Author Archives: cindymobey

Ethical marketing – why it matters!

In today’s changing climate, it’s important to keep on top of marketing trends. Ethical marketing is nothing new but has been emerging as a powerful tool for businesses who want to connect with more transparency with their potential customers.

Consumers are much more savvy than they ever were and strong marketing ethics help you build long term trust and loyalty with your customers. Ethical marketing enhances the customer experience and that experience keeps customers coming back time and time again.  

What is ethical marketing?

Ethical marketing is a strategy where businesses promote honesty, transparency, responsibility and fair practices within their marketing activity, showing respect for customer boundaries. As part of this transparency, businesses communicate their ethics in their marketing materials, so they reach their target audience with similar values.

Be transparent

This is so important – it means being clear about your marketing practices, including:

  • How you collect and use customer data, using easy to understand language to explain.
  • Being upfront about your pricing, products/services limitations and terms and conditions.
  • Disclosing any sponsored content and affiliate relationships.
  • Making privacy polices accessible and understandable.

Most of these points should be covered on your website within your terms and conditions or your privacy or cookie policies, which are legal requirements. But it’s also worth sometimes talking about these things in posts.

Although transparency is about being compliant with legal policies, it’s also about treating your customers with respect and being honest.

Honesty

This is all about being truthful in your communications, such as email, blog posts, podcasts or social media posts. Specifically, it should be about:

  • Avoiding misleading claims or information about your products or services
  • Making sure any statistics or research your do is truthful and not manipulated for your own gain.
  • Ensuring that any ads or marketing materials you create represent your products or services accurately and not exaggerated.
  • Acknowledging any mistakes you make and taking responsibility if anything does go wrong.  

 

Social responsibility

This is about how your brand has an impact on society as a whole and how your customers view you and your brand. For example:

  • Considering the environmental impacts of marketing campaigns and business practices.
  • Promoting diversity and inclusion.
  • If you support social causes, do so authentically rather than a ‘tick box’ exercise.
  • Ensure that your marketing activities don’t promote harmful stereotypes or behaviours.

Respect for individual rights

This is about respecting privacy, which I mentioned above. Consumers have the right to control their personal data and decide how it is used by businesses. You must be transparent about this in your privacy policies and other policies on your website – this is a legal requirement of GDPR (General Data Protections Regulations).

You can see a list of my policies at the bottom of my website, if you want to see examples, which gives comprehensive details. It takes a while to get this right, as you can’t copy from anyone else – it’s all bespoke to you and your business and how you do things.

Respect for human dignity

This means avoiding tactics that exploit or manipulate consumers, such as intentional deception. An example could be influencer marketing – some influencers have been criticised for promoting products that they don’t actually use – or for promoting products that could be harmful or unethical. This is seen as a violation of respect for human dignity.

Conclusion

I think that most of the points I’ve talked about in this article are pretty obvious in the great scheme of things. When you market your business most would ensure they don’t harm people or society. And most also know that they are responsible to making sure that their products or services are safe and reliable. But there are businesses out there who don’t do this – sometimes it can be simply they’re not aware of their responsibilities, but it’s up to us all to ensure that our businesses are ethical and promote ethical practices.

Ethical marketing is crucial for building trust and long-term relationships with our customers and potential customers. Businesses and brand that make honesty, transparency and respect for individual rights will not only meet their customer expectations but also set themselves apart from competitors.

Technology is constantly changing. Tools like AI and automation mean that businesses can use technology to maximise customer engagement, craft compelling campaigns and social media posts, blogs etc, and help drive their own business growth. But the rise of these types of technology could be opening the door for unethical practices and behaviour. It’s vitally important for businesses to understand the risks of technology to ensure they don’t fall foul of ethical standards. But I think this might be for another blog post!  

I hope you’ve found this helpful, and as usual, if you need any help with your marketing, feel free to contact me for a free consultation.

The pros and cons of neuromarketing

In my last blog, I talked about neuromarketing, what it is and how it works. So, we know that neuromarketing helps brands to improve customer engagement and enables businesses to personalise experiences and to predict how successful certain marketing campaigns will be. But there are also risks and limitations attached to neuromarketing – obviously, its high cost, but also interpreting the data can be very complicated and there are certain ethical concerns. So, this blog looks at the pros and cons of neuromarketing.  

Everyone tends to focus on the pros, but I wanted to look at both sides of the coin.

The pros of neuromarketing

There are several gaps in traditional marketing and neuromarketing tools can help to cover those, giving a better understanding of consumer behaviour, as well as great insights into why consumers decide to buy one product over another.

Observational research

Neuromarketing data doesn’t just come from information that customers provide via surveys etc, it also provides information from observation, such as facial expressions, eye movements, shifts of the mouse etc. Most of this data comes from the subconscious reactions of the people taking part in the research. Some argue that neuromarketing tells you more about consumers’ true desires and attitudes as opposed to controlled answers to questionnaires.

Emotional measurement

Neuromarketing measures physiological reactions, often related to emotional responses. This gives valuable data about consumer reactions to particular parts of an advertisement or video – and which part provokes a positive reaction or a negative reaction. Then advertising can be tweaked accordingly.

Reliable results

As neuromarketing research reaches the unconscious part of a consumer’s mind, the data provides a better understanding of the process behind automatic reactions. This helps researchers determine more reliable results as their analysis looks more comprehensively at consumers’ decision-making patterns.

Let me explain this a bit simpler – we can all lie consciously, but our brains can’t because we can’t control our subconscious minds. As neuromarketing accesses the unconscious mind, the data is more reliable as they are based on true reactions to products or websites/packaging for example. This information can then be used to improve things to give a better customer experience.  

Conclusion

The advantages of neuromarketing gives:

  • An enhanced understanding of consumers – how people think and feel during decision-making.
  • More customer engagement – More emotionally relevant content creates stronger connections.
  • Better personalisation of products – the insights that neuromarketing gives, help marketers tailor products, services, and content to individual preferences.
  • Helps predict successful marketing campaigns – knowing what makes consumers react positively means that marketers can use that data to ensure that their marketing campaigns perform better.
  • Reduces speculative marketing – more relevant marketing cuts through the general marketing noise so it reaches the right people more quickly.    

The cons of neuromarketing

Concerns about ethics

I think this is the one that bothers me the most. It’s about the ethical question – is neuromarketing getting inside the brain of customers…and is that a good thing?

Some would argue that neuromarketing does things that a good psychologist does – it simply ‘learns’ the behaviour patterns of consumers and the data gives smart outcomes.

Specific skills are needed

Now, no matter how much high-quality data and knowledge you can gain from neuromarketing tools, it’s necessary for someone with a scientific background to help the machines and tools to understand the data.

Technology can be taught to interpret the brainwaves and graphs, but someone still needs to make sense of the statistics and what they mean to specific market research.

Expensive equipment

Neuromarketing equipment used to be expensive, but as technology is developed, it has become more attainable to smaller companies – not quite the tens of thousands it used to cost. However, it’s still a lot of money to have to spend. This must be a consideration.  

Privacy and GDPR

Privacy policies and the General Data Protection Regulations must be considered. Businesses, no matter how big or small have responsibilities around customer data and the more technology you rely on, the higher the risk for leakage of data.

Technology must be robust enough for customers to be able to trust that their personal data is protected, but ultimately, there will be people out there who will attempt to get inside the data (and brains of customers) which interferes with their right to privacy. I know this sounds a little far-fetched, but it’s got to be a consideration.

Conclusion

The disadvantages of neuromarketing does come with its own limitations and strategic risks.

  • The cost – specialised neuromarketing tools and experts make it expensive to run.
  • Ethical concerns – Using brain data brings up issues around privacy and customer manipulation.
  • Complicated analysis – whilst machines can be programmed to look at data, interpreting brain signals still needs advanced knowledge and tools.
  • Not always relevant – results from lab settings don’t always apply to all everyday situations.

So, although neuromarketing is going to become increasingly commonplace, there are still quite a few issues to be ironed out, and it won’t be easily available for all businesses. It can be a very powerful took, but it comes with challenges related to cost, ethics, and interpretation of data.

What do you think?

Neuromarketing and how it works!

Neuromarketing is about using neuroscience to help understand consumer behaviour by studying brain activity, physiological responses and subconscious decision making.

Have you ever wondered what makes you choose one brand over another – even when they seem to be identical? Or why one particular ad you see on TV, on social media, or hear on the radio sticks in your mind for days? The answer to this is about your subconscious thought and subconscious reactions of your brain.

Neuromarketing is a fascinating subject, which attempts to understand how consumers respond to advertising and products. It’s not just about asking people what they think, it about looking directly at brain activity and physiological responses to see what really attracts attention and triggers an emotional connection.

IT’S NOT ABOUT – mind control or finding a magical ‘buy now’ button in your brain. It’s not about manipulating people, but about gaining a clearer understanding about what they really want or need. By scientifically measuring non-conscious responses, brands can build better products, create clearer messaging and design more enjoyable customer experiences.

How does neuromarketing work?

In order to find out how the brain and body reacts when a person is exposed to marketing materials, several studies have been done. The most common method involves volunteer test subjects – and uses electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical activity in the brain, which helps identify moments of excitement, focus or even frustration.

Observing facial expressions for emotional responses and biometrics to measure changes in the heart rate or skin response are also tools that are used. Software then helps to analyse the data so that researchers can pinpoint exactly which elements of an ad or product are most impactful.

Traditional market research includes things like focus groups and surveys – these are of course, valuable, BUT they rely on the participants accurately giving their own feelings or intentions. Our decisions are often made based on pre-conceived ideas about certain products – or influenced by friends, family or subconscious emotions or biases.

Neuromarketing captures the reactions that people can’t or don’t consciously articulate. A survey can tell you that a customer LIKED your ad, but neuromarketing can show WHICH SPECIFIC PART of an ad sparked the most emotional engagement. So, gives a deeper understanding.

The ethics

Neuromarketing certainly has many benefits, but the ethics shouldn’t be overlooked. Although there is nothing that currently offers comprehensive neuromarketing regulations, there are ethical guidelines for those that conduct this research.

  • Participants must give their informed consent – which means they must fully understand the purpose of any study they take part in, including the risks and benefits.
  • Privacy and data security is key – participants personal data etc must be completely secure to protect the privacy of participants and compliance with date protection regulations such as the relevant GDPR regulation and other associated laws and regulations according to the country conducting the research.
  • Disclosure and transparency – I find this a bit worrying – while is it not mandatory to disclose specific neuromarketing techniques, such as eye-tracking on a website (I wasn’t aware this was a thing!) the principle of transparency is an ethical one. Brands must consider disclosing to consumers their data collection and research methods, to ensure transparency regarding the purpose and impact of the research. Then consumers can make an informed decision about participation. This means it is important to READ PRIVACY POLICIES on websites, if you suspect that neuromarketing techniques may be used.

This thought suddenly struck me – a lot of our personal devices – phones and tablets – ask for eye recognition. Does that mean that when you look at ads on that device, your responses could be recorded for research purposes? Or am I being paranoid?

Maybe I’m overthinking here! This is the extreme end of neuromarketing, and small businesses obviously would not be able to either afford or manage this kind of research.

So, how can you harness the power of neuromarketing without having a state-of-the-art research techniques and equipment?

Neuromarketing for small businesses

Neuromarketing has thrown up six basic human needs that can help with strategies for businesses.

Certainty – Consumers want to know that they can trust a brand or business. Customers like the assurance of knowing that a particular business delivers on its promises, has transparent messaging and are consistent on caring for its customers.

Variety – They say that variety is the spice of life and consumers like a bit of variety or something unpredictable. Consumers these days go from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok and engage with social media and SMS texting. Using different platforms as a small business gives your customers that variety- you can offer limited time promotions, discounts or deals when they least expect it. It might be you do this on stories only – or on Instagram only. These unexpected things excite and captivate your audience and keep them wanting more.

Significance – I’ve said this loads of times, but your customers – in fact not just customers, all of us, want to feel valued. Several small businesses have specific groups on social media to help make customers feel special, and they help by giving exclusive ‘sneak a peeks’ or offers. You can also make customers feel special by personalising brand stories and rewarding loyal customers with exclusive benefits. It’s this making them feel valued and special that can make your brand stand out in the crowd and lift your brand from good to unforgettable.

Connection – I know – I bang on about this a lot too – but connecting with your audience in a genuine way is what helps a business to thrive and grow. It’s about being transparent, authentic, and sowing that you genuinely care about them Engage with your followers through social media, responding to comments and messages and listen to any suggestions and opinions – or even ask for suggestions and opinions as this also helps them feel valued.   

Growth -Show how your products or services help your customers. You can provide educational content to help customers expand their knowledge and skills or give suggestions for how your products can be used in their homes.

Contribution – This is about how your business is conscious of its footprint in the world and that it matters to you. It might be about your eco-friendly initiatives or how you get involved in a community or charity initiative. Consumers are more likely to support businesses that align with their personal values and what matters to them.   

Conclusion

In my opinion, these are the gentler, more people-friendly ways for small businesses to use neuromarketing. It’s not about manipulating your customers, it’s more about understanding consumer behaviour and what makes people tick. This is a basic marketing strategy, but using some of the research results from more in-depth neuromarketing research can help us understand what and why consumers want to buy. Connecting with customers on an emotional level is key to building lasting brand loyalty and knowing what resonates with them helps them come back for more and give you repeat business

Contact me if you need help with your marketing.

Contact me

Into the hashtag void – the shift to social SEO

I’ve been seeing this title ‘Hashtags are dead’ for a while now. It’s not strictly true. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, has said that hashtags no longer have an impact on your reach. But they do still help to categorise your posts so you can use them to find like minded businesses, peers or competitors (e.g. #marketing coach in my case). But, they no longer push your posts to increase your reach and no longer drive social growth like they used to. They don’t boost discovery…they now function more like a label. They help platforms and algorithms categorise your content and give it context, making it more discoverable in search results. 

It’s now more about prioritising SEO (search engine optimization.) I know…this makes many people immediately switch off, but bear with me and I’ll try and make this much easier to understand. 

Why bother to use hashtags in 2026

Categorise your content

Hashtags still help platforms categorise your posts and tell the algorithm what your content says….e.g. This post is about marketing tips for small businesses, or This post is giving Easter gift ideas. 

SEO – hashtags as keywords

Hashtags are now acting more like searchable keywords, so this is worth thinking about. Focus on what your audience is searching for. For example, someone might be looking for a special gift for a relative who likes gardening. So, they type in ‘gift ideas for gardeners’ 

Your post appears because you used #giftsforgardeners and #gardeninggifts. 

Your hashtag strategy needs to focus on what your audience is searching for! It’s also worth including a couple of hashtags within your actual caption, as well as a couple at the bottom. 

Target your audience

As per my previous point, you want your hashtags to reach your target audience. You want to reach those that are interested in and care about your products or services. 

If you’re not sure what your audience search for, ask them! Publish a post asking what people would search for if looking for your type of product or service. You can then type this into a search engine, such as Google, and you will get loads more suggestions that people also search for. 

You can also ask AI, by typing in ‘I am a (what you do), I help (target audience), with (their problems or pain points). What SEO keywords should I use on Instagram? You can ask the same question for other platforms such as Facebook, TikTok etc. 

Then it’s about finding which ones work best for you. 

Longevity 

If you use the right hashtags that are relevant to your content and your audience, your posts stay searchable for longer. A well optimised post can appear in searches for weeks or even months, giving your content long lasting results. 

Hashtags by platform

Instagram

Instagram likes to see hashtags for engagement.

  • Use up to five, including location (if a local business), your business, industry specific and content specific.
  • Put a couple in your caption as part of the wording.

Instagram wants more than hashtags. It wants strong hooks, saves, shares and consistent posting. If your content is weak, hashtags won’t help at all. 

Facebook 

Facebook doesn’t advise more than five hashtags, but the very latest I’ve seen is a maximum of three! I’ve just found this information whilst researching this article! 

  • Use a maximum of three hashtags
  • Use content related hashtags, location tag (if a local business), your own brand hashtags, or industry hashtag.
  • Mix and match the hashtags dependent on your content. 
  • Include in caption and/or at the bottom of post.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn hashtags are mainly for topic classification. 

  • Use two to three hashtags
  • Use one broad topic and one of two more niche or relevant hashtags 
  • Put hashtags at the end of the post

B2B brand hashtags help align your content with conversations already happening on the platform. Reach is driven by relevance and engagement, not hashtag volume.

TikTok

TikTok’s algorithm is largely based on behaviour. It prioritises watch behaviour, such as how long someone watches a video, if it’s watched to the end or just a second or two. Hashtags help confirm what the video is about, but it’s the video itself that is more important.n

  • Use two to four hashtags
  • Avoid chasing trends unless it aligns with your brand
  • Mix up content topics 

X (formerly Twitter)

It’s more about readability. Too many hashtags reduce engagement. 

  • Only use one or two hashtags
  • Keep them relevant and intentional or don’t bother! 

YouTube

Hashtags should be minimal. Titles, thumbnails and watch time have far more impact on reach than hashtags.

  • Use one to three hashtags.
  • Add them in the description, not the title or at the end.

In conclusion, hashtags haven’t disappeared and aren’t dead, but they aren’t working in the way many of us expect them to.

The old mindset of packing in as many as you can is no longer relevant. In 2026, they play a much quieter role. They help the algorithm recognise your brand helping it get discovered and categorises your content. But they no longer drive growth or expand your reach. It’s more about using hashtags strategically for SEO and keywords. 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you need help with your SEO or hashtag strategy, contact me for a free initial consultation. 

8 reasons why you need a marketing plan

A marketing plan helps you develop your products and services that will meet the needs and wants of your target market. Marketing helps your customers see and understand why your products/services are better than or different from those offered by your competitors.

Having a marketing plan helps you:

  • define your target market and why they need your product or service
  • decide on the messages, channels, tools and activities you’ll use to reach your target customers
  • set goals and time frames for marketing activities
  • set up a marketing budget
  • evaluate if your marketing activities were successful.
  1. Why do you need marketing?

Marketing is what builds the relationship between you, your business and your customers. If you are a small business, it is vital to build a sound relationship of trust and understanding with your customer. This makes them loyal to you and your brand and loyal customers will not only give you repeat business, they will have enough confidence in you to try out new products or services. They will also recommend you to their friends and family.

Marketing also massively increases the visibility of your brand, so you are more easily recognisable.

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  1. Identify your target market

How do you identify your target market? Take a look at your existing regular customers. Who are they? What are they interested in? What are their problems that you can solve? What other needs do they have?

For example, if you sell baby products, your target market will be parents, parents to be, grandparents etc. You could also target baby shower events and children’s events; childminders; nurseries; soft-play areas; local Mum and baby groups; exercise classes for Mums to be or Mum and baby classes. The list is endless.

Have a look at your competitors – how do they meet the needs of your target market? How can you do it better?

  1. Conduct a SWOT analysis

SWOT stands for internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Opportunities and Threats. Pulling together a SWOT analysis can help you analyse where your business, its products/services, fit within the market and looks at your unique selling position. It can also help you find out how you can improve your business; what you’re really good at and what other businesses do.

Strengths – what do you do well in your business? What do you do better than your competitors?

Weaknesses – What do you need to improve on to remain competitive? What do your competitors do better than you? What is holding you back?

Opportunities – What current trends could lead your business to have increased sales? What can you use to your best advantage?

Threats – What could harm your business? What are the advantages that your competitors have over your business?

I have a FREE worksheet that you can download to help you…Conduct a SWOT Analysis 

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  1. Look at your competitors

List your competitors – who are they? If you analyse your competitors, you can find out how they work, what they do and compare them to your business.

What products or services do they sell?

Do they offer a similar product or service to you?

What do they offer their customers?

What do they do to engage with their customers?

Where are they? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

How do they market their products/services…e.g. social media, advertising etc.

The more information you can get about your competitors, the more chance you have of identifying where you fit into the market place and what opportunities are available to you.

  1. Decide on your goals

Once you know where your business stands in the market place and who your competitors are, you can decide what goals you want to set for your business. What do you want to achieve over the next 12 months?

Make your goals specific – instead of saying, ‘I want to sell more products’, look at your products and decide exactly how much more you want to sell. They might come under different categories. Go back to the baby product scenario…you might sell baby massage products, so a goal could be ‘Increase sales of baby massage products by 20% compared to last year’. You then have a definite goal to aim for…and it’s easier to review every few months because you calculate if you are on track to achieve your goal.

Aim for 4-6 short term goals – things that are fairly easy to achieve. You can always add more throughout the year if you achieve them.

Aim for 2-4 long term goals – things that are a bit more challenging. If you find that one of these goals is too challenging part way through the year, you can always break it down into smaller, more achievable chunks. 

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  1. Set your marketing strategies

Once you have set your goals, you can start looking at the short term goals in more detail. What activity is going to help you achieve that goal? What price or process will help you achieve your goals?

When you are trying to decide on which activities to use, choose those that best suit your business and your customers. For example, an advert in a local magazine or newspaper won’t necessarily reach your target market if they are primarily young adults, who generally don’t read this kind of thing. It’s a good idea to go for a few activities that complement each other. For example if your products/services can be for any age, you might go for an advert in a magazine, but also use social media or maybe local radio. You might sell your products at a market or craft fayre, so advertise the event on social media and do links to your products.

  1. Set your budget

It’s important to know how much you can afford to spend on marketing as not all marketing is free. You need to think hard about how best to spend that budget so you get the maximum benefit. Only spend on your current marketing goals, so that budget is used to help you achieve those goals. Advertising on Facebook, Instagram or in magazines all come at a cost, but if you are reaching your target customers, it will be worth it.     

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  1. Ensure your marketing plan is kept up to date

Reviewing your marketing plan on a regular basis is very important so that you not only know if you are on track to achieve your goals, you might also identify new trends in the market that means you have to tweak a particular goal.

It also serves the purpose of scrapping anything that you know isn’t working or changing a goal if you need to.

Looking at your plan helps you to measure how you’re doing against your plan and whether you will be successful.

Now you know why it’s so important to have a marketing plan, it’s time to jump into action!

If you find planning your marketing overwhelming, I can help you. Simply message me for a free 30 minute consultation.

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Why a simple ‘thank you’ is so good for business

As a parent, I always taught my children that manners cost nothing. If someone gave them a gift, or opened a door for them, saved them a space in a queue, gave them a lift home or did anything for them, they always said ‘thank you’. I was often praised for the well-mannered, polite children I had….and believe me, at home they weren’t always well-behaved, but they always remembered their manners. As adults, I’ve heard them use the ‘manners cost nothing’ statement to their children. It always make me smile.

At some point in our lives, we all work in some capacity. No matter what job you have or have had in the past, it’s always a good feeling to be appreciated for what you do. When your employer thanks you for your hard work, or tells you you’ve done a great job on a particular project, it gives you what one of the teachers at my kid’s school called, ‘a warm fuzzy’ feeling. And how did that feel? Did it motivate you to try even harder? Did it make you feel proud of your achievement and make you want to do more? In one way or another, the answer is usually ‘yes’ to these questions.

The same applies to your customers – if you thank them for buying from you, or using a service you provide, it will make them feel valued and, nine times out of ten, a customer who feels valued will return with more custom, or recommend you to their friends. Either way, it’s a win, win situation for you.

These are some of the benefits of saying thank you…

  • Customers remember who thanks them (and who doesn’t)!
  • Customers feel valued and appreciated
  • Customers feel respected and cared for
  • Customers like to be acknowledged – it’s important to them

It’s crucial that when you say thank you, make sure you mean it – don’t just say it as a matter of course, or as a way to get something from someone. It must be sincere.

So, how can you thank a customer?

There are several different ways to thank your customers.

You should always thank them for their order and for choosing to shop with you, or use your service. You could also take the opportunity to say that if there is anything else you can help with, please feel free to contact you. It’s also a good idea to put a link to your website and invite them to leave a positive comment.

  • Include a note with their order
  • Send an email
  • Send a card in the post, or an e-card
  • By telephone
  • By text message
  • Via messenger or Whatsapp

Finally, the most important thing about thanking a customer is that it is timely….it’s no good saying thank you weeks after the event, it needs to be immediate.

According to Chris Philippi, President of Philippi Marketing and Associates, writing for zeromillion.com, the top Entrepreneurship Resource Online….

  • It costs anywhere from 5 to 8 times more to gain a new customer as opposed to retaining your customers. When you consider the cost of sales people, advertising, Internet marketing, etc. to attract new customers this becomes obvious
  • 68% of customers will stop using your services or fail to return if they feel unappreciated. This is the number one reason businesses lose customers. 

What do you do to make your customers feel appreciated and valued?

How to make customer feedback work for you

What do you do when you get a fabulous comment or review about your product or service? Do you just say thank you with lots of hearts, or tell them you’re over the moon that they love your products or services? I suspect that most of us do exactly that. But, if you then do nothing else…because you got a good review…you could be missing important information that could help you grow your business even more, with advocates who love what you do.

What is customer feedback?

If you’re reading this, you’re probably the owner of a small business. You give your all to your business…your time, your energy, and a big part of you personally goes into making your business a success. You do this to ultimately make money from your business, but you also want to have happy customers who believe in what you do and love your products or services.

Customer feedback is the information that your customers give telling you if they are happy with what you provide. It could also be about your customer service. It’s their opinion, a snapshot in time, of the experience they’ve had in their dealings with you or your business.

  • Does getting good customer feedback make you feel good?
  • Do you take it personally if you don’t get a 5-star rating?
  • Do you see positive feedback as confirmation that your products/services are great?

I’m betting that you answered ‘yes’ to these questions. Getting a fabulous review makes all of us feel good, and the positive feedback shows that you are doing something right with your products or services. And, let’s face it, we all hate getting negative feedback, and it’s easy to take it personally if you don’t get a 5-star rating every time, but it does happen. You shouldn’t see it as a reflection of you as a person, it’s just that a particular customer didn’t feel that a 5-star rating was right. Hold that thought!

Customer feedback

Why is customer feedback important?

If some of the big companies who receive 5-star reviews were happy with that and left it at that, they would never progress their company. But they don’t do that…

Customer opinion is a great resource and gives the perfect excuse to find ways to improve the customer experience. You can collect information in many ways, from surveys (which is prompted feedback), to reviews that your customers post online (unprompted feedback). Both are important in seeing the bigger picture on how your customers perceive your brand. Big companies consistently listen to their customers – they don’t just look at the opinions that their clients leave online, or publish on social media/websites, they are also proactive in asking for feedback, by asking specific questions. If you want to stay at the top and consistently be ahead of your competition, you should always take feedback as a gift – prompted or unprompted, positive, or negative.

So, what does customer feedback give you?

  • It helps you improve your products and services. Whenever you launch something new, its success will be decided by your customers, as they are the ones who will be using it. They are in the perfect place to let you know about the quality, usefulness, aesthetic etc. They can also advise of any improvements they’d make, or how it could better meet their needs.
  • It tells you a lot about customer satisfaction. Feedback tells you about how they feel about your business. If you ask for feedback, yes, you could be inviting some negativity, but that’s not a bad thing, as you can work to improve it. For example, if you are in a restaurant and you’re not happy with a particular meal, or part of a meal, the restaurant would want you to tell them. Why? So, they can improve. If you don’t say anything, but just never come back, they don’t have that chance to put it right and make it better for other diners in the future. That’s why a lot of restaurants ask for feedback on their websites.
    You don’t have to conduct massive surveys; you can simply take a random sample of your customers and speak to them on the phone.
  • Your customers will feel valued. Following on from the last point, if you ask your customers for feedback, they will feel like you care about what they think, and they’ll feel involved. If you show that you genuinely care and value their opinion, they are more likely to give good feedback and to recommend you to their family and friends. Even a customer who complains can be turned into a loyal advocate if you take the time to speak to them about their concerns and come up with a solution…sometimes they’re not even complaining, they just have a suggestion, which may actually help you. They will feel involved if you take their suggestion and implement it!
  • It helps you provide a better customer service. There are times when, through no fault of your own, things go wrong. For example, a delivery is late arriving, or maybe the orders have got a bit mixed up and they receive the wrong order. These things can happen, we’re all human!
    If you have something in place, whereby customers can easily contact you to discuss their problems, it’s more likely you’ll be able to resolve it. The quicker you respond to a complaint, no matter how small, the more likely you’ll be able to earn loyalty in the future. Don’t take it personally – this is a hard one, but I really can’t reiterate this enough. A customer has a right to tell you about their problem, and nine times out of ten it can be resolved easily. However, of course, there will be the odd time that something can’t be resolved, and if it can’t, it’s best to say so, offer a refund or an alternative, and move on. But this is extremely rare.
  • It helps you retain your existing customers. Caring, listening, showing you value opinions, and being genuine with your customers are all things that will encourage them to stay loyal to you. As they get to know you, your business, and your brand, they will understand what you stand for and what you believe in. They will be able to relate to you and will trust you – these are the things that will make a customer stay loyal to a brand.
  • Helps gain more customers. Someone who buys online will have looked at many other businesses before they decide to buy. None of us automatically buy from every business we come across, and we don’t tend to buy from businesses we have never heard of. 90% of online shoppers read online reviews before buying. This is where feedback is crucial. Word of mouth is also seriously underrated. People will buy from a business that has been recommended to them by a family member or from friends. If you don’t encourage reviews, you are shutting the door to new business, so make it easy for customers to leave a review. It’s important for new visitors to see what others have to say – and to see how you respond to your customers, so ALWAYS reply.
  • Helps you with your future strategies. If you know your customers, know what they like and dislike, you are in a much better position to make plans for the future of your business. Feedback helps you know where you can improve, what kind of products or services are popular, and what they might like to see from you in the future. This can only be a good thing.

Conclusion

Customer feedback is an important resource for all businesses, no matter how big or small. It measures the success of your products or services, and can help you develop new products or services, as well as helping you decide on new strategies for your future.

You can collect customer feedback via your online shop, your website, through social media, sending surveys, through a live chat or via messenger, or by simply picking up the phone and speaking to them – you could even do this via video chat.    

Don’t take things personally if you get a little negativity – see it as an opportunity to turn things around and make that customer your biggest fan.

Listen to your customers, make them feel that their opinions matter and don’t be afraid to ask them questions about your business. It can only help you improve, and ultimately will result in loyal customers who trust and believe in you, your business, and your brand.

Last minute Christmas marketing ideas for small businesses

This year has flown by so quickly and once again we are nearing December and hopefully sales are ramping up as we get nearer to the big day.

If things are slower than you’d like or you just want to do that final big push, here are some last-minute marketing ideas for small businesses.

Website

  • Optimise your website for Christmas – think about making your homepage instantly festive. Christmassy themed images are great for attracting attention to your page and gives your customers a more magical experience, putting them in that emotional Christmas mood.
  • If you have any special deals, add a festive banner advertising that on your page. Give cut off dates for orders and where you can, dates that orders are likely to be delivered. This gives customers confidence in your brand and customer service.
  • Make sure that your website can manage the extra traffic, so it doesn’t slow down or freeze.
  • Ensure your website is easy to navigate and that the checkout process is quick and easy.
  • Maybe include a gift guide to make things even more easy for potential customers.

Do you have Christmas bundles available?

If you do, make sure they are very well publicised. You can use social media, using video or eye-catching images to draw customers in. And if you do a bundle as an offer, with a discount for buying things together, highlight the saving – everyone loves a bargain!

If you have a website, think about using a pop-up box highlighting your special offers or bundles.

Don’t forget the upsell or cross-sell. For example, if someone chooses a particular product, have a ‘other people that bought this, also bought this. Or ‘if you like this product, you might also be interested in this complementary product.’

Gift guide

Make a festive video showcasing your gift ideas in one place, or have a gift guide on your website, so people can see immediately what you have on offer.

You could include examples of how your products are packaged, or you could show a packing or unpacking excerpt.

Online Christmas markets

If you add your products to online Christmas markets, don’t forget to advertise this on your social media or email marketing.

Christmas market events

The same applies to events you are going to attend with your products. Make sure you advertise that you’ll be there, share a poster on your social media, or give a sneaky peek at some of the products you’ll be showing.

You can set up an event on Facebook to advertise and if you have a Google business profile, don’t forget to put a post and photos there too, as this is aimed at your local target market.

Collaborate

Christmas is the ideal time to do collaborations with other businesses that sell complementary products. You can team up to produce a bundle, which will benefit both of you. You will also both advertise it, so you’ll reach not just your audience, but also theirs!

Gift cards

Gift cards are perfect for some last-minute shoppers. They can simply buy a gift card for your products and give to a friend or family member, so they can choose what they’d like for themselves.

Out of stock

If you have popular items that go out of stock, then create more, make sure you advertise this, so those who have seen they’re out of stock can now buy them. This is often overlooked!

Gift suggestions by price range

This can be very popular. People like to be given ideas and if you categorise your products into price range, it can make it easier for those who have a specific budget in mind. For example, ‘Under a tenner,’ £10-£25 etc. Anything you can do to make the choosing process easier is a winner.

Pay in instalments

If you offer the service where customers can pay over three payments or similar, it may encourage them to spend more as they can spread the cost. It’s worth thinking about and advertising.

Finally, ensure that your customers know when you’re open, so share your Christmas opening hours. Be clear on the last date to order to get in time for Christmas and wherever possible, an idea of when your product will be delivered.

I hope this has helped and remember, buying at Christmas is all about the customer experience, so make sure that your customers get the best experience possible.

Spread the festive cheer and enjoy these last few weeks before the big day!

To HASHTAG or not to HASHTAG – that is the question!

The hashtag symbol has been around on social media for more than 20 years and there have been many guidelines out there – use 30 per post – now only use 10 per post etc.

The great hashtag debate has been a hot topic this year for marketers, as well for small businesses and answers vary depending on who you ask. But my research shows that they’re not dead yet, but you need to use them more strategically.

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to talk about Instagram and Facebook.

What is a hashtag?

Originally they were used to help filter and organise conversations on Twitter, but over the past several years, Instagram and then Facebook have adopted them to help businesses to be seen and found on search engines.

Hashtags are words, phrases, or even numbers following the hashtag (#) symbol. They’re metadata tag operators (which is just a keyword or term assigned to a piece of information online) that categorize and track content on social media. That word or phrase is seen as a category for search engines.

They make it easier for your posts to be discovered by users who are searching for a specific topic, even if those people don’t follow you.

How do they work?

Primarily, they work by grouping and connecting to a post shared on social media. For example…

I often use the hashtag, #smallbizmarketingtips when I post on social media. I’m a marketing coach and content creator helping small businesses. So, this hashtag is relevant to my business. I often post tips for small businesses to help them with their marketing. Using this hashtag does what it says on the tin – it marks that particular post into the #smallbizmarketingtips category.

Not only does it categorise my content, so that when someone searches for #smallbizmarketingtips, my posts are often included under that hashtag. As hashtags are clickable for users, it also helps individuals find an array of tips from lots of different marketing businesses.

In a nutshell, a hashtag helps social media users connect with other businesses over specific topics and popular content – and acts as an invitation to discuss, view and engage with all sorts of content online.

Are hashtags dead?

Over the past couple of years, you’ll probably have noticed that businesses are using hashtags less. But that doesn’t mean that they’re dead!

The stats still show they work – for example ‘Instagram posts that include at least one hashtag gets an average of 29% more interactions for accounts that have less than 1000 followers.

For small businesses of all sizes in 2025, the hashtag is not a necessity, BUT it is a worth it from a marketing strategy point of view.

What are the benefits of using hashtags in 2025?

  • Increased reach – adding a relevant hashtag or two allows your post to be discovered by people who DO NOT follow you. This is useful to help you gain more followers who are interested in what you post. Stat – Social media posts with hashtags boost the engagement of your audience by about 12.6%. It’s not a lot, but surely it’s worth it for any increase in engagement!
  • Building your community – social media is exactly what it says on the tin – it’s about being sociable! Hashtags can help you build a community of like-minded people who can relate to your content.
  • SEO – hashtags and SEO go hand in hand. They both use relevant words and phrases (keywords) to help your business be seen by more people. Hashtags improve your chances of being searched and found! Stat – 61% of social media users turn to Instagram and other platforms to find their next purchase.

So, hashtags are still viable, but it is advised to only use 3-5 on a post. They work – BUT only as part of a content strategy, where you can use hashtags and SEO to your advantage for your brand and for your business.

The other thing to be aware of is that you can be shadow banned by social media sites if you use too many or irrelevant hashtags in your post. The reason for this is because the social media platform thinks you’re a bot or spam account.

How do you know which hashtags are good for your posts?  

To decide which hashtags are good to use for your business and your posts, you need to know that it’s relevant and popular before you use it. You can do this by:

  • Checking which hashtags your followers and customers use. This means they will relate to you and if they’re searching a hashtag they regularly use, your content could pop up.
  • Use Facebook’s recommendations – when you are scheduling posts, as soon as you start to type a hashtag, you’ll get a drop down menu that will give you variants of what you’ve typed and the volume for each of those hashtags, so you’ll be able to see which ones are popular – try and use a mix of volumes.  
  • Look at your competitor’s posts on their Facebook business pages and see what hashtags they use. They might have great engagement partly because of the hashtags they use, so you can add some of them to your list. This is not stealing their ideas, it’s just doing competitor analysis, which is all part of social media marketing.
  • If you can, keep up with trending hashtags – you’d need to search to find out which ones are trending at any given time as they change regularly! Believe it or not, but trends play a huge role in social media algorithms.
  • Just like you keep an eye on your insights on social media and monitor your website/email stats, it’s a good idea to monitor your hashtag usage too. Keep an eye on which hashtags are getting you the most reach and attracting the right people to your business.
  • Create your own hashtag – this helps you build a connection with your business and followers. Not only can you use it, but your followers can too.
  • Hashtags are both words and phrases – just keep an eye on the length of any phrases you use. Just as long-tail keywords can be more beneficial to your SEO, longer hashtags tend to be better than shorter ones. Stat – Hashtags with 21-24 characters do better than those with more or less characters and create a less competitive space.  

Hashtag best practice – a few extra tips!

  • Use hashtags in sentences. For example, if you were sharing information about an event you’re attending, such as a night market, you’ll be doing a post about that. Instead of writing ‘This weekend you can find us at Makebelievemarket on Saturday #makebelievemarket’ – use the hashtag in the sentence, ‘This weekend you can find us at #makebelievemarket on Saturday. It looks tidier and incorporates the hashtag into your sentence.
  • Don’t use spaces in hashtags. For example, you would use #makebelievemarket – NOT #Make Believe Market – as only the first word after the hashtag will count and it will be a completely different one – and not relevant to what you’re talking about!
  • Make sure the hashtags you use are relevant to your content and your business. This seems obvious but a lot of people use hashtags for days of the week, for example #throwbackthursday. If your post is about a happy memory or a throwback of a previous product that you remember fondly, it’s relevant. If you’re writing about a new product or something irrelevant, it won’t help you with engagement if your post is found on that hashtag and that person is searching for #throwbackthursday.     
  • Check your privacy settings. If the settings on your Facebook business page are set to followers only, then you’re wasting your time using hashtags, as you need your setting to allow non-followers to view your content. All my settings on my business Facebook page are set to ‘public’ so anyone can see anything I post. Ensure that your posts are ‘public’ too.

    Please note: If you’re using your personal profile page to test your hashtags, you’ll need to make your posts ‘public’ manually.   

Measuring your hashtag use  

You can measure how your hashtags are doing by looking at your ‘Insights’ on Facebook.

  • Go to your insights and click on ‘posts.’
  • You’ll see a breakdown of your engagement rate, type of post and total reach for each post.
  • Now, it won’t give you hashtag performance, so you’ll need to work through your posts and data to find out whether your Facebook posts with hashtags work better than those without (so some testing to do), and over time you’ll be able to see which posts with a particular set of hashtags work better than other sets – again this will be through trial and error, and a bit of insight research

At first you may not see that much difference in results because you won’t have used a particular hashtag enough for it to build a connection between the hashtag and your page/business. This is another reason why fewer hashtags are easier to manage – you won’t know the results if you use shed loads!  

If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty of your hashtags, there are hashtag tools out there specifically for measurement purposes, which obviously come at a cost. I can’t recommend any particular tool as I don’t use them myself, but if you search hashtag measurement tools, you’ll get lots to look at!  

I hope this has helped in understanding how hashtags can work for you and your business. It might seem complicated, but once you get going, it will become second nature.

As always, if you need any help, feel free to message me on Facebook @cindymobeymarketing or email me cindymobey@outlook.com

5 reasons why it’s important to share your story

This past year seems to have been the hardest for small businesses with every changing rules and regulations about where you can sell your products and who you are ‘allowed’ to sell them to. A lot of businesses are struggling to keep going. Whether this applies to you or not, we are all struggling with one thing or another. But there aren’t many people who stand up and speak about their struggles.

I think it’s because of that age-old thing of ‘stiff upper lip’ – you just don’t talk about it. It could be that we are afraid of being judged, or afraid of rejection…or just simply feel ashamed.

However, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy a good story, be it personal, emotional, funny, or otherwise. I loved listening to my dad tell me stories of when he was a young soldier in World War II – he used to tell us more about the funny side when we were young, but as we grew up, we heard some of the harder side of his experiences. Telling a story helps our audience to put themselves in our shoes – it appeals to our emotions and our sense of empathy.

We all know about pitching our products and we can do that until we’re blue in the face, but your audience won’t really care unless you give them a good reason to listen. Placing your product at the centre of a story, showing them how it can benefit their lives, not only helps your audience understand more about your product, but it also gives you an extra layer of emotion that makes you stand out more on social media.

Social Media

Most of us are on our phones or devices the minute we wake up, checking messages, emails or just scrolling through posts. It’s often the first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing we do before we go to bed. For those of us in business, our social media account posts are carefully planned and crafted to appeal to our target audience. And even that can be daunting – we worry whether our posts are good enough – will they appeal to the right people? Will people think that they’re rubbish? We compare ourselves to others and fear and doubt can even creep in with our businesses.

We also tend to only share the good things, such as cheery pictures of nights out, a lovely meal, family time – all smiling, date night with our partners etc. etc. But we don’t share our back stories – the stories that make us, US!

This, along with everyone else, gives out a message that we are only allowed to share the good things; things that go well. Having said that, I have noticed that some people are starting to share some of the more private parts of their lives. Now, I’m not saying go out there and share every intimate detail of your life – not at all. But share things that can help your audience.

Share a problem that you’ve solved, share that you’re feeling crap today, or that you feel you’re not doing a good job on something. Sharing this kind of information makes you real…people can empathise – some will have had the same experience, and it can help to build more meaningful relationships.

Telling your story is showing the authentic you – an essential part of who you are.

5 reasons why we need storytelling

  • You CONNECT with your audience. You’ll find people who have been through the same thing or feel the same way. You’ll find those who totally get where you’re coming from and who you are. They will share their experiences with you and so it’s a way to start building trust with your audience. When you share your stories, it pushes you to step outside of your comfort zones and to reflect on where you’ve been and how far you’ve come.
  • Sharing your story defines your identity to your audience. Sharing your interests, be it political, emotional, funny, or serious issues, it shows you. You can also share your hobbies, as you may find others that have the same interests as you.
  • By sharing your own stories, you are helping others to have the space to share theirs. For example, if you share a particularly painful experience, such as miscarriage or mental illness, you’re letting others know that this is safe place to talk about it, that you understand and that there is space for healing. You’ll be helping others by telling your story.
  • Sharing a story also heightens the awareness of that subject. It might be something as simple as sharing your weight loss journey, or how you came back from an addiction or homelessness. These things are powerful, and if you can show how you overcame these issues, you are going to be helping someone who is still going through that same thing, and give them hope for their future. This also starts to create a community of likeminded people, who will feel less alone with their problems, and feel they have someone they can share with.
  • This can also be applied to business. Sharing a story of how a particular product helped you to overcome your problems. For example, if you sell weight loss products that you have used yourself and had success with, tell your story. If you have a product that has changed your life in some way, shout about it and how it helped. If you’ve used a business to provide a service that has seriously changed the way you do business, or has helped you get more clients, talk about it. If you provide that service and have testimonials that show that, share them as well as your story.   

How storytelling helps your small business

  • Storytelling help you build a connection with your audience. By sharing experiences, struggles and successes you are creating an emotional connection with your followers, which in turn, help guild trust and empathy, which can lead to a stronger relationship and customer loyalty.
  • It help you to convey a specific message. Storytelling can help you explain and convey complex messages or ideas that your audience understand and remember.
  • It makes your brand more memorable – if you create a story that speaks to your audience and resonates with them, it can make your business stand out in the crowd. A memorable story, will help your audience remember you and your business.
  • Stand out from your competitors – By sharing your unique story and experiences, something that your readers will remember, helps to differentiate yourself from your competitors. By telling memorable stories, you can stand out in the crowd.

Every single person in the world has a story to tell. It might be a personal story; it might be a business story. But if you get out there and tell it, you’ll be surprised at how much engagement you will get.

If you want to find out more about storytelling for your particular business, I offer one-to-one coaching so you can learn how to use storytelling to make your business stand out from the crowd.

Just message me on social media or contact me via my blog site.