Tag Archives: business

What is social media marketing and how does it work?

In this ‘back to basics’ article, I’m looking at social media marketing and how it can work for small businesses.

In a nutshell, social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms to:

  • build social networks and share information.
  • build your brand.
  • increase your sales.
  • drive website traffic.

It also gives small businesses a way to engage with existing customers and attract new ones.

Social media platforms all have their own data analytic tools that allow you, the business owner, or your marketer, to track the success of your postings and help you identify new ways to engage. As of April 2025, there were 5.31 billion social media identities across the world (DataReportal and Kepios), so SMM has the potential to have incredible reach.  

To ensure your content appeals to your audience, it’s important to post a variety of different posts, including text and image updates, carousels, videos and sharing other content, such as blog posts.

How can I make my SMM work?

To ensure your SMM efforts work and do what they’re supposed to do, it’s important to have the three core processes in place:

Strategy

I know – I hear groans! But the first crucial step to ensure your SMM words is to have a strategy. This is just about defining some goals that you want to achieve with your social media, ensuring you’re on the right platforms for your audience and determining the type of content that will resonate with your target audience. And of course, you need to know who your target audience is.

Your goals might be as simple as driving website traffic or increasing your brand awareness. But knowing these goals means you have something to focus on and aim for.

I’ve written a whole blog post on strategy, so pop over if you want more in-depth information. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of what your strategy needs to include:

  • Clear goals linked to your business objectives or goals.
  • Know your target audience.
  • Conduct analysis on your competitors – look at their successes and failures.
  • Look at your own successes and failures – where can you improve or do better than your competitors.
  • Create a calendar so you know what you’re going to post and when.
  • Create fabulous, engaging content!
  • Track the performance of your posts and change things as you need to

Content creation and engagement

I’ve talked about this a lot on my social media pages, but creating engaging content is the key to your SMM. Content should be relevant to your business, and to the platform you’re posting on…and of course, to your audience.

Content can include blog posts, infographics, videos, images, and a host of other types of content.

I always recommend the 80/20 rule – 80% of content to be engaging, entertaining, educating, or inspiring. Only the remaining 20% should be focused on sales.

WHY?

I hear you!

If you only concentrate on what you’re selling, people will get bored as they know every time they land on your page, they’re going to be ‘sold to.’ And they won’t find this engaging. If you can find ways to be engaging with selling your products or services, it could work, but you need to be able to make your audience feel valued and that you are pleased they’re on your page, so engagement on sales posts is crucial.

Examples of posts for each category

Engaging – the best way to engage your audience is to have them join in. This might be a post that asks a question or an opinion; or simply a post that encourages people to chat about what you’ve posted.

Entertaining – This could be anything from sharing a funny story or joke to sharing an article you’ve seen and asking what they think. Storytelling comes into this part of your content, so introducing yourself or sharing how you got started, why your business has its name, or talk about a hobby you have. It’s anything that will keep your audience on your page for longer than the quick scroll.

Educating – this is an obvious one, but often one that is overlooked. As a small business owner, you have a wealth of knowledge in your area of expertise. So, share some of it, by creating an online tutorial, a checklist, or a step-by-step guide on something you do. You don’t want to give too much away, but just enough to pique their interest and keep them on your page to read more. A lot of my posts (as a service provider) fall under this category.

Under education would also come posts about your products from a ‘benefits’ point of view. You might have described the features of your product, (what it is, what it looks like and what it’s made from) but focus on the benefits – what does it do for your customer and you can make it sound like they don’t know how they lived without it for so long! Just be careful to be truthful and not rely on AI for your descriptions as they can be hilariously OTT!

Inspiring – Inspiring content covers quite a big area – it might be that you inspire people through motivational posts, wellbeing posts or posts about how to feel better/look better. Quotes are often inspirational so they would come under this category, and storytelling, especially if you have an inspirational story to tell, such as how you overcome all the odds to do XXXXX..

Planning and scheduling

This is very simple – ensure you plan your content, so you know what you’re going to post at least a week ahead. This helps you save time and effort, and you don’t have to react or think of something to post on the spot. Planning also means you can divide your posts into themes – it might be that one week you do a ‘Christmas in July’ week, or a week dedicated to a particular collection you create and the next week, have a different theme.

Once you have your plan and have created a week’s worth of posts/stories, then use a scheduling tool to schedule them to go out. I just use Meta, which I find works well, but there are other host sites out there who will do this too. Once your content is scheduled, you can get on with other tasks in your business.

Engaging with your audience

We all talk about this all the time. When you post content you will get responses, and these must be replied to in a timely manner. This can often trigger conversations that you sometimes take offline, and it may lead to a sale or consultation.

Schedule time to engage with your audience as this is where you can show your personality and have a good old chat. I try to engage this way in the morning for an hour – whenever I can find some time at lunchtime and then again for a couple of hours in the evening.

It’s not just about replying to comments on your content either, you also need to visit other peoples’ accounts and comment on their posts. The only thing I would say is to PLEASE do it in a genuine way – there are too many people just copying and pasting ‘Have a great day’ or ‘Happy Monday’ (or whatever day it is. These comments will not help the algorithm as these short, sharp sentences are noticed, so they may actually be more harmful to your page. I try and reply with a question in the hope I can get that person to engage, but it doesn’t always work.

So, visit and leave genuine comments – read the post properly and answer any questions.

You also need to make time to find new people to follow – this can be very time consuming as you don’t want to just follow anyone – they must be someone you’re genuinely interested in, or who you think may be your target market. 

Paid ads

I’ll admit, I don’t do this. I am lucky in that I find I don’t have to advertise as my business ticks along nicely for what I want it for.

But some businesses do find that paid ads work well for them. Paid ads can amplify your reach an engagement. You can target specific demographics, such as age, location, interests, and behaviours. And it can contribute to driving traffic to your website, boost your engagement and increase your sales. But you need to have a really good strategy and patience to get it exactly right…unless you want to pay a marketer to do it for you, then you’ll have an expert on board. Obviously, this option needs to have a marketing budget, and you’d need to have enough for more than just a one-off ad.

Measurement

The last point in this article about the basics of SMM, is measurement. This is something that so many small businesses don’t think about – or don’t know about.

If you use FB or IG, you can see your insights. This gives you details of your reach, how many people have engaged with a post, who is commenting and how many new followers you have. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the number of followers, but it’s important to look at your engagement. Which posts are the most popular? Have a look at those posts and the comments to find out why – then you can replicate this and get your engagement up with more popular posts.  Similarly, what’s NOT working? Again, see if you can find out why. Then you can either bin that type of post or change it slightly and try again with a different tactic.

Conclusion

Even if you’ve had your business for a while, sometimes a trip to the basics can point out something that you need to do but have simply overlooked due to more pressing issues!

I hope this has helped and if you have any questions or would like help with your social media marketing, just contact me.  

Navigating the pressure of social media – the need for constant engagement

In today’s digital world, social media has become a crucial tool for small businesses as we all strive to reach a wider audience and build our brands. Although social media gives us several benefits, the pressure to maintain that all important presence can be overwhelming. As a small business, you’ll find yourself wearing many different hats and juggling loads of different roles and the pressures of keeping your business in the spotlight on social media is so demanding, it can exacerbate the overwhelm.

Are you feeling the pressure of social media?

Does it make you feel anxious – and then when you do post or show up in a ‘live,’ do you compare yourself to others and think you could do better?

Unsurprisingly – IT IS NORMAL TO FEEL LIKE THIS! We all do!

So, how can you navigate the pressure of social media and help relieve those feelings? Hopefully, this article will help…

The Need for Constant Engagement

One of the main pressures faced is the expectation to constantly engage with your audience. This is very time consuming and at the same time, you’re trying to balance the demands of running a small business with the need to maintain this active, engaging social media presence. At the same time, you’re aware you need to comment on other posts, reply to your comments, post content that will attract attention etc. etc. and it all becomes a bit too much and can lead to unnecessary stress. So, how can you manage this while keeping a healthy balance?

The potential impact of social media

Before looking at some simple strategies to help, it’s important to understand the impact social media can have, so if you have any of these symptoms, you can recognise them.

Psychological – Studies have shown that excessive use of social media can cause feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Constantly comparing yourself to others can affect your self-esteem.

Distraction from real life – social media can become a way to escape from reality rather than engage with it – distracting you from real life responsibilities, relationships, and experiences.

Time consuming – It’s so easy to get lost in social media and hours can pass without you realising it, which can affect other parts of your life.

Strategies to help you manage your social media

Let’s have a look at what you can do to alleviate some of that overwhelm and get things into perspective.

Set boundaries

Set yourself some clear boundaries for using social media. Decide specific times of day when you will check your accounts and stick within those limits. This helps prevent mindless scrolling and helps make sure you stick to your other important tasks – business or personal.

Use technology wisely

Your devices are going to constantly ‘ping’ to let you know you’ve had a new notification – these are so difficult to ignore – after all it might be important! It never is! So, when your social media allotted time is over, switch your devices to silent or even switch them off (you may need to keep your phone on for personal reasons, but other devices can be turned off.

You can use a ‘do not disturb’ mode during work hours or personal time.  

Set Realistic Goals

Some small businesses are so hung up on their results. How many followers, reach and wanting immediate results. But the reality is, not every post will go viral (if any) and not every campaign will give you immediate results.

Define what success looks like for you and your business (ignore all other businesses – they’re not yours!). It might be that success means increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, or boosting sales. Setting realistic, measurable goals and expectations, will help you focus your efforts. It’ll also help to assess your progress with very little stress.

Plan and Schedule Content

Creating and posting content can be time-consuming – and extremely stressful if you just go with the flow and do it when you feel like it, with no plan.

To alleviate the stress around creating and posting content, it’s a good idea to develop a content calendar that shows what you will post and when. This sounds complicated, but it’s not. I’ll share how I do mine. I usually plan and create my content for the whole of the following month.

See the box below – I simply write down the month and all the dates straight down the page, with the day of the week next to them. Then I fill in the days I know what content to create – like my Wordy Wednesday and Tuesday Blog – then look at what posts I can do to link information from my blog, or something from the special days of the month list I produce and post. I also think about personal posts, for example introduction to myself and business, a post about one of my digital products, a general marketing post about something I’ve seen, learnt about or in response to a question I’ve seen in my comments or online.

30 JuneMondayWorld social media day – taken from special days list
1 JulyTuesdayBlog post – insert title
2 JulyWednesdayWordy Wednesday – insert word
3 JulyThursdayPost linked to blog
4 JulyFridayGeneral marketing post/personal/ promotion of digital products/introducing next week’s theme
5 JulySaturdaySaturday shoutout – insert business
6 JulySundaySilly Sunday – joke

This gives me my content plan for the month. I then create my posts one week in advance and schedule them as this saves so much time and effort. I do sometimes go in and tweak posts by adding something I’m going to be doing or something that’s happened to keep it more personal.

I just use Meta to schedule my posts, but you can use other tools such as Later, Buffer or Hootsuite (to name a few) to automate your posts.

This helps avoid the overwhelm of having to react or think of posts on the spur of the moment.  

Make real life interactions a priority!

Spend quality time with your family and friends and take part in community events, or hobbies. Real life interactions with other people are way better than online ones and provide you with meaningful engagement that social media can’t replicate.

Practice mindfulness   

This is just about looking before you leap! Before logging into your social media accounts, ask yourself why you’re doing it and what you hope you achieve. I don’t mean when you’re posting or doing your intentional engagement at your allotted time, but when you just mindlessly go on because you’re bored – being intentional can prevent it from becoming a mindless habit.  

Keep an eye on your feed

Unfollow or mute accounts that don’t add value to your life or those that make you feel negative. Follow accounts that bring joy to your life, or accounts that inspire, educate, or entertain you.

Track your insights or analytics

Keep an eye on the performance of your posts etc. by regularly checking your analytics or insights. I don’t mean every day – I look on average once a week, sometimes less. This gives you exactly what it says on the tin – insights into what your audience likes and their behaviours. You can see what works and what doesn’t and clearly see which posts/stories resonate with your audience. Knowing that you’re on the right track helps alleviate that overwhelm and pressure.  

Look after yourself!

This seems obvious but oh so easy to overlook!

  • By setting boundaries and taking regular breaks throughout the day when you need to will help.
  • Step outside and get some fresh air and make sure you stay hydrated and eat properly. This is so easy to forget when you get absorbed in social media.
  • If you have a marketing budget or can afford it, think about hiring a social media manager to create posts and schedule them for you, or to help with some of the tasks you hate to do. This helps alleviate pressure.

Taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of your business.

Sometimes, the only way to manage your use of social media and the negative impact it’s having on you, is to step away from it for a while. I’ve seen loads of people do this – even if it’s only for a couple of days or a week or two. Stepping back allows you to breathe, rest and re-evaluate your relationship with social media and how it’s affecting your life.

Conclusion

While social media gives great opportunities for small businesses, it also introduces a host of pressures that can be challenging to manage.

Recognising these pressures and developing strategies to tackle them can help you and your business thrive in a healthier and happier environment.

What are your thoughts on this?

If you need any help with your social media, contact me and we can have a no-obligation chat.

How to find your Unique Selling Proposition

There are so many small businesses out there and we all face competition from other businesses every day.

These days consumers are very tech-savvy, so they invest time researching their options before they buy anything, so in order for you to gain their business, you need to stand out from the crowd.

That’s where your Unique Selling Proposition or USP comes into play. This is what differentiates you from your competitors and makes your brand more appealing.

This can take some time and effort – and a bit of creativity to identify as there are few brands who are truly unique – but there are parts of every business that have their unique points.

A USP is often confused with the elevator pitch, which I’ve written about before, so just as an aside, here is the difference:

Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is about being engaging and friendly, clear, concise, and informative, which is a few sentences stating who you are, what you do and the value you offer your customers, which is the ‘hook’ to attract them.  

It’s called an elevator pitch as it’s designed to take no longer than 30 seconds to say – roughly the amount of time spent in an elevator between floors, to keep you focused on being succinct.

This is primarily used at networking events to attract potential customers and start a discussion.

USP

Your USP is what makes you different to your competitors. This is often used in marketing materials or when talking to customers who are ready to buy. So, let’s expand on this and find out how to find your USP.

How do you find your USP?

Your USP is based on the strengths of your brand and what you do or provide for your customers/potential customers. At the bare minimum, you should be able to answer the question…

“What makes your brand different?”

Yes, it’s not an easy question to immediately answer, so it’s worth spending some time thinking about it. Your USP needs to resonate with your target audience and focus on why customers should buy from you – what do they care about the most?

A USP could include:

  • Lower prices
  • Higher quality
  • Fastest delivery
  • A unique location
  • Innovative products or services
  • Fabulous, long-term aftersales service

Or anything else that will influence your potential customers’ purchasing behaviour, but these will just form part of your USP.

Top of the list is that your USP puts your customers’ needs first.

OK. Let’s dig deeper.

To define your USP, you need to…

Focus on your customers.

I’m always banging on about this, but the customer experience is the most important part of your business and is at the heart of your USP. These days people are bombarded with persuasive ads every day and face so many choices, it’s important you understand your target audience and understand their needs and challenges, so you can be that solution!

So, look at…

  • How do your customers shop? Do they shop online, or do they prefer to see and feel products before they buy?
  • How will they use your product or service? This is important to know so you can help them picture themselves doing just that!
  • How does your brand align with your customers’ experience? What’s it like to interact with you either face to face or online?

Once you’ve answered these questions, write down what you offer your customers in a basic statement – for example (fill in the gaps) …

My business makes xxxxx (products) or provides XXXX (services) that are unique to us. We are targeting these customers (your target audience) because we provide them with XXXX (enter the value you give or the solution your products or services offer to a challenge or problem).

This is a good starter for ten! Now, dig deeper!

What are your business values?

You created your small business for a reason. What are your values and how do you stand by them? Look at your mission or vision statement and see how your customers’ needs fit into that.

Your USP will change over time as you incorporate new products or services and as your business evolves.

Look at your strengths and weaknesses!

Here’s where a bit of brainstorming comes in, so you might want to recruit the help of a friend, employee or partner who knows your business well.

Start with your strengths and make a list – ask ‘what do we do best?’ When answering, keep your customers needs in mind. How does what you do best solve a problem or challenge for your customers?

Then look at your weaknesses – be honest here – it might be that you identify a weakness that actually wouldn’t need much work to make it a strength – and it addresses a potential customer problem or challenge.

It could also be that you identify a weakness that needs urgent attention!

Look at your competitors.

To ensure your USP will stand out, you need to know what you do better than your competitors. This takes a bit of research. Look at three of your competitors – check out their social media pages and their website. Look at their product or service descriptions and try to identify what their strengths and weaknesses are. Sometimes it’s hard to find something, but 9 times out of 10, you’ll notice a gap – something that either you do – or could do – to fill that gap. That can then be something you do different to your competitors.

It might be that:

  • Your overall customer experience is better.
  • Your website is easier to navigate and find what they’re looking for.
  • You make it easy for your customers to pay for your products or services.
  • You may have stronger processes or better knowledge in certain areas than your competitors.
  • You might have a better delivery service.

On their own, none of these examples are a USP, but when combined with your strengths and the unique customer experience you offer compared to your competitors, it’s that contrast that forms the core of your USP.  

Still unsure about your USP?

If you’re still not sure about your USP, answer these questions:

  1. What are the features and benefits of what you sell or offer? Think about them from a customer’s perspective.
  2. What inspires you? You might be inspired to fill a gap in the market, provide a solution to a common problem, or be inspired to have innovative products or services. It might be that you’re inspired by artistic or creative tendencies that give your products the edge over your competitors.
  3. Can you split your customers into groups, (segment them)? By this, I mean knowing your customers and how their needs vary – and that they may be on different parts of the journey to buying your product. They might be in the ‘I’ve just found you’ segment, or at the other end – in the ‘I’ve bought from this business before and want something new.’ Similarly, you could have a product that people use in different ways, so how and why they find you could be completely different.    

Answering these questions will help you see more clearly what is unique about your products or services, so you can then write your USP. And it doesn’t have to be hundreds of words. It needs to be short and to the point, getting across exactly what makes your business unique and what makes you stand out from the crowd.

You can then share your USP on your social media introduction, in your bio on Instagram or on the homepage of your website.

A USP will change as your business evolves so it’s worth going back to it once a year to ensure it’s still relevant to both your business and your customers.

If you need any help with your USP, I offer coaching sessions to help you better understand your brand and marketing. Just contact me if you need help.      

Why is it important to understand your target audience?

You have a small business, you write beautifully crafted content, you engage on social media – but you’re still not selling. Why?

When you have a business, the ultimate decision about whether they are going to buy from you or not lies with your customers or potential customers. You can do as much as you possibly can to persuade people to buy your products or services, but without a strategy that provides personalised experiences for your ideal customer, you’re not likely to make many sales.

When you know who your target audience is and have a comprehensive understanding of who you’re talking to, you can create the right kind of content to attract that target audience. By having your own small business, you are competing with hundreds of other businesses who do the same as you, so having a marketing strategy is imperative to stopping your messages falling on deaf ears!

Why does your target audience matter?

I’d say that knowing your target audience is the most important part of your marketing strategy, for these reasons:

  • If you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one. You don’t want to appeal generally to everyone out there, you need to appeal strongly to a specific group of people who are likely to want to do business with you…people you have a connection with.
  • If you know exactly who your audience are, you know what their pain points, or problems are. You can see their problems from their perspective and what obstacles they need to overcome to solve those problems. Then you can think about how your business can provide those solutions with your products or services.
  • Knowing your audience’s problems, you can work out how to market the solutions you have to their problems. You can show them how the features and benefits of your products/services can help them and why you are best suited to do that.
  • When you are creating content and forming new relationships with potential customers, you need to be able to speak their language. By this, I mean using the same terms and phrases that they use to describe their problems. Then you can build relationships by using that language to show that your business can solve those problems.
  • You target audience can also teach you how you can create better products and services that suit them best. You can use the understanding you have of their problems, along with any feedback

How do you identify your target audience?

Identifying your target market is all about three things: Demographics, Geographics and Psychographics. 

Demographics

  • What is their age and gender?
  • Are they married or living together?
  • Do they have children?
  • What do they do for a living?
  • If you know what they do for a living, what is their rough income?
  • Do they own their own home?


You can usually gain demographic information from your existing customers by simply talking to them. Social media accounts can also give you relevant demographic information. If your customers are on Facebook, for example, you can usually see information like date of birth, relationship status – people seem to love to share about their lives on social media, so you will probably see if they have children or grandchildren, what they do for a living etc.

  • You could also get this information from feedback you get. For example, if you make and produce quality rag dolls, you may have feedback that says, “Love your product, my daughter/grand-daughter loves her doll and hasn’t put it down since she received it.”  This tells you that your customer is a Mum and Grandma and that she likes buying things for her grandchildren.
  • Knowing the demographics of your existing customers makes it easier to tailor your marketing accordingly.
  • If you’re not sure who your target market it, go to Google and research some of your competitors, people who do the same as you, and look at their marketing techniques. Who are they targeting and how? What are the messages they are sending out? What images do they use? What media do they use to advertise? You will then have an idea of what direction you should be aiming for with your business. 

Geographics

This is the simplest – where do your target market live? Are they local to you? Just in a particular region? In the same country, but miles away – nationwide? Or international – in other countries?

Psychographics – why customers buy what they do

If demographics look at who your customers are, psychographics take you a bit further into their lives to find out why they buy the things they do. What motivates them and what makes them tick.

Psychographics include things like:

  • Interests
  • Activities
  • Religious beliefs
  • Attitudes
  • Personality
  • Spending habits
  • Lifestyle choices

If you combine the data you collect on the demographic and psychographics of your customers, you can paint a picture of what your potential buyer (or your buyer persona) will look like and who they are. Let’s have a look at one example …

Buyer persona 

Let’s say you’ve done your research, and this is what you have discovered…

Demographic data

  • Female, aged 40 – 55
  • Married with children
  • Household income around £45,000
  • Stay at home Mum who works part-time

Psychographic data

  • Interested in health and fitness
  • Likes to be eco-friendly
  • Is an active member on Facebook and Pinterest
  • Likes socialising with her small group of friends
  • Loves cooking

This demonstrates the difference between the two sets of data and why it’s important to gain both – you have more insight into what your customers might like. Then you can look at your products to see what would interest this kind of customer.

How do you make this relate to your business…and therefore your marketing? I’ll share some examples…

If you have a crafting business, for example, and your crafting activities were soap making or candle making, you’d know that this customer likes natural ingredients that are environmentally friendly and safe for children, so that could be part of your marketing angle.

If you are in the catering industry, making cakes or preserves, she might be interested in special birthday cakes for her family or in your preserves and pickles that use natural ingredients.

Her children are likely to have birthday parties and her friends are likely to have children of a similar age, so anything you make from a crafting perspective may be of interest – bunting for parties, toys, jewellery, etc. And as she enjoys socialising with her small group of friends, she may be interested in hosting an at-home party to buy your craft products.

Where to find her

Once you have this data, you’ll also know where to find her and this is especially important. She may attend local fitness clubs or gyms; she may visit a local spa; she will enjoy lunches out at restaurants or bars with her group of friends. This is where you could leave your flyers and business cards.

Now you know what your customer looks like and what she’s interested in, you can tailor blogs to suit her, you can make products you know she’ll like, and you can find out if she has any particular problem that your products can solve. 

How do your customers like to buy their products?

These days, I would hazard a guess that most of your customers will want to look at products/services online before they buy. They have such a wide choice that it’s important you make yours stand out. People spend their commute to work, breaks, lunch hour, evenings and weekends online, usually browsing through social media sites or looking for something specific. If you are not on these platforms then your products/services will not be found.

Selling online

Social Media is a great way to promote your products or services and to advertise what you do. But you also must bear in mind that not everyone is on social media. If your target market is in the older age bracket, they may prefer not to be on social media, so you will have to reach them another way.

Even though they don’t do social media, your target audience probably still uses the internet to search for things they want. You could set up an online shop.

A website is a crucial business tool – you can link it to your Social Media sites and vice versa. A website can help you reach a wider audience – it gives you a shop front that is open 24/7 – you can even sell when you are sleeping, and you can sell to anyone in the world!

You can put more information about yourself and your business and products or services that you can on social media and, if you have an online shop, you can point your customers to that site. Whatever you choose to do, there is always a marketing technique to support it. If you have a website, you can also choose to add a blog, which could also be a fabulous tool to write about your individual products or services … just another way to get your name/business out there.

I hope this article has given you the inspiration and information to dig deep into your target audience in more detail. I know that once you have all the relevant information, you’ll stand a much better chance of marketing your products or services in the right way…and get those sales.

Share this post to help other small businesses just like you. And if you would like help in identifying your target audience, you can always have a chat with me – or you can find a very helpful workbook on my website shop, which is a step-by-step guide – https://cindymobeymarketing.com/product/how-to-identify-your-target-audience-workbook/

Common small business marketing problems (and how to fix them).

As we blast into 2025, marketing for small businesses becomes ever more challenging. Marketing constantly evolves and technology, algorithms, as well as consumer behaviour changes every year, which brings their own problems to solve.

So, as a small business it’s sometimes hard to keep on top of everything and anticipate what might be the marketing challenges for this year. Sadly, I’m seeing so many businesses going under – most are due to personal reasons, but I’m sure there are some that just don’t know how to get back out there.

Hopefully, this article will shed some light on some of the problems we small businesses face and give you some guidance on how you can stay ahead of the game and use marketing to keep your business afloat this year.   

No marketing strategy

I’m not saying that you do, but it’s often due to small businesses not having a marketing strategy in place. Many small businesses don’t realise that you need to have long-term plans as well as the shorter more tactical goals and plans.

A marketing strategy covers both by outlining your long-term goals and then HOW you’re going to achieve those goals through marketing efforts in the short term, by defining your target audiences, your messaging, content, channels, and metrics.

The problem – without a specific strategy, it’s difficult to determine which channels are best to reach your target audience – to know who they are and where they hang out. And if you don’t measure the success of the things you do put out, such as on social media, you don’t know if what you’re doing is effective. Also, without clear goals, it’s a challenge to know where your business is and if you’re making any progress.

How to fix it – having a good marketing strategy looks at everything, from identifying your target market and having buyer personas, understanding customers’ pain points and motivations, to finding out what channels you can use to best reach them. Setting achievable goals will help you get to where you want your business to be – then you can work on the tactics you need to implement to achieve those goals.

Creating focused content

I know we say this all the time, but good content is what will get you in front of your target audience and grab their attention. But creating good content needs you to have a really good understanding of your audience and how you can address their needs, wants and pain points to engage them and promote conversions to sales.

The problem – if your content doesn’t speak to your audience, then you’ll have low engagement, which will lead to any marketing efforts failing. If your content doesn’t grab attention, people will scroll on by.

How to fix it – Know your audience – create buyer personas so you understand who and what your content needs to reach and do. Make sure that your content solves problems your audience might have and provide them with solutions or actions that will help them, depending on whether you are product-based or service-based.

Your content needs to be purposeful – moving your potential customers on a journey from finding you, to the consideration stage and then finally to buy. This isn’t a short journey! So, create content that:

  • Educates
  • Entertains
  • Engages
  • Inspires

Include good call to actions and continually be thinking about guiding them to the next step. Ensure your content includes relevant keywords that they’ll understand, good descriptions and give easy to find links to your shop, blog, or website so they can find out more.

Always use a wide range of posts – don’t always just do selling posts.   

Connect with your audience.

Linked to the last point, you need to resonate and connect with your audience. If you don’t, you could lose them.

The problem – If you don’t connect with your audience, your marketing efforts will be in vain. If you don’t put out the right messaging, or give the right impression, your reputation could suffer, and you’ll have reduced brand loyalty.

How to fix it – Ensure that you do thorough marketing research and ask your audience for regular feedback (ask for it), so you can better understand what they want, need or like. This helps you understand how your products or services can solve their problems.

Use storytelling and emotive content that grabs attention and builds that all important trust. Listen to feedback and learn from it – even negative feedback can be turned around.

You can also use email newsletters and blogs to connect with your audience, giving them more in-depth information and content, which helps nurture that all important relationship.

By taking all of this into account, you can build lasting relationships, where you understand your audience and they trust you and become loyal customers.  

Social media

The reason that many social media accounts just don’t work is because of inconsistent posting, lack of engagement and failure to give an audience what they want – and the algorithms don’t always help.  

The problem – You’re not growing on social media, or your growth is very slow. This, in turn, limits who your posts reach, and engagement becomes almost non-existent, so you don’t get those sales. Without these things, you miss out on building a strong community and driving traffic to your website, shop, or blog.

How to fix it – You need to have a good social media strategy, which includes regular posting, interactive content, perhaps collaborations with other businesses or influencers. You need to engage with your followers through comments and messages to build relationships. And you need to use insights or analytics to track how you’re doing and adjust accordingly to ensure you’re on track.

  • Have a content calendar, even if it’s just written on a pad or in a word or excel document. Plan your posts ahead, so you know what you’re doing and when – schedule posts to help remain consistent.
  • Engage with your audience through replying to comments and messages. Try to answer comments with a question where you can encourage a conversation or engagement. This gives you a deeper understanding and connection with your audience.
  • Create visually appealing and valuable content that answers questions for your audience, gives them details of what they want or need, and caters to their interests.
  • Collaborate with other businesses, supporting and sharing each other’s posts. If you can get an influencer on board who aligns with what you do, they’ll help you reach a larger audience.
  • Review your social media insights to understand what works and what doesn’t. And act on it accordingly!

People scroll through social media to be entertained or to find a particular business or product. But mainly it’s scrolling until something catches their eye. By including a mix of posts, incorporating humour, storytelling, tutorials etc. you’ll capture attention.

Algorithms  

GROAN! This is probably THE most challenging thing that small businesses face. The algorithms constantly evolve, which can have a huge impact on your engagement and visibility.

The problem – The constantly changing algorithms can prevent people from seeing your posts, your reach can go up and down, engagement can plumet one minute and suddenly surge another. This can have a detrimental effect on your business and your social media efforts can feel ignored.

How to fix it – Try and stay informed on algorithm changes and adapt where you can. Make it your priority to have high-quality, engaging content that encourages interaction. If necessary, book a coaching session with a social media expert so you are up to speed with best practices.

Understand that algorithms are based on the user experience and relevant content, so creating the right kind of content is vital.

You can’t control the algorithms, but you can control the content you put out to ensure that it is valuable, relevant, and engaging for your particular target audience. If you analyse your insights regularly, create valuable content you know your audience likes, you can adapt to the changes and your social media presence will be better.

You’re losing interest in your marketing.

This happens! You just sometimes feel like you can’t be bothered with it all.

The problem – lack of focus in your marketing efforts can leave to a reduced impact and effectiveness of your content, diluted messages, and chaos. Your engagement will fall, and you’ll get less customers and followers will fall away.

How to fix it – Ensure you have clear business goals and marketing objectives that align and support them.

Regularly review and amend your goals to make them more achievable. If a goal seems too big a mountain to climb, break it down into more manageable chunks.  

A marketing strategy will help you remain focused on what matters to your business and gives you direction as to what you need to do to keep your business at the forefront of your target audience’s minds. It also helps you focus on the channels where your target audience hangs out, so you’re not trying to be on loads of different platforms and spreading yourself too thin.

Standing out in the crowd

2025 is going to see more new businesses and products emerging and standing out in the crowd is a big challenge for small businesses.

Ensure you have a unique brand position (USP) that states clearly what makes your product or service different or better than the rest. How are you different from your competitors?

Make sure that you focus on giving an excellent customer experience at every single touch point that your customers have with your business. From website and social media to blog posts and email or messages, ensure that the service you give is second to none, be transparent and consistent and you’ll find customers will be loyal to you and your brand and will recommend you to their friends and family.

Finally, produce high quality, original, engaging content that perfectly highlights you and your business and your expertise.

Conclusion

I’m sure that there are many more marketing problems out there, and marketing is never an easy ride. 2025 is going to continue to bring challenges to small businesses all over the world, but by being proactive and having a robust strategy, you’ll be able to navigate anything that’s thrown at you.

Marketing isn’t just about short-term gains, it’s the marathon, building long-term relationships with customers and having a sustainable plan for your business’s success. Having a strategy in place and with your dedication to your business and creativity when it comes to your content, you can achieve your goals, and your business will be a success. If you’d like help with any of the things I’ve mentioned in this article, feel free to get in touch. I offer a free 30-minute consultation.

Why a website is important for small businesses!

Why do I need a website?

Ever since lockdown, people are being pushed to shop local and support small businesses – and quite right too! This is possible because of the internet. Small businesses are increasingly on social media, or have online shops, but the problem is that, as a small business, you don’t own those online sites, so if for any reason your business was banned and your social media site taken down – or if an online shop site had a problem with their servers, you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But if you have your own website, you own it and you run it how you like.

A website:

  • gives you the opportunity to have an online shopfront and reach customers outside of your local area and it’s a great way to grow your business.
  • Could be the first impression potential customers get about your business and all you do or sell.
  • Can be found on google and other search engines, so having your own website makes you easier to find.
  • Gives your business credibility and gives you an edge over similar businesses that don’t have a website. It also helps you compete against other businesses in your niche.
  • Means you have your own domain name so you can be more easily found online.
  • Is your online catalogue or brochure, telling the world all about you and what you have to offer.     

If I want to find out how to do something or where to buy something, the first thing I do is look online. Most transactions these days take place online and therefore some of the traditional marketing techniques have been replaced with online strategies. However, a surprising number of small businesses do not have a website.

Mind boggling stats!

According to Statista, out of the nearly 8 billion people in the world, 5.35 billion of them, (around 66%) have access to the internet.

And, on average, internet users spend six and a half hours online every day.

Every second, more than 20 million people are looking on the internet, on their mobile devices or PCs, buying everything you can think of….from books to houses, from kitchen gadgets to garden tools. If you, as a business owner don’t have a website, you are missing a trick as your business won’t be found, so you are missing out on potential sales.

There is a cost involved, but it can be cheaper if you do it yourself – there are so many easy-to-follow website hosting companies that are fairly easy to set up. I paid a web designer to do mine as I didn’t have time and prefer to have someone keeping any eye on it, as well as having someone who knows what they’re doing when there’s a problem, or I want some quick updates done. I just find it gives me peace of mind!   

I know that many small crafting businesses use online shops to promote their business, and it works very well for them. Again, there are costs for this service, and at the end of the day, you don’t own your shop, so don’t have any control over it, but I understand why some find this a better option. Your online shop is still open for business 24/7, unless they have any glitches.

Promote your business 24/7!

As the title suggests, having an online presence means that your business is ‘open’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week….even when you are asleep. Information about your business, your services, what you sell, are there at your customers’ and potential customers’ fingertips. People are always looking online – they research products before they buy and if you have an online presence, and you happen to sell what they want, you could make a sale. If you don’t have a website, you can be almost invisible in searches on search engines…and in this day and age, you can’t afford to be.

Building reputation and credibility

A website gives you the chance to highlight your abilities, your products, and services for the world to see – they can see the quality and price, and if you have an online shop, they can buy directly from you. If you don’t have a website, your potential customers will go to a competitor.

Through your website, you can be seen as an expert in your field, and through the recommendations and comments from satisfied customers, you can be seen to be reliable, trustworthy and that your products are top notch.

When you give out your business card, it will tell potential customers a little about your business. If you’ve given them your card because they’ve seen your stall at a local market, they will assume that they can log onto your website when they get home and see more of your products. Imagine their disappointment if they get home to find no website details…and of course, this will lose potential sales.

Again, you may give a link to your online shop, but it doesn’t give as much information as a website can – and you can’t have a linked email sign up, which helps you promote your products and services even more.

First impression

Not only does having a website make you more credible, but it also shows that your business is established and that you are experienced at what you do. Even if your competitors are stronger than you, a well-built, mobile friendly website can entice customers to choose you instead. You might operate your business from the tiniest desk space in the corner of your dining room, or make your products in your tiny spare bedroom, but when you have a website, your customers don’t see this. All they see is the power of your brand – size doesn’t matter!

Advertise your business

Your website is your ultimate advertising tool. For a relatively small investment in the cost of setting up your website, you can reach millions of people. It is that one brochure that the whole world has access to – no printing and re-printing when you have new products – you just add them online at the click of a button. You can include tons more information and images than you could afford to put into a brochure.

Of course, there is a place in business for brochures and flyers and advertising in local magazines or newspapers, but your online presence is always available, not just for the limited time that you can afford, or until your product set changes. It’s a fantastic marketing tool that is constantly relevant and up to date.

Save you time

Your website can tell people who you are, where you are and what you do. Without a website, you may spend endless wasted time on the telephone or email giving people directions to where you are, giving details of the products you sell or the services you offer. Your website gives all these details in one, easy to access space, available 24/7. Not only does it give these basic details, but it also gives more detailed information about your products. Then, when people do contact you, it’s generally about something more specific or to buy from you or use your services.

Reach a wider audience

Advertising in your local paper, putting out your business cards and attending markets, conventions, and networking events, are all brilliant ways of getting your products and brand out to a wider audience. However, with a website you literally have a worldwide audience. Business often comes from word of mouth, and this is a great way to get local business, but in order to expand and reach customers that don’t know you, the internet is the way forward.

Beat your competition

If you have a business, you only have to look on Facebook or on the internet to know that you have hundreds of competitors who do the same as you. If your competitors have a website, then why shouldn’t you have one? The joy of having a website is that it doesn’t matter how big or how small your business is, it will help you reach more people and increase your sales. Through your website, you can gather information about your customers. You can use your website to host an online survey to find out what your customers want, and online forms can be used to easily contact you to request a quote or ask for further information. When you know what your customers want, you can develop products or services to solve their problems or meet their needs.

Customer Service

Your customers are the most important part of your business. You can improve the service you give them by including FAQs and a Contact Us page. Customers can not only leave comments and recommendations, but they can also ask questions. You can collect your customers email addresses, and with their permission, can send them regular updates about new products. This makes them feel valued and valued customers will come back to you time after time.

I hope that I have helped you to see the benefits of having a website. You may have thought that a website is a waste of money, but it is the exact opposite. You may have to invest a little to get your website written and built professionally, but you will soon get your investment back when new customers find you and start buying from you.

If you’d like to have a look at my website, click on the link below, and as always if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Check out my website

How to create a sales funnel for your small business

There is so much to do when you have your own small business and the most difficult thing that my followers tell me about is how hard it is to get sales. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer, but a sales funnel is a way that can help push your potential customers in the right direction.

A sales funnel gives you a structure to encourage your potential customers through, on a journey which is designed to turn them into happy customers. There are lots of ways to do this, but I’m going to explain in this post how to create a simple, but effective funnel that anyone can use.

What is a sales funnel? 🥴

A sales funnel is simply a pathway you want your potential customers to take on their way to loving your products or services enough to buy them. It’s about moving them from first finding your business, to them taking their first action.

It’s called a funnel because, like a funnel, the number of potential customers will decrease as they move through each stage, so you’re left with the ones that want to buy from you.

Before you think about your funnel, you need to think about two specific questions:

  1. What is the most important problem that your products or services solve for your customers?
  2. What is the first step you want potential customers to take?

No matter what you do, you will solve a problem for your customers:

🍔 You’re a restaurant – your customers are hungry – you provide the solution.

🧵 You make greetings cards – your customers want a card for a specific occasion – you provide the solution.

💻 You provide a marketing coaching service – your customers need help and guidance on how to market their business – you provide the solution.

🎄 You have a crafting business and make Christmas items – your customers need to decorate their house/tree/cake for Christmas – you provide the solution.

I could go on, but I’m sure you see where I’m coming from.

What is the first step you want potential customers to take? You may want them to go to your website, browse your online shop, engage with your social media posts, read your blog posts, or subscribe to your newsletter. All these things contribute to you getting to know potential customers and leading them on their journey.

The four stages of the Sales Funnel

There are four different stages in the sales funnel:

  • The Awareness stage – where you are focusing on attracting potential customers. This is about promoting your business – putting out good content on social media sites, where you can highlight your expertise in what you do – be it creating products or offering a service. 
  • The Education stage – this is where you capture leads and really build relationships with those potential customers, by demonstrating how you solve their problems. This is where you want them to see that you are an expert in your field. Whether you:
    – write ‘how to’ articles to help your audience.
    – take the most beautiful photos that mesmerise your audience (and sell them on canvas, on mugs, on cards, magnets etc).
    – video yourself creating your product so your audience can see the exact process you go through.
    Through these things, you’ll show your potential customers that you are an expert at what you do, you know what you’re talking about and that your products or services can help them.   
  • The Decision stage – this is sometimes also called the engagement stage because this stage is where you truly engage your audience to take one action. If your sales funnel is working, your audience will take one small step closer to a sale. That one little ‘yes’ can bring you closer, but you must lead them there. This is where a call to action often comes in. You TELL them what you want them to do next. That could be:
    – sign up to your newsletter.
    – read another of your blog posts.
    – watch a video
    – contact you
    – go to your online shop or website
    – follow you on SM – giving them details of all your socials
    Once they say ‘yes’ to one decision, they’re likely to say ‘yes’ to others.
  • The Action stage. Just like the title suggests, this is where your potential customers take positive action and become customers. Your leads have converted to sales! This is sometimes known as the Conversion stage. During this stage, your customers will buy your products or services, or buy your online course, opt-in to your email list, request more information from you about your product or service or book a call. 

Conclusion

Sales funnels always sound very complicated, but they’re not if you follow these simple steps. 😀 You may have to adapt some of it to suit your particular business, or depending on what you want your end goal to be. I’ve used the end goal for this funnel to be ‘make a sale’ but you can use the same principle for any other goal you’d like to achieve with your business.

If you still think this is a bit overwhelming and need help in putting a plan in place, I can help you with this through a couple of coaching sessions. 👩‍🏫

Get in touch if you want to find out more, or if you want my help.

Pricing for small businesses

Whenever I talk to a small business, pricing is one of the things that most struggle with. But just as you have a strategy for your business, and spend time marketing what you do, having a pricing strategy is just as important.

Pricing can be difficult to get your head around – for example, why are some products worth so much more than others, when they basically offer the same thing?

Settling on a pricing strategy

There are different ways to settle on a pricing strategy that will work for you – and lots of things to take into consideration, such as:

  • Your customer – how much are they willing to pay for your products or services?
  • Your competition – what is your competition charging?
  • Costs – you need to know all your costs in order to be able to fix a price which makes you a profit.

 So, you need to find a pricing strategy that offers good value to your customers, competes with your competitors, and gives you a profit. This isn’t an easy concept to grasp.

Pricing strategies for small businesses

There are loads of pricing strategies out there, but these are just a few that I think are more relevant to the smaller businesses that I interact and work with.

Competitor strategy

If your products are competing with lots of other businesses who do the same as you, competitor pricing or strategy might be the best way to go. First, you need to research your competitors to find out what they charge for similar products to yours, and then monitoring their prices to ensure that your prices are the same or slightly lower.

This is a strategy that is most commonly used by supermarkets.

Penetration pricing

If you’re just starting up, or you have new products that are like your competitors, this is a popular choice. You start by offering a low introductory price for your new product, (or products if you’re just starting) and then gradually increase the price as the market gets used to your brand.

Economy pricing

If you offer low cost, budget products, this is a good pricing strategy. But you MUST ensure that you’re able to produce bulk quantities for a low manufacturing cost and still be able to turn a profit.

Price anchoring

If you sell both premium and budget products, then this may work well for you. You can put your lower-priced alternative next to a similar premium product – customers are more likely to buy the cheaper model. This gives them an immediate comparison without having to look at other brands or businesses.

Psychology pricing

It probably won’t surprise you to know that emotion influences a lot of the things we buy. Psychology pricing is the way that businesses set their prices to influence how customers perceive the value of a product or service.

The typical way of doing this is pricing just below round numbers or choosing prices that make products seem more affordable or attractive. If something is priced at £300 for example, and the same thing is priced by another business at £299, it’s more likely to be bought at the lower cost – although there is only a penny difference in reality.

You also see this in advertising, when you see for example, ‘8 out of 10 cat owners agree that this cat food is the best’. If they said ‘80% of cat owners agree….’, consumers are more likely to think – mmm, well 20% of cat owners didn’t agree, so that’s not good. Saying 8 out of 10 is exactly the same – it just sounds better psychologically.

Another example, and this is a clever one! Two companies are putting out offers on their products. One offers ‘25% off’ and the other company is offering ‘buy one, get the other half price.’

Which would you go for?

In fact, they are both exactly the same. The only difference is that the second offer saves us having to work it out in our heads. And mentioning the word ‘half’ creates an illusion that we are receiving 50% off the original price, but you’re actually getting 25% off each product.

How do I work out the cost of each of my products or services?

Deciding which pricing strategy to go with is all very well, but you also need to ensure that you make a profit on the things you are selling. If you buy products in bulk at a cheaper price and then add what you want to make on top, that’s easy to calculate. But if you make your own products or offer a service it can be a little more complicated.

Products

You need to understand what costs you have.

  • Materials – how much does it cost you to buy the raw materials to make your products?
  • How many products can you make with those raw materials?
  • Utilities – does it cost you money to produce your products (such as electricity to run machines, or maybe you use a lot of printer ink)?
  • Time – how much time does it take you to make one product? This is something small businesses often forget. To price your time, you need to set yourself an hourly rate that you want to earn from your business, and you can then divide that hour into how many products you can make in that time.
  • Packaging and postage – you need to also take this into consideration.  

Once you have all the costs above you can work out the cost of each product.  

I appreciate, as a small business myself, that the price you choose must be what your customers will pay on a consistent basis.

Services

Charging for your services is definitely challenging and one that I’ve struggled with a lot over the years. If your prices are too high, customers won’t come to you – and if your prices are too low, potential clients will think you are cheap or inexperienced. You must find the fine balance between the two.

As with a product business, your costs need to include admin and overhead expenses, as well as any materials you need to provide your service. There is no magic formula! As a service provider, you’ll probably find yourself changing your pricing from time to time, just as you’ll have to change your services to keep up with the latest trends.

  • As a service provider, you MUST know your competition. As well as looking at what they’re charging, it’s important to know exactly what they provide for that cost. You’ll find some that are cheaper than you want to be (but do they have the same experience and skills as you)? You’ll also find those that charge much more than you are expecting, (do they have more experience and skills than you do)? Once you have this info, you’ll have a broad price range to start with.
  • You also need to decide whether you will charge a flat rate or whether you will charge by the hour. This will depend on what services you offer. For example, I charge per hour for the coaching I offer, but for email set-up or social media content creation, I charge a flat rate, which has already considered the amount of time it takes me, plus overheads.  
  • You still need to know how much you expect to earn per hour – that is, how much is an hour of your time worth?

Finally, as a service provider, especially if you’re freelance, it’s worth remembering that you won’t be working a straight 8 –10-hour day and nor will you get paid for all the hours you do. Most freelancers find that only 50% of their time is billable. The other 50% is spent marketing their own business, finding new clients, and doing admin!  

Conclusion

I hope this has helped you see pricing a little more clearly, although I realise it is always going to be a bit of a grey area!

So, to recap, do your research so you know what your competitors do. Take all your costs into account, including your time. Then decide what you’d like to earn per hour and go from there.

If you need any help, as always you can drop me a message. I’m happy to help.

Creating problem solving content for product-based businesses

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of people ask about how to create problem solving content. And why would you need to do that, especially if you’re a product-based business? There is a lot of information out there about problem solving for service-based businesses, so this article is for all my product-selling followers! And by writing this and creating social media content around this subject, I’m creating problem solving content!

What is problem solving content and why do you need it?

The first thing I want to say is that you need to address your customers’ problems or pain points, without them feeling you’re giving them the hard sell. This is a real turn-off!

With social media being such a popular medium, it makes sense to have some engaging content that makes them think. Everyone loves to read a story and people love to be able to express their opinions or join in with a debate, so let’s look at how you can address this.

Problem solving content captures your followers’ attention by giving them an answer to a particular question or concern they might have. And provides tangible examples to illustrate your points.

Why do you need it? It helps your customers and potential customers imagine how they can use your product and that it is something they NEED in their life! Being able to picture themselves using your product and the benefits it brings is half the battle to getting a sale.

Understand your audience’s problems.  

I know I bang on about this all the time, but the first step to creating the content is understanding what problems your customers may have. This once again boils down to knowing your target audience and what challenges they face, what they might be interested in and any obstacles they might have (or excuses) for not being interested in what you have to offer.

One of the ways to obtain this information is to ask questions or conduct polls on social media, asking for feedback from your audience. For example, you may have a very popular product – ask WHY your customers like this particular product.

And ask what else they would like to see from you.

Give your audience solutions they understand and can relate to.

Once you understand the problems or worries your audience has, it’s time to think of ways to show them the solution – one they will understand and be able to relate to.

Don’t just tell them how to solve a problem, show them. You can use case studies, examples from reviews or recommendations, or an online tutorial or short video to illustrate how your product can solve a problem. This helps make your content interesting, engaging and gives them ideas as to how your products can be used.

Let me give you a few examples for different kinds of products:

You sell jewellery – it’s always exciting to show images and maybe slide shows of your jewellery, but if you have a customer who has bought something from you for a particular occasion, ask them to send you a photo of themselves wearing your jewellery. You can then use their review with a photo – it packs more punch.

Give ideas as to how a particular piece of jewellery could work. You might sell earring and necklace sets that would be perfect for a bride to wear on her wedding day. Photograph those sets with a wedding inspired background – if you use Canva, there are wedding inspired backgrounds you can use. Then, instead of just focusing on the bride, why not show other sets that may be in different colours that could be gifted to bridesmaids? If you do jewellery with different length chains, you can say that in your content.

If you make your own jewellery, show the process in step-by-step photos or be brave and do a time lapse video, stating that you offer a bespoke service for those special pieces or gifts.  

You make hair accessories – you can use all the same ideas as for jewellery, but also you can include children in your marketing. Children love hair accessories for many different occasions, such as going to school (could you offer scrunchies or hairbands in school colours for example?), or the same with a bit of bling for parties.

When you are advertising your products, show or give ideas as to how they can be used. If you do adult accessories, (as someone with long hair that gets in my way), you could push the angle of headbands/scrunchies are not only stylish and pretty but keep your hair out of your face when you’re gardening or at the gym.

You sell gift items – this is a broad category. You might sell soft toys, handmade items or personalised items, or a host of other things. But the principle is still the same. Give potential customers ideas on how they can be used and what events they could be used for. This could be birthday’s, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birth of a baby, christening, wedding – the list is endless. But if you have products that could be adapted to all these special dates, you have a bigger market for your products.

If you have safety features or must have safety certificates for your products, mention this, so people are happy that a product is safe to gift to children for example.

You sell beauty products, personal products, or home cleaning products – there are lots of ways to show and tell that these products solve problems. For skin products or personal products, it could be that it will make your skin glow, help with skin problems, is an effective deodorant, softens your skin after shaving – the list is endless. The key here is to do videos of you using the products or having lots of before and after photos from customers, or photos of customers using your products. Reviews about how it helped solve a particular beauty or personal problem will also give you social proof that your products work and are worth investing in. Tell customers that they don’t contain any nasty chemicals and if they are allergy friendly.

The same applies to cleaning products – are they eco-friendly and don’t contain harsh chemicals?  Do they work? Create videos showing you using the products, for example on a sink – before and after. Use customer reviews to give you social proof.

I could go on with all the different types of business out there, but the principles are the same, no matter what business you are in.

Be honest with your audience.

This goes without saying, but transparency is really important. Be honest about what customers can expect from your products and their solutions. Don’t promise something you can’t deliver or you’re not sure is correct.

Always set realistic expectations.

Engage with your audience.

This is more important than a lot of people realise. Talk to your audience. When they make a comment on your post, always reply to it and if necessary ask questions and engage in a conversation. If someone asks a specific question, answer it or if you think it might be more personal, reply that you will send them a private message – and ensure that you do!

Ask for feedback on your products, your content, your videos and ask if there is anything else your audience would like to see.  

Do you write a blog or have your own newsletter?

If you write a blog, you can use it to go into more detail about a particular product. A post on social media shouldn’t be too long or people won’t read it, but if they read your blog or have signed up to your newsletter, you have a captive audience, who WANT to know more or find out more about you and your business, including your products.

So, if you create a post that you could give a lot more detail about, write a blog post about it and advertise that on your social media account. And if you have a newsletter, include a paragraph every time about one of your products and how it solves a problem. Again, you can advertise this on your social media posts. This not only offers a more in-depth service, but it also directs traffic to your website or blog.  

Final thoughts

You need to know your target audience and what they want. You must understand what kind of problems they have that your products can solve.

If you feel you are struggling with how to create problem solving content for your business, I can help. Sometimes it’s a case of ‘two heads are better than one.’ I offer an hour’s brainstorming session, where we can discuss your business, find out more about your target audience and set a plan in place to create that problem solving content that will speak to your customers and ultimately get more sales. Either message me or drop me an email to make an appointment – cindymobey@outlook.com

Now, put your thinking cap on and get creative!