When Racheal from The Yogipreneur asked me to join the other writers in her ❤ Your Community Blog Tour, it was an easy yes.  (Did you catch Cailen Ascher’s post yesterday? So great!) Hello, hello! to everyone on tour with us (and a special welcome to folks who are meeting me for the first time… I hope you’ll make yourself at home here).

I’ve seen lots of telesummits and online programs and e-books that promise to teach folks how to “get” 10,000 followers, and they always irk me a little bit.  A small business doesn’t need 10,000 followers. Or 1,000 followers. A small business needs enthusiastic supporters. In my experience, you can have a comfortable, successful business with an email list of 200 (or even fewer), if those people have signed up because they are excited about exactly what you want to offer.

The biggest mistake I made in my own business (I used to be broke, if you don’t know that about me) is that I wanted to do everything for everyone. I have often said, “When your arms are open to everyone, no one feels special.” I offered marketing planning services to entrepreneurs and small businesses and I offered any kind of copywriting for anyone and I offered advertising agency request for proposal writing for corporations and non-profits. I’m really good at all of that stuff and have a lot of experience so of course that’s what I’d offer, right? Except, who could ever remember all that? And who would trust that I was a specialist in all those areas? And how could word of mouth ever work when I had so many different kinds of clients with different needs? It was a mess.

Step one: I got very specific about who I wanted to hang out with.

I went from “anyone who needed copywriting or marketing services” to “women in helping professions – like coaching, counseling, alternative health, birth support and the arts – who are running their own businesses and not making as much money as they need to support themselves, partly because they aren’t sure how to feel good about marketing.” Way more specific, yes? You can probably think of someone in your life who fits this description. You might even tell her that someone like me supports people that sound like her. (And lest you fear I’ve just cut off half the population; nope! the thing about getting really specific is that people “get” you quicker and will ask for exceptions… and let me tell you, the men who contact a business open about being dedicated to supporting women are totally cool guys.)

Step two: I decided on a service offering that would help my chosen community the most.

I know that one of the most powerful marketing tools is a business’ website, and I knew that without a lot of money to hire a professional designer and writer, that a lot of small business sites look pretty amateurish, which doesn’t instill confidence in a buyer, perpetuating the crummy revenue problem. I decided I could be a huge help by empowering my clients to re-write their own homepages to include essential marketing messages and content in a way that could feel friendly and good (to them and their readers). I ran homepage writing workshops and produced homepage writing workbooks (still my favourite thing on this site because of all the heart in it!), and I offered homepage writing services. I became the homepage lady.

Step three: I gave a gift.

I made a homepage assessment quiz called “How happy is your homepage?” available for download. It’s short, it’s sweet and it can point out serious gaps in a homepage that, if filled, can start to bring in more revenue. Recipients opt-in to a newsletter subscription, where I share my guilt-free marketing advice, and discount codes for the bookstore.

Step four: Tell people what you’re doing, consistently.

I’m most comfortable (and HAPPY!) behind a keyboard so I let my community know what I’m doing through my newsletter and Facebook. Every six weeks or so, I also tweet. And that’s it. But I’m reliable about it. Consistent. People know what I’m about. And I try to be generous. I give tips and advice I hope are useful. Everything I do is about: 1) helping, 2) letting people get to know me.

The good news is that the people who like your Facebook page and the people who subscribe to your newsletter and the people who buy your stuff are people, not a market. Not a list. Not a bunch of potential sales. People. And you already know how to talk to people.

When I first made these changes, I had about 250 people signed up to my newsletter. Within three years, I had 2,500. At 250, because my offering was so specific, I had enough supporters to have a sustainable business. Today, it’s just a little easier. So, go easy on yourself about the numbers if you’re just starting out. Focus on being of service to the people you’re meant to serve, and the rest will follow. Organically. Sustainably.

 ❤ Your Community Blog Tour participants: Kimberly Riggins will be posting tomorrow as part of our entrepreneur-only cruise around the internet. I bet it’ll be good!

~~~ Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs.