Marketing Strategy School
For Small Business Owners
Take your marketing from inconsistent, slapdash, and generally something to avoid…to strategic, scheduled, low-input & low-stress!
A marketing strategy is a map that guides all of your marketing efforts. It allows you to share the right message with the right people on the right platforms. But even more important than that? It takes the guesswork out of marketing…
…so you wake up every single day, knowing exactly what you need to do (or not do) that day to market your small business. So you know exactly how your marketing is contributing to the growth of your business, and why any of that matters. So you don’t get trapped in a cycle of marketing anxiety and inaction, but instead keep moving your business forward.
This sounds ideal, but it feels too big; how am I supposed to know how to build a marketing strategy?
This is where I come in. Welcome to Marketing Strategy School for Small Business Owners.
I’m willing to bet you can relate to the following…
You’re dogged by the relentless pressure to market your small business, yet paralyzed by the fear of doing it “wrong”; you know you should be doing something, but you just can’t seem to do it.
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You know exactly what you want to achieve, but you’re overwhelmed by all the advice and “quick fix” solutions, unsure what to prioritize, and exhausted from trying to do it all.
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Your business deserves the attention of an entire agency, but you just don’t have the budget, and you can’t figure out how to break through; where do you go from here?
Sound about right? Am I describing you? Good news: I developed this marketing course for YOU.
To be your guide as you set your coordinates, build your marketing map, and break you out of the Marketing Paralysis Loop.
The Marketing Paralysis Loop
Anxiety arises from knowing you need to market your business, not knowing where to start, & the fear of doing it wrong.
Anxiety results in avoidance: not thinking about it at all feels better than the anxiety of not knowing where to begin.
Avoidance leads to inconsistent efforts or total inaction; doing nothing eliminates the risk of “doing it wrong”; in turn, inaction leads to…
Shame. Your paralysis and poor results lead to persistent feelings of shame, which feed right back into anxiety…
You’re not alone. Small business owners across industries face the same struggles.
Now it’s time to break the loop together!
But how to break the loop when you don’t know where to begin?
Simply put, in order to yield different results, you need to start doing things differently, and I’m here to help.
It’s why I created this course - to be your guide and give you the practical tools you need to chart your marketing map…AKA to create a strategic PLAN. I know entrepreneurship, which is why this course offers built-in flexibility to fit your impossible schedule, and is offered at a price that won’t make you sew your pockets shut. Intrigued yet?
WAIT, LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF!
Hi, I’m Kora!
After nearly a decade working on both agency and in-house marketing teams, I wanted to take the powers I’d gained over the years and use them for GOOD. I saw friends and neighbors wrestling with inflated agency fees, contradictory marketing advice, and burnout from trying to do it all. Not only that, I was watching all of these incredible entrepreneurs falling short of their true sales potential because they just weren’t getting the word out.
I built this course in answer to that call;
to guide students as they build actionable marketing strategies to direct their marketing efforts every day. This course is for small business owners who want to break out of the Marketing Paralysis Loop (I’ve been there myself); and we get there by crafting you a plan together, in a collaborative virtual space full of business owners just like you.
I am driven by my passion for the small business sector and the ways in which small businesses impact rural economies.
(Yes, I’m a nerd, okay?!)
I love small business owners for their grit, innovation, and dedication, and my mission is to empower small business owners everywhere to reach their potential through simple, strategic marketing. I am a mother, a Vermonter, a creator, and an explorer (in that order). I love good books, competitive card games, and jumping up and down in muddy puddles…and I can’t wait to guide you OUT of the Marketing Paralysis Loop, and into the life you imagined for yourself when you took the great leap into entrepreneurship.
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"Kora brought to life my vision by asking all the right questions and walking me through powerful and insightful exercises."
Christine Grutta - Christine Grutta Coaching
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"Kora's guidance…[has] been invaluable. On top of everything, Kora is a ton of fun to work with. Five stars."
Kirk Davis - Frontier Adjusters
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"If you’re looking for a marketing rockstar who knows her stuff and is an absolute blast to work with, look no further than Kora."
Amanda Upton - Soul Care Club
What You’ll Learn
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Before setting out on any journey, you need to clearly establish where you are NOW. In this module, we’ll do just that through guided brand work and competitor and audience analyses.
Lesson 1 (Live!): Who Are You? Defining Your Brand Identity.
Lesson 2 (Live!): Who Are They? Audience Analysis.
Lesson 3 (Self-Guided): Define Your Target: Audience Avatars.
Lesson 4 (Live!): Where Do You Fit? Competitor Analysis.
Lesson 5 (Live!): Honing Your Message.
Module 1 includes:
Brand identity guide
Competitor SWOT analysis
Target audience avatars
Messaging guide: Part A
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Next, it’s time to define where you’re headed. In Module 2, we will crystalize your 6 & 12-month business objectives, and develop corresponding marketing objectives so you can direct every future marketing effort towards achieving those goals.
Lesson 1 (Self-Guided): Defining Your Business Objectives: SMART & NEW Goals
Lesson 2 (Live!): Developing Corresponding Marketing Objectives
Module 2 includes:
Three, quantifiable SMART Goals for your business
Related NEW Goals for your business
3 Corresponding Marketing Objectives
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Even the most strategic marketing tactics are USELESS if you don’t DO THE THING. In this module, we identify constraints and preferences to create a strategy that plays to your strengths and interests, within the confines of your time & financial landscape.
Lesson 1 (Self-Guided): Define Your Marketing Preferences
Lesson 2 (Live!): Time Is On Your Side: Capacity Check-In, Einstein Time, & A Word on Automation
Lesson 3 (Live!): Set Your Marketing Budget
Module 3 includes:
Monthly Time Budget
Marketing Budget
Summary of Constraints & Preferences
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Now things really start to take shape. In module 4, we define how you’ll market your business over the next 6 months and beyond. By establishing your starting location, destination, and key constraints in the previous 3 modules, we can chart the most direct course from point a to point b. You’ll also define how you’ll track & measure marketing performance.
Lesson 1 (Self-Guided): Best Fit Marketing Channels
Lesson 2 (Live!): Marketing Channel Working Session
Lesson 3 (Live!): Mapping Your Tactics Per Channel & Campaign Development
Lesson 5 (Live!): KPIs, Measurement, & Tracking
Module 4 includes:
Your Marketing Channels
Your Marketing Tactics per Channel
2 Campaign Concepts
Tracking & Measurement Guidelines per Channel
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It’s time to weave all the work we’ve done into a dynamic, usable tool: you Marketing Strategy! From there, we will build out your 6-month Marketing Calendar, so that you have a customized, low-effort, day-by-day guide for executing your Marketing Strategy over the next 6 months.
Lesson 1 (Live!): Plugging In, Utilizing Your Strategy, & Creating Your Six-Month Marketing Calendar.
Lesson 2 (Live!): Congratulations & Concluding Live, Open Discussion!
Module 5 includes:
Polished Marketing Strategy
6-Month Marketing Calendar, including marketing budget per month
Bank of content templates for each channel
Members of my founding group enjoy over 40% off the course price. All video lessons are taught live by me, and include an open Q&A session. I will ask my founding students to complete a 12-question feedback survey at the end of the course, and engage in an open, live discussion at the close of our final lesson.
Ready to break the loop?
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Over 40% off for the founding group.
$997
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Over 40% off for the founding group. EXTRA CREDIT includes two one-hour consulting meetings with me.
$1,197
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Over 40% off for the founding group.
$333
FAQs
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Because you will be part of my founding group, all of the content will be taught LIVE! Live video classes & corresponding coursework will be dripped out several times per week over a period of 6 weeks. I understand that flexibility is a must, and for that reason, I will upload a recording of every live video class the following day for students to access. I will also upload an audio-only version of the class, a complete transcript of the class, and a “Key Points” one pager.
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Realistically, the cost of not taking this course is higher than the course tuition (particularly with the Founding Member promotional price). This course gives you the skills to directly impact your bottom line, and they are skills that you can apply year after year. The goal of this course is to give small businesses access to the tools and skills often gate-kept by marketing professionals, at an affordable price. Not only that, but you have the choice between two different payment structures: pay in full, or pay in three monthly installments.
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Yes! There are no prerequisites for taking this course, and zero marketing experience required.
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Most people who think they’re “terrible with tech” are simply unfamiliar with the standard platforms used in digital marketing, and it feels intimidating. In this course, you will learn how to use various marketing platforms in the easiest, most automated way possible! And you definitely do NOT have to be a techie to take this course.
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It is BOTH. You will learn about marketing strategy more broadly (always applying what we’re learning to your own business), and you will leave the course with a stack of useful, actionable deliverables, so that you can begin strategically marketing your business immediately.
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Yes! What better time to begin strategically marketing your business than right at the beginning?
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Then you’ll gain even MORE from this course! If email and/or social media prove to be important marketing channels for your business, we’ll go over strategies to grow those over time, and they can be incorporated into your final marketing strategy and calendar.
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Nope, not even close. Not every business needs social media. If we find that you do need social media accounts to reach your target audience, you’ll learn lots of ways to automate that process to make it quick and painless. (Not to mention a library of social media templates you can use to make content creation a breeze!)
