Category Archives: Small Business Marketing

Christmas Marketing: Putting Your Campaign into Action – Part 2

Woman planning holiday gifts at a laptop beside a decorated Christmas tree

In Part 1 of my Christmas marketing series, we looked at how to plan your festive campaign, set realistic goals, understand your customers, and decide what you’re going to promote.

This week, I’m looking at how you can put that plan into action. Whether you sell handmade products or provide services, there are plenty of ways to make the most of the Christmas shopping season without spending a fortune or feeling that you need to be permanently glued to your social media accounts.

Here are some ideas to help you get started.

1. Show customers what makes your products or services special

One of the most important things to remember when marketing your business is to sell the benefits, not just the features.

What’s the difference? I have covered this before, but as a reminder…

  • A feature describes what something is or does.
  • A benefit explains why that matters to your customer.

For example, if you make handmade ceramic mugs, you could simply tell people that they’re handmade from stoneware clay and available in three colours, which is useful information, but won’t necessarily get someone to buy!

Think about the benefit – perhaps it’s the perfect mug for someone who loves a slow morning coffee, a thoughtful gift for someone who appreciates handmade craftsmanship or a little everyday luxury.

The same principle applies to services.

If you’re a business coach, don’t just advertise a 60-minute coaching session. Explain how that session could help someone get clarity about their business, work through a particular challenge or create a practical plan for the New Year.

People want to know what’s in it for them and this shows them!

2. Create a Christmas gift guide

Gift guides are a great way to help customers find what they’re looking for, particularly if you have several products or services to choose from.

Rather than simply listing everything you sell, group your ideas around particular people, interests, or occasions.

For example:

  • Gifts for the person who has everything.
  • Gifts for the creative soul.
  • Gifts for coffee lovers.
  • Thoughtful gifts under £25.
  • Gifts for someone who loves handmade products.
  • Gifts for the person who needs a little relaxation.

If you’re a service-based business, you could create guides around:

  • Gifts for someone starting a new business.
  • Experiences instead of things.
  • Gifts for someone who wants to learn something new.
  • A little time for yourself.
  • Helping someone get ready for the New Year.

You could create a blog post, a social media carousel or a dedicated page on your website. Include photographs, descriptions, prices, and clear links so people can find out more or make a purchase.

A gift guide is also something you can share several times throughout the Christmas period, highlighting different sections each time.

3. Create bundles and packages

Bundling products or services together can be a great way to increase the value of a customer’s purchase.

For product-based businesses, you could combine complementary products into a ready-made gift set.

For example, a candle maker might create a relaxation bundle containing a candle, wax melts, and a small handmade accessory.

For service-based businesses, consider packaging complementary services together.

A business coach might offer a strategy session alongside a planning workbook, while a photographer could create a Christmas gift package that includes a family photo session and a selection of printed photographs.

The advantage of bundling is that you’re making the decision easier for your customer. They don’t have to spend time choosing individual items or working out which services they need.

Just make sure your pricing still gives you a healthy profit margin.

4. Make use of your email list

If you have an email list, Christmas is a great opportunity to reconnect with your subscribers. These are people who have already shown an interest in your business, so don’t overlook them when planning your campaign.

You could send emails featuring:

  • Your Christmas gift guide.
  • New or seasonal products.
  • Your Christmas offers.
  • Customer testimonials and reviews.
  • Gift vouchers.
  • Your final ordering or booking dates.
  • January services, workshops, or new launches.

You could also give your subscribers early access to a new collection or a special offer.

Remember, email marketing isn’t about constantly selling. Share useful information, inspiration, and stories alongside your promotional messages.

And don’t forget to include a clear call to action. Tell people exactly what you’d like them to do next, whether that’s visiting your website, booking a session, or browsing your gift guide.

5. Use social media to bring your campaign to life

Social media is an important part of most small business marketing campaigns, but posting a photograph of your product with the words ‘Available now’ isn’t going to give people much reason to stop scrolling.

Think about creating a variety of content that tells the story of your business and gives people reasons to engage.

Here are five content ideas you could use throughout your Christmas campaign.

  • Product or service content – Showcase what you offer, explain the benefits, and tell people why it could make a great Christmas gift or purchase.
  • Behind the scenes – Show people what goes into creating your products or delivering your services. For creative businesses, this could be the making process, packaging orders or preparing a new collection. For service businesses, it might be preparing workshop materials, creating resources, or setting up your workspace.
  • Educational content – Share useful tips related to your products or services. A skincare business might share winter skincare advice, while a business coach could offer tips for planning business goals for the New Year.
  • Customer stories and social proof – Share testimonials, reviews, and photographs from happy customers (with their permission). People like to see that others have had a positive experience with your business.
  • Personal content – Don’t forget the person behind the business! Share a little about yourself, your Christmas traditions, what you’re working on or even the things that haven’t quite gone to plan.

People buy from people, and showing your personality helps build relationships with your audience. You could also create short videos, Reels or Stories to demonstrate products, answer common questions or give people a glimpse into your business.

You don’t need to be on every social media platform. Concentrate on the ones where your customers spend their time and where you can consistently create useful content.

6. Collaborate with another small business

Christmas is a great time to work with another business whose products or services complement yours. Think about businesses that appeal to a similar audience without directly competing with you.

For example:

  • A candle maker could collaborate with a ceramic artist who makes candle holders.
  • A jewellery maker could team up with a clothing boutique.
  • A photographer could work with a local florist.
  • A business coach could collaborate with a website designer.
  • A wellbeing practitioner could work with a yoga instructor.

You could create a joint gift package, run a giveaway, share each other’s Christmas gift guides, or simply recommend each other’s services to your audiences. The important thing is that the collaboration benefits both businesses.

You don’t necessarily need to create something complicated. Sometimes simply introducing your audiences to another business they might find useful can be enough.

7. Make it easy for people to buy from you

This might sound obvious, but it’s surprising how often businesses make customers work harder than necessary to find out how to buy something.

Take a look at your website and social media profiles from a customer’s perspective. If someone sees a product or service they like, can they easily find out:

  • How much it costs?
  • What’s included?
  • How they can order or book?
  • Whether it’s available?
  • How long delivery or fulfilment takes?
  • How to contact you if they have a question?

For product-based businesses, make sure your photographs are clear, product descriptions are informative and stock availability is accurate.

For service-based businesses, explain exactly what’s included who the service is suitable for and how someone can book.

If you offer gift vouchers, make sure they’re easy to find and purchase.

Also, remember to update your website and social media profiles with your Christmas opening hours and any changes to your availability.

8. Don’t forget delivery and booking deadlines

If you sell physical products, make sure customers know the last date they can order and still receive their purchases before Christmas. This is particularly important if you post internationally, as delivery times can vary considerably.

Check the latest postal guidance for the countries you ship to and allow yourself a little extra time.

Don’t promise delivery by Christmas unless you’re confident you can meet that deadline.

If you offer local collection, make sure customers know how and when they can collect their orders.

For service-based businesses, think about your availability over the festive period.

Are you taking bookings for January? Will you be offering consultations before Christmas? Are there deadlines for ordering gift vouchers or booking workshops?

Clear communication avoids disappointment and helps customers plan ahead.

9. Think about the customers who leave everything until the last minute!

Not everyone starts Christmas shopping in November. There will always be people searching for last-minute gifts, so think about how you can cater for them.

For product-based businesses, this could include:

  • Ready-to-ship products.
  • Local collection.
  • Digital gift cards.
  • Printable gift vouchers.
  • Downloadable products.

For service-based businesses, gift vouchers are particularly useful.

Someone who isn’t sure what to buy could purchase a voucher for a coaching session, creative workshop, photography session, or other service.

You could also promote services that can be booked now but delivered in January.

Make sure you clearly explain how the voucher works, whether it has an expiry date and how the recipient can redeem it.

10. Make the most of the period after Christmas

Once Christmas Day has passed, it’s tempting to think that your marketing campaign is finished. But don’t overlook the days between Christmas and New Year, and the weeks that follow.

People often have a little more time to browse online, think about the year ahead and consider what they want to do differently.

For product-based businesses, you could:

  • Promote remaining seasonal stock.
  • Offer discounts on discontinued products.
  • Introduce a new collection.
  • Showcase products that aren’t specifically Christmas-related.

For service-based businesses, January is a great opportunity to promote:

  • New Year workshops.
  • Coaching and consultancy.
  • Online courses.
  • Planning sessions.
  • Wellbeing services.
  • Gift vouchers and experiences.

You could also create content around reflection, fresh starts and planning for the year ahead. Just remember that you don’t have to discount everything to generate interest. A new offer, useful resource or fresh collection can be just as appealing.

11. Review your campaign

Once the Christmas rush is over, take some time to look back at your marketing. Remember those SMART goals you set in Part 1?

Now is the time to see how you did.

Look at:

  • Which products or services generated the most sales?
  • Which marketing channels attracted the most enquiries?
  • Which social media posts generated engagement or website visits?
  • How many new subscribers joined your email list?
  • Which offers were most popular?
  • What feedback did customers give you?

Don’t just concentrate on sales. Perhaps a particular type of social media content attracted lots of new followers, or a blog post brought more visitors to your website. These are useful things to know when planning your marketing for the coming year. Make a note of what worked, what didn’t and what you’d do differently next time.

Finally…

Christmas is an important opportunity for many small businesses, but it shouldn’t mean abandoning everything else or spending the entire festive season worrying about sales.

A little planning, some thoughtful marketing and a clear understanding of your customers can make a real difference.

Remember, the aim isn’t simply to make a sale. It’s to create a positive experience that encourages customers to return, recommend your business and remember you when they need your products or services again.

And don’t forget to enjoy the process! Your enthusiasm, creativity and personality are all part of what makes your small business special.

I’d love to hear what you’re planning for Christmas this year. Have you got a particular product, service, or promotion you’re looking forward to sharing?

In Part 1, I included a free download for a Christmas marketing checklist. If you didn’t download, here it is again! Have a great time doing your Christmas (and beyond) marketing! And as always, if you need help, just get in touch.

Download Checklist

Christmas marketing – how to plan a successful campaign – PART 1

Person planning Christmas campaign with creative ideas

Christmas will be here before we know it and whether you sell handmade products, artwork, jewellery, ceramics, candles or provide services such as coaching, consultancy, creative workshops or other professional services, Christmas presents an opportunity to attract new customers, increase sales and strengthen relationships with the people who already support your business.

Some customers will start their Christmas shopping early, looking for thoughtful, individual gifts. Others will leave everything until the last minute. And then there are those who aren’t necessarily shopping for presents but might be looking to book a service, buy a gift voucher or treat themselves.

The important thing is to make sure your business is visible when those customers are looking.

A successful Christmas marketing campaign doesn’t have to involve expensive advertising, complicated promotions or spending every waking hour posting on social media. It simply needs a little thought, some planning and a clear idea of what you want to achieve.

So, where do you start?

1. Set yourself some SMART goals

I know, everyone talks about goal setting, but there’s a good reason for that. Without goals, it’s difficult to know what you’re working towards or whether your marketing is actually making a difference.

Your Christmas campaign needs its own objectives, and these should be SMART:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-bound

For example, simply saying you want to increase sales isn’t particularly helpful.

A SMART goal might be:

To increase Christmas sales by 15% compared with the same period last year, between November and December.

If you’re a service-based business, your goal might look a little different:

To secure five new coaching clients or ten bookings for January workshops by the end of December.

You could also have goals around growing your email list, attracting new website visitors, increasing enquiries or getting more people to book consultations.

Think about what would make a successful Christmas campaign for YOUR business. It doesn’t have to be the same as everyone else’s.

Once you know what you’re aiming for, you can start deciding how you’re going to achieve it.

2. Understand what your customers want

Before you start creating promotions and posting festive graphics, take a little time to think about your customers.

Who are they? What are they looking for? What problems could you solve for them? And why might they choose your business rather than someone else’s?

For creative businesses, Christmas is an opportunity to appeal to people looking for something a little different from mass-produced gifts. Perhaps your products are personalised, handmade, environmentally conscious or completely unique. These are all things that could appeal to someone looking for a special present.

For service-based businesses, think beyond traditional Christmas gifts. Could someone buy a gift voucher for a coaching session? Would a January workshop appeal to someone wanting to learn a new skill? Could your service help another small business prepare for the New Year?

Remember, people don’t just buy products or services. They buy the benefits and experiences those products and services provide.

Understanding your customers will help you create marketing messages that actually connect with them.

3. Decide what you’re going to promote

You don’t need to promote everything you offer during the Christmas period.

In fact, trying to advertise your entire product or service range can make it harder for customers to decide what they want. Instead, choose a few things you’d particularly like to promote.

If you sell handmade products, this could be:

  • Your most popular products.
  • New or limited-edition Christmas designs.
  • Personalised gifts.
  • Products at different price points.
  • Gift sets or bundles.

If you provide services, consider:

  • Gift vouchers for your services.
  • Christmas or New Year packages.
  • Workshops or online courses.
  • Introductory sessions.
  • Services that help people prepare for the New Year.

Think about whether you want to attract new customers, encourage existing customers to buy again or introduce people to a new product or service. You might have different offers for different audiences.

The important thing is to make your offer clear and give people a reason to choose it.

4. Think about your Christmas offer

You don’t have to offer discounts to make Christmas special. In fact, if you’re a handmade business with relatively small profit margins, reducing your prices might not make commercial sense at all. There are plenty of alternatives.

For product-based businesses, you could:

  • Create a special Christmas edition of a popular product.
  • Offer personalised packaging.
  • Introduce gift bundles.
  • Include a small complimentary gift with purchases.
  • Offer free local collection.
  • Create a limited seasonal collection.

For service-based businesses, you could:

  • Package several services together.
  • Offer a bonus resource with a booking.
  • Introduce a gift voucher.
  • Create a special January package.
  • Offer a complimentary introductory call.
  • Bundle a workshop with supporting materials.

Think about the value you’re providing rather than automatically reaching for the discount button. Your offer should appeal to your customers while still making financial sense for your business.

5. Plan your marketing calendar

One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is leaving their Christmas marketing until the last minute.

Create a simple marketing calendar covering November and December. Think about the key dates and opportunities that are relevant to your audience.

For example:

November

  • Christmas gift ideas and product collections.
  • Black Friday and Cyber Monday (if appropriate for your business).
  • Small Business Saturday.
  • Early Christmas shopping reminders.
  • Gift vouchers and service packages.

December

  • Gift guides and last-minute gift ideas.
  • Delivery deadlines and local collection information.
  • Christmas opening hours.
  • Digital gift vouchers and downloadable products.
  • January bookings, workshops and services.

Remember that not everyone celebrates Christmas, and not every business needs to participate in every seasonal promotion. Choose the dates and opportunities that make sense for you.

Also, think about what happens after Christmas. January can be an excellent time to promote services, workshops, new products and fresh starts.

6. Get your marketing materials ready

Before your campaign gets underway, check that your marketing channels are ready to welcome potential customers.

Take a look at your website, online shop and social media profiles. Can someone visiting your website immediately understand what you sell or the services you provide? Are your prices clear? Is it easy to contact you or make a purchase?

If you’re promoting Christmas products, create a dedicated page or collection on your website. If you’re promoting a service or gift voucher, make sure there’s a clear explanation of what’s included and how someone can book or buy it.

You could also create:

  • A digital gift guide.
  • A Christmas product catalogue.
  • A dedicated landing page for seasonal offers.
  • A collection of festive photographs.
  • Social media graphics and promotional templates.

Tools such as Canva make it relatively easy to create professional-looking marketing materials without needing a graphic designer.

Don’t forget your email marketing either. If you have an email list, think about the messages you want to send during November and December. You don’t need to send an email every day, but you should have a plan.

7. Don’t forget your brand

Christmas is a busy time for marketing, and your business needs to stand out for the right reasons. It’s tempting to cover everything in Christmas trees, snowflakes and red and green graphics, but don’t lose sight of your brand identity.

Your colours, fonts, tone of voice and personality should still be recognisable. You can introduce a festive feel without completely changing your branding.

For example, a handmade jewellery business might use subtle festive styling in its product photography, while a coach might introduce seasonal messaging around reflection, planning and preparing for the New Year.

Your customers should still recognise your business, even when you’re talking about Christmas. And remember, your brand is about much more than your logo. It’s the experience people have when interacting with your business. Make sure your customer service, communications and overall presentation reflect the values you want people to associate with your business.

Ready to start planning?

A successful Christmas campaign doesn’t happen by accident, but it doesn’t need to be complicated either. Start with your goals, think about your customers, decide what you’re going to promote and create a simple plan.

Most importantly, don’t try to do everything.

Choose the activities that are most likely to help you achieve your goals and that you have the time and resources to manage.

In Part 2, I’ll look at some practical ways to put your Christmas marketing campaign into action, including social media, email marketing, collaborations, gift guides and some ideas for making the most of the period after Christmas.

In the meantime, grab yourself a cuppa and start planning! To help you, I’ve included a handy checklist which you can download to help.

Download Christmas Campaign Checklist

Main image generated using AI.

The ghosts in the grounds – living among the relics!

Whenever I’ve mentioned living in France in the grounds of a 12th century ruined chateau, I’ve often had people ask me if I’ve ever seen anything strange. Well, the answer is yes, and so I thought with Halloween looming, I’d share some of the stories and experiences my hubby and I have had since living here.

A bit of background information

The chateau itself is not a grand typical chateau like the Disney castle – it’s more of a manor house, which had one turret at some point and a spiral staircase in the middle, leading down to dungeons (although I think more cellars!) and tunnels underground – one leading to the village and one to a lake nearby. It was built in 1129, according to local, elderly villagers who used to play in the tunnels when they were young – they’ve  seen a stone with the date carved in it. We have done some research, and it was a feudal castle – lots of the windows in the buildings have places for a bow and arrow to rest. It was built by the La Rochefoucauld family and according to records we’ve seen in the archives of The Chateau in La Rochefoucauld, built by the fourth Earl, whose name was Xavier. We only have one very old photo, which is the featured set image, taken probably in Victorian times looking at the fashion but could be later! I’ve added the photo for you to see. It was a wedding at the chateau- which was already pretty much a ruin. According to locals, it was also used by the French resistance during the second world war – and when we cleared one of the barns, we found bullet holes embedded in the wall – and even dug out a spent bullet, which doesn’t bear thinking about as to how and why they’re there.

Back to our story

In May 2012 we were looking for somewhere to live in SW France, and we came across the place we now live in quite by accident. We couldn’t find what we were looking for and our estate agent said that a friend of hers had just put her place on the market…it wasn’t what we were looking for, but we thought we’d take a look anyway! The moment we walked into the open barn, a strange feeling of calm came over both of us – it felt like we’d come home – something that’s very hard to describe. We fell in love with the place – not necessarily the cottage itself, but the whole atmosphere and feel of the place.

We moved over to France in October 2012, and it wasn’t long before we started noticing the odd, strange thing. The previous owner had told us she’d seen things she couldn’t explain, so we were kind of expecting to see something, but maybe not quite as much as we did over the following few years. It all started when we were clearing things out and moving stones etc in the barn.

The medieval soldier

I was wheelbarrowing some garden waste down to the field and on the way back up, I heard a metallic sound, and something caught the corner of my eye, coming from the back of the old chateau. It was fleeting, but what I saw was just the bottom of a person from just above the knees downwards – he was wearing chain mail, like a medieval solder, and he was leaning on a sword. He kicked it up with his foot and disappeared. I thought I was seeing things but had never seen a sword like it and described it to my husband – it had a deep groove down the middle, which apparently is where the blood runs out when it stabs someone – nice! As I said it was fleeting, but that was the first experience – don’t think my hubby believed me as he didn’t believe in such things!

The man behind me

The next experience he couldn’t ignore. It was in the evening, and I was talking on Skype to my daughter in the UK on my laptop. I was sitting on the sofa with the laptop facing behind me and my hubby was sat in front of me next to the fire. After we’d been speaking for a while, she suddenly said, ‘Hi Dave, how are you doing?.’  So, I said, ‘hold on a minute,’ and I turned the laptop round so she could say hi to Dave.’  She said ‘Hi – so who’s the man standing behind you? I thought that was Dave!’ 

That moment when you slowly turn around to see what she’s seeing …..and there’s no one there! To be fair, it spooked both of us and my hubby opened our front door and asked whoever it was to please leave and not come into our house. We have never seen anything like that in our house since, but I have felt the odd presence and there are the odd shadows, and the cat sometimes stares at one particular space. We’ve learned to ignore it and it’s not scary and could easily be explained as our imagination! 

The haunted barn

The barn opposite our house is where we have experienced the most activity – if you can call it that – hubby is still sceptical, despite what he’s seen with his own eyes! We had done a lot of work in there clearing out an old cowshed to make room for storage and after clearing a lot of brambles and weeds, found an old stable. Dave was working in there and he heard a sound and looked up. He saw a man in a cloak – tweed in texture and he was floating but looked as if he were on horseback – backing into the stable. Dave could see the man but not the horse – it was just obvious he was on one! Suddenly, it bolted out of the stable very quickly and Dave followed but it had disappeared. He came into the house, clearly disturbed (!) and couldn’t believe what he’d seen but at the same time, couldn’t deny it. Another time he also saw an orb floating around in the same barn which disappeared into the wall.

I was working in there a few years ago, moving some concrete blocks and something white caught my eye above my head, quite high up – I thought it was a bird, but when I looked up, it was just a white shape, which flew around very quickly and flew straight into the upper wall and disappeared. I couldn’t explain it but it wasn’t threatening, so carried on working!

The tall man – or the brown man

My final story for now is that of the tall man. I think of him as our resident ghost, and I find him very comforting. He didn’t appear until we’d lived here for a couple of years…after I got a new work desk and put it in front of a small window facing our courtyard. The first time I saw him, I was sitting at my desk – it was around 5pm and I saw Dave walk past the window. I thought he was home from work a bit early, but got up and put the kettle on, like you do. Then I saw him walk past the French doors at the side of the house in the kitchen area, towards the back of the house. I went outside to see what he was doing – and he wasn’t there! His van wasn’t there either, so he wasn’t home from work yet! I put it down to my imagination and thought maybe it was just a bird. But I started to see the man regularly after that…not every night, but always at the same time – between 5pm and 6pm. Sometimes he just walked past the window – other times he walked round the house towards the back. He is tall and his outline looks exactly like my husband, stoops slightly. The only difference which I started to notice was his coat – it’s kind of a dark greeny brown and could be a cloak. I’ve never seen his face, only his profile and when I’ve gone outside to look for him, there’s no one there. And I’ve never seen him when I’ve been outside.

Dave has never seen him, so I started to think maybe I was seeing things – until one day my friend was here. It was summer and she was kneeling on my sofa facing the back of it, talking to me as I made a cuppa in the kitchen area.  She suddenly said – ‘Dave’s home’ and got up to open the door to let him in. There was no one there and his van wasn’t there either. I had to tell her it was the just the ghost. She has seen it several times – he’s a regular visitor and we just speak to him now and say ‘Bonjour’.. He always appears at the same time of day and walks exactly the same route. Not scary, not threatening – just calm and just there.

My mate, Carole, isn’t the only one to have seen him either – it happened when a friend of ours, John, was visiting. Same scenario – he saw him, said, ‘Dave’s home’ and answered the door – only it scared him to death, and he left immediately and didn’t come back for months! And another of my friends has seen him too – again getting up to open the door and look around the house as she was certain it was Dave.

He’s not such a regular visitor these days, and we don’t see as many strange things – I think (if you believe in such things), that we are all comfortable with each other – we’re not going to do anything to bother them and they’re not a threat to us. I feel that they made themselves known more at the beginning to warn us not to change too much, as we always saw them when we were moving stuff around or removing walls. We decided that it would cost too much to renovate everything, so we’ve pretty much left it all alone.

The one thing I would say is that most people think that seeing things like this is threatening or frightening and that they’re there to harm us. We’ve never felt like that – this place has always felt calm, comforting and everyone who visits always go away feeling totally relaxed. I’m happy to live with them around us and I miss the tall man if I don’t see him for a while.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my stories – they are all true, whether you believe me or not! I know that these kinds of stories aren’t for everyone and not everyone would be comfortable living where we do – but I can honestly say it’s the most peaceful, calm place I’ve ever lived.

Happy Halloween!

All photos are ones I’ve taken here myself, apart from the first one which we inherited with the house. No AI involved!

Using your Google Business Profile to attract more customers

Bakery owner showing Google Business profile outside The Daily Grind & Bakery

Many creative business owners, whether product or service based, spend hours on social media, yet overlook one of the most powerful free marketing tools available: Google Business Profile.

Whether you sell handmade products, run workshops, offer creative services, or work as an artist, maker, designer or craft business owner, a well-optimised Google Business Profile can help you get found by potential customers, build trust and generate enquiries.

The good news? You don’t need to be a marketing expert to make it work for your business and it’s a great way to drive traffic to your website.

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows businesses to manage how they appear in Google Search and Google Maps.

When someone searches for your business name, or for products and services you offer, your profile can display important information such as:

  • Business description
  • Contact details
  • Website link
  • Opening hours
  • Reviews
  • Photos
  • Updates and posts
  • Frequently asked questions

For creative businesses, this acts as an additional shop window, portfolio and marketing channel all in one.

Why it matters for local customers

Most people understand that Google Business Profile helps local businesses appear in local searches.

For example, someone might search for:

  • Handmade jewellery near me
  • Wellness coach in my area
  • Local artist commissions
  • Handmade gifts in (your town)

Having an active and complete profile increases your chances of appearing in these searches and helps potential customers discover your business.

Reviews, photos and recent posts also give people confidence that your business is active and trustworthy.

If someone is deciding between several businesses, a well-maintained profile can often be the factor that encourages them to contact you.

It also matters for non-local customers too!

One of the biggest misconceptions about Google Business Profile is that it’s only useful for businesses serving local customers.

Many creative businesses sell nationally or internationally through websites, online shops and social media. Even if customers never visit your premises, they often search online before buying.

When someone discovers your business through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or a recommendation, they frequently search your business name on Google. What they find can influence whether they decide to buy from you.

If you have a Google Business Profile, this will show up – and a professional profile helps reinforce that all-important trust by providing:

  • Genuine customer reviews
  • Recent updates
  • Business information
  • Photos of your work
  • Website links

Think of it as social proof that supports your wider online marketing efforts.

Keep your profile updated

An incomplete profile sends the message that a business may not be active.

Make sure your profile includes:

  • A clear business description
  • Accurate contact information
  • Current website links
  • Relevant services or products
  • High-quality images

Many creative businesses create beautiful products but fail to showcase them on their Google profile. Upload photographs regularly to demonstrate your work, your process and your personality.

Even though I don’t create products, I still update my Google profile once every week with images of my content and my blog post with the link.

What else can you post on Google Business Profile?

Google allows businesses to publish updates directly on their profile.

These posts can include:

  • New product launches
  • Workshop announcements
  • Seasonal collections
  • Behind-the-scenes content
  • Helpful tips and advice
  • Customer success stories

Think of these as mini blog posts that help keep your profile active and give potential customers more reasons to engage with your business. And each post gives you the option to add a link to your website, online shop, call you, or point to your social media pages.

Encourage reviews

Customer reviews remain one of the strongest social proof signals you can give to potential customers. Ask satisfied customers to leave honest reviews and make it easy for them by providing a direct review link.

When possible, encourage customers to mention specific products, services or experiences. For example:

“I purchased a handmade personalised gift and was delighted with the quality and service.”

These details help future customers understand what makes your business special.

Answer questions before customers ask them

Google Business Profile includes a Q&A section that is often overlooked.

Use this area to address common customer questions such as:

  • Do you accept commissions?
  • Do you ship internationally?
  • Can customers book workshops online?
  • How long do personalised orders take?

Providing answers in advance can remove barriers and encourage enquiries.

Treat your profile as part of your content marketing strategy

Don’t make the mistake of thinking of your Google Business Profile as a directory listing. Instead, think of it as another content marketing platform. By sharing updates, photos, customer stories and useful advice, you can build credibility, demonstrate expertise and stay visible to potential customers.

When combined with your website, email marketing and social media activity, Google Business Profile becomes a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy.

Conclusion

Many small business owners focus exclusively on social media while overlooking opportunities elsewhere.

Google Business Profile is free, relatively simple to maintain and can help both local and non-local customers discover, trust and choose your business.

A little time spent optimising and updating your profile can make a significant difference to your visibility and customer enquiries.

To help you get started, I’ve created a free Google Business Profile checklist, which walks you through the key steps to optimise your profile, improve visibility and make sure you’re not missing valuable opportunities to attract customers.

Download your free copy below, and start putting your profile to work for your business.

Download your Google Business Profile checklist

Are ghost followers haunting your Facebook page?

Ghost followers on Facebook

👻 Have you got ghost followers? I’m talking about the people who follow your Facebook page but rarely, if ever, like, comment on or share your posts.

I’ve seen a few posts recently warning business owners that these so-called ghost followers are damaging their Facebook pages — and suggesting that we should be removing them.

I’ve also seen advice that we should always follow and comment from our personal profiles rather than our business pages because Facebook will apparently show us to more people, or that the algorithm will penalise you for doing this and it will damage your page.

So, as it’s nearly Halloween, I thought it was time to investigate some of these Facebook scares.

Because there’s a difference between something that might be useful to do and something Facebook actually says you need to do.

👻 What exactly is a ghost follower?

There’s no official Facebook definition of a ghost follower.

It’s generally used to describe someone who follows your page but doesn’t regularly interact with your content. It might be that they haven’t liked anything for six months – it could be they haven’t commented for two years. Perhaps they followed you when they bought something from you and haven’t looked at your page since – or they could simply be a silent follower. There’s a world of difference between the two.

Not everyone who enjoys your content is going to click the like button time every time they see it.

  • Some people read.
  • Some watch.
  • Some save something for later.
  • Some occasionally click through to your website.
  • Some are simply interested in what you do but don’t feel the need to publicly interact with you.
  • Some people are perfectly happy lurking in the background!

That doesn’t automatically make them a bad follower. My clients often come from businesses who don’t interact with me – or even follow me. 

👻 Do ghost followers damage your Facebook Page?

This is where things get interesting. You’ll often see the claim that having lots of inactive followers tells Facebook that nobody is interested in your content, so Facebook stops showing your posts to the people who do want to see them. I can see why people would think that as it’s logical explanation.

But, according to my research, Facebook’s feed isn’t that simple. Meta uses many different signals when deciding what content to show to an individual person. Interactions are certainly part of that picture, but Facebook isn’t simply looking at your follower list and thinking – ‘mmm, this page has 4,000 followers, but only 200 engage. Think I’d better hide it.’

That’s not how Meta describes its ranking system, and I can find no official evidence or rule on Facebook that says you need to regularly remove followers who don’t engage with your page. I think from a housekeeping point of view, it makes sense to delete the accounts that follow you if their accounts are dead or they haven’t posted for a couple of years, but I wouldn’t obsess over it.

So, before you start deleting hundreds of people because you think they’re haunting your page, take a step back and think about it…

👻 You don’t need to conduct a ghost hunt just because someone hasn’t liked your last ten posts.

👻 I’d rather have 100 genuine followers than 1,000 who aren’t genuine!

Yes, of course, and this totally makes sense. I’d rather have genuine followers who like my business, follow because they are interested in, or love my content, and enjoy interacting with my posts. That’s why I’m not a fan of follow-for-follow strategies.

If you’re building a small business, for example, having hundreds of followers who are only there because they expect you to follow them back isn’t going to help you sell your products.

It’s much better to build connections and relationships with your audience – those who genuinely:

  • like what you make
  • love the service you offer
  • need what you sell
  • recommend you to someone else
  • share your content
  • visit your website
  • join your mailing list
  • become a customer

But that doesn’t mean everyone who isn’t regularly interacting is useless. We’ve all had customers or clients who contact us about our products or services and tell us that they have been following us for a while and have now decided to buy or book a consultation.

But we don’t know them, don’t recognise their name or business and know they don’t interact with our page. But they’re there – in the background – just waiting for when the time is right for them to interact or buy. If you delete them as a follower, they won’t see your posts at all and won’t be a potential customer. So, you have to be careful in who you delete and who you keep.  

👻 Facebook shows my posts to fewer people because I have inactive followers

I’ve seen this claim a lot and it’s one I’d be cautious about. I’m not saying it might not have an effect, but the systems that Facebook uses are constantly looking at your page, deciding what individual people are likely to find interesting and relevant. Your followers don’t all see exactly the same posts – some will see today’s post – some will see one from a few days ago if Facebook systems deem that’s more interesting to you.

I mentioned this in a post last week, but Facebook often recommends content from pages that you don’t follow, because they know the kind of content/business you interact with. This is potentially a good thing – if they’re showing you content from pages you don’t follow, it’s likely they’re showing your page to people that don’t follow you! Those people could be a potential new follower or customer.

So don’t automatically think that because your followers aren’t seeing your posts that Facebook or the algorithm are hiding your business. There are lots of reasons someone might not see a particular post, such as:

  • They have personalised their feed
  • They’re not on Facebook at the time you post
  • They’re scrolling past.
  • They’re watching Reels instead
  • They’re seeing other content that Facebook thinks is more relevant to them at that particular moment

It could be a number or reasons – an internet outage, power cut, they’re on holiday, they’re doing other things that day – they’re simply not looking at their Facebook feed much that day. These are much more logical reasons than Facebook hiding your page.

👤 Should you comment from your personal profile instead of your business Page?

This is a real bone of contention, and I see lots of small businesses putting up posts asking people to only comment (and sometimes only follow) on their business page with their personal profile, as Facebook will then show your business to more people and so gain you more reach.

I can see why this might be recommended – and there are some very good reasons for interacting with other businesses from your personal profile. Here are some reasons for each – but to be honest, none of them are set in stone – and you won’t be penalised if you use either.

When to Comment as Your Business Page

  • Build brand awareness: Commenting as your page puts your business name, logo, and link directly in front of other users and page admins – this is useful in groups.
  • Establish authority: It shows official representation when answering industry questions or responding to customer inquiries.
  • Separate business and personal life: It keeps your private photos, family updates, and personal opinions away from your commercial reputation. Officially, Facebook say that a personal page is for family and friends and that a business page is for business. That’s why it’s not a good idea to only have a personal page if you run a business.

When to Comment as Your Personal Profile

  • Increase engagement: Some people believe that personal profiles get better visibility in newsfeeds, but it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference. If you’re posting content that people don’t want to engage with, they’ll ultimately see fewer of your posts – if they engage a lot, they’ll see more – that’s how the algorithm works.
  • Network authentically: People generally prefer interacting with a real human face and name rather than a logo in community groups or casual discussions – and some business pages and groups prefer their followers or group members to do this. You can also tag individuals in posts, which you can’t do on a business page.
  • It can be difficult to know who a business page is – I can definitely see that this is a downside to using a business page to post – if people use a personal page, you know who they are. But this has the flipside in that you don’t always know which business is commenting on your post if they use their personal profile, which means you have to search them to find their business if you want to reciprocate by commenting on their posts.

My business page includes my name, so it doesn’t really matter which page I use as my page covers all of the above because it includes my full name, but I understand why businesses only want personal interaction and I try to remember which pages I follow prefer this – I don’t always get it right, but I always genuinely interact, so personally I don’t feel that it matters!

So, I guess how you comment depends on what you want to achieve. I don’t post business related stuff on my personal page, (in fact I hardly use it at all), but I mix up commenting between both pages and follow businesses from one or both pages.

Facebook rewards you with more reach because you commented from your personal profile.

I’ve checked Facebook/Meta’s own guidance, and I can’t find an official rule or requirement stating that comments must come exclusively from personal profiles to boost reach.

The only thing I did find was around their AI system. “…several AI systems may work together to deliver an overall product experience. In Facebook Feed, for example, one AI system ranks content from friends, Pages, and groups that people are connected to, and another AI system ranks recommended content that they may be interested in from others they are not connected to. What people see in their Feed is a balanced combination of the outputs of both AI systems in addition to advertisements and additional product offerings such as groups and reels.”

Source: https://transparency.meta.com/features/explaining-ranking/

So, it’s basically saying that everything is taken into consideration when determining reach. 

So, if you’re working from your business page and you see something you want to comment on, you haven’t broken Facebook by commenting as your business!

And honestly, I don’t want to advise small business owners that they spend loads of time trying to remember which personal profile belongs to which business just because they’ve heard that Facebook has a secret preference. It’s more about what makes sense for that interaction.

If you’re having a personal conversation with another business owner, your personal profile may feel more natural.

If you’re representing your business, commenting as your business may be more appropriate.

Be human. Be genuine. Don’t over complicate things. Do what you feel is right for you – and if someone you follow prefers you to comment from your personal profile, it’s only fair to respect that, but don’t panic if you occasionally forget!

🔎 So, should you go hunting for your ghost followers?

I’d say – not just because someone told you they’re damaging your page.

If you do want to remove dead accounts or if Facebook gives you a reason to remove a follower, such as identifying a spam account or someone who is inappropriate on your page, that’s a no brainer. But don’t feel that you have to spend hours each month removing accounts that don’t interact with you.

Remember – they might be watching – they might be reading – they might be lurking in the background – they might be recommending you privately. And you might find that six months down the line, they buy from you!

👻 Don’t let Facebook folklore frighten you

There are so many so-called ‘rules’ around how you ‘should’ manage your Facebook page.

  • Post at exactly xxxx o’clock.
  • Always comment within the first five minutes.
  • Delete inactive followers.
  • Comment from your personal profile.
  • Use exactly five hashtags.
  • Never edit a post.

Never do this…Always do that. And of course, some of the recommendations may be true – or have a grain of truth behind them – some of them start as a vague rumour, that develops like Chinese whispers into ‘rules’ that aren’t really there.

But before you completely change the way you use Facebook, ask yourself if what you’re reading is something that Facebook or Meta have actually said, (and this is easy to simply google, making sure you ask – is this a genuine Facebook or Meta rule or regulation?) – or is it something that someone says Facebook or Meta says.

And when it comes to your business, it’s much better to spend your time creating useful content, talking to your customers, and building genuine relationships than hunting imaginary ghosts around your follower list!

Happy Halloween Month! 👻 And if you do spot a ghost lurking on your page…maybe just say hello. 😂

Head-to-head with Caz, from Kaztique Fashion Accessories

A while ago, I hosted a social media marketing challenge on Facebook. From those that joined the challenge, I picked a winner at random to win a coaching session – that winner was Caz from Kaztique Fashion Accessories, and Caz has kindly agreed to answer some questions about the session to show you what can be achieved in just one session. I asked Caz several questions and here are her answers…

Q. How did you feel when you heard you’d won the coaching session – were you nervous or not sure what to ask for?

A. I was really excited to have won and wasn’t really sure exactly what I needed, I just knew I needed to do something different.

Q. What did you think you needed to change, if anything, when we first spoke?

A. I was nervous and honestly thought you would get me to change everything!

Q. I wouldn’t do that! I looked at your social media pages, and gave them an audit. From experience, I know what works well and what doesn’t – what little tweaks can be made, which make a huge difference, and I came up with some suggestions that we could discuss. What were the main things we decided you should try?

A. To change the colours of my logo – to update my profile and cover photo. Link my Facebook to my Instagram to make it easier when posting and to do some reels. You also suggested I change the format of my morning posts to make them more engaging.

Q. So far, and I know it’s a work in progress, what have you changed?

A. I’ve changed my profile picture, my morning posts. I’m doing more reels and I’m asking questions, such as the video I did showing my outfit for going out for coffee with a friend and asking – ‘Which bag should I take for coffee and which accessories to match my outfit?’. This went down very well!

Q. What surprised you most about the response to those changes?

A. I was surprised to see significant improved engagement and an increase in sales – and the best bit was that they were so easy to implement!

Q. Can you tell me a bit more about the posts you created as a result of our session and how your audience reacted?

A. Yes, I created a few posts. In one, I showed 3 photos of bags and asked which one would they take for a coffee. In another, I wore an outfit and showed different accessories and asked which ones they’d choose for me to wear.

I did a reel of me with my travel pouch, showing how I used it for things I take on holiday and took things out one at a time to show what I take.

The audience really interacted with me on all these posts and I was surprised how many sales I made, especially the travel pouch – I sold 6 within 10 minutes of the video being shown!

Q. That’s amazing, Caz. How long did it take you to make the videos?

A. I’d say planning the video – 5-10 minutes and less that 5 minutes to film as I did them in one take!

Q. What would you say to another business who feels they don’t have enough time to make videos?

A. That the time is definitely worth it due to the increase in engagement and sales. Also, if you plan ahead, the videos do not actually take long to do. The more you do, the easier it becomes.

Q. What difference have you noticed from your overall engagement since our session?

A. Lots more comments, answering my questions and buying items!

Q. Overall, has the coaching helped you to improve your social media and get more sales?

A. Yes, it has, July ( the month following our session) was amazing and August has been good, which I’m pleased about as it’s always a hard month as children in the school holidays etc. Definitely the coaching has helped!

Q. Did you find the coaching relaxed and easy to understand?

A. Really relaxed. You were so friendly and helpful. It was all easy to understand and I felt confident to ask questions if I was unsure.

Q. That’s great to know, thank you. What did you like most about the session?

A. Finding out new ways to improve my social media presence, that weren’t too hard to implement.

Q. What would you say to another creative business who was considering coaching – and is there anything else you’d like to share?

A. I would definitely encourage other businesses to try coaching as it gives you ideas you may not have thought of.

I’d add that it has made me think out of the box and try other ideas I wouldn’t necessarily thought of. Also, not to worry if you can’t do everything at once, as long as you try to do something each month. There are still things in the action plan I have not done, but they are not forgotten and I will complete them, as the coaching has been so beneficial. Thank you Cindy for all your help. It’s much appreciated

I’d like to thank Caz for agreeing to answer some questions about coaching and hope it has helped you see the benefits. And thank you Caz, for your kind words!

If coaching is something you’ve been thinking about, or would like to consider, feel free to contact me for a free consultation and we can talk about how I may be able to help you and your business.  

Content Buckets: More Ways to Plan Your Content

Person reviewing analytics beside text: Which metric is the most IMPORTANT? Reach vs. Impressions – Does it matter? Stop stressing over Vanities! Am I looking at the right numbers? Engagement Rate: A key indicator? Followers are just numbers? How to prove ROI? Which one REAL success? Is CTR important? Save time: Track only vital stats Data overwhelm! Likes are vanities! Traffic to Followers are just numbers? Stop stressing over Vanities! Can I ignore SHARES?

In my previous post, I explained what content buckets are and how they can help you organise your social media and content marketing. The idea is simple – choose the types of content you want to use, then put different topics and ideas underneath each one. This gives you a bank of ideas to work from instead of having to think of something completely new every time you post.

In this post, I’m going to look at some more content buckets and then show you how you can use them to plan your autumn and Christmas marketing.

Conversational content

Conversational content is very similar to engaging content, but it’s more about encouraging two-way communication. Social media is about posting content for your audience, but also listening to them and interacting with them.

You could:

  • Ask questions and respond to the answers
  • Comment on other small businesses’ posts and start conversations
  • Host a live Q&A
  • Ask questions during a live session
  • Follow up on the results of a poll with another post

For example, if you ask your audience which Christmas product they’d like to see you create, don’t let the conversation end with that post – or poll, however you decide to do that. Use the results.

Talk about what people chose, ask another question and perhaps explain what you’re going to do with their suggestions. One piece of content can then lead to several more.

User-generated content

User-generated content is content created by your customers and shared on social media or other channels. It can be incredibly valuable because your customers are helping you promote your business.

It could include:

  • Testimonials
  • Reviews
  • Customer photographs
  • Social media comments
  • Customer posts
  • Customer stories

For example, if a customer sends you a photograph of one of your handmade products in their home, ask if you can share it. You could tell the story behind their purchase or simply use the photograph to show your product being used in real life.

The great thing about user-generated content is that your customer has done the creating for you! Just remember to ask permission before using someone’s content for your own marketing.

Listicles

A listicle is simply content presented in a list format.

You see these all the time and I’m a fan of using these in my content…

  • 5 ways to…
  • 10 tips for…
  • 7 things you need to know…
  • My top 5…
  • 3 mistakes to avoid…

They’re popular because they’re easy to read and give people useful information in a format that’s easy on the eye!

Listicles are really useful for seasonal marketing too.

Think about:

  • 5 Halloween products your customers will love
  • 10 Christmas gift ideas
  • 7 things to do before your Black Friday promotion
  • 5 stocking fillers
  • 3 last-minute Christmas gift ideas

Success stories

Success stories show how your product or service has helped a real customer. A customer story focuses on their experience with you and your business, while a case study tends to look more closely at the situation, the solution and the results.

You could:

  • Create a success stories page on your website
  • Write a blog post about a customer story
  • Create a case study
  • Share testimonials
  • Share customer photographs
  • Use video testimonials

This type of content helps potential customers see what it’s actually like to buy from you or work with you. And it can be particularly effective during a sales period.

Instead of simply saying, ‘Our Christmas gift boxes are now available!’, you could tell the story of a previous customer who bought one as a gift and explain why they chose it.

You’re still selling, but you’re doing it through a story.

Promotional content

Of course, promotional content is important. At the end of the day, your business needs sales. There’s nothing wrong with telling people what you sell, showing your products and letting people know about your offers.

It only becomes a problem when almost all of your posts are promotional or selling. If someone follows you and constantly sees ‘Buy this’, ‘Sale ends today’ and ‘Last chance’, they may eventually stop paying attention.

Your promotional content works much better when it’s surrounded by content that provides value, builds trust and helps people get to know your business.

I’ve always advocated the 80/20 rule – 80% engagement and only 20% selling, but you don’t need to follow a rigid rule like this and I’ve changed my tack a bit over the past year. I’d say that now it’s much more important to think about the following questions…

  • Are you helping people?
  • Are you entertaining them?
  • Are you starting conversations?
  • Are you showing them who you are?
  • Are you demonstrating your expertise?
  • And, of course, are you also giving them opportunities to buy?

Product content

Product content is the text, images, videos and other information that tells your audience about what you sell. Whether you sell a handmade product or a service, your content should help potential customers understand:

  • What is it?
  • Who is it for?
  • What problem does it solve?
  • What are the benefits?
  • Why might someone choose it?
  • How can they buy it?

When creating product content, make sure you:

  • Speak directly to your target audience
  • Focus on the benefits as well as the features
  • Use good-quality photographs or images
  • Show the product being used where possible
  • Give people the information they need before buying
  • Make it easy to find out more or make a purchase

Now let’s make this seasonal

This is where I think content buckets become particularly useful.

We’re heading into one of the busiest marketing periods of the year, with Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas all coming up. It can be tempting to think you need completely different content for each occasion. Actually, you don’t!

Your content buckets can stay the same. You simply change the topic and message to fit the season.

For example, your Halloween content could include:

  • An entertaining Halloween post
  • A behind-the-scenes post showing what you’re making
  • A poll asking your audience to choose their favourite design
  • An educational post relating to your product
  • A customer story
  • A product showcase
  • A fun Halloween question

Then, as you move towards Black Friday, you can start talking more about your offers, products and services while continuing to provide useful and interesting content.

Christmas gives you another opportunity to use those same buckets with new topics — gift guides, customer stories, product demonstrations, behind-the-scenes content, Christmas tips and, of course, your seasonal offers.

The framework stays the same – it’s the topics that change. That’s what makes content buckets so useful.

One idea can become several posts

You also don’t need to create completely different content for every marketing channel. You can easily repurpose different posts for other marketing tactics. For example…

  • A blog post can become several social media posts.
  • A customer story can become a newsletter.
  • A product photograph can become an engaging post.
  • A question from your audience can become a future blog post.
  • A Christmas gift guide could become a blog, several social posts and an email to your subscribers.

You’re taking one useful idea and making it work harder for your business. Your content buckets are your starting point.

If you’re struggling with what to post, try this.

  • Write down 5–10 content buckets that suit your business.
  • Underneath each bucket, write down as many ideas as you can – the topics.

Don’t worry about creating the actual posts yet. You’re simply building your content bank. Then you can start mixing them up across your social media and other marketing.

And when Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas come around, you can look at those same buckets and decide how you can use that type of content to talk about the season you’re working on

That is much easier than starting from a completely blank page. Your content buckets give you the structure. Your seasonal marketing gives you the topics. And that means you can create a marketing strategy that is varied, interesting and, importantly, still gives you plenty of opportunities to sell your products or services.

If you’d like some 1:1 coaching around content marketing for your specific business or would like help with your wider strategic marketing planning, please feel free to email me or message me on social media.

Featured image generated with the help of AI.

The Curious Case of Gladys the Chicken

Gladys was our only remaining chicken – a Light Sussex breed, who sadly we had to say goodbye to last week. I wasn’t going to mention it but decided she needed her own story! And I hope you enjoy the story of a very special chicken!

We took on her and her ‘sister,’ Muriel about three years ago after her owners returned to the UK. Despite my hubby making them a lovely coop off the ground with a ladder and ventilation with wire to keep predators away, all fenced in, Gladys was not happy. After several escapes and screaming when we shut her in at night, attacking me when I let her out in the morning, we decided to just let them do their own thing.

Muriel died last summer – she was a very old lady, and Gladys wasn’t far behind – neither had laid eggs for a while, although Gladys gave us the odd one! She was a bit lost for a while without Muriel but soon got used to life on her own – and she had the cat to torment! He hated her but was scared of her pecking!

Gladys adapted; she was happy, she wandered around and didn’t stray too far from the courtyard, but in autumn of 2025, she started wandering a bit further down to our field and foraging for insects, fruit, and vegetation that she liked. She was a fairly quiet chicken, 🐓 and her breed are very good at avoiding predators and we never clipped her wings, so she could fly into a tree if she needed to – and she liked to! She was a happy, retired hen – aged about 6 then, which is a good age in itself !.  

Living in rural France, she had acres of land to roam on, but she was always at the door in the morning for her food, much to our cat Jax’s annoyance as she pushed in front of him for food and pinched his if she got the chance.

So now, we get into the curious part of the story.

At the beginning of this summer, it was very hot here, and Gladys disappeared. We looked everywhere for her, just as we had with Muriel when she disappeared, but we couldn’t find her anywhere. We searched barns, under bushes, down the field, around the trees and outbuildings – nothing! We didn’t think she’d be taken by anything, as no piles of feathers or signs of struggle, which from experience is normal if a chicken has been taken by a fox – and if taken by a pine marten, you usually find headless bodies as they only seem to want the head!

After a couple of days, we were resigned to the fact that she’d probably been taken or just gone somewhere to die and we wouldn’t find her. Then, after being missing for 4 days, I opened the door to the cat in the morning and there was Gladys – happy as you like, wanting food! She wasn’t particularly hungry but ate and immediately disappeared again.

We knew she wasn’t broody, or sitting on eggs anywhere as she hasn’t laid eggs in ages. The next time she disappeared for 9 days – and again, wasn’t particularly hungry, as she wasn’t interested in the chicken feed when she returned, she wanted some of Jax’s cat food, so I gave her some.

Then off she went again, this time for 10 days, and turned up and knocked on the door for food.

Glady, the nomad?

So, we had questions…

  • Where did she go?
  • What did she eat?
  • How did she look after herself?

We came to the conclusion that we had raised a nomadic chicken! After doing some research, it seems there are a few options…

  • She’d found herself a secret chicken paradise. Chickens are surprisingly capable of becoming semi-independent when they have the opportunity.
  • She may have established a second home. 🌳 As she is capable of flying into trees, she may have found a good roosting tree away from the house, and a chicken that sleeps high in a tree is mainly safe from foxes and ground predators.
  • She could be following seasonal food. 🍓 Rural France can apparently provide a great chicken buffet! Insects, seeds, fallen fruit and berried, (we have several fruit trees and berry bushes in the fields), vegetation, worms etc. And as she’s not desperately hungry when she returns, she’s obviously foraging.
  • She’s gone completely feral! Some chickens can become remarkably independent if they’re allowed to free range over a large area. If Gladys has spent years learning the territory, avoiding predators, and foraging for food, she could have developed her own territory!

I still wanted to know where she went when she disappeared!

This is the funniest part – we had watched her to see which direction she took when she left, so we could solve the mystery. But NO! Gladys was a clever chicken! Every time I tried to follow her, she sat down and didn’t move, allowing me to stroke her. She purposely waited until I’d gone back inside and then disappeared! We spent ages looking around our land for her – looking up, looking down, looking in and under hedges, in outbuildings and barns – NO SIGN OF HER! If she were there, there would be evidence – chicken poo for a start – and a lot of it! And feathers! But nothing!

Queen Gladys I

After she disappeared for the fourth time, it struck me that she could be in the ruined chateau in our grounds – it has several underground tunnels, there are trees growing out of it and dense foliage, which is damp – so it would be a perfect place to avoid predators, forage for insects and berries and fly up high at night. It’s not somewhere we could fully investigate as it’s unsafe!

In the end, we came to the conclusion that Gladys was retired – she had acres of French countryside to explore, a guaranteed food source by foraging, excellent predator avoidance skills and the ability to roost in trees – she simply didn’t want us to know where she was. When she got bored or wanted a more gourmet style meal, she simply strolled home, knocked the door, and got room service! She was living her best life – she no longer lived with us – we lived in her territory!

Chickens clearly aren’t as stupid as their reputation suggests. They have surprisingly good memories, can learn routines, recognise individuals, and learn from experience. Gladys had clearly worked out she could have the best of both worlds.

  • Free accommodation at Le Chateau
  • Free range food during the day
  • And catered room service by knocking on our door when she wanted it!

Our chateau was built in 1129 and has been a feudal castle, a place for the French resistance and loads in between – I think it finally found its rightful owner…

👑🐔 Her Majesty Gladys I, Queen of the Château, Defender of the Hedges, Mistress of the Tunnels, and occasional visitor to the kitchen door to supervise the staff!

I think there was something very special about Gladys. She was an old hen who had nothing useful to do anymore. She wasn’t producing eggs, so she didn’t need to raise chicks, she wasn’t part of a flock hierarchy – she’d basically just reached retirement and decided to spend it exploring her kingdom! She knew she could forage for food – there are fruit bushes and trees, an abundance of insects and we always put plenty of water out for her. And she could get gourmet food when she fancied a change!

She wasn’t lost. She wasn’t confused. She wasn’t desperately trying to get home. She was just perfectly capable of looking after herself and what a character she was!  

Last week, and aged about 7, she collapsed outside our door and was very disorientated and couldn’t stand. She was very weak – no sign of injuries. From previous experience, we knew it was just that she was old and it was time to let her go.

We will miss the old girl, she gave us plenty of laughs, lovely eggs and finally decided for herself that she would be Queen of all she surveyed during her last months.

I hope you enjoyed the curious case of our Gladys. I just couldn’t let her go without telling her story!

Long live Queen Gladys I – we won’t ever forget you – and nor will we ever know for sure where you actually went when you disappeared!  

The Metrics that matter – and what you can ignore!

Person reviewing analytics beside text: Which metric is the most IMPORTANT? Reach vs. Impressions – Does it matter? Stop stressing over Vanities! Am I looking at the right numbers? Engagement Rate: A key indicator? Followers are just numbers? How to prove ROI? Which one REAL success? Is CTR important? Save time: Track only vital stats Data overwhelm! Likes are vanities! Traffic to Followers are just numbers? Stop stressing over Vanities! Can I ignore SHARES?

One of the biggest problems with Facebook and Instagram insights is that there are so many numbers to look at. When you’re run off your feet, running your small business, there’s just not enough time in the day to look at every single one – and the good news is that you don’t have to!

You don’t have to be a social media data analyst as well as everything else! You simply need to understand enough about the numbers so you can make better marketing decisions.

There is no single most important figure!

There really isn’t – it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your social media posts.

  • If you’re trying to grow your audience, follower growth and reach may be useful.
  • If you’re trying to build engagement and community, comments, shares and saves become more important.
  • If you’re trying to drive people to your website, link clicks matter.
  • If you’re trying to generate enquiries, messages and website visits will be more important than likes.

So, the first question to ask yourself is ‘What am I trying to achieve?’ Then you know where to start.

Metric 1 – Reach

Reach is worth looking at as it tells you how many people your content was shown to. But don’t think that just because you have a higher reach, that it’s a better post. That’s not necessarily true. A post can reach thousands of people and generate absolutely no meaningful response.

A different post might reach a much smaller audience, but result in comments, shares, website visits or enquiries.

Reach tells you about visibility – it doesn’t tell you about value. 

Metric 2 – Shares  

For most businesses, shares are one of the most interesting things to keep an eye on, because they mean that someone has thought that your post is worth passing on to their followers.

Why might it be shared? It could be that it’s funny, inspirational, useful, relatable or because they think it might help their followers. Whatever the reason, the point is that it’s been shared – they didn’t just scroll past.

So, if you get shares, look at the post and see why – what made people want to share it? Then you can think of ways to create similar content with the same qualities.  

Metric 3 – Saves

Saves are another useful metric – it again shows that you stopped the scroll long enough for someone to read your post and think it’s worth saving for later. Saves are often the result of educational or inspirational content.

If you get a save on your posts, it’s worth looking at it and finding out why – again, you can then create similar posts in future.

Metric 4 – Comments

Comments – this is my favourite metric! It shows that your content has started a conversation, or someone might be asking a question or sharing their opinion of what you’ve written.

Comments give you useful information about what matters to your audience. Look at the type of comments you get…It’s inevitable, you’ll get the odd ‘love this’, ‘cute’, or just ‘have a good day’. But you’ll also get comments such as ‘I’ve been struggling with exactly this’, or you may get a question asking for more information or giving you an example of their experience.

These comments can help give you more ideas for future content and spark a two-way conversation – or both. Your audience is telling you what they like, dislike or what they could really use help with.

Metric 5 – Link clicks and website visits

If you want to achieve driving more traffic to your website, this is the metric to look at. You might post something that gets 50 likes – you might post something that only gets 10. But if the second post generates 8 website clicks and the first doesn’t generate any, which one is more useful to your business?

This is another reason why likes shouldn’t automatically be your measure of success.

Metric 6 – Profile visits

This tends to be more linked to Instagram – profile visits can tell you that your post has sparked curiosity. Someone saw it and thought that they need to check out your business – so they go to your profile to find out more.

BUT, if lots of people are visiting your profile, but very few are following you or contacting you, look at your profile.

Is it clear? Does it clearly explain who you are, what you do/sell, or what you help people with? Does your personality shine through. Is there a clear reason why someone should want to click on your website to find out more?

Sometimes your insights don’t just tell you what’s working – they also help you find out where you need to improve things.  

Metric 7 – Follower growth

Ok, so I know that I have said before that you don’t need to become obsessed with follower growth – and you don’t, but it does matter.

It matters in that it’s useful if your growing audience are potential customers. But 2,000 random followers aren’t necessarily better than 500, if those 500 genuinely like your business and want what you sell or offer.

Remember too, that net follower growth gives you a more realistic picture that simply looking at how many new followers you’ve gained. Look at this metric more as a trend than a daily score. Are you gradually attracting the right people?

Now – what can you ignore?

OK, maybe not so much ignore, but more you can stop being obsessed about!

Likes – they’re not meaningless as they are a useful indication that someone enjoyed your content. But they don’t tell you everything – and there are people who scroll through Facebook and Instagram and just stick a like by every post.  

Don’t be disappointed if your post doesn’t get lots of likes, it might still generate website visits, profile visits, enquiries or sales – and even shares and saves. You need to look at the bigger picture.

Impressions – This is a number that can be useful, but if you’re already thinking the analytics you already know about are a lot, you could discard this one. Impressions are useful if you’re trying to understand how often content is being shown. It only tracks visibility – let me give you an example. Your post shows it reached 100 people, but impressions say 300. Your reach is the actual number of people who were shown it – impressions are the number of times it was looked at, so could be multiple times from one person. It could be that on one particular day; your post appears in the same person’s feed every time they go into it. This will count as 1 reach, but multiple impressions. So, not really an accurate number.  

Don’t worry about…

  • The fact your engagement rate went from 4.2% to 3.9%. It will fluctuate every day.
  • Don’t worry if your reach dropped slightly from one week to the next.

Your audience behaves differently every day and from week to week. You know that there will be some weeks that you see businesses you follow in your feed – other times, you won’t see any that you know or follow. This all affects your numbers.

  • The algorithm changes
  • People go on holiday
  • School holidays happen
  • The weather changes
  • Life happens

All these things affect the numbers…surprisingly! My advice is to look for patterns, not tiny fluctuations. 

Don’t worry about your follower count from yesterday. You may have gained three followers; you may have lost six. Your follower count isn’t going to tell you much about how your marketing is performing.

This is one statement I always remember from some training I did early on about social media…

You’re building a business, not taking part in a popularity contest.

This is so true! I see businesses posting that they got an award from Facebook for starting conversations or for putting out engaging content. I’m going to share something now – I HAVE NEVER EVER had any of these in the whole 14 years I’ve been in business – NOT ONCE!

It used to really bother me – now it doesn’t – I’m happy for those of you who do, but I’m happy that my content is liked because my audience say so and react! That’s not to take away from those who do get these recognitions – I’m pleased that small businesses get noticed – and Facebook absolutely should do that!  But if, like me, you don’t get those accolades, don’t let it worry you!

Finally, here is a summary of what you should track… 

  • If your goal is visibility – look at Reach
  • If you goal is engagement – look at comments, shares and saves
  • If your goal is website traffic – look at link clicks and website visits and check you have those links in your profile or bio.
  • If you goal is audience growth – look at follower growth and net follower growth.
  • If your goal is enquiries – look at messages, profile visits and website clicks

Finally, if your goal is sales – you need to look beyond the metrics and look at your marketing and how it actually contributes to sales. For sales, marketing is the most important metric of all – your strategy, your content, and how it all fits together.

Remember – your aim isn’t to create one lucky post, it’s to understand your audience well enough to create more of the content they actually want to see – and that’s where your metrics help. 

If your goal is more sales, I can help you look at your marketing strategy and help you build a workable one, along with a content strategy and your customer journey – all in easy to follow, step by step instructions.

Message me if you want to get your marketing on track for more sales.

Marketing Made Simple. 

Don’t be fooled by viral Facebook posts – how to spot a social media hoax!

Man fact-checking alien hoax story on laptop in home office

Over the past few weeks, I’ve started to see similar Facebook posts popping up again. The post claims that Meta has changed its rules and that you need to copy and paste a statement onto your timeline to protect your photos and personal information.

This same post sometimes worded slightly differently appears every year or so and the good news is – it’s not true! It’s a hoax.

Why it’s not true.

When you create a Facebook account, you agree to Meta’s Terms of Service. Those terms explain how your content can be used to provide the service. A disclaimer on your timeline does not change the contract you’ve agreed to.

The post usually starts with something dramatic – designed specifically to get your attention and to make you panic about your personal data. Something like:

  • Big day tomorrow…
  • A lawyer has advised everyone to post this…
  • This was on TV…

The posts I’ve seen start with ‘Don’t forget that tomorrow marks the start of the new Facebook rule, which allows them to use your photos….’ Here are a few more excerpts from the post…

  • The violation of privacy can be punished by law.
  • Every member must post a note like this.
  • If you do not publish a statement at least once, it will be technically understood that you are allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in your profile status.
  • I HEREBY DECLARE THAT I DO NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION FOR FACEBOOK OR META TO USE ANY OF MY PERSONAL DATA.

OK, let’s deal with this:

  1. Posting a disclaimer doesn’t override Facebook’s Terms of Service
  2. Real policy changes are announced through official channels, not randomly given to people to post with no evidence!
  3. The post contains several red flags.

People often share these posts, not because they’re being gullible, but because they are genuinely worried for themselves and their friends. The post deliberately creates fear and urgency, so many just think, ‘well, it can’t hurt – I’ll post it just in case.’ I’ve done it myself in the past. Unfortunately, the more people post, the quicker the hoax spreads.

As a marketing coach, it’s a great marketing ploy showing why emotion drives people to share something!

  • Fear – your photos will be used without your permission.
  • Urgency – the deadline is today.
  • Social proof – you see your friends and family posting it.
  • Authority – a lawyer said – it was on TV etc.
  • Simple to comply – just copy and paste.

These are all legitimate marketing principles, but in this case they’re being used to spread misinformation, rather than help people.  

Why do these posts keep appearing?

The simple answer is because they work!

Not because they’re true, but because they’re designed to make people react before they stop and think.

How to fact-check before sharing

  • Look for official announcements on the ‘Meta Newsroom’ or ‘Meta for business news’ pages.
  • Search whether independent fact checking organisations have covered it. You can do this on ‘Google Fact Check Explorer.’
  • ALWAYS be cautious of anything that asks you to copy and paste instructions.
  • Read it and ask whether it makes sense – often it’s very repetitive and really doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Why does this matter for small businesses?

As small business owners, it’s especially important to be careful about what we share. Sharing inaccurate information can affect your credibility – it’s better to say ‘I’ve seen this, (describe the post) and I’m not convinced it’s true, so I’m checking before I share. Or alert me and I’ll check for you!

Every post contributes to the trust we build with our audience, so taking a minute to check whether something is genuine is always worthwhile.

So, if you see one of these….PAUSE – THINK IF IT FEELS TRUE – VERIFY –

It’s worth remembering that protecting your privacy starts with your account settings – if you want more control over your data, the things that actually help are:

  • Review your Facebook privacy settings.
  • Limit who can see your posts and photos.
  • Remove content you no longer want on the platform.
  • Check your ad preferences and data settings.
  • If you’re in the UK or EU, you have additional rights under data protection laws, such as requesting access to or deletion of certain personal data.

Remember – Social media is full of advice, opinions, rumours, and headlines competing for our attention. Some of it’s helpful. Some of it isn’t.

These posts aren’t shared because people are naïve. They’re shared because they appeal to our instinct to protect ourselves and the people we care about. The best thing we can do is pause, check the facts, and only share information we’re confident is accurate.

Have you seen this Facebook privacy post appearing in your feed? I’d love to know whether you’ve spotted any other social media myths or scams recently. Let me know in the comments.