But first- If you’re a business owner who hates posting on social media (and you’ve been thinking about logging off), here’s some inspiration for you today:
In November of 2021, Lush Cosmetics made the announcement that the brand would no longer be marketing on social media. This included the company leaving the apps Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Tiktok. Insane!!! (In such a great way). I’m not a Lush customer, so I had no clue they were doing this. I had to do more research and find out why they made this decision and how it’s impacted their brand.
WHY LUSH COSMETICS LEFT SOCIAL MEDIA:
Like many of us, Lush recognized the harmful effects of social media use early on. The endless scroll, the comparison, the rise in rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc. As a brand whose mission is to help people relax and take care of themselves (through bath bombs and other bath products), they knew they couldn’t continue utilizing marketing platforms that had the opposite effects on their customers. If this doesn’t scream brand values, I don’t know what does.
Click HERE to view their mission statement and HERE to see their Instagram. Awesome work, Lush. Sometimes *not* marketing is the best marketing. You get what I mean.
Here’s a list of 10 creative ways to grow your client base and email list without social media:
- Talk to a stranger at the grocery store rather than looking down at your phone.
- Host a happy hour event & encourage your current clients to bring friends & family.
- Link your email list opt-in at the bottom of your emails encouraging your subscribers to forward them to others.
- Pitch yourself to be on a podcast that aligns with your industry.
- Do a newsletter swap with a local business where you highlight them on your newsletter and they highlight you on theirs.
- Host an educational workshop with a group of small business owners in your area.
- Add your newsletter opt-in form as a pop-up on your website.
- Post flyers at your local coffee-shop.
- Run a referral program or challenge for current clients.
- Sign up to be a speaker at an event.