How to Market Your Small Business Without Feeling Salesy or Selling Out
Dear Reader,
If you are a woman who has decided to believe in her ideas and vision, and you’ve started your own small business, and are not sure how to start marketing your brand in a way that feels authentic and organic, I’ve written this article for you.
The number one pain point for almost all small brands, by far, is Gaining Clients and Profits. And since customers and profits are fundamental to our success, this is quite an alarming and stressful pain point for many of us. Despite that growing desperation trying to consume your chill, being perceived as overtly salesy is holding you back (from being overtly salesy). And that might not be a bad thing. Attracting clients is an art form in building relationships and trust. As women we do this intuitively and well. But I wanted to give you some data a proven approaches to harness that intuition into strategy.
2026 Small Business trends are in and…
Forbes is telling us to keep it playful, and build trust.
A leading Brand Agency is telling us that 74% of our customers are more likely to trust us if we have a personal brand that tells our story and gives insight into who we are as a person
And a marketing influencer, earning a seven figure salary, is telling us almost 100% of people looking to work with us, or buy from us, are looking us up online first. And, almost 80% rejected us based on our social media presence.
Said differently
How you are perceived or choosing not to be perceived is going to impact how you build trust with your potential pool of dream clients
And three quarters of those people are walking away if you don’t have an authentically human, playful, creative, and simple brand.
Ok, so first order of business, don’t get overwhelmed.
All you need is …
16 days and 3 things.
Let’s start by looking at the three things you need
Your Brand Values
Your Buyer Awareness Tool
Your Not So Salesy Bingo Card
Building trust takes time. And you’re going to need to put in the hours. But you can be smart about those hours. There are proven strategies that work and are rooted in how your dream customers like to make their decisions.
Step 1: Your Brand Values
You can’t build trust by pretending to be somebody you’re not. So you need to be clear on who you are. Your depth and story are going to be the value that sets you apart for consumers growing weary of a fast world.
Activity: Take some time to answer these three questions.
How has who you are influenced you starting your small business?
What are the top ten values important to you and your business? - These are your Supporting Values.
What are the top three brand values? These are your Foundational Values.
Step 2: The Buyer Awareness Tool
Understanding Buyers Awareness helps you become strategic about your messaging. You might have the right product but the way you’re talking about your product might be misaligned from your customer. Your customers are at different stages of knowledge, research, awareness of their problem and the solution. How can you strategically talk to all of them?
Activity: Read through the buyer awareness table below. and take an inventory of your current posts. Who are you talking to? Chances are your messaging is only aligned to 1-2 of these stages and you're neglecting a big chunk of your audience.
Step 3: Not So Salesy Bingo Card
Not so Salesy Bingo Card Game Instructions
Pick one activity a day. You don’t have to do these in order so go for what you’re drawn to.
the numbers on the card match up to more detailed definitions listed below.
*Hint, if you already did your Brand Values Questions and reflected on the Buyer Awareness Tool you can already cross-off two days worth of work.
DEFINE YOUR BRAND VALUES., by answering the three questions in the previous Brand Values Section of this article.
BUYER AWARENESS REFLECTION. Complete the reflection exercise in the Buyer Awareness Tool section of this article.
UPDATE YOUR BIO ON SOCIALS. Update the text on your profiles on socials or your website to reflect your mission and service/product. Bonus points if you can incorporate your values.
INSTAGRAM ADS RESEARCH. According to the Strong Brand Social Agency who are social branding educators and have represented the likes of fortune 500 companies and Donald Glover Research even a small budget of $100 a month for Instagram Ads can make a huge difference. I’ve found Instagram Ad requirements tricky and not intuitive. But I’ve also found a small monthly budget to make a difference! So start your research and experiment with your own. Try running a test Ads.
POST FOR THE UNAWARE. Create a post talking to your Unaware Audience. Organically include your values.
POST FOR THE PROBLEM AWARE. Create a post talking to your Problem Aware Audience. Organically include your values.
POST FOR THE SOLUTION AWARE. Create a post talking to your Solution Aware Audience. Organically include your values.
POST FOR THE PRODUCT AWARE. Create a post talking to your Product Aware Audience. Organically include your values.
POST FOR THE MOST AWARE. Create a post talking to your Most Aware Audience. Organically include your values.
POST AN INSTAGRAM AD. Create an Ad budget and schedule. Even a $50-100 budget/monthly can have a huge impact. Determine how you want to spend your budget throughout the month. Maybe you run unaware and problem aware ads at the beginning of the month. And then Product aware and Most aware Ads at the end of the month? Recommendation. Don’t leave this until the end.
TRACK ENGAGEMENT. Track your engagement. Which ads got not just the most likes, but most comments, saves and shares? What is this telling you about your buyers or dream clients? If they are engaging most with your Solution aware post, maybe they want more content that’s focused in this area?
PERSONAL BRAND FEEDBACK. Ask for candid feedback on how you’re being perceived? Find people you trust who will be honest with you. How do they perceive your social media presence, what human aspects of you are coming across? How would they define your brand?
REFLECT AND ACT ON FEEDBACK. Reflect on your Brand Feedback and think about actions you want to take? Do you want to update the copy on your website? Do you want to hire a Personal Brand photographer to help tell your story the way you want it to be told?
PERSONAL BRAND COPY INVENTORY. Write down all the qualities that make you a trustworthy person. Are you knowledgeable? Are you passionate? Are you kind? Come up with your own list. Now reflect on if that is showing up in your website or online presence.
BUILDING TRUST ACTION LIST. Reflect on what actions you can take more frequently and organically project all the qualities that make you trustworthy. Tell your brand origin story and have it showcase your values and what makes you you! Can you laugh at yourself? How can you be vulnerable and tie it back to your products and services, one of the 5 buyer awareness stages?
CELEBRATE YOUR WINS! Go celebrate your progress! You put in a lot of thoughtful work to make not so salesy sales. Take a nature walk. Get a matcha, buy yourself a gift. You believe in what you’re selling and you’re doing the work to get it in front of your dream buyers!