#25. Conquering Marketing as a Busy SLP: Insights from Marketing Expert Becki Fellin
Episode Shownotes:
How can a busy speech-language pathologist conquer marketing, even with a jam-packed schedule? We're diving into this vital question with Becki Fellin, a marketing expert with a knack for crafting winning strategies. In this interview, we discuss the value of leveraging client testimonials, how to select the "best" marketing platforms, and why marketing should never be an afterthought, regardless of how busy you are.
As a busy mom and small business owner, Becki understands first-hand the importance of using quick yet effective marketing strategies. Tune in to hear Becki's practical tips for how to establish an online presence and engage with your target audience so you can get the most out of your time and money when it comes to growing your business.
You can learn more about Becki Fellin and BFellin Studio at bfellinstudio.com or by connecting with Becki on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn @BFellinStudio.
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Episode Transcript*:
This is Your Speech Path: Mindful Time Management for the Busy SLP. My name is Theresa Harp and, as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnt out and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in.
Hey podcast listeners, as you might know, I am working through a five part system series, all about how to create really simple yet effective systems in your private practice or in your work as a clinician to help save you time, and this week I had originally planned to release the fifth and final episode in that system series, where I was going to cover all things marketing and how to create a really simple system for marketing your private practice. However, what I want to do today is actually push pause on that series so that I can release this episode, which is a really fun interview that I did with a friend of mine who also happens to be a marketing expert. So what does that mean for you? It means that today you get to hear this interview with Becki, where she's going to be dropping some amazing marketing tips, and then next week I'll be back with the fifth and final episode in the system series, where I can teach you how to take this information and use it to create a simple system for your marketing. But for today, I'm going to leave it to the expert, Becki, to fill you in on all things marketing. She's covering ways that you can leverage testimonials from clients, why you should be marketing even when your schedule is really busy, how to choose what platform or platforms are best for your marketing goals, and lots more. So, without further ado, here is our interview.
Theresa Harp:
Hello everyone, welcome back to the “Your Speech Path Podcast,” and today I've got a really fun episode because I have a guest who I know personally and also now professionally. Her name is Becki Fellin and she's here today to talk to us about marketing. Becki is a seasoned marketing professional and owns her own marketing consulting firm, BFellin Studio. She has over 15 years of experience and she's been very varied in what she's worked on, so, from her time in the publishing industry at Family Circle Magazine, digital marketing at Comcast marketing, leadership roles for nonprofits and performing arts and professional education. Becki offers thoughtful results driven services in marketing strategy, copywriting, website optimization she actually helped me with my website and data analytics for both large corporations and small business clients. So, Becki, I'm so excited to have you on the show tonight. Why don't you have—I want to give you the chance to kind of introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more in your own words.
Becki Fellin: 3:39
Sure, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So, yes, thank you for that lovely introduction. So I am Becky Fellen. I am a wife, mom of two little kids I have a four year old and a seven year old and I've worked in marketing about 15 years and it's been I've had, I've been really lucky. I've gotten to do a lot of different kinds of things. I started out in print marketing made tradition, transition over to digital. I've worked at like a major national corporation. I've had a nonprofit experience, so it's just been really nice to get all that different variety. I got really interested in marketing initially because I just loved watching TV. Growing up, I was always really fascinated by advertising specifically. I just kind of thought that it combined a lot of my favorite things, whether that be visual arts, creative writing, psychology and math. Yes, there actually is a lot of math and marketing. People don't always realize that and I spent a few years probably around six years in leadership roles for individual companies. But over that time I realized there was some couple of specific areas of the marketing industry that I really was most passionate about and where I really thrived, and, as you mentioned, those are strategy, website copywriting and data analytics. So I started my own business and went out on my own in 2022. And that was when I created BeFellen Studio specifically to offer those more specialized services. I've gotten to work on some really exciting projects for clients. I've helped them define their target audiences, mapped out their overarching marketing strategies. I've done a ton of website projects. As you mentioned, I helped with yours a little bit, so I've done some refreshes of just certain pieces of websites. I've done total overhauls. I've worked with companies to really kind of dial into their SEO and see what's working and what's not, and also user experience mapping and how to kind of map out like a really intuitive user experience for their audiences. I've also done a lot of copywriting projects, everything from ad copy, website copy, tag lines. And then I've also done some research and analytics projects where I kind of either take took a deep dive into either their website data or their campaign data to kind of figure out where the areas of opportunity are and how we can increase sort of their general return on their investments.
Theresa Harp: 6:07
Yeah, I love that. I love that you talked about how it incorporated marketing and advertising, incorporated so many of your passions. I think the SLPs can relate to that, because we are multi, many of us are multi, passionate and business owners right For private practice owners. I don't know if you have found this, but I have found that in owning a business, it allows me to kind of exercise my interests in so many different areas.
Becki Fellin: 6:36
It's a whole different kind of skill set that you're using even in marketing. It's still different.
Theresa Harp: 6:42
Yeah, yeah, and I mean there are many reasons why I wanted to have you on the show, but one of the primary reasons that I think it's so important that you're here is because and I say this as a fellow, as an SLP, to my SLP listeners most of us got into this field with number one without any real interest in becoming a business owner, so that was like a side thing that happened for many of us Same here Right. Okay, and so also just very driven by serving and helping. And when we're in undergrad and grad, we're taught how to evaluate and we're taught how to provide treatment goals and we're taught how to provide intervention and we're not taught how to get clients, how to keep clients, how to those types of things. And I think there is some resistance that many speech therapists might feel when it comes to marketing, and I think there's probably a number of reasons why that is. You know, they might feel like they need to focus on the services that they're providing, and if we're marketing, then it's like oh, we're just money hungry and we're in it for the wrong reasons and we don't actually care about clients. We just want you know more people in the building, more you know feet through the door, so we have more income. So, as a result, there's often then some tension or resistance around marketing, and I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about that from a marketing perspective.
Becki Fellin: 8:23
Sure, sure. I think that's really relatable and I worked in non-profit marketing for many years and I definitely felt that sentiment at times of like we're supposed to be in it for you know the community goals and that's so true. But I think there's a couple of different ways that you can look at it that will help kind of alleviate some of those tensions. Obviously there's the practical aspects. You have to have enough revenue coming in. You can't keep your business open without that and if your business isn't open you're not able to help people who are in need of your speech pathology services. There's also the aspect of you have, as the SLPs, you've invested your own time and money to hone those very in-demand specialized skills and your work provides tons of value and it deserves compensation. But even if you take sort of the money aspect and put that aside for a second, I think you can still choose to look at it from like a mission perspective. If part of the mission of your SLP business is to serve more people and have a greater impact on your community, then you can really just think of marketing as a tool, another tool in your toolbox that you use to further that mission, and then I think really, it just comes down to marketing your business enough often enough that people know exactly where to go or who to go to when they or someone else they know needs your services. And I think a perfect example of why you shouldn't have to feel guilty about this is that every hospital in the country runs community marketing campaigns, and the reason they do that is because people do need to know where to go in times of need or if they have an emergency. But and then, additionally, I think it's important that everybody remembers that you don't have to have your marketing look like anybody else's. You always have the freedom to design your own marketing efforts. You can decide what is or is not in alignment with your business values. Those can be things like I want everything to look professional service oriented. I want to help raise public awareness of speech pathology issues, so you don't have to publish or create anything that feels salesy, pushy or just generally off brand for your business.
Theresa Harp: 10:28
I love that. I think there's so many good points in there, and when I hear you talk about making marketing look the way we want it to look, individualizing what marketing looks like, I think that opens up the door to so many speech pathologists rethinking what quote unquote marketing means right and just. I know that people who are listening are probably hearing terms like copy and copywriting and advertising and marketing and most of the SLPs are like we're shrinking down in our chairs.
Becki Fellin: 11:07
Yes, I get that a lot. I get that a lot.
Theresa Harp: 11:10
So maybe you could talk a little bit about a little more about redefining what marketing looks like, to maybe get over some of those mental hurdles that we might be feeling.
Becki Fellin: 11:21
Sure, of course I get that a lot. That's also very relatable, and I think it's kind of something where marketing is just a much broader term than a lot of people realize. I think what people think of marketing they think of sort of just advertising in a traditional sense, whether that be print, digital, even social and things that are newer on that end. But marketing can really encompass a lot of things. It can just sort of show how you spotlight your work, how you broaden your reach in your community, how all the ways that you establish yourself as a subject matter expert in speech. So, whether you're a private business owner or thinking about opening a business someday in the future, I think having a base of marketing skills and sort of knowing what marketing could mean for your business is really beneficial, and it could be things like how you create elevator pitches for a potential client, how you leverage your positive client testimonials. That's really important too, and that is in and of itself marketing. Or how you can create really cool downloads on your website that give people more information about speech issues and how to look for them and what to look out for. That's really important and I think one of the most common misconceptions that I see amongst not just SLPs but any small business owners and actually even some large corporations as well, is that you only really need to know about marketing or do marketing when your business is slow. There's a couple different problems with that, one being financial that if your business is slow is that time where you're going to want to invest dollars in marketing, if an investment is required. But then also, another problem with that mindset is that marketing is kind of a long game. It's not necessarily the answer. A lot of people want to hear, or a lot of people want to tell small business owners because it's a lot more fun to tell them that you can do things and everything will be great after this one thing that you turn the dial on and there could definitely be short term wins. Don't get me wrong. Things can go viral and that's very exciting, but in general it's not really something you just turn on and then see the results immediately, overnight. Really effective marketing. It takes time. It takes time to build people's awareness of your brand or your business name and build a social media following that's engaged with you, and to create a really amazing website that people love to use and to build up an SEO score. I mean that takes a ton of time and to maintain that as a whole other effort. So I think you can be someone who. You have an amazing client base. They're really solid, your word of mouth referrals are pretty steady and that's awesome. But that still doesn't mean that you don't necessarily need to know about marketing, because marketing and making that sort of a regular priority can really just sustain and grow your business over time. Ideally, you just want to be marketing yourself and your business often enough that when people do need your services, they know exactly where to go and your business name is top of mind.
Theresa Harp: 14:16
Yes, so many good gems in there. So what I'm hearing is market when you're busy, not when you are slow or in addition to slow Marketing. Always Exactly, in addition.
Becki Fellin: 14:27
I always say marketing is a practice. It's not something that you just like push a button. It's a practice that you're doing ongoing. It's something you're updating and optimizing all the time and learning as you go.
Theresa Harp: 14:39
I love that and it's a long game. There aren't necessarily many quick wins.
Becki Fellin:14:46
I wish there was, I know. Me too.
Theresa Harp: 14:50
But the the long term is a long term investment and the ROI might be a little bit delayed, so the return on your investment might take some time, but that what I'm hearing is that it will be effective if you're doing it constantly, consistently and doing it in a way that's in alignment with your values as a business owner. Absolutely, absolutely, okay. And so, with that thought in mind about marketing taking time right, because most of the people that are listening to this podcast are busy SLPs, health professionals, and we know that it takes time. We know we need to be doing it consistently, but what are some of the ways that we can get the most out of our time that we're spending on marketing?
Becki Fellin: 15:35
Sure. So one thing I recommend doing is kind of creating a marketing plan, and that doesn't have to feel super overwhelming. I mean that can be. It can be pretty simple and short. It kind of is just going to be a little bit more like your roadmap and kind of defining what your direction is, where you're going, and that way, when you do sort of feel like I don't know what to do next, you can kind of get yourself back on track. And there's a couple of different things I recommend putting in a marketing plan Obviously some your brand values. So this is going to help kind of define your you know your imaging, your messaging. So is it authentic, professional, informative, approachable, etc. You can kind of figure out what feels best for you and your business and then also who your target audience is, so who they are, where they are, what matters to them, how they behave and why they behave the ways that they do. And then also sort of the channels that you want to focus on. There's so many channels of communication, more so now than ever before, and that can feel very overwhelming and that's totally understandable. So I think it's kind of best if you kind of focus your efforts on sort of the areas that you feel the most comfortable with first, and I'll get to that in a little bit. But I think it's so easy to compare sort of what everyone else is doing and feel that pressure to be everywhere. But having this marketing plan is going to kind of really define sort of okay, based on the you know time and energy, that I have time to your point, you know where are my efforts going to be spent, and that way you don't have to feel that burnout and that decision fatigue. So whenever it is that you're trying to figure out what you're going to do next. But on the flip side of that, I will say when you're making your marketing plan, you don't need to belabor it. That can just sort of be a different form of procrastination. I know you guys talk a lot about procrastination on this podcast. So sometimes the best thing you can do is just put a couple of things down on paper, jump in and learn as you go, and it's perfectly fine for your marketing to grow and evolve right alongside your business. I really recommend to start out just focusing on like one to two channels. That's really going to help kind of get you in that habit. And, like you said, you have limited time. Most of your time and energy is going to be spent with your clients, but this will kind of help you keep you motivated and build up your confidence. And staying within your comfort zone is good to start, because then it won't feel like something that you just always want to put on the back burner of your to-do list Because you're already sort of comfortable in that area. Some examples could be if your audience is moms, millennial moms who have young kids, and they spend a lot of time on Instagram, and you also spend a lot of time on Instagram and you're very comfortable with social media, just kind of dig into that specifically. Start posting regularly, engaging with your followers, connecting with other leaders in your industry. You can do collaborations, which is always fun. If you love writing, you could start a blog and kind of keep with that same mindset of connection and engagement. And then I do know people too who are like you know what digital marketing is just not my jam, and I respect that completely. And some people are like I love talking to people. I just want to talk to people in person. So there's cool things you can do there, like you can purchase a booth at a local event that targets a similar target audience and you can make some cool leave behinds or an interactive game People always love games, so and you can always venture into other areas as your comfort levels build. But, like you said, you have minimal time minimal you know bandwidth to be doing these things outside of just seeing your clients. So I recommend that you kind of, instead of doing trying to do a lot of things and feel like you're falling short everywhere, try to just focus on maybe like one to two areas and really nailing it.
Theresa Harp: 19:28
Yeah, I think you're really speaking to the people who feel like they have, to the people who are all or nothing thinkers.
Becki Fellin: 19:36
Absolutely.
Theresa Harp: 19:36
Like, hello, that's me. So it's like, well, I'm, I'm going to start my marketing when I can really invest my time and energy into it and like one day, when I've got all this time, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to create this whole plan and then that's what I'm going to focus on. But I'm not going to do that yet because, you know, I really want to do it right and as a recovering perfectionist.
Becki Fellin: 20:00
I can relate to that too.
Theresa Harp: 20:01
Right and like what you spoke to, is that's really a form of procrastination? Absolutely. There will never be the right time. There will never be the time where you feel like, OK, now I have the energy, the time, the resources to do this.
Becki Fellin: 20:17
So start with your app. You can always make something better too. You can always keep picking a copy, you can keep poking at your website. There's just, there's never an end. At some point you just have to start and that can be really hard.
Theresa Harp: 20:28
Yeah, as we're talking about this, I'm thinking of it and I don't know if this analogy will land at all. But it's like being a homeowner. We're like you buy the house and then you're like, oh, I'm going to do this, this, this, this to it. We have all these ideas of what we want to do, but you're not going to jump in and do all of that at first. And so you could sit there and be like, well, we're not going to start anything until we have all the money we need for all the projects and we have all the time it's like no, no, no, You're going to probably go like one room at a time, one section of one room at a time and then, by the time you finish that, and then another one, and another one, you're probably going back to where you started and updating that and tweaking that, fixing that. It's always. It's an evolution, it's an ongoing process.
Becki Fellin: 21:13
Yeah, I remember when I started my business I made a start date for myself and obviously I sort of worked backwards of like this is how I'm going to make my website, this is what I'm going to do for X, Y and Z and outreach and trying to draw up clients. And then it was like but this is the date. Whatever it looks like on this date, it's going out, it's going out.
Theresa Harp: 21:32
Yes, I love that same thing. That's how I started my podcast, my podcast before I had my rebrand. I just randomly I looked at the calendar. I picked a date and I was like, all right, this is the date that I'm doing it and I'm telling people, so I won't go back on it and I'm just whatever I've got on that day is what will be.
Becki Fellin: 21:54
Yeah, and one thing I think can be nice too is kind of building in some accountability. When I first started my business and you'd think, oh, you're marketing, so obviously you're comfortable doing marketing, but it is different. There's a lot of things about it that are different. Obviously, when I started my business there were so many things I needed to do to run the business other than just marketing. But I knew I needed to at least get my social media accounts on somewhat of a regular cadence of posting. So I did what I called Friday Facts, which I put out one marketing fact every single Friday. But it held me accountable because once it was Friday I had to do it. I had to put other things down and put that out. So I think that that kind of helped me build up the habit and the routine of it. And then over time I've definitely started releasing a lot more in-depth content about the marketing industry that I put out for my followers. But it just kind of helped build that muscle right from the beginning.
Theresa Harp: 22:49
I love that. So you've kind of dropped a bunch of gems in there in terms of strategies. But so I'm hearing kind of like systems and repetitive patterns that you can use to keep things simple and also reduce some of that decision fatigue and also kind of build in some internal accountability as well, like your Friday Facts, which is fun. And then you also talked about going with what you're comfortable with and what your strengths are. So if you are someone who's naturally engaged and on social media, then maybe posting or commenting on posts if you like, writing, blogging, starting a blog. So if you're a people, person and an extrovert, more of those in-person events. So kind of going with where we naturally gravitate and what our natural strengths are and starting there.
Becki Fellin: 23:49
Absolutely. I think that's so important because if you're not a great writer and writing is not comfortable for you, you don't need to start a blog. Somebody else can have a blog, and then you're. Just like I said, whenever we are slightly uncomfortable doing something, we are always going to find a reason not to do it.
Theresa Harp: 24:05
Yes, it's so true. Trying to embrace the discomfort is really hard, and I like the analogy of building a muscle right, you're just something.
Becki Fellin: 24:14
Start where you're comfortable and then you can slowly, and you can always grow from there, and I will say, too, a lot of these things take more time than you realize. Like you said, with the house analogy, I know we actually bought a fixer upper, so I can fully relate to that of all the ideas I had when we started. But yeah, I mean, so something like social media may sound like, oh, I just post this, doesn't take that long, but it really actually does take time and effort to cultivate the content you're going to be putting out there writing the captions, researching the hashtags, looking into what's resonating, what's not, what people are responding to and engaging with your followers. So sometimes starting just with one or two things can really help you figure out how long these things actually take to do so, because we all have those stories of the social media account that we posted on twice and then, all of a sudden, a month went by, or the blog that we started that we did one post and, hey, we're all guilty of that in some ways. So sometimes just trying to be everywhere can be the enemy of being somewhere really well.
Theresa Harp: 25:12
Yeah, and if you miss a day or you just pick back up, right? Consistency. I talk with this about my coach, with my coaching clients, a lot. Consistency doesn't mean every single day or every third Wednesday of the month. It is…consistency, is picking back up where you left off. After a pause, after a break, it's getting back into it and getting started again, and getting started again, and getting started again. That's consistency.
Becki Fellin: 25:41
Absolutely. Are there days of the week or are there weeks that I maybe post less than I do the week before Because I got busy with the client project, of course Like we're all human but I do think it's important to actually make your marketing items and your marketing efforts a must do on your list, because they're so easy to back burner, like they just feel less important when you're doing work for your clients. So if it's something where all you have is the energy to do one social post that morning, then go for it. If you just want to do one paragraph of a blog post, just take 10 minutes and do that. But making it an important item on your to-do list, I think is really essential.
Theresa Harp: 26:21
I agree, yeah, I agree. So building that time into your schedule and, like you said, it can take a little bit longer than you might anticipate, you know, like you're talking about with the captions and the hashtags and stuff like that, and so it sounds like that balance of recognizing that it can take some time and that's okay, but not letting that stop you from getting started, because you and if you don't have all the time in the world, you do what you can with the time that you have and then you modify as you need to and as you can modify.
Becki Fellin: 26:57
Absolutely, and I'm sure you talk about this in other areas of your podcast. But like it's okay to not finish something, it's okay to be like I have 10 minutes right before I have to pick my kids up, so I'm just going to write a blog for 10 minutes or I'm going to look at my SEO on my website and just poke around at things for five minutes. It's okay to not necessarily quote unquote finish a project. That's also hard for me as a recovering perfectionist too, but I have learned to do that over time. Actually having kids really taught me how to do that too. Because it used to be like before I had kids if I was at work I would just not leave till I was, could put a nice ribbon on something and call it done. But you don't have that luxury anymore. But it does build up over time. Over time those little wins do add up.
Theresa Harp: 27:41
Yes, I can definitely relate to that. I know it obviously professionally, but also personally. Like before we came on this, I was telling you before I started recording that I was recording another podcast episode before and I had to stop it because we had our appointment. Now the episode's not done. I'm going to go back and I'm going to finish the piece that I didn't finish, and I can tell you how many times I've done that and, of course just part of life. That doesn't mean that there's a problem and, like you said, that happens a lot more when you have kids and you have to kind of work with that, like swim with the stream instead of trying to swim upstream, like just go with the flow and those pieces will add up. The cumulative effect of those pieces will add up into the results that you want to see.
Becki Fellin: 28:32
And I always have it in my notes app on my iPhone, like just some thought starters for like what kind of content I want to put out, like an idea for a blog, idea for social posts, because a lot of times those come to me when it's absolutely least convenient, whether I'm like in the carpool line or at my kids baseball game, things like that. But that way sort of you're not always starting from scratch every time. It is the time that you set aside to do those things.
Theresa Harp: 28:55
Yeah, I like that strategy and I want to just mention so, I use the Notes app for not sometimes for marketing stuff, but for other stuff as well in my business when I don't have time to, usually for podcast episodes. And I think one thing that might be helpful to address and I didn't run this by you ahead of time, so I'm like springing this on you, but no, go for it hit me. So what you? When I hear you describe that, I'm thinking as a listener, right, I'm thinking, well, I don't know what a good post would be, and like, I don't, like, I don't think like that. I'm not in marketing, so I don't have those ideas, they don't just come to me. How can I start to train my brain to find those things and to, like, see things as a mark from a marketing perspective, so that I can start generating ideas of how to market in my business more easily? Do you have anything?
Becki Fellin: 29:53
Oh yeah, no, I think there's a couple different things that you could do here. One, obviously, like, if you're, if we're using the social media example, start following other people in your industry and seeing what they do. Obviously, you don't necessarily want to just be like everybody else it should still feel like you but it'll kind of just even you know spark some things that might get you thinking. Or you know, I use Canva all the time and I'm sure you do too. I don't even know what we did with before Canva, but there's even things in there that are like, if you look up like an Instagram post, and it has some sort of carousel that's like five tips for X, y and Z, and that might sort of even trigger something in you. So, or you know, research a topic that you are thinking about for a blog and see what other people are talking about, and maybe there's something people haven't addressed on that topic that you actually have the opportunity to dive into. So you know, I'm trying to always be sort of someone who's learning from other people and absorbing a lot of marketing. So I think the more that you're taking in other people's marketing and paying attention to it, the more it will kind of start to you know. Build up that creative muscle for you.
Theresa Harp: 31:02
Yeah, I like that idea because most of the people that are listening to this podcast aren't thinking about marketing like that and like we might. We're not seeing advertising the way you're seeing it. Right, we're not noticing the things that you're noticing. But I really like those ideas of looking at what other people are doing and just start to pay attention. Oh, that's, you know, that's what they're saying about this, or how they're talking about this and what they're talking about. And you're right about Canva there's so many. It's a gold mine for resources in there. It's, yeah, it's fantastic.
Becki Fellin: 31:38
Well, just to go back to what you said, I do think, even though you might not be in marketing and I've always said this in my career when in different meetings and such is, we all consume marketing so even if we're not marketers by trade, you know what you like to see, so you know. You know what kind of things that you find interesting to view, what kind of content. I mean content marketing is really everything right now. So what kind of content are you interested in learning or seeing, either as a mom or having an aging loved one, like? What kind of things would you be looking for? So kind of putting yourself in the shoes of who you're trying to reach is everything, because the reality is is people aren't marketers. People are people. So if you kind of are looking at it from a more of a people aspect and people perspective, you probably know a lot more about marketing than you think.
Theresa Harp: 32:29
It's like “mic drop.”
Becki Fellin:32:32
I love that.
Theresa Harp: 32:33
Yes, people aren't marketers, people are people, and SLPs can 100% relate to that.
Becki Fellin: 32:40
I have only marketers like what you did and it wasn't good enough.
Theresa Harp: 32:42
Right, yes, you're right, you're absolutely right, and I think that speaks probably to some of the psychology of what you were talking about, you know, at the beginning of what drew you to marketing, right, that psychology piece and the connection piece of, you know, connecting to people and I am slowly getting better at posting on social media. That's been something that I've been working on and in doing so, someone had recommended very similar to what you were suggesting of. You know, what kind of posts do I gravitate towards? So when I'm scrolling or you know, reading or seeing things like, what am I automatically drawn to and who are the ones that I am interested in and why? Like what is it about their content? That content that draws me in? Because that can help me to identify some elements to incorporate in my own marketing.
Becki Fellin: 33:37
Yes, and making it about the person who's reading it, not about your business, that's huge.
Theresa Harp: 33:43
Yes, yes, not egocentric. It has to be for the person, not for the creator. Yes, absolutely awesome. Well, before we wrap up, do you have any other resources or tools that you use or that you recommend that can help make marketing more streamlined and efficient? You've already given us a bunch. I know we talked about Canva, but are there any other tools or resources that you feel like are worth checking out?
Becki Fellin: 34:12
Sure, even though it's a little controversial, ChatGPT can be really helpful. I find I like it for just combating writer's blocks. Sometimes that moment we were like I need to write something but I don't even know where to start. It can even just trigger words, topics, things. Or give me five examples of a great 10-word headline for my blog post. Typically I don't necessarily use any of the ones that they suggested, but I might like ooh, I forgot about that word. That might work really well. It kind of just gets the creative juices flowing when I feel like I'm not feeling all that creative. That's really helpful. Then, from a website perspective, wix and Squarespace they're just so DIY-friendly and pretty cost-effective for a small business. One thing I like about them, too, is that I do know people who are like hey, I have a small business, I don't really use my website for anything other than I just need to point my client somewhere that has information about me. You can even have a very simple landing page, but it can also grow with your business over time. At some point you want to be offering things that people can purchase. You can create a full e-commerce site If you want to have a full blog. It can really grow with your business, which I think is important, as opposed to having to start from scratch all the time. I think what's cool is that just a couple of years ago, it felt like, okay, here's the templates you can use for this, and everyone's sites look the same. It's really become amazing to see how high-end and custom websites you can create with these tools now, but they still have a lot of robust technical tools from the SEO side and things which you really need. Another very user-friendly, non-marketer-friendly tool that I love is Google Keyword Planner. Really, all you have to do is type in your website and it'll just give you tons of ideas of different keywords that you can use. It'll give you rough traffic volumes for each. I always recommend using a mix of high, medium and low, because obviously the high ones everybody wants. The high ones because that's the most traffic. The low ones can be great, especially for a small business, because even though, since fewer people are competing for those words, you have a much higher likelihood of actually being a lot higher on the search engine results page, but additionally, probably whoever's actually searching those words is probably pretty ready to make a move. This is a great thing for blogs, too, if people have really specific searches. If you have a blog that serves that need, you're very likely to show up for that. I like to do a mix of all the levels. Another one I love is Grammarly. We always joked in marketing in all of the different departments that I've worked in in years. That marketing is one of those industries where any mistake that you make, everyone sees it. You'll probably hear about it 10 to 15 times in one day, even if it's like you literally forgot an S at the end of a word. It's always very important to do your own grammar and spelling check, but this is just sort of a nice double check. I love to sort of copy and pasting it into Grammarly right before I hit send, right before I publish, right before I hit print. It's just that little reassurance because marketing is very front-facing and people. That's what we'll see and that's the thing that they will notice the most. Also, too, I have a fun free download on my website, which is bfellinstudio.com and it's F-E-L-L-I-N for Fellon. I called it Quick Marketing Wins: 10 Things you Can Do to Quick Start Your Small Business Marketing for Free in Less Than 1 Hour, because obviously your budgets are smaller and you don't have a lot of time because you're with your clients. I think this is a really nice resource for a busy small business owner like an SLP, who just needs a couple of tangible, specific ideas of how to get started marketing their business.
Theresa Harp: 38:11
Wow, I love that. We will link to the resource that you mentioned on your website. I'll link to that in the show notes. You just gave us a whole bunch of tools to start with, some of which I was using and some of which I haven't used. Now I've got some ideas of something that I'm going to do with that.
Becki Fellin: 38:32
Well, if you need any links, let me know.
Theresa Harp: 38:33
Awesome, I love it. Speaking of links, I will put all of them in the show notes, but can you just tell our listeners where they can find you, where they can learn more about you, all those fun things.
Becki Fellin: 38:46
Sure, you can learn more about me and my services at my website, which is bfellinstudiocom. You can also connect with me on social media. I am at BFellin Studio on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Awesome.
Theresa Harp: 39:00
I love it. Well, thank you for giving your time to be here today, because you know me. I think time is the most valuable resource, and you've just given so much information and so many great starting points for the listeners. I know they're going to get a lot out of this. Great. Thank you so much.
Becki Fellin: 39:16
I look forward to hearing from people. Feel free to throw me any marketing questions you have. It doesn't even have to be something I necessarily offer. I love engaging with people and helping people with their marketing questions.
Theresa Harp: 39:25
I know I've worked with Becki guys and she was incredibly helpful. I can speak from personal experience that you are wonderful to work with.
Becki Fellin: 39:36
Thank you. Right back at you.
Theresa Harp: 39:38
All right.
Becki Fellin: 39:40
Have a good one.
*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.