by Kelly Berry
My Tools
As I work to become more visible online, I use a variety of subscription tools that make this task easier to accomplish for a team of one.
First, I have a WordPress website. It is easy for me to add blog posts to the website myself and keep adding new content to satisfy my two audiences:
- potential clients
- the SEO/AIEO machine (Search and AI engine optimizations)
New content (full of helpful keywords that support my audience) is one of the key things that the SEO gods are looking for.
Each month, I post one long-ish video (5-7 minutes, and yes, that is long in this short-attention span world!) – and one written blog post. These posts can be found on my website and are also emailed to my subscribers.
For the videos, I use a cheap, simple tool called ScreenPal ($24/yr) to record. I write a script, then use a teleprompter ($199 for a one-time purchase) and a teleprompter app ($60/yr) to view it while my phone serves as the camera.
Once I edit and finalize the video in ScreenPal, I can upload it to YouTube (free). I also use Canva ($119/yr) to create a video thumbnail (the image that appears on YouTube when you open the video).
I send out the videos (and the written blogs) to my subscribers using the email tool Kit, formerly ConvertKit ($390/yr). Then I use a tool called Opus Clip ($180/yr) to turn the longer video into shorter (<30 seconds) clips that I can share on my LinkedIn Premium account ($570/yr).
My Results
How is all of this going for me? Let’s just say I am playing the long game. I have about 200 subscribers who get the blog and the video each month. I have about 1500 followers on LinkedIn, and I’m sure at least some of them see the video clips. I have built up a nice pool of evergreen content that I can reuse over time. I am currently using a few AI tools to pull social media posts from past blog posts, and I plan to do the same with the videos.
I have discovered that many more people read my LinkedIn posts than comment or like them, and I can use LinkedIn data to better understand which topics resonate with my audience. Then I can have my marketing data analyst (me) fine-tune the messaging to increase engagement through posts from my social media specialist (me).
The biggest hurdles to me showing up online and growing my new business services are (1) time and (2) money. But I believe the tools I am using are worth the investment as I work to grow my online visibility and ultimately my customer base.
Kelly Berry is the owner of ResourceAbility and Second Stage Growth. She has been providing market research and strategic planning services to small and medium-sized businesses for about 20 years. Any new decisions about adding products or services, setting prices, or expanding into a new market should begin with market research. Let us help your business with primary or secondary research to support and inform your decisions. She is currently Past-President and has served as President, Director of Professional Development, and Virtual Events Committee Chair.