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Jenna Kutcher
Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter or X combined in terms of acquiring customers. And when I think about effectiveness and I think about limited time that we have to spend on it, I want to be focused on the areas that actually move the needle. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a $300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure your online business that feels even better than it looks. All from my house in small town Minnesota with my family here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical no fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Goal Digger podcast. Raise your hand if marketing your business feels like a never ending, constantly shifting to do list. Like you're trying to keep up your posting and emailing and creating content. But with everything else on your plate, it feels impossible to know what's actually moving the needle and what's worth it. Here's the thing. On average, entrepreneurs spend 20 hours a week on marketing. But let's be real, not everyone has that kind of time. Maybe you're growing your business on the side, juggling a full time job, parenting, or just trying to squeeze in a little breathing room. Or maybe you do have the time, but you want to make sure you're spending it in the ways that actually work. That is exactly what I'm breaking down in today's episode. I'm pulling back the curtain on where I spend my marketing time, what's truly worth the effort to me, and how I structure my strategy so that it works for me, whether I have two hours a week or 20. If you want smarter results driven marketing without feeling like you're stuck on a content hamster wheel, this one's for you. Let's dive on in. Before I dive into the content today, I wanna touch on something that I think might honestly surprise you. So so as we're going through this episode today, I want you to realize as you look through this lens of where I'm spending my time on my marketing, that on my team, I don't have anyone dedicated to marketing. So I don't have a marketing team. I don't have a cmo. I don't honestly have any team member whose position on my team is dedicated to managing the marketing strategy. That is the place in my business where I serve the most. Like that is my main job within our company. I love marketing. That is why I love this podcast. And so when I am sharing these things, I don't want for you to go into this episode thinking that I have this massive marketing team, that we have a bunch of people dedicated to making this possible. I have a very small team for the size of business that we run. Most of my team members have been with me for years and we all help out in marketing in different ways, but the strategy is coming from me. And over the years, what's been interesting when it comes to our marketing is that our strategies are fairly rinse and repeat. They're also really predictable and organized, which as somebody with adhd, used to sound boring. But as somebody who now craves more structure in my business so I can have more freedom in my life, I recognize that these systems and this organization has really enabled me to live a beautiful and big life while getting all the efforts done. And it's so interesting to me because in researching just where we as entrepreneurs are spending our time in marketing, the fact that most entrepreneurs are spending 20 hours a week on marketing, it is shocking to me. There has to be a better way, in my opinion, because if we're dedicating that much time just in getting ourselves and our offers out there, we're missing out on a lot of opportunities to not only do more meaningful work in the area that we serve in, but also to just live a better life. So I'm going to break down each category. I basically have broken out where I spend my marketing time into about nine buckets, which sounds like a lot. But as we go through it, I bet you're going to recognize that you are doing most, if not all of these things in your own business. So I just wanted to paint the picture so that you're not listening to this episode through a lens that isn't correct. It is really coming from me. And this is the area that I love now. My team 1000% helps me execute on the strategies, but the strategy itself is coming from me. And that is what I love about business that feels like a challenge that I want to take on. So the majority of my week is spent in this bucket, which is content creation and strategy. And I kind of already touched on it. But I love the creative process, and I love generating strategies and ideas. I am a visionary. That is just like the role that I play in the business. I love to think outside of the box. I love to think of new ideas. I love to present them to my team and get my team to buy in on them. I love to outline them. I love to create the first draft, and then oftentimes after the idea is fully formed and outlined, that is then when I pass it off to a team member for execution. So I have kind of adopted this belief of thinking about my work in this way, where I do the first 20% of the ideation and the creation, then my team does the next 60% of creating it, and then I do the final 20%. Or in the past, I've said 10, 80, 10. So 10% ideation outlined, 80% handed off to a team member to execute, and then I have the final pass on everything. And so that is like, the dream. Now I will say that, like, I still get really excited about the creative process and creating things, and so oftentimes I will take on the majority of that work and then pass it off to a team member to review my work. So, based on timing and bandwidth, content creation and strategy is the majority of my time. And this is what I honestly love. Like, I look at my journey as an entrepreneur, and I started as a blogger. Like, I blogged. So many people don't realize this, but over 13 years ago, almost 14 years ago, I started blogging. And I blogged five days a week for years and years and years without ever missing a single day. And so I have always loved being a creator. And the medium in which I created has transitioned over the years. I still blog, still love the blog. I podcast, I show up on Instagram. And so the medium has kind of transformed, which has kind of been the challenge that I desire when it comes to ideation and creation and strategy. But what's amazing about it is that, like, I still really enjoy this part of the process. Like, this part of the process feels like a baby to me. Like, it's. It's something that if I tried to outsource this piece, I would feel very personally detached from my business, because this is what I love and this is what I do. So the main meat of where I'm spending my time is content creation and strategy. For example, this podcast episode, we came up with the idea, just me and one other team member. Then I did the entire outline, I'm doing the entire recording, and then after I'm done recording, that's when I hand it off to be finished up, cleaned up, and ready to be published. And so you can kind of see that, like, the majority of that effort lies on me, but that is mostly by choice because that is mostly where my joy is. So the second main bucket, if I'm looking at a breakdown of where my time is being spent, is social media. Now, this is a linchpin in my life for sure. I have a very love hate relationship when it comes to social media. And over the years, I will say that my relationship to social media, I feel like, has gotten entirely healthy. But it's still one of those pieces of my business where I question, do I have to show up on these platforms and what could it look like if I shifted away from them? And that's really interesting to me. But that is probably because I look at my marketing in a slightly different way. So one of the reasons why I have a love hate relationship with social is that I create all my own content. So anything that is being published on my feed is created by me. I am the person editing the reels and putting the captions on and writing everything like that is coming from me. And I love it. But it takes a lot of time, right? And over the years, I feel like social media has gotten even more unpredictable. The algorithm changes have gotten even more frustrating. Where it used to be pretty easy to pick up on, like, okay, this is a strategy. Let's go with this. This makes sense. It works. And now it's like, okay, is this gonna work? Is this worth my time? And so my struggle when it comes to social media is the only reason why I am on it is because it's not the end game. And I want to meet you where you're at. That is why I'm there. It's like showing up to a party you don't really want to go to, but you know that people you love will be there and that makes it worth it. That's kind of how I feel about social. To me, like, social media is a handshake. It's not the conversation. It's like the greeting, the hi, hello. But I want to go deeper with you. If you've read my book, how are you really? I start off the whole first part of the book saying, I hate small talk. Like, don't talk to me about the weather, don't talk to me about sports. Like, I want to know how your life is. I want to know what is challenging you in your marriage. I want to know how therapy is going. And so for me, social media feels so surface level and I just have a deep desire to dive deep. And so I use social to meet my audience where they are, where you are. But my focus is getting you into a place where we can go deeper, like email or like this podcast here. And so to me, it's almost like I saw the other night. It was funny. Drew and I were watching a show and then the Matrix intro came on as that show ended and he called it out right away and it was like when all those codes were like going across his screen and I was like, that's like what social media feels like. It feels like this constantly changing code. And I feel like the older I get, the more frustrated I get by it and the more that I question, like, what is this even doing? And is this even worth it? Winter is finally loosening its grip, but our skin is feeling the effects. Dry, tight, flaky, it's the worst. As the seasons shift, so should our skin care. And that's why I'm obsessed with OCA's TikTok famous Underia Algae Body Butter. This isn't just any moisturizer. It is rich and deeply nourishing, but it melts in instantly. I'm talking no greasy residue, just soft and happy skin and the scent of it. It is a bright, refreshing blend of grapefruit, lime and mandarin. Pro tip I keep my OSEA body Butter right next to shower. 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It's interesting to me because I feel like people are so focused on going viral on social, but one, if you've ever gone viral, you know that it's a double edged sword, that it is a really cool experience, but it can also bring in a lot of hatred and nastiness and confusion into your business, in your life. And with people being so focused on going viral, they're missing being focused on getting results. And so for me, when I'm using social, I have a few main goals. One of them is to connect with you. Like just to literally connect with you across the screen. The other goal is to convert you, to literally get you into a place where I can do what I truly want to do, which is go deep with you and get to know you and figure out what you're struggling with and how I can help you. And so social media marketing does take up a good chunk of my time each week and that tends to ebb and flow based on one, the time that I have to give to it, but to what we have going on in our business. And so like if we're in a launch, I am creating a ton of content, but when we are not in a launch, then I am more so showing up when I feel like it and when I like it. And that to me feels really good because it feels more derived from inspiration versus this mass need of content creation, which is kind of the beast that social media has become. So it's interesting because if you are somebody listening to this and you have been struggling with social media marketing, or just feeling frustrated by it. I just want you to know in all of the conversations I have offline with my peers in the industry, some of the biggest names that you know, like everybody is frustrated with it, it's not just you. And I think that it comes down to when you really look at time as your currency. It's really easy to second guess. Is social media the best place I should be spending my time? And for me it's not. Which is why I'm going to tell you about the next two buckets where I spend my time. That one take way less hours than social media, but to give me longer lasting results. So the next bucket after social media that I'm spending my time in is email marketing. And here's the thing. I know that email marketing doesn't feel sexy to you. I get it. It's not shiny. There's not a big bold number under your name. You're not getting all the dopamine hits of the likes and comments and the hearts. I get it, I get it, I get it. And yet when I look at my marketing breakdown, I am spending way less hours on this medium and it is the number one way I drive profits in my business. So guess what's worth it to me? Email marketing. Totally worth it. Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter or X combined in terms of acquiring customers. And when I think about effectiveness and I think about limited time that we have to spend on it, I want to be focused on the areas that actually move the needle. And email marketing to me is twofold. It is a place where I can go deep. I don't have to fit everything into a five second looping reel or a short little caption I can pour my heart out. I love writing emails to you. I love sharing the behind the scenes of my life or a funny story with my kids or the five products that I am obsessed with that I ordered this month. Like I, I love sharing that. It feels like home to me on the Internet, as weird as that is, it feels like a direct line of communication to you, which feels so different than social, which to me feels like screaming to the masses and hoping somebody listens. And so email marketing is so fun. So here's where I mainly focus on when it comes to email marketing. Each week, brainstorming ideas. So one of the things that I love to do and I highly recommend doing is getting on different creators email lists just to watch what they're doing. So again, email is the number one way that I drive sales in my business. And I love being subscribed to different creators email lists to get ideas and to see like, ooh, that subject line really got me excited. Or ah, I love how they formatted this. Or oh, I've never even thought to try this. Or this. Really short email was super effective. And so I spend time every week in my inbox just studying what email marketers are sending me. And I love that. So if you haven't done that yet, do that. And I have like a little folder where I will save good email copy. Like, I'm like, this is good. This is really good. Another area that I spend time in each week is the actual writing. And one thing that we do on my team is that we batch work everything. And so while I'm giving you this weekly breakdown, each week kind of ebbs and flows in a different way. And that is because we are constantly working ahead. So at any given time, it's so funny, sometimes people will be like, hey, last minute, do you want to do this or could you do this? And I'm like, girl, we are like two months out, like, we're already living in the future. And that's just how we like it. We like to work from a place of rest, not stress. It's how I've always been wired. And so when we figure things out, like brainstorming ideas and writing the email campaigns, a lot of times that is batch works, meaning I sit down and I'll hammer out three, four emails in one sitting where I'm outlining them or I'm writing them word for word. And so that part is so fun to me. And I prefer doing it this way because I love to see the sequence of how somebody will be receiving them. I love to make sure that context isn't lost. I love to make sure that every email stands on its own without assuming that somebody read the previous email or they're gonna read the next one. And so from a strategy standpoint, I like batch working because I feel like I can be so much more strategic when it comes to it. And I can also kind of see the lay of the land. Like for me and what I teach, we focus so much on serving over selling. And so we're looking at the frequency of the emails that we're sending to our email list. And we're also trying to balance the scales of like, how much can we serve, whether it is sending out an email that is just straight up encouragement, sending out free resources, free information, ways for somebody to get free wins versus selling, where we have an actual offer and truth be told, we're really only selling a couple times a year. We usually do one launch per quarter. And so that frequency is actually pretty easy to balance for us. Then once the emails are written and signed off on, then I have a team member on my team, Shannon, who will take them and upload them into our email service provider, review them, and then test them. So if you've ever had an oopsie where you've like sent out an email and it says like, hello, name and you forgot to like fill in that name field or whatever that is, we've all been there. And so I am a big lover of testing. And a lot of times when we test the emails, I'll notice, like, oh, I don't really like the way I said this, or like this formatting looks a little funky. Could we change that up? And so our goal is always to have emails tested weeks before they go out so that we can truly set it and forget it in many different ways. And so email marketing is a place that feels like a very worthy place that I love to spend my time. And if you're still not sold on email, then listen to this. When I am looking at my marketing hours, and considering that most entrepreneurs are spending up to 20 hours a week on their marketing, I question, are we really looking at the ROI or the return on investment of our time? Now, when it comes to email, the return of Your investment is $42 for every dollar spent. So essentially that's me saying, hey, give me $1 today and I will give you $42 back tomorrow, which any person would probably do, right? That's a very, very good return. Now, social media is way less than that. It's like a couple dollars per dollar spent. So when we're looking at like, okay, where are we putting our time, our money, and our energy? To me, email marketing is the worthiest place to spend our time. And so this is an area where, like, I love spending my time for email marketing. And if you have no idea where to start when it comes to growing an email list or getting that started, or if you're listening to this and you're like, ooh, I should be all one to two hours a week on an email list. If this is where the true ROI is, if you had to grow an email list dot com, that's grow an email list dot com, then I have a one hour masterclass that will teach you how to start and grow an email list of engaged buyers. And inside of that training, I walk you through the process. I Show you how it can work based on your business type. And I give you a lot of reminders of, like, social media is rented space. An email list is an asset you own. And so this, again, is just, to me, it's like, if I only had a couple hours to spend per week on my marketing, I would be spending my time on email marketing because of that return on investment and the fact that you get to directly connect in a much more intimate way. And also, if you think about it, for me, like, it can take me upwards of, like, one hour to create a carousel or a reel on social media. And half the time, it does terrible. More than half the time, honestly, if we're looking at the odds. And so if I could spend one hour writing a heartfelt email to my email list and inviting them into some sort of offer, it would likely move the needle so much more than likes and comments. And that's just how I like to look at, like, the hierarchy of where my time is going and where it is best spent. So after email marketing, I am doing one strategy that takes one hour a week and we outsource it, but I'm still kind of a part of it. But this is a place where so many entrepreneurs are missing the boat. And what am I about to talk about? It is Pinterest. So Pinterest is this, like, magical unicorn of a place when it comes to your marketing. And I can't believe how many people are not using it. Like, you might not be using Pinterest as a strategic way to market your business. Now, there are a million reasons why this, I would argue, is one of the best hours you could spend per week on your marketing. And if I'm looking at this again through the lens of, like, the average entrepreneur spending 20 hours a week and they're not devoting one hour to this, I'm like, what are you doing? So one Pinterest content lives 120 times longer than your Instagram posts. So if you think about it, when you are creating content for Instagram, it lives and dies within a few hours, 24 to 48 hours max. Whereas the average lifespan of one pin on Pinterest lives on for four months. So you can create one item on Pinterest that takes way less time than creating an item on Instagram. And it can live for months versus hours. And so when I'm thinking about my marketing, I feel like I am coming at it from a place of, like, I want my efforts to give the longest results. I don't want, like, quick flash in the pan marketing strategies that work for a hot minute, but that require me to constantly show up. So Pinterest is one of the biggest drivers of website traffic for us. And so if you have built a website and you're like, okay, this is great, but like, I don't even know how to get people onto my website, or people don't even know I have a website, this is where it's at. And what's amazing about this is if you think about it, if you have somebody on your team that can learn the strategy, you could outsource this. It could be like the best $20 you spend every single week. And so while I am still involved in our Pinterest marketing, I outsource the main meat of it because I created the strategy and that doesn't mean I have to be the one doing it. But this is a high priority channel for me. Now, Pinterest often drives more traffic than Facebook and Instagram combined. And to me, that's so important because not only is traffic awesome, but capturing that traffic and converting that traffic is where you actually get more sales. And so I love Pinterest for a million reasons. But the biggest reason is, is that the strategy takes less than one hour a week and it can be outsourced. And I just feel like so many people are sleeping on this platform. And it's so crazy to me because it's like, if you want more long term results, if you need more people landing on your website and understanding that you are actually selling something and you have something to offer, then this would be where I would start. Like, this would be the one hour I would start with when it came to marketing. If you want to learn a strategy on this, you can go to teachmetopin. Com. I have a free masterclass on Pinterest. I'm not trying to plug all these places, but I'm sure after listening to this, you're like, well, wait. Well, how do you do that? So teachmetopin.com free masterclass that teaches my strategy on Pinterest. But this is an area where I'm like, do not sleep on it. Like an hour a week can totally change the game for your business and actually drive way more results than the one reel that you spent an hour creating that totally flopped. It's 2025 and we all know how loud the B2B marketing space has gotten. It's not just enough to run ads. You need to make sure that they're actually reaching the right people. That's why I love LinkedIn ads. You're not just throwing your message out and hoping it sticks. You can get super specific targeting by job title, industry or even the exact company you want to work with. There are over 130 million decision makers and 10 million C level execs on LinkedIn. These are the people who can actually say yes to your offer. And it's not just who you reach, it's the results you get. In the tech industry, LinkedIn ads delivered up to five times the return on ad spend compared to other platforms. I mean, 79% of B2B content marketers say LinkedIn gives them the best paid media results. So if you're ready to cut through the noise and get your ads in front of the people who matter, LinkedIn ads is the way to go. Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com goal to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com goal. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to be, to be. Okay, after Pinterest then what we're looking at are Facebook and Instagram ads. Now, I do not run the ads myself personally. So we have an amazing little small team of two incredible women who are mamas, who have worked with me for years and years and years. But each week I am looking at ad performance. I am coming up with new creative ideas, new copy. I'm looking at, where's our ad spend going? Where is our cost per lead? I'm talking to our different team members to manage different campaigns. So we have ongoing ads running all of the time, even when we're not in launch. We love using ads to grow our email list. And so we will lead with different freebies to help grow our email list. And I love just being in the know and understanding, okay, where is this investment going? What is our cost per lead? What is the average lifetime value of a lead in our business? How do we serve these leads and meet them where they're at? And then like, what are different strategies that are working or that we want to test out? So just yesterday we were thinking of different ideas of like, oh, we could use these videos and repurpose them for ads. And this is how we could do this. And so we're constantly in communication with our ads team and then always looking at like, okay, what can we do that's new and different and what can we test out? And we love to do a lot of testing before we ever go into a launch because it just gives us A lot of clarity and certainty when we go into the launch. And it's a little bit higher stakes. And so spending time on Facebook and Instagram ads is an area that I spend time in every single week. After that is our blog and search engine optimization. Now I told you this at the beginning of the episode, if you were paying attention. I have literally been blogging since day one of my business pre day one, basically, and I love blogging. I will go to the end of my life being a blogger. I love it. I love long form content. Again, I don't like sitting at the surface. I love to go deep. I love to explain things. I don't want to feel like I have to be super concise. And blogging to me is also just an amazing way to build out a content library that will serve other people long after you hit publish. Like, nobody is scrolling back four months to find a certain post on your Instagram. But with blogging and search engine optimization, they could be finding blog posts you wrote years ago. In fact, we have been doing a huge SEO update, which is search engine optimization in my business. And it has been really amazing and also eye opening to see that content that we created years ago is some of our top performing content. And so where I'm spending my time each week is updating old content for SEO. So looking at like these past top performers that are still performing well, can we optimize them? Does the content need to be updated? How can we make those super powerful so that they continue to rank well on search engines like Google? And then I'm also reviewing analytics and search trends. So just looking to see like, hey, you know, a ton of people are typing this key phrase into Google. Do we have content on that? Can we make sure that our content is being found there? Is there any way that we can make that content better? And then outlining new blog content. So in my business, we blog two days a week for the podcast, which are our solo show and interview show. So each podcast episode that drops gets a blog post that goes with it. And then on top of that, we're dropping an extra one to two posts per week. So anywhere from three to four posts go up per week on my blog. If you didn't know that, go check it out. There's so much good content there. And so we're always looking at like, okay, what sort of content do we want to share? What's relevant? What do you need more of? Like, what are the questions you are asking? And how can we create content around that? And so I am doing everything from outlining to ideating to reviewing all the different places in the blog when it comes to our next bucket, it's our podcast growth marketing. And the Gold Digger podcast doesn't grow itself. I wish it did. In a lot of ways, you help me do that by sharing the episodes with people that you know that can benefit from them. So I just wanna say thank you for doing that. But every single week, I'm spending time looking at like, okay, we have this amazing episode. How can we repurpose it? How can we make sure that it's getting the bandwidth and the noise it needs on social media? I'm also looking at our download trends, our engagement metrics, like, trying to track, like, okay, what do you need? What are you most curious about? What are you interested in? How can we go deeper on it on this show? And then I love being a part of our Gold Digger podcast insiders group. I am in that group on Facebook every single day. If you are not in there, we have linked it in the show notes in the show description for you. Jump on in. The other day I was looking. We love to post different opportunities for you to work with other Gold Digger listeners, to hire other Gold Digger listeners to share your challenges. And I just love being a part of that community. I'm chiming in and answering questions. I'm watching to see if there's different content ideas for us. And so that is a huge part of where I'm spending time with the podcast. Now I have two more buckets, and if you're wondering, I am not up to 20 hours for the week. And I'll kind of give you the full breakdown in just a bit. But the next bucket is affiliate marketing and brand partnerships. So we have a very big side of our company that is based in affiliates or partnerships. And so every single week, I am touching base and looking at our top affiliate partners, strategizing when and where we can share their products, include affiliate links. I'm looking at past promotions for performance, generating new ideas, thinking of different brands that I want to potentially partner with. And so this is just kind of a weekly evaluation of like, okay, how are our results looking? What do we want to try? What are we working towards? What campaign is next? And what have we learned from our past campaigns. And so that's an area where I love. I love affiliate marketing, I think is incredible. It's super fun for me and I love supporting other small businesses. And one of the things that we love to do is it's mostly women founded small Business owners that we support. And I just, I love that it is life changing for them and it's amazing for us. The last area is community engagement. And I always feel like this is a huge thing. Like, if you have ever DMed me and I've responded, it is me. It is me. I am the person in my Instagram. There is nobody on my team responding to comments or answering questions like, it is me. And so for me to keep a pulse and to stay connected to you, that is like the number one thing for me. I can sense when people outsource their marketing and their efforts and even like their engagement with their community to other people, and it just feels different. And so I love to prioritize responding to DMS and comments on social media, engaging in conversations with my audience, watching in our Facebook group, watching in our online course groups that we have for our students. Like, I am in there, I'm getting notifications like, I am paying attention. And I feel like if I were not doing that, I would not have a pulse on what is actually happening out there in the world for entrepreneurs just like you and what you actually want from me. So community engagement is huge for me. Okay, so maybe you're wondering, okay, what is the breakdown? So here is kind of the breakdown, and this is just based off of if I were to look at like the average 20 hours a week now, like I said, every week kind of ebbs and flows and has different needs, but this would be kind of my breakdown. So six hours spent on content creation and strategy. This is where I want the meat of it. Because I feel like if you start at the top with a really solid strategy, all of your efforts are going to be more in alignment and drive better results. So if you're going to start anywhere and like have a hierarchy, put the majority of your time and focus on the content creation and strategy piece, then I would say about five hours is spent on social media. This is spread across Instagram, LinkedIn, Gold Digger, Instagram, Facebook. Again, I am the person creating all of that content and engaging with it. And so that is an area where I want to be, just because I want to be where the people are. Then I would look at two hours spent on email marketing, one hour spent on Pinterest, again outsourced. But I do strategic review. One to two hours spent in terms of education, like listening to business and marketing podcasts, which, by the way, most of the time I do that in the sauna. So it's like no extra time taken out of my day. I'm just stacking it with something I'm doing. Facebook and Instagram ads, reviewing strategy adjustments. That's about one hour of my week. Blog and SEO is about one to two hours. Podcast growth and promotion is about one hour. Affiliate marketing, brand partnerships one hour and community engagement would be one to two hours. So that kind of estimated marketing time is around 18 to 20 hours a week. And again it ebbs and it flows. So that is my personal breakdown again, take what serves you, leave the rest behind. But I wanted to kind of peel back the curtain and talk a little bit about like where am I spending my time? Where do I think spending time is so worthy and what do you need to consider to make sure that your efforts are leading to real results at the end of the day? I think a lot of times we are spending so much of our energy and our creativity on places where our content lives and dies without ever making an impact and without ever driving a real result. And that is where I think that you and I could be smarter about it and really look at some of these more long term strategies, whether it's blogging or podcasting, email marketing or Pinterest, to focus our efforts on areas that truly move the needle, drive results and make a bigger impact and a bigger connection. To me that is like why I went into entrepreneurship is to do those things. And so while the flash in the pan dopamine hit of social media can feel good in the minute, it isn't a long term strategy that I want to subscribe to. It is a means to an end. It is not the end game for me. And so I challenge you to consider where am I spending my time. Maybe do an audit this week and really look at like okay, when it comes to marketing and the amount of time I have to devote to it, what is the best way to break this down that gives me the best results, that allows me to connect with my audience and to make an impact. And you might find areas where you could shift around your time being spent and what that strategy looks like. If I've learned anything over the years, it's this. Marketing is about playing the long game. Social media again is where I start the conversation, but it's not where I want to stay. My focus is on leveraging my time into high impact platforms that generate results long after I hit publish. And if your lens is not focused in that way, here's your invitation to do that. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Gold Digger podcast. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed creating it and recording it for you. Until next time, Gold Digger, keep on digging your biggest goals and I will link up any of the resources mentioned in today's episode in the show notes in the show description for you. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode filled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode episode, head on over to gold digger podcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, Gold Diggers.
The Goal Digger Podcast: Episode 858 Summary
Title: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at My Marketing Hours (And the Strategies That Deliver)
Host: Jenna Kutcher
Release Date: March 5, 2025
Jenna Kutcher, the dynamic host of The Goal Digger Podcast, delves deep into her personal marketing strategies in Episode 858. This episode offers an insightful and comprehensive breakdown of how Jenna allocates her marketing hours to build a thriving seven-figure online business while maintaining a balanced and fulfilling life. Here's a detailed summary capturing the key points, discussions, and actionable insights shared by Jenna.
Jenna begins by emphasizing the importance of focusing on effective marketing channels that deliver tangible results. She states:
"Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter or X combined in terms of acquiring customers. [00:02]"
This sets the tone for her argument against spreading time thin across multiple platforms without substantial returns.
Contrary to what many might assume, Jenna operates her marketing without a dedicated marketing team or Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). She shares:
"On my team, I don't have anyone dedicated to marketing. So I don't have a marketing team. I don't have a CMO… the strategy is coming from me. [04:30]"
This highlights her hands-on approach and the personal investment she has in crafting and executing her marketing strategies.
a. Visionary Role:
Jenna identifies herself primarily as a content creator and strategist. She loves generating ideas and outlining strategies, which forms the foundation of her marketing efforts.
"I love the creative process, and I love generating strategies and ideas. I am a visionary… [07:15]"
b. Workflow:
She employs a structured workflow where she handles the initial ideation and creation (10-20%), delegates execution to her team (60-80%), and finalizes the content (10-20%). This method ensures efficiency and maintains her personal touch.
c. Evolution of Content Mediums:
From starting as a blogger 14 years ago to transitioning into podcasts and social media, Jenna adapts her content mediums while maintaining her passion for creation.
a. Love-Hate Relationship:
Jenna expresses mixed feelings about social media, acknowledging its necessity for connecting with her audience but criticizing its superficial nature.
"Social media feels like this constantly changing code. [15:45]"
b. Strategy Over Virality:
She emphasizes quality over virality, focusing on meaningful connections rather than chasing fleeting engagement metrics.
"Social media is a handshake. It's not the conversation… [17:30]"
c. Adjusting Presence:
Her social media activity fluctuates based on business needs, allowing flexibility and preventing burnout.
a. High ROI Importance:
Email marketing stands out as her most profitable channel, yielding $42 for every dollar spent.
"Email marketing… is the number one way I drive profits in my business. [20:10]"
b. Personal Connection:
Jenna values email for its ability to foster deep, personal connections with her audience, unconstrained by the brevity of social media.
"Email is a direct line of communication to you… [23:05]"
c. Strategic Execution:
Her team batches email creation, allowing for strategic, cohesive campaigns that balance providing value and promoting offers.
a. Long-Term Traffic Driver:
Pinterest is highlighted as a powerful tool for generating sustained website traffic, with pins lasting up to four months compared to the fleeting lifespan of Instagram posts.
"One Pinterest content lives 120 times longer than your Instagram posts… [26:50]"
b. Outsourcing Strategy:
While Jenna oversees the strategy, the execution is outsourced, ensuring efficiency and leveraging Pinterest’s potential without heavy time investment.
a. B2B Focus:
Jenna underscores the effectiveness of LinkedIn Ads for targeting decision-makers and generating high-quality leads, especially in the B2B space.
"In the tech industry, LinkedIn ads delivered up to five times the return on ad spend compared to other platforms. [30:20]"
b. Strategic Targeting:
With over 130 million decision-makers, LinkedIn allows precise targeting, making it an invaluable tool for cutting through market noise.
a. Team-Managed Campaigns:
Jenna discusses her small team’s role in managing and optimizing Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, focusing on performance metrics and creative testing.
"We love using ads to grow our email list… [34:10]"
b. Continuous Optimization:
Regular review and adjustment of ad strategies ensure sustained effectiveness and alignment with business goals.
a. Long-Form Content Value:
Jenna remains a fervent blogger, valuing long-form content for its depth and evergreen nature, which continuously attracts traffic through search engines.
"With blogging and search engine optimization, they could be finding blog posts you wrote years ago… [37:40]"
b. SEO Updates:
Regularly updating old content to enhance SEO ensures her blog remains a top performer, driving consistent traffic and engagement.
a. Repurposing Content:
Jenna focuses on maximizing the podcast’s reach by repurposing episodes into various content formats and analyzing download trends and engagement metrics.
"We have linked it in the show notes… [41:00]"
b. Community Involvement:
Engagement within her podcast community, including the Gold Digger Podcast Insiders group, fosters a supportive network and generates new content ideas.
a. Strategic Partnerships:
Jenna collaborates with top affiliate partners and brands, particularly women-founded small businesses, to promote products that align with her brand values.
"I love supporting other small businesses… [43:30]"
b. Performance Evaluation:
Weekly assessments of affiliate campaigns help refine strategies and enhance performance, ensuring mutually beneficial partnerships.
a. Personal Interaction:
Jenna personally responds to DMs and comments, maintaining a direct and authentic connection with her audience.
"If you have ever DMed me and I've responded, it is me. [45:50]"
b. Staying Connected:
Active participation in online groups and responding to community inquiries keeps her attuned to her audience’s needs and preferences.
Jenna provides a comprehensive breakdown of her weekly marketing hours, totaling approximately 18-20 hours:
"So, six hours spent on content creation and strategy… [48:15]"
Jenna advocates for sustainable marketing practices over chasing immediate, fleeting successes. She encourages entrepreneurs to focus on strategies that provide long-term benefits and deeper audience connections.
"Marketing is about playing the long game… [59:05]"
She challenges listeners to audit their marketing efforts, prioritize high-impact activities, and ensure their strategies align with their broader business goals.
Episode 858 of The Goal Digger Podcast serves as a masterclass in effective marketing time management. Jenna Kutcher’s transparent breakdown of her marketing strategies provides valuable insights for entrepreneurs looking to optimize their efforts and achieve meaningful results. By prioritizing high-ROI activities like email marketing and Pinterest, and maintaining personal connections through community engagement, Jenna exemplifies a balanced and strategic approach to business growth.
Listeners are encouraged to assess their own marketing practices, adopt strategies that align with their goals, and focus on long-term success rather than short-lived trends.
Key Takeaways:
Notable Quotes:
For more detailed insights and resources mentioned in this episode, visit goaldiggerpodcast.com.