How We Helped a Local Consultant Gain More Visibility (and Become a Bestselling Author!)

A Case Study on Douma Leadership

Excuse me if I sound like a broken record, but there are some things that are so important in the world of digital marketing, I can’t say enough.

One: you need a good website.

And two: a good website is not enough.

Even if you know this, of course there is a difference between knowledge Y making. And it’s easy for small business owners and entrepreneurs to struggle with information overload when it comes to marketing.

That was the case for our client, Yvonne Douma.

Yvonne is the friendliest and most knowledgeable communication coach and HR professional I have ever met.

But you came to us with lackluster marketing materials that we’re handing you. She didn’t have any kind of digital marketing strategy and wasn’t sure how to get one.

Yvonne knew something was wrong, but she didn’t know how to get where she wanted to go. If only she could connect with the right people, they would see the amazing qualities that she brings to the table. And that’s where we come in!

Over the past year, we have helped Yvonne with rebranding, responsive website design, copywriting, social media marketing and advertising, and content marketing for her professional services company, Douma Leadership.

We also provide the absolutely necessary icing on all these services: strategy consulting (my favorite!).

Throughout the process, we helped Yvonne clarify her services and brand and discover an online voice she can be proud to share with the world.

Oh, and we also helped her become a best-selling self-published author (no big deal!)

It has been a pleasure working with Yvonne and we look forward to even more success together in 2022.

“I needed to completely change my business name and contacted us for help,” he says. “My website is professional, easy to navigate, and looks great! Susan and her team have been supportive, encouraging, and challenging me to put myself out there and have the courage to be seen.”

If you want to help your small business achieve happy people and healthy profits through leadership development, human resource consulting, and conflict resolution, we cannot recommend Yvonne highly enough.

And if you’d like to learn more about how we’ve helped Yvonne build her online voice to reach more customers, read on!

Step one: strategy

You wouldn’t put together an Ikea bookcase without first checking out the instructions, and that’s just a few planks of wood and some screws.

Yet many small business owners jump right into the deep end of the digital marketing pool, with no plan at all. Sometimes they don’t even know how to swim!

And that’s where business marketing strategy consulting comes in.

As a personal business marketing strategy consultant, I work one-on-one with my clients to make their marketing more powerful and effective than ever. I LOVE seeing people make breakthroughs and finally understand what to do and how to do it (and when these people are as lovely as Yvonne? bonuses!).

For Yvonne, this has meant regular meetings to gain clarity on her business model, define her ideal target market, and generate ideas to develop the best marketing strategies for her business.

Yvonne and I still meet regularly and I always look forward to our Zoom sessions. We use them to make sure we stay on course and continue to innovate.

Step Two: Refine Yvonne’s USP and update her website

Too often, clients come to my team with a website and brand that just don’t measure up. This was the case for Yvonne, who had already put some effort into her online marketing.

Luckily all we had to do was order his logo, but otherwise he had a branding that we both agreed would look good on him.

But his old website was not working for him. Not only did it look dated, but it also didn’t give a complete picture of the services and quality that Yvonne provides.

So our team got to work, creating a responsive and SEO friendly website that did a much better job of explaining Yvonne’s Unique Selling Position (USP).

One of the many benefits of having a web development company on your side is that your website can be easily updated. Over the months and through our sessions together, Yvonne and I further reduced the brand, introducing new and improved services and offerings.

And since we built the website, updating it with new content and services is a simple and hassle-free process.

Step Three – Create a Landing Page

Websites are great, of course, but they are just one type of online property that can help grow a business. That’s why we also like to help clients launch landing pages.

A landing page is a standalone one page website with a very specific purpose. They are a very useful tool to have in your toolbox.

For Yvonne, we built a landing page around a special webinar she created to help women in the workplace take back their power. To get the free presentation, people had to sign up with their emails.

So the specific purpose of this landing page is to collect email addresses so that Yvonne can grow her mailing list. And while we’re at it, we’re sharing a great resource that personalizes Yvonne and helps potential clients get to know, appreciate, and trust her. win win win.

Step Four: Promote, Promote, Promote

Even when you have a great SEO website like the one we put together for Yvonne, it can still take months to start showing up in search results, that’s how Google works.

And most business owners I know aren’t willing to sit idly by for a few months!

That’s why we combined the launch of Yvonne’s website and homepage with a smart social media strategy.

This included carefully selecting content for their Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts that showcased their expertise, experience, services and personality. We did this through custom graphics as well as a variety of different content.

We also encourage Yvonne to push herself as hard as she can, and when she does, she always gets great results!

Step five: the book

When you have as much knowledge and information to share as Yvonne does, a book is often a logical next step, especially when you’re simultaneously trying to grow your business and social media following.

A book is one of the best ways to really connect with potential customers. In this way, it is a valuable piece of marketing in its own right. And simply having a best-selling book is a great way to establish yourself as an expert (not to mention crossing a ‘to do’ off your bucket list!).

First, here’s another big shout out to Yvonne. You can tell from the first page that REFRAME is a labor of love, and that Yvonne knows what she’s doing when it comes to relationships and communication. If she can use a plan to improve her communication skills, we recommend that she consult REFRAME: How to Change Your Conversations to Resolve Those Messy Conflicts.

Also, marketing a book takes a lot of effort, even when you have a marketing team by your side. We all rolled up our sleeves to promote REFRAME last summer, and those efforts paid off. For Yvonne, this meant stepping out of her comfort zone to make online videos to promote the book launch.

First we start with (you guessed it), a landing page, which we launch before launch day. We use it to build excitement, introduce readers to Yvonne, and encourage interested people to sign up for notifications.

Next, we developed a campaign with special bonuses to encourage people to buy on launch day. This included paid social media and Google ads, a concerted email campaign, a press release, and additional organic social media.

Did the ending work? Yvonne rose to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list in her category, and now she can proudly call herself a best-selling, self-published author.

And as expected, REFRAME is rated 5 stars!

Step Six: The Sky is the Limit

One of the things I love most about my job is how much my clients inspire me. When I think of all that Yvonne has accomplished in the last year, I get goosebumps! I am also exceptionally proud of my team, who have worked so hard to help make Yvonne’s vision a reality.

And of course, that vision keeps growing!

We are proud to support our clients throughout all of their unique journeys. Working for yourself is definitely a challenge, so it helps to have an award-winning digital marketing agency on your side.

If you need help building your brand, showcasing your business, and making your dream a reality, contact us! We are a full service agency and would love to help you, just like we helped Yvonne!

For the success of your business,

Suzanne