Tag Archives: Small Business Marketing

Ethical marketing – why it matters!

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

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

What is ethical marketing?

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

Be transparent

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

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

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

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

Honesty

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

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

 

Social responsibility

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

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

Respect for individual rights

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

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

Respect for human dignity

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

The pros and cons of neuromarketing

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

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

The pros of neuromarketing

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

Observational research

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

Emotional measurement

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

Reliable results

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

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

Conclusion

The advantages of neuromarketing gives:

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

The cons of neuromarketing

Concerns about ethics

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

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

Specific skills are needed

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

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

Expensive equipment

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

Privacy and GDPR

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

What do you think?

Neuromarketing and how it works!

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

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

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

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

How does neuromarketing work?

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

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

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

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

The ethics

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

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

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

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

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

Neuromarketing for small businesses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

Contact me if you need help with your marketing.

Contact me

Into the hashtag void – the shift to social SEO

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

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

Why bother to use hashtags in 2026

Categorise your content

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

SEO – hashtags as keywords

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

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

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

Target your audience

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

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

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

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

Longevity 

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

Hashtags by platform

Instagram

Instagram likes to see hashtags for engagement.

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

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

Facebook 

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

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

LinkedIn

LinkedIn hashtags are mainly for topic classification. 

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

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

TikTok

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

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

X (formerly Twitter)

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

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

YouTube

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

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

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

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

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

8 reasons why you need a marketing plan

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

Having a marketing plan helps you:

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

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

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

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  1. Identify your target market

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

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

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

  1. Conduct a SWOT analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  1. Look at your competitors

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

What products or services do they sell?

Do they offer a similar product or service to you?

What do they offer their customers?

What do they do to engage with their customers?

Where are they? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

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

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

  1. Decide on your goals

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

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

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

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

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  1. Set your marketing strategies

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

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

  1. Set your budget

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

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  1. Ensure your marketing plan is kept up to date

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

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

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

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

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

Contact me

Last minute Christmas marketing ideas for small businesses

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

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

Website

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

Do you have Christmas bundles available?

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

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

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

Gift guide

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

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

Online Christmas markets

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

Christmas market events

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

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

Collaborate

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

Gift cards

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

Out of stock

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

Gift suggestions by price range

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

Pay in instalments

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

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

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

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

Call to Action vs Call to Benefit

I’m sure that you’ve all heard of a CTA (call to action), but have you heard of a CTB (call to benefit)? Social media is constantly changing and if you want to keep the attention of your audience, you need to be ahead of the game – the CTB is a trend that is being hailed as a more effective way to engage your audience. So, let’s take a look at what it is and why it’s the new ‘in thing’!

Call to action

I’ve been pushing this for what seems like forever with my clients and in my social media and other content creation. A CTA has been the cornerstone of marketing strategies across all platforms because they’re direct and tell your audience exactly what you want them to do next, for example ‘Buy now’ or ‘Click here to XXXXX.’

The problem with these is that they’re becoming phrases or words that are used everywhere by everyone, so much so that they’re becoming ‘wallpaper’ and audiences aren’t taking so much notice of them anymore. A CTA focuses on the action we want our audiences to take without giving them the reason why – unless it’s explained before you use the CTA. It’s thought that they are failing to fully connect with audiences on an emotional level, which is needed to build that ever-important relationship and trust with our customers.

It’s also been found that a CTA feels like a command, so can come across as pushy and impersonal.

Enter the CTB (CALL TO BENEFIT)!     

Call to benefit

The CTB is a shift in how to engage with your audience in a more effective way – not just telling them what to do but showing them the ‘why’ with the words you use.

A CTB emphasises the value and benefits that a customer stands to gain by clicking on the CTB.  It focuses on building trust with your customers by telling them the benefits they’ll gain, and encourages a deeper understanding and engagement with your brand and offer.

Examples of Calls to Benefit vs Calls to Action

  • CTA – Sign up to my newsletter.
  • CTB – Join our community and receive exclusive tips to raise your marketing game.
  • CTA – Follow me for updates.
  • CTB – Stay inspired and informed – follow me to get the latest news and trends.
  • CTA – Buy now.
  • CTB – Own your xxxxx today
  • CTA – Download now
  • CTB – Get my 30-day action plan and set your marketing on fire!
  • CTA – Learn more
  • CTB – Discover the full story
  • CTA – Create account
  • CTB – Personalise your experience

It seems pretty obvious, but it’s about getting into the minds of your customers and brainstorming ideas on how you can put across the benefits to your audience to encourage them to click on a button on your email, website, or social media posts.

Deciding on your CTBs

As with everything marketing, you need to know your target audience to get a CTB absolutely right. You need to understand what they like, their pain points or what inspires them to buy or come to you.

Creating your CTBs goes beyond simply telling your audience what to do – it’s about showing them why it’s worth their time and effort to act on your CTB. They’ll know what they’re doing and why – and EXACTLY what they’re going to get. When people can immediately see the benefit of buying something, they’re more likely to go for it.

The first thing to do is to write down all the current call to actions you use and then, thinking about what it is exactly that you want your audience to do and why, come up with what benefits they’ll get by clicking. Then you can reword your call to actions into something more specific and, hey presto, you’ll have your call to benefit.

It’s all about crafting a more persuasive marketing message. So, instead of a simple call to action, which instructs your audience, use words that will show them the benefits and inspire them, by showing them what they stand to gain.

It seems like a very simple shift from one to the other, but that one small change could have a big impact on your engagement, conversions to sales and an enhanced customer experience. The CTB will form part of your overall marketing strategy.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of a marketing strategy and just don’t know where to start, call me to book a free consultation, and we can have a chat about how I can help you get your marketing on track and attract more engagement and sales.  

Book your free consultation now to get your marketing on track!

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.      

Where to implement attention grabbing hooks!

How do you get your followers interested in what you have to say? It’s all about the hook – the statement or question that makes them want to invest their time into reading more!

Hook marketing can be applied to loads of different channels, not just social media and I’ll be looking at just a couple – on social media and in email marketing, so you get the idea how it works.

Social Media

I’m starting with social media as that is where most of my followers will find this article and read it, so it’s something I’m very invested in. All the social media platforms are growing at a great rate, with more and more people posting, especially for business, every day. This makes it harder for small businesses to be seen and heard as there is a huge amount of competition. But using a good hook can be the difference between someone clicking to read more or scrolling on by.

It all starts with the image as nine times out of ten, that’s what people will see first, so if you can put a catchy or enticing headline on your images – you’re halfway there. It could be simply that you have new products, so you could just write ‘NEW PRODUCTS’ in bold, which will grab the attention of your regular followers or customers, but what about people that don’t know your business? Instead, you could write:

  • Are you curious about the impact our product can have in your life?
  • Looking for an exclusive opportunity to XXXX (whatever your product does)
  • Then a storytelling one – Interested in REAL examples of how our products make a difference? The image could show someone using your product. Then in the caption, tell the story of HOW your product made a difference to that customer. It could be something simple, like it was the perfect gift for a first-time grandmother, or that the gift helps remember a certain snapshot in time (memories).

When people are scrolling on social media, you have one second (yes 1) for them to decide whether to look further or scroll on by.

Posts with good hooks, videos or reels all help pull those customers in – then it’s down to the caption to make it sound exciting and useful – or whatever your product or service does.

Email marketing

Email marketing is becoming increasingly popular with small businesses and it’s an opportunity not to be missed if you sell products or services. Why?

  • Because your email belongs to you, so it can’t be taken down overnight.
  • People subscribe to your email because they WANT to hear from you on a regular basis.

It really is as simple as that. But once you have them signed up, you need to keep their attention, so they don’t unsubscribe, and this is the strategic part and where hooks become a vital component.

Give your subscribers useful information, tell them about your products or services in an entertaining way that arouses their curiosity or gives a sense of urgency.

You can use email to tell your subscribers about new products or services, give them a sneaky peek – and maybe even offer a discount just for your subscribers for a limited time.

This is where hooks come in. And the hook you use will depend on the type of business you run. You’re all used to seeing my blog posts and I use title hooks that tell a little about the blog post and hopefully convey how you need to read it. I find that questions work well, so here are some of mine and some that you could use for products:

  • Should I publish my prices online?
  • What makes your customers buy from you?
  • Do you want a gift that will wow your child’s teacher?
  • How would you like the perfect memory gift?

These pique that curiosity and people want to know more. Or you could try statements:

  • Using emojis to boost your engagement.
  • Creative ways to solve low ranking on social media.
  • The perfect outfit for this summer.
  • You really need this (bag, glasses case, book cover, passport cover etc) for your holiday this year.

As with any kind of marketing, hook marketing is only a small part of your overall marketing strategy. The hook is the start of that journey with your audience – once you have captured their attention you need to keep them interested with a variety of engaging, relevant and valuable content.

A hook captures their attention and turns it into an opportunity for longer and more meaningful interaction.

As always, if you’d like help with marketing for your business, I offer several different coaching packages, where I teach you the skills to enable you to market your particular business through one-to-one sessions. Feel free to message me to have a free consultation.