The Comprehensive Guide: Digital Marketing for Small Businesses
- Karin Cederskoog
- 7 days ago
- 20 min read
Updated: 13 hours ago
Welcome to my comprehensive guide on developing an effective digital marketing strategy tailored specifically for small businesses. Whether you're running a catering company in Seattle, a farm or agriculture business in King County, a coffee stand or taproom Portland, an art booth at Pike Place, a film production company or wedding venue—this guide is designed to provide you with the insights and practical skills you need to succeed.
My goal is that by the end of this guide, you will have not only a clear understanding of what a digital marketing strategy is, but also have the practical know-how to kickstart (or reevaluate) your current strategy. Whether you’re new to digital marketing or a seasoned veteran looking for a creative spin on your content, this guide will offer fresh perspectives and actionable tips.
What This Guide Does Not Include
This guide does not cover social media marketing, influencers, YouTube or ads. That’s content for another post.
In this guide, we look at your digital marketing journey, from your website strategy to customer retention techniques, including blog posts, newsletters, direct mail, the media and more.
What This Guide Does Include
Customer Personas
How to make your customers real and relatable, so you can get into their heads and tailor your goods, products or services directly to them.
Get In Your Customers’ Heads
Now that you understand your customers better, let’s dig in more deeply. Which magazines or websites do your customers read? Start reading those so you understand what your customers need or want.
Blogging
A blog is a way to connect directly to your consumers. Instead of advertising your products directly, you’re selling your brand.
Newsletters/E-mail Marketing
Now that you have a dedicated user base, you can use newsletters to keep them engaged and to learn what’s resonating with them through simple tests.
Direct Mail Marketing
For small businesses in particular, flyers via direct mail can be a great way to differentiate yourself from the sea of businesses present in internet marketing. Use this opportunity to drive consumers right through your door!
Online Reviews
Whether positive or negative, reviews are a critical component in local business marketing. A negative review is a gift in disguise! How you respond shows customers what you’re all about - which is - hopefully - grace, understanding and a commitment to exceptional customer service.
Event-Driven Marketing
Consider hosting in-person or online events. This allows you to interact directly with your customers and to learn more about them. You can also consider participating in local events such as farmer’s markets or town festivals.
Local Partnerships
Is your business compatible with another local business? Why not promote each other’s products or services? It’s an effective and simple way to grow your customer base.
Google Search Results (aka Search Engine Optimization, or SEO)
It may seem critical to focus on your social media content and local business listings but by optimizing your website for search engines, you are investing in a long-term marketing strategy, one that ensures you’re at the top of Google results for “top 10 cozy cafés in Seattle” or “top unique coffee for gifts.” Organic search is one of the driving ways customers come across your brand.
Local SEO for Service-Based Businesses
There are a lot of (mostly free) opportunities to advertise your business to people who are looking locally. Make sure you take advantage of these opportunities, optimize your message and showcase your brand!
Backlinks & Guest Articles
These methods tie into SEO. You show on another high-ranking site that you’re an authority on a subject. Example: “Top things to consider when planning an ecotourism-friendly vacation.” Not only are prospective customers likely to click through to your site, but your website’s link on a high-ranking website brings you one step closer to the top spot on Google.
Online Business Directories
This is a relatively straightforward way to generate those backlinks. Instead of writing an entire article, you can simply submit your company to a directory.
Backlink acquired!
Media & Press Releases: Amplify Your Voice
It can be intimidating to approach the media, especially when you’re starting out. You can begin by using press releases and approaching podcast hosts, who are often looking for people to interview.
Track Your Progress
How do you effectively track your marketing efforts to ensure your digital marketing strategy is actually paying off? We cover tips and tools for your success.
Play to Your Strengths
My strategy is content heavy because writing is my strength. Your strength may be public speaking, or putting on killer local events. Whatever it is you do well, do more of that! People will take notice.
A quick note about keywords: I have not used any analytical terms on the keyword examples used in this article. These keywords are merely examples and likely poor choices to use in a keyword strategy.
Digital Content Marketing for Small Businesses
Customer Persona
While this section is more of an exercise than something you go out on the internet and do, taking the time to develop customer personas is an important first step in marketing.
The reason for this is so that you can tailor your content to your customers. If you don’t have a deep understanding of your customers, it will be a challenge to market to customer types effectively.
Example: PnW Rodeo Ranch in Enumclaw, WA
For the purposes of this example, let’s say that our ranch has horse stables and arenas, a barn venue (for events, weddings, line dancing classes) and beef shares (where they raise cows and sell the meat by the quarter).
Persona 1: The Equestrian Enthusiast
Demographics: Male, age 39, well-off, lived on the family farm most of his life.
Motivation: He is looking for a place to board his horse and to compete in local equestrian events.
Why PnW Rodeo Ranch? It’s within 20 minutes of his home, similarly priced as other stables in the area and has high quality facilities. Most importantly, it has direct access to well-maintained horse trails, a covered arena and hosts a small, local equestrian event.
Persona 2: The Young Parents
Demographics: A couple in their mid ‘30’s in the suburbs, well-off.
Motivation: It’s hard to have dedicated time to yourselves with young children in tow! They want some time to themselves to try something new.
Why PnW Rodeo Ranch? They prefer the country to the city and adore the rustic setting. It seems like the ideal place to learn line dancing and hopefully meet other young couples.
Persona 3: The Community Event Organizer
Demographics: Female, age 65, well-off, lives in the suburbs. Highly active and enjoys event planning/community building.
Motivation: She’s looking for a well-kept facility that’s affordable and allows for a wide range of activities.
Why PnW Rodeo Ranch? There’s ample parking that’s well-lit at night. The ranch owners are letting her keep a couple of ping pong tables in a storage area, which removes the transportation hassles she usually has. Also, there are a few sitting areas with firepits at the ranch - an added bonus and real selling point for the community fundraising events she throws. She even got a discount for booking so many events so far in advance!
Now that we have our personas, let’s consider how we might market differently to each of them.
Persona 1: The Equestrian Enthusiast
Price is a motivator, as well as access to specific facilities and amenities.
There are a few potential ways we could capture his attention - posting about our facilities on a community page like NextDoor or Facebook, or flyers at the local library, hardware and grocery stories, or something he can’t miss - mailing a flyer directly to his home.
Persona 2: The Young Parents
They’re looking for unique events. Once we capture their business, they may be interested in other activities, such as horseback riding lessons for their kids, coming to our family rodeo event or buying a beef share.
We know that the suburbs in the neighboring town have a lot of young families. We could take a similar approach as before (with social media) and also make sure our flyer highlights the family events and unique class offerings. This flyer would be targeted specifically to young families/parents, whereas the Equestrian Enthusiast’s flyer focuses on boarding facilities and amenities and beef shares, since there are fewer young families in this part of the country but more horse owners. Another great place to advertise is ParentMap.com - a website they check weekly for child-friendly activities.
Persona 3: The Community Event Organizer
The facilities and price point are key.
An event organizer is likely to be involved in other events in the area, such as churches, the library and the community center. It’s a safe bet to place flyers in these places. Even if she doesn’t see them, a friend might. She doesn’t use social media but she does get the local newsletters for a couple nearby towns, which could be a great place to reach her.
This persona model isn’t perfect, as it’s prone to fallacies and bias but it does get you in the minds of potential consumers, and that’s key.
A good strategy is to challenge your assumptions. Your marketing plan may revolve entirely around social media. What about the percentage of your consumer base that doesn’t use social media, or rarely checks it? Your customers may not do social media, but they may subscribe to local or online magazines, like ParentMap, or a PnW rodeo magazine.
An AI Boost
A great way to generate more ideas is, when you think you have all of the ideas you’re ever going to have, run those ideas through ChatGPT.
Ask ChatGPT - What are my other potential customers? What other marketing strategies should I consider? Generate a list of 20 potential customers and 50 additional marketing strategies.
Get In Your Customers’ Heads
Learn about your customers, wherever they reside. Get curious about your customers to discover their needs and wants. After all, over a century ago, no one could have told you they wanted a faster horse with a cold wind and yet, the car came to be.
Since my clients are small business owners, I subscribed to the newsletters of organizations that deliver small business resources. That way, I’m constantly reminded of the challenges potential clients face and can pivot when a new law changes the way small businesses operate, or recognize an opportunity with delivering a service that my small businesses need.
In your case, let’s say you’re in the wedding venue business or a local flower shop, so you might subscribe to popular wedding magazines and follow the latest wedding trends online.
This will allow you to adapt to customers before they even realize what it is they need and be one step ahead of competitors.
Blog
Blogging is far from a waste of time—it's an essential tool for connecting with your customers and building your brand online. Depending on your industry, the rest of your website may read a tad stiff (it can be a challenge to bring a fresh voice to a hardware store’s catalog!). A blog is where you can be yourself and show customers who you are.
Blogs don’t have to be time consuming. A post could be something as simple as a list of your top 10 products this season...or it could be as time consuming as this comprehensive guide (which is, in all honestly, overkill but I wanted to provide something that would be at least somewhat useful to readers!). Wix recommends a word count of around 2000 words, which is around 10 minutes of reading time. This article is over 5k words.
A Blog's Relevance for SEO
A well-written blog post can keep users on a single page for several minutes, signaling to Google that your site offers valuable, relevant content and boosting your search rankings, getting you closer to that coveted 1st page of Google.
That brings me to touch on search engine optimization (SEO), which is another way of saying - optimize your content so your website ranks highly on Google. (We’ll cover SEO in more detail later in this post.)
What matters at this point is that once you develop your SEO strategy, a blog post is a fantastic way to complement your keyword strategy. Don’t forget to consider your keywords and sprinkle them into your blog posts.
What Do I Blog About?
Struggling for ideas? Not sure which ideas will resonate with your customer?
Look at competitor websites. What are they blogging about?
Look at competitor social media pages. Which blog posts and content are users engaging with most?
This competitive research can provide invaluable insights and help you identify gaps or opportunities in your own content strategy.
The AI Factor
Not only can ChatGPT give you ideas for new blog posts, but you can also use it when you have writer’s block.
Sometimes, I write a few sentences or bullet points and ask ChatGPT to write a larger paragraph. I typically heavily edit whatever it comes up with but I love how easy it is to get out of my head and unblock that writer’s block.
Newsletters/E-mail Marketing
Newsletters are a great way to learn what resonates with your audience! They provide an opportunity to deliver personalized content straight to your customers’ inbox. This form of digital marketing is not only cost-effective but also offers the advantage of measurable results through open rates, click-through rates, and conversion metrics.
Through your newsletter analysis tools, you know exactly which elements users click on…and, perhaps most importantly, what doesn’t resonate.
Think about the most recent newsletters you opened. I don’t know about you but I’m subscribed to dozens of local companies and have been for years. I rarely open any of these newsletters, which isn’t surprising given that the average open rates hover around 35%.
The thing about these newsletters is, I bought into the brand as something worthwhile to keep my eye on and can’t bear to unsubscribe, no matter since I last opened the brand's newsletter.
Here are recent newsletters I actually opened:
The Monterey Bay Aquarium
The Monterey Bay Aquarium launched a poll to name their new otter and gave readers a few options to choose from.
I love this strategy because it can get the whole family engaged. It also invests the family in this otter’s future. Instead of saying, “Let’s go to the aquarium,” they might say something like, “Let’s go see Hazel!”
The King County Library
“Meet the artists who designed our new library cards!” I have no idea what newer library cards look like. I’m curious to learn more about the cards and the artists behind them.
Newsletters I rarely open consist of the brand name + generic text in the preview screen, such as “Catch up on our latest news!” These emails look the same as every other email they send, so I have no driving motivator to open them.
Other newsletters I rarely open (unsurprisingly) include newsletters for cities or companies that I no longer live near. I may not live close enough or have the time to do regular events at these places but I still want to be informed of activities. If a city is within an hour’s drive, an event announcement just may change my weekend plans.
Newsletter Experiment: Promotions
Let’s say you have a plant nursery and your newsletter has 2 promotions side-by-side. For the sake of this example, we’ll say that absolutely everything about these 2 buttons is the same - same size, same color. The only element that differs is the text. One says “50% off fuschias” and the other says “50% off mulch.”
And the fuschias win! With an 80% clickthrough.
In this example, this promotion ran in our April newsletter for customers in King County, WA. April is a common timeframe for gardeners to buy each of these items. What’s going on?
We can look at this data and consider - Are fuschias a current trend around Seattle? Did an influencer declare it the season of the fuscia? Did my potential customers already stock up on mulch elsewhere?
What if, next month, I compare fuschias vs. morning glories?
I could make a note to run this promotion in March’s newsletter next year and see what happens if I run “50% off garden supplies” next month instead of mulch.
The cool thing about this method is that you can tailor these experiments to work for you. Once you uncover a new learning about your consumers, you can incorporate it into your digital marketing strategy. For example, you may discover that your customers simply love fuschias in April, so why not make it an annual promotion? Maybe consider a fuschia-themed workshop celebration!
Newsletter Experiment: A/B Testing
If you have a large readership, you can glean even more insights by running a test within the same newsletter. One newsletter has “50% off fuschias” (and “50% off mulch”) and the other has “50% off morning glories” (and “50% off mulch”). If you get:
50% off fuschias | 50% off morning glories | 50% off mulch |
70% | 30% | |
30% | 70% |
You’ll learn that fuschias are, indeed, the crowd favorite.
If, instead, you see:
50% off fuschias | 50% off morning glories | 50% off mulch |
60% | 40% | |
40% | 60% |
The crowds favor the fuschias, but not to the same extent. There simply isn’t as strong of a correlation, so the actual spring flower is not the motivating factor here. (I still want to see what happens if I run “50% off garden supplies” instead of mulch next month!)
The important part of A/B testing is that you can do this with anything. You want to test a button color? A new logo? A different shaped button? Change the order of promotions or article sneak previews? Adjust the subject line from “50% off discounts await!” to “50% off succulents!?”
You got it.
A/B testing allows you to refine your process and improve those newsletter clickthrough rates, thereby increasing your sales and customer engagement.
Newsletter Experiment: Subject Lines
What I love about subject line A/B testing is that you learn which subject lines resonate, giving you fantastic insight for the next blog post to write.
E-mail marketing also allows for segmentation, delivering tailored content to different groups based on their interests or past interactions with your brand. Because I work closely with small businesses across a wide range of fields at KC SEO, I might have one newsletter dedicated to B2B marketing (business-to-business) and another for B2C (business-to-consumer), or I might divide my readers into startups, retail, and venues.
Direct Mail Marketing
A well-crafted, personalized mail piece can make a lasting impression, particularly for local businesses such as boutique shops, local restaurants, or garden centers and plant nurseries.
I love that every year around my birthday, Johnson’s Home & Garden in Maple Valley mails me a coupon! This could be done by email but, to be honest, my inbox gets too cluttered so direct mail ensures I don’t miss it. They even send a coupon to new Maple Valley homeowners for a free bucket, branded with the Johnson’s Home & Garden name. It’s amazing how spectacularly they compete with the big box hardware store in the next town over.
My real estate company also sends small items like wildflower seeds. It doesn’t cost much on their part and it’s very appreciated on my end. Even if I wasn’t into seeds, I might give them to a coworker or neighbor, sparking a conversation about my real estate company and how simple they made the home purchasing process.
Online Reviews: Interact with Your Customers!
This is the customer coming directly to you and telling you what they do or don’t like about your products or services. This is a good thing! This person (whether disgruntled or gruntled) is giving you the opportunity to show existing and prospective customers what you’re all about.
How will you display your company values? Will you go above and beyond for someone who could be a tad unreasonable?
It is especially important to craft a thoughtful response to negative reviews. Negative reviews are a way to show prospective and existing customers why they should trust you with their business. Take advantage of the opportunity!
Event-Driven Marketing
Depending on your company, you may choose to host on-site events, workshops, or webinars. This gives you a chance to engage directly with your customers - to discover what they’re looking for and where you might be able to fill in the gaps. It also creates a prime opportunity for participants to share live updates online, further amplifying your reach…and not only will your customers have new knowledge or a keepsake from your event, but they may form connections with other attendees.
An amazing local example of event-driven marketing is Rockridge Orchards & Cidery, which frequently hosts local businesses and food trucks, driving traffic and awareness to Rockridge.
Even if you can’t host events, you could consider giving presentations at libraries, setting up booths at local events such as Maple Valley Days or Issaquah Salmon Days, or even sponsoring local trade shows and conferences.
Local Partnerships
When small businesses collaborate, they not only expand their customer base but also create valuable opportunities for cross-promotion and shared resources. A couple examples include:
A boutique coffee shop partnering with a local bakery can create joint promotions, such as bundled discounts or collaborative events, which drive traffic to both businesses.
An event venue partnering with a local florist to offer exclusive packages for weddings or a craft store collaborating with an artisan gallery to host art nights.
Google Search Results (aka Search Engine Optimization, or SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website’s visibility on search engines, making it easier for potential customers to find you and it is one of the most effective ways to drive sustained growth. SEO is playing the long game but it has longer lasting effects than a social media post.
Why Does SEO Matter for Small Business?
I understand the temptation, especially for small businesses, to focus solely on local search platforms like Google Maps and Yelp, combined with social media.
…but you also want to capture those potential customers who are approaching your business from another angle, via a search result for “family dog-friendly dude ranch Washington state” or “unique wedding caterers near Portland.”
Think about how you search for products and services. Sometimes I’ll go to a specialized site like AirBnb but (especially for more specialized searches, such as a family dog-friendly dude ranch), I’ll search Google for a top 10 list of ranches that meet my criteria.
Sometimes Google leads me directly to a specialized site but usually, I’m instead led directly to the ranch’s website itself. This is fantastic for many reasons:
I’m no longer competing with other, similarly-priced similar ranches in my area. The customer is on my turf, not on a 3rd party site with pop ups like “Remember that other ranch you checked out a few minutes ago? Well, more people are looking at it and those dates are almost gone!” That 3rd party site has different goals than you do. It isn’t trying to sell you. It’s trying to make a sale, period.
You control the narrative. You can show potential customers your brand. Start out with a video on the homepage of sweeping landscapes with running horses and roasting marshmallows. No 3rd party site can show your brand the way you can.
You can drive customers to your e-newsletter, so you can stay connected with them long after they leave your website.
They learn about your other events, products or services. They may not book your place for an overnight stay but they might come to your weekly country dance and bbq events, or join an alpaca tour.
Simply by increasing engagement with your website, you increase your Google ranking. After all, more time spent on page signals to Google that this information, with these keywords, are relevant to users searching for this type of information.
You can gather unique insights about your customers and your website through the way they engage with it. Do they stay on a page longer when there’s a video of a horse and shorter when it’s a video of an alpaca? Do they find your blog post about dog-friendly ranch stays more interesting (more comments, longer time spent on the page) or do they prefer the family-friendly angle?
How Does SEO Work?
It is crucial to develop an understanding of how Google ranks one website over another. After all, how will potential customers find you if you aren’t on the first page or two of search results?
A lot of it is somewhat intuitive. Think about it - Which companies do you trust? Are you more likely to buy a product from a company you’ve never heard of before…or, would you go with a company that had a deep online presence, spanning multiple articles from The NY Times, Forbes, presentations at industry conferences, etc?
Something I love about SEO is creativity. For example, if my client has a rustic wedding and event venue on a farm near Redmond, I won’t just try to rank highly for search terms like “ranch wedding venue Redmond” but also “rustic wedding venue near Seattle” because it’s far more likely that more people will research venues in Seattle and those looking for a rustic country setting will likely be just fine with something in the general King County area.
Likewise, out-of-state visitors likely haven't heard of Leavenworth but if they come across a Bavarian inn in their research, they just may reconsider.
How Do I Get Started with SEO?
There are a lot of great resources online to get you started with SEO.
I personally started by reading a Search Engine Optimization for Dummies book (not sure which edition). That gave me a good foundation until I pursued deeper training, which included Bruce Clay’s SEO Training course.
Backlinks & Guest Articles
Backlinks are a term related to search engine optimization. A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another. When other reputable sites link to your website, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Some websites carry more weight, such as .gov or .edu, which could be a good place to start for link-building.
For small businesses, leveraging backlinks can be particularly effective. It’s worthwhile to explore industry-specific lists that feature companies like yours. For instance, if your business fits a niche such as a cozy café or an artisan shop, look for lists such as "Top Cozy Cafés around Seattle" or "Best Local Artisan Shops in the PnW." Getting featured on such lists provides high-quality backlinks and positions your brand in front of a targeted audience. These backlinks help build your site's authority over time, enhancing your visibility in organic search results.
One of the most effective ways to build authority and expand your online presence is through guest articles. Writing for reputable blogs, industry publications, or local business websites not only positions you as an expert but also generates high-quality backlinks that boost your search engine results (SEO). Guest articles allow you to share your expertise, success stories and unique insights with a broader audience.
Guest articles offer a win-win scenario. For the host site, you provide valuable content for their readers. For you, each published article serves as a testimonial to your knowledge and authority in digital marketing and SEO. Guest articles also allow you to target specific keywords and phrases relevant to your business, further optimizing your content for search engines.
Local SEO for Service-Based Businesses
Local SEO is critical for service-based businesses targeting specific geographic areas. Local search results can significantly impact your customer acquisition. By optimizing your website and content for local keywords, you connect with customers in your area who are actively searching for the services you offer. This targeted approach not only increases your online visibility but also drives qualified traffic that’s more likely to convert into loyal clients.
One of the most powerful tools for local SEO is your Google My Business (GMB) listing. A well-optimized GMB profile can dramatically improve your local search rankings. Ensure your listing includes accurate and up-to-date information—such as your business name, address, phone number (NAP), hours of operation, and a link to your website. Regularly update your profile with high-quality photos and posts about promotions, events, or new services. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your GMB listing, as this not only builds social proof but also boosts your credibility with search engines.
Building local citations and ensuring NAP consistency across the web is another key component of local SEO. Listings on platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor help establish your business’ authority and trustworthiness for SEO purposes. Consistency in your business name, address, phone number and descriptions across these platforms ensures that search engines correctly associate your business with its physical location.
Online Business Directories
Listing your business on reputable online directories is a proven way to boost your local SEO and establish authority. Online business directories help potential customers find you more easily and enhance your website’s backlink profile - a critical factor in search engine ranking.
Popular B2B channels include DesignRush, GoodFirms, Clutch and B2BListings.org.
In addition to well-known consumer-facing channels such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, you may also consider GlassDoor, NextDoor, Glassdoor or your local Chamber of Commerce.
Every small business should take advantage of online directories to increase visibility and credibility. This is especially important for small businesses with limited marketing budgets. These listings help potential customers find your business and learn more about your services.
Media, Press Releases & Podcasts: Amplify Your Voice
Earning media coverage and issuing press releases are powerful methods to boost your brand’s visibility and credibility. For small businesses, local newspaper articles or online press releases can make a significant difference in how potential customers perceive your brand and with the right headline, you’re sure to gain interest, such as, “A Small Seattle Daycare Has a New Spin on Childcare.”
A press release could announce your new partnership with another small business. For example, your garden center now features local artists and any local artists can apply to have their art included.
For example, this article about Marjorie Restaurant in Seattle gets me invested in Donna’s story and makes me interested to try it the next time I’m in the city.
I somehow didn’t realize that Taco Time is from WA until reading this but now I’m curious to try it out!
Podcasts are a great avenue for all businesses but especially for niche or local businesses. It can be challenging to get the word out about how your bouquet shop is different from all the others, but by speaking on podcasts focused on the PnW, or bigfoot enthusiasts, or quirky gifts, you can directly reach audiences who are looking for your offbat bigfoot-themed, floral bouquets, complete with mini plushes.
You can also amplify your efforts by strategically aligning media outreach with other digital marketing initiatives, such as timing an article or podcast episode release with the launch of a new product line or partnership. This integrated approach ensures that every media interaction contributes to your overall online authority and business growth.
Track Your Progress
At a minimum, learn Google Search Console and Google Analytics (both are free!) in order to understand:
Which search terms you’re ranking for
How users are finding your pages
How long they’re spending on each page
How they navigate through your website
Which content they find most interesting
If they find related pages of value
Through this process of investigation, you can improve your marketing funnel, converting prospective customers into sales rather than seeing them bounce off the page.
If not, how can you make that page stronger, such as a strong CTA).
If you want to go deeper into the SEO rabbit hole, try out tools like Semrush and Ahrefs (free trials are available)…but unless you enjoy search engine optimization and want to spend the time on SEO, you may instead want to invest in a consultant or agency to develop your overarching strategy (such as keyword optimization and backlinks).
Tools can help uncover competitor strategies, identify keyword gaps, and refine your link-building efforts.
Play to Your Strengths
Digital marketing is always changing. The world is always changing.
Play to your strengths. Mine is writing, yours may be persuasive speech or event planning. Develop your strategy around what you find enjoyable. Your enjoyment will show and ultimately, inspire others to buy into you and your brand.
Marketing can involve a great deal of creativity and that’s what I love about it. You can channel that creativity into strategy, content creation, branding. It’s a multi-faceted discipline where you can carve out a niche and succeed.