eJournal #1 - Just Start.

Over my final semester in Digital Marketing Management Postgraduate at George Brown College, I have been given the opportunity to listen to industry professionals who donate their time to showcase their experiences in seminar form. Out of the three seminars that I have had the pleasure of attending, none has resonated with me more than Chelsea Leaman’s presentation on her business and her journey.  

Chelsea owns Positive Dance Experience, a dance school in North York that caters to dancers of all ages. Although a topic such as dance would not normally interest me, what I did find fascinating was Chelsea’s ability to transfer her expertise as a dancer into a successful business. Being the driving force behind all the studio’s marketing speaks volumes about her talent and dedication. Her presentation left me with several key takeaways that outline what it takes to market your own small business from the ground up, and what to expect along the way. The following are three of the most important factors that I have learned from Chelsea. 

Put Yourself in Your Audience’s Shoes 

At the beginning, Chelsea stuck to what worked for her niche and her audience: printed ads and referrals. This worked very well for creating the initial buzz around her studio. When the time was right, she jumped to Facebook and Instagram. With a now decent following and a supportive community behind her, she was able to quickly grow a page on both platforms. Her thinking behind the adoption of Meta platforms was that her target audience (adults and parents of students) spent most of their online time there. Chelsea was able to put herself in the minds of her target audience and show when and where she would be most likely to connect with them.  

This is the core aim of any marketer, advertise to an audience in the places that they will be throughout the day – whether it be printed ads posted at the Starbucks around the corner from the studio where her audience gets their morning coffee, or on Facebook at peak hours when her audience is most likely to log on and start scrolling. The work doesn’t stop there though, and a good marketer always thinks of ways to further

convey their message. She noticed the success that her competitors were getting on Yelp and Google and began to focus her sights on building on these platforms as well. The ability to understand your target market audience and determine where they spend their time online and what encourages their buying decisions is key to effectively marketing your brand and growing your audience.  

Be Real 

Perhaps the most profound takeaway from Chelsea’s teaching was her emphasis on being authentic. Chelsea’s first steps into the digital marketing world did not go as easily as she initially expected. She shared examples of some of her original posts and why she saw little success with them. The engagement on many of her original ads was very lackluster and did not catch the attention of her target audience. Chelsea shared examples of ads with too many words, grainy photographs and an inaccurate sense of what her studio was like. Through trial and error, and gauging feedback from customers and analytics, Chelsea achieved much better engagement on her later posts. These changes included showcasing real-life examples of the fun her students and teachers were having in the classroom, following trends online and including her community in posts and online activities.  

It was through these changes and the success that followed that Chelsea understood that people are tired of being sold to all the time. With social media continuously pushing advertisement after advertisement, it is a breath of fresh air for a company such as Positive Dance Experience to show the human side of who they are by emphasizing the community first, and their offerings second. This is my personal favorite marketing approach and is how I believe the world of marketing will find success in the future.   

Try, Fail, and Try Again 

My favorite part of Chelsea’s presentation was her transparency in demonstrating where she went wrong and how she learned from her initial mistakes. She proved that without making those mistakes, or taking those leaps of faith, she would not have been as successful. Starting a business and beginning a digital marketing campaign were two tasks that Chelsea found daunting. By overcoming these challenges Chelsea has come a long way from where she first started. From reshaping the way she advertised, to trialing new approaches for her brand until one (authenticity) stuck, Chelsea was never afraid to start off small and learn along the way.  

No one is going to be an expert from the beginning. Failing and learning from your mistakes is a part of growing and is a necessary part of getting better at anything. With a presentation so full of wisdom, my favorite lesson learned from Chelsea was to just start. It won’t be perfect right away, and that’s ok. Just start. 

Image provided by Positive Dance Studio.