Today's Guest

Ryan Sawrie is an author, agency owner, and marketer who has spent more than a decade working with brands on their digital and social media strategies. Ryan is the owner and Chief Strategist at Digital Zeal, a full-service digital marketing agency with clients in the sports, entertainment, startup, and nonprofit verticals. Ryan shared the strategies he’s seen work best for small businesses and what pitfalls to avoid. 

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Episode Summary

After graduating from college in 2007, I hustled to get my first job in marketing. A year later the all-employee email went out congratulating me on my 1st anniversary. But about 2-hours later the same day, I was informed I was being laid off, which was painful and ironic at the same time. In the long run, more good than bad came from it and it set me on the journey to where I’m at today.

Every job I’ve held didn’t exist at the company before I applied for it. Those include jobs such as a social media strategist, content director, or director of digital strategy. Because my work was in a space that has been evolving so quickly, it just worked out that the roles didn’t exist before. It has been an interesting journey and it caused me to think like an entrepreneur because I had to define how I was going to add value to the business.

My book Build Your Digital Strategy is geared toward small business owners who are looking for help navigating the digital marketing space. I created a free digital strategy road map that gives you an A to F process for developing your strategy. It starts with aligning your strategy with your goals. The next part is to define your brand identity. Then your content strategy. Then distribution channels. Then how are you evaluating success? And the last piece is to find the ideas that help separate your business from competitors.

Small business owners must be extremely focused on where they want to compete online if they hope to gain meaningful traction. Don’t spread yourself so thin that you don’t do anything well or get buried by bigger competitors. Pick two or three platforms you think will deliver the best return for your business and focus your energy and resources there. Don’t launch a podcast just because you think it's cool unless that is a natural fit for you, and you have a strategy of how it will grow your business. Technology plays a key role in helping small businesses manage their leads and customers. CRM platforms are extremely helpful at automating the tasks required to convert a lead into a paying customer.

Resources Shared

• Digital Zeal
• Build Your Digital Strategy by Ryan Sawrie
• Digital Strategy Sprint Road Map
• Thryv
  

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