Even though we have backgrounds in design and using fancier software, Canva has taken care of the majority of our graphic design needs for the past 7+ years. We have no idea how we would function without it since we use it to design our social graphics, Shop templates, presentation slides, podcast graphics, and so much more.

In our experience over the years we’ve been using Canva, there are at least 10 must-know hacks every creative small business owner needs to know!

We’ll be the first to admit, there’s a lot of noise when it comes to marketing strategies for small business owners. The online marketing space has exploded in recent years and with that, inevitably, comes some confusion. With the focus of those strategies being mostly geared for folks who have the desire (and skill) to move to a 1:many model (i.e. offering digital products like courses, memberships and downloads), 1:1 service providers have been left in the dust.

These same service providers are left thinking those same strategies will work for them, or worse, that the only way for them to reach their goals is to change up their entire business model.

It’s one thing to launch a product or service (Go you by the way!), but it’s a whole other beast to actually maintain that offer after it’s all said and done. You want to make sure no one forgets about your offer and that you’re still tending to the leads that are cold, warm, hot, and everything in between. Otherwise, how would you convert anyone?

A big piece of getting conversions is keeping your audience engaged and providing value, AKA nurturing them. You’re nurturing your audience about 80% of the time, or at least you should be, which means it’s important to find ways and avenues to talk to them that work best. Here at Boss Project, we have three top ways that we nurture our people to increase our conversions, and that’s what we want to share with you today!

Your branded marketing collateral is like the sidekick to your business. They aid you in marketing and promoting your brand across different mediums, which means they play a huge part in your overall brand strategy.

Your branded marketing collateral is what makes the first impression on people, so it’s important to make sure that each asset is planned and designed to effectively let the market know about your brand story and what you offer.

OK, so it plays such an important role, but what actually is it? Keep reading as we dive into how brand marketing collateral can make your business turn heads, plus the different types of collateral!

Email can be such a game-changer for businesses that want to connect with their audience in a more personal way. When you compare your people scrolling upon a social media post versus getting valuable content delivered directly to their inbox, email is the way to go if you want to build authentic relationships.

Plus, email gives you an opportunity to share exclusive content with your list, making it even more valuable to your audience. Anyone can see your social media accounts and not follow you, but your subscribers have already signed up for the long haul and are ready to devour new content as it comes.

But email marketing is more than just creating a list and hoping people subscribe to it. It takes work to make sure people know about it, and even more work to make sure that they actually want to subscribe, which is where your opt-in comes in.

Since you’re reading this post, we’ll assume you already have an opt-in created (but if not, this is the post for you) and are looking for ways to market it. If so, you’ve come to the right place! Today, we’re going to share 5 successful strategies to market your opt-in, your freebie, your lead magnet - whatever you want to call it!

Listen, we’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to email marketing platforms. Over the years, we’ve migrated and re-migrated to a handful of different ones to find the best fit, yet we always ended up leaving. After our recent switch last year to Flodesk, we definitely aren’t planning to leave any time soon.

While we’re aware that moving over such a large email list with over 100k subscribers to a beta platform seems completely absurd and irrational, but honestly? It was absolutely the most no-brainer migration we’ve ever done, and here’s why.

Flodesk is one of the most simple and user-friendly email marketing services we’ve ever used, and we’ve been with multiple services over the years. We made the switch in the middle of 2020, and we haven’t looked back since! One thing that makes Flodesk stand out from other platforms is the fact that it’s just so beautiful (but that $38/month price isn’t too bad either, but read until the end to find out how you can get Flodesk for just $19). From the emails to the forms, they make it easy to show off your style and brand in everything you create.

Creating and setting up forms is an easy-peasy task. It takes no longer than 15 minutes total, if that. Today, we’ll be showing you a complete walk through of how to create and set up an email opt-in with Flodesk!

We all aim to shoot for those killer client and customer testimonials, the ones that you’re so so proud to display on every outlet possible. And why wouldn’t you be? 87% of consumers place as much trust in reviews as they would word-to-mouth, and 90% of consumers want to read between 5-10 reviews before gaining trust in a brand.

That places a LOT of pressure on us as creatives to give our people the best experience possible when working with us so that we can have another awesome testimonial to add to the pot. After all, birds of a feather flock together and when you wow one dreamy client, another is bound to follow soon after.

But what if we told you that there’s no need to feel so pressured? That there are actually a ton of simple actions you can take to get raving client testimonials and wow your customers?

It’s been over three years (really, close to four) since we launched The Strategy Hour Podcast. Since then, we’ve made the ranks of Apple’s Top 30 Business Management Podcasts, have been featured in multiple blog posts about business-related podcasts, have had X total downloads on Apple Podcasts alone, and we’re coming up hot on the heels our 500th episode (that’s a lot of freakin’ recording time!).

And while we’re so grateful that our podcast took off the way it did and has influenced thousands of lives and launching it was a blast, in no way has it always been easy. So, today, we’re going to be pulling back the curtain on how we launched our podcast, the challenges we faced, all of the hustle we put in to launch, how we plan and upload new episodes, the whole 9.

If the idea of launching a podcast has been tossing and turning in your brain, our totally candid and honest experience will hopefully help you determine whether this is the right next move in your business journey!