likely <laugh> to feel the ebbs and flow if everything around you is going through the journey. So thank you so much Jen for sharing that. So I'm gonna ask you quickly the fire question and then it will be, we'll ask you how people can connect with you and more information about your book.
42:02: Laetitia | @essential.shift
So you just answer with whatever comes to your mind. Intuition is, intuition is, um, oh, I don't know.
42:12: Jenn Donovan
Intuition is knowing yourself. Hmm. Strategy is required. <laugh> like that.
42:20: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Thank you.
42:22: Jenn Donovan
Business is, uh, the self-development program you didn't see coming. Ooh, that's a good one. Never had this one.
42:30: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Something I wish I knew sooner is
42:35: Jenn Donovan
the power of community
42:38: Laetitia | @essential.shift
and something I want to share with everyone, something I wanna share with everyone.
42:46: Jenn Donovan
Find your people, find the people who will celebrate you with you, challenge you, wish you, um, and you know, shout your name in a room full of people. I love that. Thank you so much Jen. So now I love to invite anyone who listen to this to get your book. So can you share a bit more about your book and also share about how they can connect with you.
43:07: Laetitia | @essential.shift
I know you have a beautiful podcast, which I've been a guest on, so would you mind sharing a bit more about how they can connect with you and learn more from you? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. That's so generous.
43:19: Jenn Donovan
Um, so my book is called Small Town Big Impact. You can find it on um, Amazon, but you can also find it on my website, social media andmarketing.com au. And if you buy it from me, I'll send you a little message with a little gift as well. Um, and I, well that's my website, social media andmarketing.com au. My podcast is called Small Business Made Simple. Um, so yeah, business is supposed to be simple. It mightn't be easy, but it's supposed to be simple than what it is.
43:49: Jenn Donovan
So that's my philosophy of my podcast. And you can find me on the socials just about every social except XI really don't like X, so, or Twitter. So other than that, you can find me, Jen, Donovan, Jen with two Ns and I'd love to connect and if you do come and connect, send me a little message and tell me this is how you found me or that, you know, maybe my discussion with Leticia was something that you really needed to hear or yeah, just send me a little uh, note with it as well. 'cause I would love to hear from you and have you part of my world.
44:20: Jenn Donovan
Hmm. And what a beautiful word to be part of. Thank you so much, Jen, for everything you do, your embodiment of the core value of community impact and making business and simple. I am all in with you on that.
44:34: Laetitia | @essential.shift
Thank you so much for today. Oh, thank you so much.
44:37: Jenn Donovan
It's been a blast.