What Is Digital Marketing, Anyway? A Real Answer for Quilters and Creative Entrepreneurs

Tori McElwain
4 days ago
7 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Hey Tori! Answering Your Digital Marketing Questions for Creative Entrepreneurs Podcast

Marketing. The word alone is enough to make some people's palms sweat. Maybe it brings up images of sleazy salespeople, seventeen-step funnels, or the sinking feeling that you need to learn TikTok at forty-seven. Or maybe you've Googled "how to market my small business" and came out the other side more confused than before - fifteen gurus, eighteen different answers, none of them speaking your language.

Here's the thing: marketing is not complicated. People make it complicated. And if you're a quilter, pattern designer, or creative entrepreneur who has ever felt like all the marketing advice out there was written for someone else - you're right. Most of it was. But the definition that actually works? It fits in one sentence.

Listen to the Podcast Episode Here:

What you'll learn in this post/episode:

The one-sentence definition of marketing that actually works for creative businesses
The full Marketing Spectrum - from a Facebook post to a full SEO funnel
Two questions that give you a real marketing strategy in under 20 minutes
Four AI prompts to start getting found on Google and in AI search results

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Digital Marketing Is Simpler Than Anyone Is Letting On

Marketing is getting your offer in front of the right people. Digital Marketing is using digital tools to get your offer in front of the right people.

That's it. It doesn't have to be building a funnel, or mastering an algorithm, running ads, or making Reels with trending audio. Those are tools, ways of doing marketing. Marketing itself is just getting your offer in front of the right people.

It can be as simple as posting in a Facebook group where your ideal customer already hangs out. Or as layered as a full SEO website with a seven-email welcome sequence and retargeting ads. Both are marketing; one just has more moving parts.

The question to ask yourself isn't: Am I doing enough marketing? It's: Am I getting my offer in front of the right people? And if not - what's getting in the way?

Before I became a digital marketing coach, I was deep in the same confusion. Listening to podcasts, taking courses, reading books, and slowly realizing that everyone was saying the exact same thing with different names. And underneath all of it, the actual goal was simple: find your people, and share what you're offering. That's it.

The Full Spectrum — From a Facebook Post to a Full Funnel

One of the things that overwhelms creative business owners most is feeling like they have to do all of it - every platform, every strategy, all at once. You don't.

Look at this spectrum. Every single row is marketing. Every row is getting your offer in front of the right people - just at different levels of reach, complexity, and investment.

The Activity	What It Is	Who It Reaches	Effort Level
Post in a Facebook group	Organic social show up where your people already are	People already in that group	Low 15 minutes
Share a finished quilt on Instagram	Organic social visibility to followers + hashtag reach	Your existing audience + discovery	Low–Medium
Send a newsletter to your list	Email marketing direct to people who opted in	Your warm, owned audience	Medium 1–2 hours
Teach at your local guild	In-person marketing word of mouth, warm referrals	Highly targeted warm leads	Medium scheduling + prep
Write a blog post with SEO	Content marketing searchable, long-lived, compounds over time	People actively searching for what you make	Medium 2–3 hours
List products on Etsy or a searchable shop	Marketplace SEO your product shows up in search	Buyers ready to purchase right now	Medium setup + optimization
Run a paid ad	Paid traffic get in front of a targeted audience	Cold audience, targeted by interest	High strategy + budget
Full SEO website + ad funnel	Full-system marketing search + paid traffic + email nurture	Scalable reach across cold and warm audiences	High build time + ongoing

Find yourself in that table. Most creative business owners are already doing two or three of those things. That is marketing. You are already a marketer.

The question is whether you're doing the ones that make sense for where your business is right now - and doing them with intention.

The Two Questions That Are Actually Your Marketing Strategy

Here's what I'd have Julie - a pattern designer and workshop teacher I talked with on a recent strategy call - do if we were coaching together right now. Not a platform audit. Not a content calendar. Two questions.

Question 1: Who is the right person for your offer? Not everyone. Not "quilters in general." The specific person who needs what you make right now. A beginner quilter who wants her first finish and feels overwhelmed by choices is a completely different person than an experienced quilter looking for a challenge. Both might buy your patterns. But the way you get in front of each of them is completely different.

Question 2: Where does that person already spend time? Not where you wish they were. Not where a guru told you to be. Where are they actually — Facebook groups, Pinterest, guild nights, YouTube on Saturday mornings? Find where they already are, and show up there with your offer.

Those two answers are your marketing strategy in its simplest form. Everything else — the platforms, the tools, the email list, the SEO - is just the how. These questions are the what and the who. Without them, none of the tools matter.

How to Start Getting Found on Google and in AI Results

Two rows in that spectrum table are massively underused by creative entrepreneurs: blog SEO and search-based marketing.

Think about what that means in practice. Someone right now is typing "modern log cabin quilt pattern" or "beginner quilting workshop near me" into a search bar. Those people are already telling you they want what you have. They're just not finding you yet.

There's also a newer layer to this worth knowing about: GEO - Generative Engine Optimization. When someone asks Claude or ChatGPT to recommend quilt patterns for beginners, you want your name to be part of that answer. GEO is how that happens, and it matters more every day as more people use AI tools to search instead of Google.

The SEO & GEO Webpage Assistant inside the DMMC is built to help members optimize their own pages without needing a background in search engine marketing. Paste in a URL, it crawls the page, and shows you what's working and what to improve.

Here are four prompts you can use right now with Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant to start building that visibility today:

💬 PROMPT 1: Find Your Best Search Keywords "I sell [describe your products or services — e.g. modern quilt patterns, hand quilting workshops, fabric bundles] to [describe your audience — e.g. beginner quilters, experienced quilters looking for a challenge, quilting teachers]. What search terms and phrases is my ideal customer most likely to type into Google when they are looking for what I offer? Give me a list of 10–15 specific keyword phrases, including some that are very specific and lower competition, not just broad terms."

💬 PROMPT 2: Write a Blog Post That Answers a Real Search Question "I want to write a blog post that helps me get found on Google. My audience is [describe them] and one question they commonly have is: [write a real question your audience asks]. Please write an outline for a 600–800 word blog post that answers this question thoroughly, uses natural search-friendly language, and ends with a soft invitation to [join my email list / browse my pattern shop / book a workshop]. Include a suggested SEO title and meta description."

💬 PROMPT 3: Optimize for AI Search (GEO) More people are now using AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT to find recommendations — not just Google. I want my business to show up when someone asks an AI assistant to "recommend [what you make or do — e.g. beginner quilt patterns, quilting workshops, modern quilt designers]. Please help me write a short, clear description of my business (3–5 sentences) that I can use on my website and in my content, written in a way that clearly signals to AI tools what I do, who I serve, and why I am a credible recommendation."

What Happened When Monika Stopped Trying to Be Everywhere

Monika is a DMMC member who came to me ready to launch a specific offer.

Before we touched a platform, before we talked content, we started with those two questions. Who is the right person? Where do they actually spend time?

The launch plan we built had exactly three pieces. First: specific Facebook groups where she was allowed to share that had the right people for this offer - not general quilting groups, but the specific ones where her ideal customer was already gathered. She showed up with a clear invitation. Second: her email list - people who had already said they wanted to hear from her. She reached them in a way that felt like a conversation, not a broadcast. Third: collaboration. We identified people in the quilting space whose audiences were exactly who Monika was trying to reach, and built partnership into the launch from the start.

The result: Monika sold 287 subscription boxes.

Three channels chosen intentionally. Not trying to be everywhere, just the right places, in front of the right people, with a clear offer.

That is the definition.

Hey Tori Takeaway

Your assignment - 20 minutes or less.

1. Who is the right person for your offer? Get specific. Not "quilters." The specific quilter who needs what you make right now - her skill level, her problem, her goal.

2. Where does that person spend time? Online, offline - wherever she actually is. Not where the gurus say she should be.

Write both answers down. That is your marketing strategy in its simplest form. Everything else is just the how.

If today gave you even a moment of clarity, that's what we build inside the Digital Marketing Magic Coaching Program. We start with the foundation - who you're talking to and where they are - and then build a real, personalized marketing system built specifically for the quilting and crafting world. Members get a personalized roadmap, live coaching every month, and access to all the custom AI tools, including the SEO & GEO Webpage Assistant.

The best first step is a free 30-minute strategy session - no pressure, just clarity on your next move. Book yours here.

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