SaltWire E-Edition

Helping you bring digital marketing to life

JOEY FITZPATRICK

Success can sometimes bring its own challenges.

Within three months of opening a digital marketing firm in Wolfville, Julie Ogilvie already had a full slate of clients. The daunting workload gave her a new perspective on how to best meet the needs of small business owners in the Annapolis Valley.

“When I started, I was offering ‘done for you’ services but I am transitioning into more of a teaching role,” she says. “I’m showing small business owners how they can map out their own digital marketing and give them the tools they need to do that.”

Earlier this month, the first cohort of students graduated from the 12-week Strategic Marketing 101course, with a

skill foundation to grow their small businesses.

“The majority of my clients are solo entrepreneurs and family-run businesses, where there is typically one person wearing all of the hats,” Ogilvie says. “Every dollar spent on marketing, and every hour devoted, matters enormously to small business owners as they face the challenge of finding new clients while trying to focus on the parts of their business where they naturally excel.”

Perhaps because we live in a digital age, people are looking for some kind of human connection in their purchasing, Ogilvie says.

“Customers want to be seen and heard by the people they are buying from and they want that connection,” she says. “There might be hundreds of other companies offering what you offer, so you have to look at it through the eyes of the customer and the journey they will go on in order to connect with you.”

While there is a wide range of free tools available to launch a digital marketing campaign, Ogilvie notes it’s easy for small business owners to get caught in the “hamster wheel” of content creation for social media. She shows her clients how to do more, while posting less.

“The digital world moves so quickly and the content becomes obsolete so fast that you are constantly making new posts and telling new stories.”

While Julie Ogilvie Consulting is still offering a suite of options for clients looking for “done for you” marketing services, the “teach a man to fish” approach will be the primary focus of her business going forward.

“I’m taking the things that I’ve been doing for others and teaching them how to do it so they can feel confident in their marketing strategy and make the right choices for their businesses.”

Ogilvie moved to the Valley in September 2020 after being co-owner of a digital marketing agency in Montreal for 13 years. Her first job here was a marketing and communications position with the Wolfville Farmers’ Market.

“That job connected me with so many great people here in the Valley,” she says. “I met all of these vendors who were doing interesting things.”

Ogilvie says she has found her home in the Annapolis Valley.

“Community is very important to me and it’s something I’ve been searching for,” she says. “I love it here. It has a great vibe and there are so many people moving here from other provinces. They’re bringing so much new culture and new ideas so it’s a really exciting time.”

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2022-06-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

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