How To Build a Digital Business in 2021
If you’re new to the digital business space, welcome. In my experience, running a digital business has been one of the most transformative and rewarding changes I made in my career. Here’s what you need to get started:
MINDSET WORK
This is undoubtedly the most important part of building a digital business, so I am putting it front and center.
There’s no wrong modality when it comes to doing mindset work. Whether it’s journaling (my personal favorite), meditation, speaking or even going for a run, do what will be the most effective to move the needle forward.
If you are a rookie, you will find that building a business will uncover a lot of mindset blocks you have around your abilities, money and beliefs.
Your imposter monster (an endearing name I came up with for imposter syndrome) will make it their mission to convince you that you can’t make it, that you’re not smart enough and a variety of other pish posh that aims to hold you back.
@bernadettemarciniak Starting a business is hard, especially with the imposter monster always saying this to you. #marketingmentor #brandphotographer #entrepreneur
♬ original sound - Bernadette Marciniak
@bernadettemarciniak New level, new devil is a never ending game. ##impostersyndrome ##entrepreneur ##brandphotographer ##biztip
♬ Creep TLC - faith🧸
It’s much easier said than done to tell you to push that voice aside. Trust me, I know. So what I also want you to know is that you are not alone. In fact, you are in amazing company with literally every entrepreneur. This means that even the people you look up to are fighting with the same enemy. And that’s okay.
The thing you need to know about mindset work and quieting your imposter monster is that it will be a lifetime job. With every step up, there will be a set of new challenges. That might seem overwhelming and frustrating at first glance, but I assure you, it’s actually a relief.
Now that you know it’s part of the process, you can incorporate it into your big picture. Personal development and pushing your limits are part of your agenda and every small victory turns into a big step towards your future.
The best way to get started with this journey is to work with a coach. If you don’t have a lot of money to invest in a business coach to help you with this work just yet, start with listening and reading to their free content. Save posts and videos that resonate with you. Sign up for free discovery calls when you can and don’t feel guilty about not being able to act on a sales pitch at the end -- discovery calls help everyone, even if you don’t buy anything.
Create offers
When you’re setting out to create offers, start small. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with a dozen different offers, even if you feel like you’re multi-talented. You will do best as a digital business owner when you start out with one or two offers and figure out ways to excel in marketing and selling them so that you can replicate the process.
Take some time to create 1-2 solid offers before tacking on more. That way your audience will know exactly who to go to for the service they need.
For instance, if you want to offer coaching services, stick with a 1-on-1 offers first before expanding to a group coaching session. It will be easier to handle and you will be able to make tweaks that will make a future offer more profitable after you’ve had some practice and collected testimonials.
Create a marketing strategy
Having the offers is great, but now you have to sell them. And how will people know about them if you are not marketing?
I create one month of content at a time using my Batch, Please batch plan strategy. Batching saves a ton of time and also results in a cohesive brand message that resonates with ideal clients.
To start, figure out what platforms your potential customers and clients are more likely to be hanging out. Will it be Instagram? LinkedIn? Facebook or TikTok? Choose one (max two) of those to put all your efforts and energy into to start.
After that, make a realistic goal for how often you will be posting to the platform. Don’t overwhelm yourself with quantity if your workload can’t handle it. The more important part of marketing is consistency.
I would suggest starting out with 2-3 posts per week, and building up later if you need to.
One thing to keep in mind is that within one platform, there are multiple ways to market as well! For instance, Instagram has feed posts, Stories and now Reels. Feel free to mix and match between all of these to find out where your audience is more active.
You can also fill in your calendar by repurposing your content across all the options. So, you can plan to create a feed post for Monday, share it and talk about it on your Instagram stories on Tuesday, and make a quick Reel about it on Wednesday. Rinse and repeat throughout the week!
Another thing to note is that engaging with other accounts needs to be part of your marketing strategy. This may seem overwhelming but could also possibly lessen the load of content creation. Instead of creating new content every week, find 3-5 accounts that would fit under the umbrella of your ideal client avatar, and engage with their content a few times a week. Make sure it is thoughtful, adds value and sparks conversation. That way, you’re already talking to your ideal clients instead of waiting for them to find you!
Hire a brand photographer
DIYing can only get you so far. Plan to hire experts who will elevate your business and take it to the next level.
Once you have a bit of a groove, start investing in services that will elevate and scale your business to the next level.
Quality and purposeful imagery specially curated for your ideal clients in mind will make your business visible to the right people and will seal the deal when they land on your website or landing pages.
You want to make sure you hire someone who specializes in brand photography vs. hiring a traditional photographer. Brand photographers are well-versed in all the nooks and crannies of your business that will need photography, as well as taking into account how to frame and compose the shots for the specific needs like graphics, hero images and more. Brand photography also comes with a commercial license so you can use the photos for their intended purpose - to legally market your business. Without it, you will likely need to pay per image, based on your audience, use and other factors. If an image goes viral or one of your products makes you a lot of money, you’ll need to be prepared to fork over a lot of it to your photographer if you don’t have a commercial license.
Refine every quarter
Take some time every quarter to reflect on what’s working and what’s not to make tweaks to your marketing, your sales and your product.
Make sure to celebrate your victories with dances in the street!
I personally love using PowerSheets from Cultivate What Matters to make and review my goals. While PowerSheets can be used for personal purposes, I filled mine out with a primary focus on my business every month.
What’s also important to keep in mind, is to not get discouraged if you don’t meet all of your goals every quarter. While hitting them may feel like a huge accomplishment, we are only human and it’s not worth beating yourself up over the things you didn’t do. Just add them to next quarter’s goals if they are still important.
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MEET YOUR BRAND PHOTOGRAPHER
Bernadette Marciniak is a branding photographer based out of Los Angeles & New York City. She works with coaches, healers, educators and creative business owners to create powerful imagery that converts audiences into clients.
A former photojournalist, Bernadette approaches brand photography from a storytelling standpoint, using the emotions of your ideal client to guide a photoshoot. Illustrating the achievable transformations of the people you work with is the most powerful way to create the visibility your business needs.
Bernadette loves good pizza, craft beer and red wine. She watches Parks and Rec, Friends and How I Met Your Mother on repeat.
