What is marketing?

So as we make our way through the marketing module, I feel like marketing is such a visual topic and it's one of my favorite topics actually about business because I feel like it is where we get to really exercise our creative side as nail technicians, but also see immediate results in terms of the growth of our business as we do it. So in order to bring that to life for you, you are going to see a lot of these videos through the lens of my laptop and you're going to see me at the top here talking you through each of the topics with some appropriate slides to go with them. And the reason I am doing that is just to help you to really bring this to life, to give you real life examples and to help you see this in a visual way. Because marketing does get to be creative, it does get to be visual, and that's actually part of the fun. So if you want to just join me on this screen here and I am going to move through the first section, which is what actually is marketing. Now this has all been broken down into really easy to dig small chunks. This is one of the bigger ones. But as we move on throughout the remainder of this module, you'll find some of them are just real short mini master classes, mini snapshots with visuals to go with them. So actually it's not as overwhelming. It feels really doable and it feels actionable as well and digestible within each topic. So let's start off really with the biggest question, which is what actually is marketing? And I think sometimes as nail technicians, we just expected to actually know what marketing is, even though we've never been taught, there was never a program for us to go on that taught us exactly how to market our business when we became an ltch. And we were definitely given our certificate at a point and just expected to figure out the rest on our own. So if you do not know what marketing is at this point, do not feel bad about it. I feel like that's totally normal and up until years ago when I hit a point in my business, maybe like you're doing right now, where actually I needed to understand exactly what marketing is and how it was going to work for me in order to grow and that that's when things start falling into place. So hopefully you're going to be in the same sort of process as I was and this is going to really, really help you. So in order to give you the exact meaning of what marketing is, I actually just first of all typed it into Google and this is what it told me. So Marketing refers to the process of any actions a company takes to attract an audience to the company's product or services through high quality messaging. Okay, so, so that is the sort of verbal understanding of what marketing is. However, I pulled out a keyword within this, which is process. And I pulled this out for a reason. Because as nail techs, because sometimes we don't have clear strategies to use and we are just working it out as we go along. We can put up a post on Instagram or we can send an email, or we can work solids on something, put it out into the world and it can flop. And after that happens, we can get really in our own heads about how, you know, it didn't go well, we failed, how we're rubbish at marketing, how, you know, we're not good enough to be doing this and all of those things. But I want to highlight that the key word in marketing is process. Marketing is and always will be a process. You will be marketing your business today, you'll be marketing your business tomorrow, you'll be marketing your business in 10 weeks, you'll be marketing your business in 10 years, hopefully. And it is something that is ongoing. So what we can't do is all of our hopes and chances on one Instagram post, one Facebook post, one email. Because marketing doesn't work like that. It's the process of the actions that we take in order to bring high quality messaging to our audience around our products or our services. Okay, so it's always going to be this work in progress. It's always going to be something that we are moving through as opposed to something we are completing. Now, marketing is the use of multiple platforms to show up to the right people with the right message so that they hopefully choose to become a customer. And there's a difference between selling and marketing. So selling is the exact point when the customer says, yes, this is exactly what I want. And they click purchase or they click book. But marketing is the process of getting them there. So marketing is actually just shouting about what we do. It's about delivering a message to our audience in the right way and hopefully in a way that they choose to become a customer. So we can do that through a number of different platforms. Platforms that you might wish to use as a nail technician are these. So you've got social media, you've got the likes of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, all of those different platforms that we have in order to be social with our audience in the hope of connecting with them so that they would like to become a client, a student or whatever else. You've also got email, you've got text or WhatsApp, you've got Google my business, you've got your website and then you've also got a really powerful one which is community building or what has historically been known as words of mouth. So actually that's your customers doing the marketing for you. So all of these are different ways of marketing your business. So you might be doing things right now that you didn't realize was marketing. Maybe it is building a community. Maybe it is that you've started to doing, you know, monthly little coffee mornings with your community or you've set up a WhatsApp group with your community or something like that. That's actually marketing. Maybe you have just spent time building your own website or had someone else build it for you. Again, marketing. Maybe you've set up a Google for business profile. Again, marketing, right? So we can do it across a multiple number of platforms and we can do it in many different ways. But marketing does not mean that you have to be on every single platform. Okay? So you might look at this and think, even know where to begin. That feels so overwhelming. There's so many different platforms I can be on. I don't know how to use TikTok or I haven't used Facebook for years. That's okay, right? You do not have to be on every single platform. You just need to choose which platforms you're going to show up on and really show up. So choose the platform you wish to use and go all in on that platform. Do it well. Do it to the best of your ability. Now you should know me by now because you're midway through the business program. But I just wanted to share with you some of the things that I've personally been able to do through effective marketing. So I have been able to find the Nail Tech Org, which is an online community learning platform. We have thousands of members to date. If I wasn't actively marketing the Nail Tech Org, how would any of those members know that we exist? I've mentored and coached beauty business owners across the world, supporting them in scaling their business up to six figures. Right? So I mentor nail technicians all over the world. If I wasn't mentoring, if I wasn't marketing my business, how would these people know about me? How would I get about sharing my message? I've launched two successful training academies. So one was in person in my salon training academy and one was online, which you are a part of right now, the Nail Tech Org. And I have taught accredited courses to over 3,000 students. It's actually now 4,000 students worldwide. So again, if I wasn't showing up, if I wasn't marketing effectively, how would I have been able to teach so many students? How would I have been able to not only launch my training academies in totally different angles, but be able to do that successfully? I've co owned and scaled a successful cosmetics brand and beauty salon chain where we had over 27 members of staff, hundreds of clients and thousands of customers. I've grown my own social media profiles and my social media community to reach over 119,000 people people and the nail tech org to reach over 80,000 people. I've led lots of viral online campaigns with one movement reaching over 40 media outlets and headline news on all UK channels. And that was our pricing campaign back in 2024 that you might have found yourself a part of. I did all of these things without running one paid ad. I did all of these things through organic marketing. And that is why I believe in strategic marketing. That's why I believe that Instagram isn't dead, that we should be showing up, that we don't need to plow loads of money into marketing, we don't need a huge budget in order to be successful in our businesses using effective marketing. But when I look at the nail industry, this is what I see. I see that you are burnt out trying to juggle client work, admin tasks and social media without a clear strategy and seeing little results. I say that you are sometimes spiraling into self doubt, imposter syndrome, negative, self taught every single time you post because you don't see the likes, the followers or the clients that you're hoping for. Off that one post, I say that you're actually spending hours on your marking, but those hours include doom, scrolling through other people's content, looking for inspiration and post ideas, trying to come up with exciting captions and comparing yourself to other nail techs with more likes and more followers in the process. And I say that you don't really know what marketing strategy means even, let alone even have one. And I also see that sometimes you feel like Instagram hates you. Okay, let me know on the news feeds if all of that rings true to you or if any of that rings true to you, or if you've just listened to that and felt like, okay, she sees me, she hears me, she knows what I'm about right now. Because I know this is what goes on amongst the nail industry. But it doesn't have to be like this, okay? And that is why I am on a mission to help nail techs to get more clients, more income, more influence through strategic marketing. And that's because I know it's possible. I know it's possible because I've done it myself. If I can do it, you can do it. I also know it's possible because these people have done it. So over 3,000 nail technicians have used this strategy that I'm about to teach you and they got results like this. So I delivered this in one masterclass and the nail techs that watched it got results like this. Okay? So here is the proof if you need it to show that if you put the effort in, it might not happen in one post, might not happen in two posts, it might not happen in three emails, but over time it will happen. You just actively need to be marketing every single day, showing up and showing that you care about the growth of your business. And as a result, this is what happens off the back of it. And when I say every day, it doesn't need to be huge things every day. It could be something that takes you a couple of minutes. Now I also know it's possible because I've already helped nail techs like Reach. So this is our lovely Rachel, one of our members. She gained 46 new clients with 100 retention rate using these strategy. I actually caught up with Rachel and I think now she's on 6, 67 or something like that clients. So even more now using the strategies that I involved a teacher. She started the year with zero clients. I also know it's possible because I've already helped nail techs like Verity. Verity doubled her income in just three months using these strategies. Okay, so if these people can do it, then so can you. Now I want to talk specifically about social media before we move on because strategic marketing using social media is showing up with clear plan and a specific goal in mind. Now, I'm speaking specifically about social media because I know that is likely what you are using right now to market your business or if it's not, it's what you want to be using. Now I want to talk about it in a sense of what strategic marketing is using social media and what it isn't. Okay, so what strategic marketing is, is it means there's a purpose behind every single piece of content you post. So you're not just aimlessly posting, hoping that something sticks, hoping that a client potentially sees it. And books in there is a purpose behind every single piece of content. It's not just posting nail picture after nail picture after nail picture and hoping that your business is magically going to grow. It means reviewing and tracking insights to know what's working. So, for example, let's say you're an educator and you're wanting to get more students through your door. Well, strategic marketing means that you need to consistently be reviewing and tracking the data behind what you've already done to know what's working well and what isn't. And I'm going to teach you how to do that in this module. And it also involves testing and trying new things. Okay. Testing and trying new things is so underrated. And sometimes I get asked the question by our members of Amy, what do you think of me trying this? Do you think this will work well? My answer to you, if you've got something in your head right now that you really want to want to test out, is I don't know, try it. Right? Because some things work, some things don't. That is the beauty of marketing being strategic, really understanding who we are and what our audience resonates with. So it is so important to get into the habit of testing and trying new things. If it doesn't work, that is okay. But start seeing every single social media post that you put up as a test to see if it works or if it doesn't. If it doesn't, we change it. If it does, we get to do more of it. More intentionally. So. Three things that marketing is that I really need to get your head around. There's a purpose behind every piece of content. It means that you need to be reviewing and tracking your insights to understand what's working. And it also is going to involve testing and trying new things, some of which won't work. That is not the be all and end all of the success within your business. It just tells us what we need to do next. Because remember, marketing is a process and what is strategic marketer not. While strategic marketing isn't taking it to heart when you don't get likes or engagement on a post, aimlessly posting now pictures with no real purpose or intention, it's not an aesthetic Instagram feed. It's not just posting once on Instagram and Facebook and hoping for the best. And it's not feeling like you have to post every single day. So if you're doing any of these things right now and they feel heavy, I want you to just take them physically off your shoulders. We no longer need to have that stress of needing to post every day. We no longer need to pin our entire marketing strategy on just one Instagram post or just one Facebook post or on an aesthetic Instagram feed. We no longer need to just post aimless nail pictures time and time again, hoping something's gonna work, but without having real purpose or intention. And we no longer need to take it to heart when we post something on our social media and it doesn't get the traction that we really want it to, because strategic marketing is none of those things. In fact, it's so much better than that. And I'm going to teach you exactly what you need to do next to start marketing in a way that's going to give you growth and also going to feel good.