Tag Archives: marketing your brand

Don’t underestimate the value of Word of Mouth Marketing

What is Word of Mouth Marketing?

Word of Mouth Marketing seems like a pretty obvious one, but it is absolutely crucial to your business. It’s when your customer’s interest in your products or services is spoken about in their daily lives. In simple terms, it is free advertising generated by the experiences that your customers have with your business. This can be anything from a great customer service experience, where you have gone the ‘extra mile’ to help them with a problem, or maybe solved a problem they didn’t realise they had. Something extraordinary, or just a product or service that they are really pleased with and want to tell their friends and family all about it.

It really is one of the most powerful forms of advertising as 92% of consumers trust their friends over traditional media, according to The Nielsen Global Survey of Trust in Advertising.

Word of Mouth Marketing (or WOM Marketing) includes viral, blogs, emotional and social media marketing.

Example of WOMM

WOMM is all about creating a buzz around your business – your products or services. The more you interact with your potential target market and with your existing customers, the more the name and reputation of your business will spread. It kind of creates a snowball effect. For example, say you own a restaurant. You create a comfortable atmosphere, the food is great, the service is exemplary, BUT, not only do you do that, you make every single customer feel special. Their dining experience is perfect because you have gone above and beyond to exceed their expectations. When they leave the restaurant, they will leave a review on your social media site talking about the fabulous service they received, about what a great place it is to eat and what a wonderful time they had. That’s great, but the snowball effect is that they will not only leave a review , they’re also likely talk to their friends and family about what a great night out they had, and tell them they ought to try out your restaurant. This is part of the ‘creating a buzz’ scenario. And this can be followed up by you…

ALWAYS reply to reviews and feedback; thank customers for their comments and say how pleased you are that they enjoyed their meal at your restaurant. If you have a website, point them to the website to sign up to your newsletter, so they will be informed when you have special events on, (you might have live music nights, for example or do a special ‘Curry night’ or ‘Chinese night’). And advertise these events on your social media pages for those that don’t choose to sign up to a newsletter, (they’re not for everyone)!

Ask your customer who has left a glowing review if you can use it for your marketing. Share the review on your other social media sites, website and in your newsletter as ‘proof’ that your place is the best! If you get some really glowing reviews, you could ask the customer a few questions about why they enjoyed that particular evening – what made it special for them? Then you could turn this into a mini case study as to why your customers enjoy your restaurant…and give your customer their five minutes of fame, whilst at the same time making him feel very valued and that his opinion really does matter to you.

It’s all about TRUST

If a customer feels that they are listened to and valued, they will start to have an emotional bond to a particular business. This is the reason that most large Corporates have a whole team of people, who talk to their regular customers to discuss products, either with a personal visiting service, via a review of products the customer has (insurance products for example), or on the telephone. This works well as the customer feels that the company cares about them and is interested in what they are likely to do next in their lives. Let’s face it, this kind of interaction is not only to make sure that customer has the right insurance products, it’s also a fact finding mission to find out if there is anything else that could be sold to them in the future. But the point is that the customer feels that the company they have chosen cares about them.

No matter how big or how small your business is, TRUST is a huge issue and one that needs to be nurtured with every customer you have. If they trust that you have their best interests at heart, that you genuinely care about them and value their opinions, they will be loyal to you and will always be willing to try out new products or services that you offer. And, they’ll tell their friends that you have a new offer going on!

Can’t I just make up some great reviews?   

Yes, of course you can, but this wouldn’t really achieve very much as you won’t have that real person going around telling their friends all about you. It may help you attract new business, but you’re starting off from a deception. There is an official body in the USA that has crafted a code of ethics for the industry.

“The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is the official trade association dedicated to word of mouth and social media marketing. Founded in 2004, WOMMA is the leader in ethical work of mouth marketing practices through its education, such as WOMMA Summit, professional development opportunities, and knowledge sharing with top industry marketers. WOMMA’s membership is made up of the most innovative companies committed to progressing the word of mouth marketing industry through advocacy, education and ethics.”

https://expertfile.com/organizations/WOMMA-Word-of-Mouth-Marketing-Association

The word of mouth marketing strategies they promote are “credible, social, repeatable, measurable and respectful” and there is no tolerance for dishonesty.

How is WOMM different to referral marketing?

Word of Mouth Marketing is about creating that buzz, no matter what kind of business you have, how big or how small you are, or the kinds of products or services you offer. The more you engage with people, the more the name of your business and your business ethics will spread. It’s all about the snowball effect.

Referral marketing, on the other hand, is a more focused and targeted marketing media. It focuses your attention on a specific person to actively encourage that one person to refer their friends. It is a segment of WOMM, but it’s a more proactive way of generating new customers. You have control over the whole referral process to convert a particular customer to buy your products or services. This could be through the use of funnels, for example.

How to do WOM Marketing

Engage with your customers and potential customers, not just collect them. You might have hundreds, or even thousands of followers on your social media account, but are they all interested in what you do or sell? Or are they just there, not really interested, but more of a ‘follow for follow’ basis? Do they interact with what you post? Do they feel that connection with you? It’s about building engagement, building a relationship with followers that are genuinely interested in what you do and feel a connection to your business. The more passionate they are about you, your business, your products, your services, the more likely they are to share what you do, share your posts and tell people about their experiences.  

 

If you set yourself up a strategy, there are things you can do to increase the WOM around your business…things like a partner programme, affiliate marketing and using reviews.   

Your biggest marketing asset is your existing customer base, so create something worth talking about and encourage your existing customers to talk about it too.

  • People trust their friends and what they have to say. Ask customers to refer a friend…you can give incentives to encourage that. For example, refer a friend and get 5-10% off their next order or get a free gift.  
  • When a customer has bought something from you, or used your services, ask them to leave a review.
  • From the reviews that you get, identify something about your brand that has the possibility to generate a buzz or create something new that will generate that buzz.
  • Get your existing customers on board – you could create a competition, with the winner receiving your new product or service.  

Word of Mouth Marketing is a free and easy way to promote your business, but does take a bit of time and hard work. Gaining trust and engagement with your business is a two-way street, but when it works, you will have meaningful relationships with people who will become your best brand ambassadors.

Brand Storytelling – how to tell yours!

Storytelling is nothing new, and something most of us do every single day without realising it. When you talk to your partner about your day, you’re telling a story – you read stories to your kids or tell them about what life was like when you were young (or as mine used to say ‘in the olden days’) …cheeky little beggars! So, it makes sense to tell stories about your business, so people get to know you and your brand. Stories help you capture your audience’s attention, build loyalty, and get sales. 

What’s different about Brand Storytelling – is it the same as your Brand?

The simple answer is ‘no,’

Your brand is an essential part of your business strategy.  Branding is the broader marketing and communications plan, such as content, your mission and vision and all the things that make your business ‘you.’ Branding includes the image you want to portray as well as your reputation.

Read ‘Get a better brand identity,’ one of my other blog posts, for more in-depth information. 

Brand Storytelling is a part of your brand strategy. It shows your human side and builds that engagement between you and your customers. It’s about sharing stories that your audience can identify with, weaving in the core messages of your business. It’s emotion-evoking, creates empathy, holds their attention so your audience feels the experience, and so helps build trust and loyalty, compelling them to take action.   

Seth Godin, an American author, and marketing strategist, (with a great sense of the humour by the way!), once said,

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.”

Seth Godin

You may not recognise his name, but I’m sure you will have seen this quote before. In today’s climate, where competition is stiff, you have unlimited choice on everything you buy, and you’re constantly being bombarded with ads, not just on TV, but on social media, you need to find a way to make your business stand out from the rest. 

Storytelling is the answer.

The power of storytelling – what people want!

If I could use just one word to describe the power of storytelling, that word would be EMPATHY. People want to feel like they belong, they’re tired of being ‘talked at’ and being inundated with ads to sell to them. I know that I get fed up with it – it’s constant if you work online like I do.

What people want, what I want and I’m sure you do, is to feel a connection with a particular business – have that feeling that ‘they’re just like me.’ Telling stories is what makes your brand more human, you can communicate exactly who you are, what your values are, what you do and how you can help people. The more you do this, the more you will stand out.

When you have a small business, your main focus will be selling your products or services, and I see a lot of businesses churning out post after post just selling their products/services – using the quantity over quality mindset. And whilst, of course, if you bombard people with loads of content with what you sell, something may catch their eye, it doesn’t really connect with them on a personal level.   

Think about the big well-known brands. L’Oréal is a great example. Their tagline that we all know is ‘because you’re worth it.’ Originally this was ‘we’re worth it,’ talking specifically to women. It’s not just their tagline, it’s their brand mission, telling women that taking their beauty into their own hands is empowering and believing that it’s something no one else can control. When you hear that tagline, what do you think? Most of us would probably agree, that of course we’re worth it, we never doubted that!  Its aim is to resonate with women everywhere, no matter what age, colour, race, religion, sexual orientation – it’s just about inspiring us to have confidence in ourselves. 

A quote from their website reads,

“The inspirational and culturally diverse women who front the brand worldwide make the phrase relevant not just for their generation and their mother’s generation, but for generations to come.
Since its inception, “Because You’re Worth It” has been translated into 40 languages and has become the militant tagline uniting women around the world, encouraging them to fearlessly embrace their ambitions and believe in their self-worth every day.”

The point I’m making is that they are telling a story. So, how can you incorporate this kind of storytelling into your brand?

How to tell your brand story

  • Who are you? What is your story – who you are, what you do, what you care about and why it matters. Know what your brand mission and vision are for your business. As a small business, you are not a huge faceless organisation, you can show who you are etc with posts showing your workspace, talk about your hobbies, what you like to do outside of work, your family – show your personality – this is what helps give you your brand story.
  • What do you want people to associate with you? What do you want your customers to think of you? If you were going to buy your products/services, what would you look for?
  • Your natural style – this is about how you portray yourself. Are you enthusiastic about what you do? Do you show your passion for your product or services? Research other businesses who offer the same or similar products or services as you – how do they put their personal style across to their potential customers? I’m not saying you should copy someone else’s style, but it will give you ideas.
  • Be an expert at what you do. Show potential customers that you’re good at what you do. When you do a good job for your current customers, ask them for feedback and recommendations. This helps you have social proof – I always look at reviews when I buy something for example. You could use those reviews to build case studies – the story behind why they bought that product, or if they commissioned a particular product or service, (with their permission of course!)
  • Who do you do it for? This is an important one. Think about the people you want to help or whose custom you’re trying to win. You need to know who your target market or ideal customer is. Show them how you can help them, solve a problem, and let them know why you care. How does what you do improve their day-to-day life? What’s in it for them?
  • 80/20 rule – this is something I often bang on about, but it is relevant to your brand storytelling. Don’t make all your posts about selling. 80% should be content that educates your audience, entertains them, inspires them, and engages them with what you do. Only 20% should be about selling.
  • Don’t forget your call to action – at the end of every story should be a call to action. Tell your audience what you want them to do next. It might be ‘Check out my website/shop,’ it might be ‘sign up to my newsletter’ or something as simple as ‘follow me for more inspiration.’    

Conclusion

Brand storytelling is about getting into the minds of your audience. Humans are naturally programmed to create and listen to stories. They can affect us both physically and mentally, make us feel an empathy to a certain person or a certain business. Something resonates in our brains.

When you watch a film or read a book, how many times do you feel embroiled in the story, so that you see and feel what the characters do? Your brand story will have this effect on your audience when they really engage with your content- and if they feel engaged they will remember you.

Storytelling should be at the centre of all marketing in one way or another. And they will help you stand out from the crowd. Great stories will help your audience understand who you are, what you do and why you do it. 

Share this blog post or tag someone if you think this content will benefit them. And don’t forget, I’m only an email or message away if you’d like to find out more or have some 1:1 coaching on your brand story.

Get a better brand identity

We all want our businesses to stand out from the crowd. Although it takes some time and effort, it’s worth it to have a unique identity that is instantly recognisable. Your brand identity is what tells everyone who you are and what you do, as well as what they can expect when they interact with your business. It’s what helps you gain loyalty from your customers, get referrals, and build that all-important trust.

There are several things that help make up your brand identity – it’s not just about your logo, slogan, and design scheme, but also about the experience your customers get at every touch point with you.

Mission and vision for your business

The first thing to do is to think about a mission statement for your business, which is a short sentence about what your purpose is. We all know Nike’s tagline, ‘Just Do It’ but did you know that their mission statement is ‘To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.’ So, their mission statement encapsulates everything that the company is about and wants to achieve in one short sentence. This is no mean feat, but achievable for your business with a bit of thought. You could always get a few friends round and have a ‘get my mission statement’ party…but make sure you work on the statement before you start drinking…or you could have some very interesting stuff!

It can be easier if you think of your brand as a person – what does it like or do? How does it help people? What do you want customers to remember about your business? It’s important to be consistent across everything you do and give the same high-quality service and friendly attitude to every customer, so they all have the same or similar experience. This is especially important if you’re dealing with a complaint – be consistent; apologise; find out what went wrong and why and then try and put it right, keeping the customer informed. By doing this you can often turn a complaint around into something positive and turn the complainant into a loyal future customer. I think that the main thing to remember is to always consider your branding with every interaction with a customer.

So, now that we’ve looked at the experience you want your branding to give you customer, it’s time to look at the more practical stuff – business name, logo, colours and design – these are important and help shape your brand, but you need to know what the mission statement of your business is first before you begin, as this helps everything else fall into place.

What’s in a name?

The name you choose will depend on what you do. I chose to incorporate my name in my business name. The reason for this is because with a service business like mine, people will often remember my name, but wouldn’t necessarily remember a random name I came up with. If anyone puts my name into a Google Search, they will find pages about all that I do.

You might want to use a name that incorporates what you do. For example, if I made handmade chocolates I might call my business ‘Cindy’s handmade chocolates,’ keeping it simple, or maybe ‘Cindy’s tantalising treats.’ It needs to be catchy and capture the nature of what you do. Take time to think about it as once it’s out there, that is how people will see your business.


Logo – Once you have your name, you could incorporate that into a logo – again to make your business recognisable. As well as an overall logo, you could also have smaller logos for individual product lines.


Brand Colours – The colours you choose are more important than you might think – according to research by web design and marketing company, WebPageFX, people make a subconscious judgement about a product in less than 90 seconds of viewing, and most of these people base that assessment on colour alone. In fact, almost 85% of consumers cite colour as the primary reason they buy a particular product and 80% believe that colour increases brand recognition. Wow! That’s quite powerful.


Tagline – The most important thing with producing a tagline is to be succinct. Your tagline captures what your business does and its values in one, short sentence. For example, Nike use ‘Just do it’ – L’Oréal use ‘..because you’re worth it’ – both very powerful brands with quite simple, catchy taglines that tell you what they want you to remember about them.

To help you produce your tagline, concentrate on the features of your business, how your products make people feel. Make a list of all the good things about your business …do your products enhance someone’s life?…make them feel more beautiful?…provide solutions to your customer’s problems?

Then brainstorm words that describe those things – it might be worth getting a few friends together to help you brainstorm. Once you have a few words, you can think about a tagline.


Fonts – When looking at your brand for the first time, people will notice the colours and the font – the way the brand name is written. There are so many different fonts, so try and choose one or two that enhance your business name…for example if you sell vintage jewellery, look at a vintage font.

Remember that the font you choose needs to be legible, so don’t pick something that is difficult to read. 


Tone of voice – Most big companies go for straight forward language or the ‘plain English’ approach. This helps customers easily understand what you’re saying without having to wrestle with big words, long sentences, or jargon. Keep the language simple and friendly and you can’t go far wrong!

Brand Personality

Brand personality is the overarching name that refers to a set of human characteristics that can be attributed to a brand name. It’s kind of personality traits that your customers can relate to, in that they see something they can identify with that meets some parts of their own personality. 

Finally, a brand personality evokes a positive emotional response from consumers.

So, how does brand personality work?

If consumers identify with certain personality traits of a brand, what are they? The five main types of brand personality are:

  • Excitement – carefree, spirited, playful, modern, trendy, and youthful.
  • Sincerity – Kindness, thoughtfulness and an orientation towards family values, environmental sustainability, or care for workers or communities
  • Ruggedness – Rough, tough, outdoorsy, unfussy, and athletic
  • Competence – Successful, accomplished, and influential, which is highlighted by leadership.
  • Sophistication – Elegant, prestigious, exclusive, luxurious, and sometimes even pretentious

Even though we are very much in an online age, where automation and AI (artificial intelligence) is growing, people still want to have that personal interaction or direct customer service. And research has shown that customers are more likely to buy from a brand with a similar personality to their own.

Your business’s brand personality should shine out of your posts and in everything you do. It can also influence the type of imagery you use and the way you word posts or share your marketing. It’s definitely food for thought.

Examples

Let’s take a couple I used earlier – L’Oréal tells us ‘You’re worth it.’ Their brand is about empowering women of all ages and backgrounds to believe in themselves.  They believe in the quality, efficacy, and safety of their products, and are world leaders in beauty, hair, skin, and perfume. They now target both men and women, but the tagline most remember is ‘because you’re worth it’.

Nike, on the other hand, with its ‘just do it’ tagline, targets sports people driven to achieve their goals. It’s an energetic and modern brand.

A business’s brand should appeal to its target audience and strive to have brand attributes that attract that particular audience.

This has been a very simple way to look at your brand identity and there is a lot more to it, but these are the basics that should help you on your way.

If you need any help, please feel free to contact me.

Networking – does it work?

Networking is something that most small businesses know about and understand its importance. It can help you build relationships, gain new customers, and sometimes it can set you off in a completely different direction!

But what if you’re not sure where to start? Do you know what type of marketing networking will suit your business? Do you know where to start looking for those networking connections?

The aim of this article is to answer some of those questions and more…

What is networking?  

Networking is about interacting with other small businesses, your target audience, and potential customers…in fact interacting with anyone for mutual benefit. This might sound a bit harsh but let me explain. If you are struggling with something in your business, or you have a challenge you’re not sure how to solve, networking within groups on social media, or joining face to face networking groups can help – someone will be able to give you advice or provide you with an answer.

In the same way, you’ll be able to share your knowledge or skills to help other businesses in your network. This will help to strengthen relationships with those people.

Networking plays an important part in any marketing strategy, as it’s an inexpensive and very powerful way to find opportunities with customers, suppliers, mentors, marketing experts, investors, and other sellers or service-based businesses.

It can also help you to raise the profile of your business, share new ideas, increase your sales, find out information to see how your business is doing against competitors and helps you keep up with any latest trends in your particular niche.  

Networking is a skill like any other. Many small businesses feel very anxious about it, but like anything else, the more you do it, the more you get involved in group discussions and take the time to get to know people in the groups you belong to, it’s a skill you can fully develop. The more you do it, the easier it is.

What are the different types of networking?

Networking is one of the best ways to grow your business and your brand. It’s important to help you reach people you wouldn’t otherwise have met on your own.  

The four main types of networking are:

  • Business to business (B2B) – the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses – simply put, one business selling to or supplying another business. This can be products or services or could be a manufacturer selling goods to a business, so they can make their products.   
  • Business to consumer (B2C) – this type of marketing targets the consumer, so businesses selling directly to individual buyers.
  • Social media networking – this is probably the most well-known way to network for small businesses. Social media helps you engage with your target audience and your customers. You can find out information about what people like, attract new customers, get feedback, and build customer loyalty. You can also use it to advertise, promote giveaways, do market research, increase traffic to your website and develop your brand.   
  • Professional association membership organisations – this would be joining professional groups where you must become a member, such as the Chamber of Commerce for example, and are largely face to face groups. They usually incur a fee, but often professional groups run networking evenings where they have guest speakers or training sessions to help you with your marketing.  

Networking as a tactic for your marketing plan

Most small businesses know that networking is important, especially at the start of a business, but it is also important no matter where you are with your business. It’s about creating relationships that in turn could turn into a collaboration, sales or create advocates for your business. So, it is important to add Networking as a goal on your marketing plan.

The goal could be broken down into the skills you need to develop for networking, (all kinds, not just on social media), such as:

  • Listening skills
  • Self confidence
  • Person skills
  • Making a good first impression
  • Maintaining eye contact
  • Patience
  • How to show passion for your business

I’ve talked about this before, but an ‘elevator pitch’ helps make networking easy. An elevator pitch is a short paragraph that takes you 30 seconds or less to say, which describes what your business does. It should include what you do, what makes your business special, what sets it apart from others in your field and why someone should do business with you. Check out the blog I wrote about this.

Having an elevator pitch would be part of your networking goal.

Common mistakes

Networking might not come easily to you at first, but you soon get the hang of it. Practice makes perfect!

These are some of the things to avoid when networking:

  • Don’t focus on sales – networking is about building your brand and reputation. Instead ask questions about other peoples’ businesses and focus on building a rapport that will eventually lead to a sales conversation. But that might not be for weeks or even months!
  • Don’t talk more that you listen! Yes, it is good to have to opportunity to tell your business story but listen to and show a genuine interest in other businesses.
  • If you’re attending a face-to-face networking event, think about dress code. Sometimes formal dress is a requirement, sometimes it’s just casual, so always worth checking.
  • If you’re attending an event, be prepared. Decide what you want to achieve – is it meeting potential customers? Getting referrals, or do you just want to build connections with people who might be able to help your business grow? Knowing what you want will enable you to decide how you will approach people.
  • Not following up – if you say you will get back to someone, make sure that you do. If you exchange telephone numbers or email addresses, drop them a mail just to say hi and remind them who you are, or give them a quick call to do the same. If it’s someone you’d like to work with or get to know better, suggest a coffee, and catch up – or a Zoom call catch up.

There are lots of different ways to network, so it’s just about finding the ones that work best for you and your business.

If you liked this article, please share, and follow for more marketing help and tips.  

Which Social Media Platform?

There are so many Social Media platforms to choose from – how do you know which one will be right for you?

The most popular, according to a report by eBizMBA Rank in September 2016, is Facebook, which is hardly surprising as it is very user friendly. The report gives other top platforms too – let’s take a look…

facebook-2048127_640Facebook – The top of the pile with an estimated 1.1 billion unique monthly visitors. Facebook is a social networking site that enables people to connect with friends and family, sharing photos, videos and status updates/messages. It can be used for fun or for business. It is estimated that over 1 million small businesses use Facebook and is very popular with small business owners in France.

film-589490_640YouTube – After Google, YouTube is the largest search engine with an estimated 1 billion unique monthly visitors. It’s where most people go to watch or share video content. It covers every single subject you can think of from popular music videos and films to Joe Bloggs down the street falling off his skateboard! Anyone can post personal videos or share content.

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Twitter – With 310 million unique monthly visitors, Twitter is a real-time public network, where you often see breaking news first! Twitter limits its users to 140 characters per post, but businesses still use it to interact with clients and pass on information.

linked-in-2668687_640LinkedIn – This is a social networking site for professionals. With 255 million unique monthly visitors, LinkedIn members post a profile of themselves, very much like an extended CV. Users can promote themselves and their businesses, connect with other businesses and even apply for jobs or ask for work.

pinterest-1183717_640Pinterest – This is a fairly new concept, but with 250 million unique monthly visitors, it is fast becoming popular. It’s an image-based visual platform that allows its visitors to create digital bulletin boards where businesses can pin their content. As more than half of its members are women, it’s a great place for businesses whose target audience is largely female should think about being a part of.

google-plus-940316_640Google Plus + – Google Plus or Google+ is an interest based social media platform with 120 million unique monthly visitors. You can post photos and status updates on your profile or you can post to specific communities or groups. Specific communities are set up for different subjects so you can post blogs to specific themes. There’s multi-person messaging, text and video chat called Hangouts and you can run events. It’s a very versatile platform.

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Instagram – This is a visual platform, much the same as Pinterest, with an estimated 1 million unique visitors. Posts are mostly connected to travel, food, fashion and art and it has video and photo editing features.

 

reddit-1460603_640Reddit – This is a little different to the other sites – it is still popular, with an estimated 85 million unique monthly visitors, but the content is voted on by the visitors to the site. It is still a social media site, more of a community where posts are identified by topics, such as technology, music, etc. Users submit links and posts that are of value are ‘upvoted’ and those that aren’t are ‘downvoted’. The voting determines where the post sits on the site – however if your post/link hits the front page, it is seen by hundreds of thousands of people – sending a huge percentage of them to the linked website!

vk-3696008_640VK – I have to admit to not having heard of this one! VK is short for VKontakte – a social media networking site where members can add friends, gain followers and post photos. However it is a largely aimed at Eastern European visitors, particularly Russian. In fact it is the most popular site in Russia.


flickr-881367_640Flickr – This is an imaging and video hosting platform. It is very popular for those wanting to share and embed photographs. With an estimated 65 million users, it is still up there with the best!

As you can see, the top sites are a varied bunch, but all are designed to help people interact with others and share information, photos, videos and messages. If you have a small business, they are a great way to get your brand name, products and services out there. I would probably choose to stick with the more popular sites, but of course it’s up to the individual which site you’d like to choose – just be aware that some may not be as good as others.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about and learning about the different sites and I’d love to know which is your favourite? Put a comment in the box below to let me know which one you like best and why…and if you’ve been inspired to try something new!

Marketing your small business with little or no money

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When you run a business, be it a large corporation or a small home-based business, we all know that at some point we have to dig into our pockets and spend some of our hard earned cash on marketing. But if you’re feeling the pinch, or are just starting out, here are a few tips on how to market your small business with little or no money.

ID-100110228Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google + are all social media sites that can help you market your business for free. Set up an account and get going. Not only can you share details of your products and services, but you can also personalise to show your human self…what you like, what your interests are. Share articles of interest and inspirational quotes, pictures…anything that you think people will like to see.

Email – in order to use email, which is free, you need to collect email addresses of current and potential customers. How do you get email addresses? Give away something for free – people love free stuff. It doesn’t have to be a physical thing; you could give away free information. For example if you are a crafter, you could give away a free information sheet on how to crochet, sew a simple item. The only proviso is that people sign up for your monthly/quarterly newsletter – then send them your newsletter, which is packed full of information about your business, special offers and details of your products or services.

Ask existing customers to refer you to friends and family – offer an incentive for them to do this. For example, you could say that for every five customers that they refer who buy something from you, they will receive a 10% discount.

True stories – Use a real example of a problem you’ve solved for a customer, with a quote from them about how great you are! Turn this into a blog post, an article on your website or add it to your newsletter.

ID-100349134Survey your customers – Send your existing customers a survey. Ask them about the products or services they have bought from you. Ask them what they like best about your products/services and use the information you gain to improve your offering or to promote your business. At the end of the survey, ask if it is ok for you to publish any of their comments….if they say ‘yes’ you have more recommendations and possible stories. And report your survey results in a blog or an article.

Write a blog – Keep in the forefront of your customers and potential customers’ minds by writing a regular blog. There are lots of free hosting sites out there – it just takes your time to get it up and running and to blog on a regular basis.

Have a website – It’s always good to have a website, where people can easily find you and see all your products and services in one place. Make sure it is easy to navigate and engaging.

Free directories –As well as all the directories that you can pay to be in, there are loads of free directories out there. Get your business listed in all the free ones you can find.

Attend networking events – Sometimes these events are free and sometimes you have to pay a small fee to join in. Attending these events is important as you’ll meet other people with small businesses. The purpose is usually to share information and experiences. If there are none near you, how about setting up one in a local community centre or pub?

ID-10035801Enter a business award competition – There’s nothing better than being able to say that you’ve won an award in a specific competition. Even if you don’t win, but are shortlisted in the top ten, it’s still something to shout about. If you do happen to win, you can advertise the fact on your social media pages, on your website, in your newsletter etc. You could also put it in your signature.

These are just some of the ways you can market your business. If you have other free or very cheap ideas on how to market a small business, please feel free to share…

Images courtesy of 1) Master isolated images 2) fantasista 3) nuttakit at FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

10 steps to a successful business

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In order to succeed in business, planning and good organisation are key. When starting up in business, most people are full of enthusiasm and it can be such a disappointment to find that simply by switching on your computer and opening your doors for business, that business will automatically come your way. It would be fantastic if it worked that way, but sadly, we all have to work a whole lot harder than that to attract business and be successful.

Here are 10 ways that might help make your business more of a success in 2016.

  1. Make a plan. Plan your business goals and how you are going to ID-10070652achieve them. Having a good business plan forces you to look at the feasibility of your business – what will work and what won’t work. It makes you focus on the important and essential parts of your business, your next steps, tactics and strategies
  2. Be organised. Complete a ‘to do’ list every day. This will help you keep on top of things that need to be done now. As you complete each task, tick it off – not only does this give you a sense of achievement, it ensures you don’t forget anything
  3. Analyse your competition. Look at what your competitors do. Why are they successful? Look at the price, quality and customer service that your competitors offer – why will potential customers choose your products or services over those of your competitors? Are there any barriers in place that may prevent potential customers from choosing your products or services?
  4. Know what your customers want…not what you think they want. ID-100282581What do you your customers like about your products? What do they currently buy from you, why do they buy from you and do they give you repeat business? If you’re not sure of the answers to these questions, it might be worth conducting a short survey to your customers and asking them. Give an incentive to reply, such as 10% off their first order of 2016. And a further 10% off if they recommend a new customer who buys from you. The more you know about your customers, your competitors and the business you’re in, the more likely you are to be successful
  5. Provide great service – delight your customers! There have been oodles of books written about customer service and delighting your customers. Some of them advise that you delight them no matter what – I even read somewhere that one company gave a refund to a customer who complained about their tyres….and they didn’t even sell tyres! That’s taking it a bit too far. In order to satisfy your customers, you must deliver exactly what you promised to….to delight them, service must exceed expectations. It really is that simple. Do what you say you will, give your customers what they want (solve a problem they have), and thank them for their custom, inviting them to contact you if you can help them further
  6. Measure everything you do. Whatever action you take as a result of planning your business goals, ensure that you factor in a way to ID-10099989measure whether that particular goal and actions have been successful. By measuring as you go along, if you find something that is not quite working, you can tweak it so it works well. List what needs to be measured, for example, how many people read your Facebook posts or how many comment on a post. Then look at ways to improve this – it might be you monitor your posts and see what kind of post is the most successful and then figure out why. If you have success, shout about it! Your customers will feel reassured they are dealing with the right person
  7. Market and advertise. Marketing your business is about planning the future of your business. What tools will you use to promote your business? For example you could…
    -Join a business networking group and talk to people at every opportunity, giving out business cards
    -Direct marketing – brochures, flyers, sales letters
    -Online – website, blogs, articles (give advice, become known as an expert)
    -Social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest etc.
    -Advertising – print media, business directories, ads in magazine and online
    -Trade shows/markets/craft fayres
  8. Budget. I guess that this one is pretty obvious. You need to know ID-100263887what you can and can’t afford to do and plan accordingly. At the very least, it’s a good idea to have business cards – maybe flyers and definitely think about Social Media and your online presence, such as a website.
    Can you do some of the promotion yourself or do you need to outsource it? And look at what kind of advertising you can afford.
  9. Learn from your mistakes. We all make mistakes and when you are running your own business, you will undoubtedly make several, especially when you first start up. The trick is to learn from your mistakes. If you make a mistake, own up to it – this creates a culture of openness and honesty in your business. Find out why and how the mistake happened and correct it. If you find you can’t correct it, put plans in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again. If you can’t work out why or how the mistake happened, google it – chances are someone else would have made that mistake in the past and they might have published a solution! Once it’s sorted, move on – don’t continue to dwell on it
  10. Stand out in the crowd. Starting a business is easy, but staying in business is harder as you have so much competition these days. To stand out in the crowd, you need to do all of the above! Create a great ID-10037281experience for your customers; know what your customers want and give it to them; find solutions to your customers’ problems; position yourself as an expert; be different from your competitors and shout about how you are different; shout about your success; give excellent customer service; give special offers to customers who recommend someone new who buys something or uses your service….and above all, be yourself, smile and enjoy running your business – it will show!

I hope these points will help you in your quest to make 2016 a successful year for your business. If you have any more tips, please share them, I’d love to hear from you.

One final tip, if you can’t do everything you want to do yourself, don’t give up, get help.

 

Images courtesy of 1) Ambro 2) David Castillo Domenici 3) Stuart Miles 4) Metrue 5)Stuart Miles 6)jscreations at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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

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

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

ID-100348819The same applies to your customers – if you thank them for buying from you, or using a service you provide, it will make them feel valued and, nine times out of ten, a customer who feels valued will return with more custom, or recommend you to their friends. Either way, it’s a win, win situation for you.

These are some of the benefits of saying thank you…

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

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

So, how can you thank a customer?

ID-10049181There are several different ways to thank your customers. Please see the list below.

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

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

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

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

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

 

Images courtesy of 1) Stuart Miles 2) nenetus 3) digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Right person, right time, right reasons…RIGHT CONTENT!

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business-3189797_640.pngSo, you have your own business and you want to promote it – get your product or services out there. How do you go about it? Where do you start? It’s really important to have a content strategy….as this will help you structure exactly what the needs of your business are and what exactly is the right content for your business.

Anything you put out about your business needs to go to the right people at the right time and for the right reasons….and of course, the right content is crucial.

If the content is NOT right, then the people you are hoping to reach won’t read it. Whatever content you put out needs to be valuable to your potential reader, so make sure your content is useful and relevant – what’s in it for your reader? Does it solve a problem for them? Does it give them a solution that they need?

If you DON’T target the right people, then your content won’t be read and definitely won’t be acted upon. You need to ensure that you know who your audience are – just sending content to ‘people’ in general won’t cut the mustard, you need to be specific.

thought-2123971_640If you don’t send content out at the right time, then you are wasting your time. You need to firstly understand your audience or intended audience – what do your customers want? Do your customers or potential customers have questions that you can answer? Do you have solutions to your customers’ problems? If you are aware of these things, you can plan to put content out at the right time.

If you’re NOT putting content out for the right reasons, you are also wasting your time. When you are writing your business plan for the year, you will include measurable business goals. These goals are usually a reason for sharing some kind of promotional content to pull in more customers, or address an issue that your customers may have. The content you publish won’t necessarily sell your wares, but can help to set yourself up as an expert in your field. This, in turn inspires confidence in your abilities and business, which can lead to those all-important recommendations.

Plan your content for 2016

computer-1185626_640December and January is the ideal time for you to look at planning for next year. It’s time to take stock and look back over the last year – what worked well for your business and what didn’t work so well? Which way are you going next year?

Take the time to look at last year’s business or marketing plan (or both) and decide what you need to change to make next year more successful.

Have you ever asked your customers for feedback? Amongst that feedback, is there anything you can address to make your business more attractive? Do your customers have any problems you can solve? If you can pinpoint what it is that your customers want, that you are not currently giving them, you have the greatest opportunity to truly delight them in solving those problems.

future-2372183_640.jpgIf you haven’t asked for feedback, then why not do it now? Why not send out a short survey asking some questions to help you decide which way to go next year – get your current customers’ opinions and ideas – their input could open a whole new market to you.

Once you know what your customers want and have a new plan for next year, with new goals, you are ready to plan your content strategy and will be one step closer to a successful 2016!

 

 

Customer Engagement – Newsletters

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It has been said that marketing your business with the use of newsletters are a bit ‘old hat’ and are losing their value, but I don’t agree. With other forms of marketing, such as adverts, people will see your advert and look at it if they’re interested in the subject, but it will bypass lots of people. But a newsletter is a powerful tool and goes right to the heart of your business, reaching all your customers. You know they are interested in what you do as they’ve bought your products or services. As well as keeping your customers informed about what’s going on in your business, you can include special offers and highlight some of your products.

calendar-1990453_640Whether you choose to send your newsletter out in print format, or as an online version on e-mail, it’s important to decide the frequency. Most of my clients send out newsletters by email on a monthly basis, so they can be a bit longer than if you are sending out something each week. The most important thing is that the content is timely and relevant, adding some sort of value to your customer. For example, I send out a monthly newsletter for a garden centre – as well as including any news about new stock and special offers, we also include monthly hints and tips on jobs that need doing in the garden that month. We’ve also run a series of articles over a few months on planning the garden for 2014 – this encourages customers to take a good look at their garden, decide what worked well last year and what didn’t, and gives advice on plants and shrubs without doing the ‘hard sell’.

Goals of your newsletter

So you’ve decided you want to send out a newsletter for your business – now you need to think about what you want to achieve. Is the purpose of your newsletter to send traffic to person-1245959_640your website; increase engagement to your brand; create a buzz for a new product or service? The type of goals you have will help you create a more effective newsletter. For example, if you want to send more traffic to your website, you could include an excerpt from an article that will generate interest in your products and then direct them to the full article on your website, or you could just send an introductory paragraph from the newsletter, but keep the full newsletter on your website, so customers have to go to your website to read the full article. Similarly, you could give them a taster of a special offer, but point customers to your website for full details.

Content

The content of your newsletter needs to be engaging – if you don’t keep the attention of your customers and make the content relevant to them and add value, they will either hit the ‘delete’ button or will unsubscribe. A good headline will pull your customers in, so try and make it interesting – not just ‘January’s newsletter’. It’s crucial that you use good grammar and that there are no spelling mistakes and that it is easy to read so ensure that, if you do the newsletter yourself, that it is thoroughly proofread.

question-mark-1751308_640Of course, a newsletter is only one of the marketing tools you can use and it’s always best to use a variety of tools to engage your customers. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the role of newsletters. Do you use them for your business?