Steph Gorton and her husband, Tim Frey, are seasoned entrepreneurs. With a collective experience of 15 years, they have already built five different businesses, experiencing the successes and struggles that come with them.
Despite their experience, the couple have constantly struggled with the overwhelming aspects of being a small-business owner – juggling multiple roles, working longer hours than needed, and the near-constant uncertainty of getting that next client.
Feeling overwhelmed is something that hits too close to home for every small-business owner, and Steph and Tim were determined to figure out how to deal with it in their own way.
This led to the opening of the Success School, a business coaching program that offers a unique methodology, with a mix of daily coaching and support to help small-business owners achieve the growth they aspire to for their businesses without having to go through many of the constant struggles business owners usually face.
Despite the unique approach Success School offers, it faced tough competition from other business coaching programs in the market. So, when the school launched in July 2022, Steph decided to focus on one marketing channel to promote it: Instagram.
“The reason we chose Instagram is two-fold,” Steph shares. “One, we enjoy the platform and find it easy to hang out and connect with people there. More importantly, our ideal clients spend a lot of time on Instagram and find inspiration and information there.”
The Instagram feed showcased the school’s thought leadership and how Steph and Tim are different, while also successfully building connections with their audience, enabling them to build a community.
Their passion for sharing their knowledge and ideas soon led towards the opening of another marketing platform for Success School – a podcast where they not only offer business advice but also share free resources and support.
“With so many business coaches around these days, the podcast is a great way for our clients to connect with us, get to know us and our business philosophy,” Steph explains.
The podcast proved to be a highly effective marketing tool, topping the business podcast charts within the first two weeks of its launch, and 82 per cent of the school’s client base were listeners of the podcast.
“It’s a really great way for the consumer to get to know you,” Steph shares.
Success School also used Facebook ads because of their proven efficiency in targeting specific audiences without users having to do the heavy work of creating new content constantly.
“No need to create new content daily…put an ad up and it will generate leads while you sleep,” Steph exclaims.
For Facebook, Success School created only three types of ads: awareness, lead-generating and call-to-action ads, each focusing on different segments of the marketing funnel where the brand’s potential clients reside.
With this three-pronged approach to social media marketing, Success School has achieved remarkable growth. In just a year, it has welcomed over 270 clients and reached milestones much faster than Steph and Tim anticipated.
And they are keen on continuing to tap social media as their main marketing tool. “It’s the fastest way to reach and connect with our ideal clients, who all work from home,” Steph explains.
More importantly, social media has helped Success School build a community where small-business owners can connect and learn from one another.
“Small-business owners are craving connection,” Steph explains. “We can build communities there.”
This article first appeared in issue 45 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
