Tag Archives: small business marketing charente

Using your Google Business Profile to attract more customers

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

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

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

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

What is Google Business Profile?

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

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

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

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

Why it matters for local customers

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

For example, someone might search for:

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

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

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

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

It also matters for non-local customers too!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep your profile updated

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

Make sure your profile includes:

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

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

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

What else can you post on Google Business Profile?

Google allows businesses to publish updates directly on their profile.

These posts can include:

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

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

Encourage reviews

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

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

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

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

Answer questions before customers ask them

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

Use this area to address common customer questions such as:

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

Providing answers in advance can remove barriers and encourage enquiries.

Treat your profile as part of your content marketing strategy

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

Download your Google Business Profile checklist

Are ghost followers haunting your Facebook page?

Ghost followers on Facebook

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

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

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

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

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

👻 What exactly is a ghost follower?

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

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

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

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

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

👻 Do ghost followers damage your Facebook Page?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When to Comment as Your Business Page

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

When to Comment as Your Personal Profile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

👻 Don’t let Facebook folklore frighten you

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

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

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

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

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

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

Content Buckets: More Ways to Plan Your Content

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

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

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

Conversational content

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

You could:

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

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

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

User-generated content

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

It could include:

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

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

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

Listicles

A listicle is simply content presented in a list format.

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

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

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

Listicles are really useful for seasonal marketing too.

Think about:

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

Success stories

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

You could:

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

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

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

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

Promotional content

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

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

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

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

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

Product content

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

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

When creating product content, make sure you:

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

Now let’s make this seasonal

This is where I think content buckets become particularly useful.

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

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

For example, your Halloween content could include:

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

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

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

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

One idea can become several posts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Featured image generated with the help of AI.

Content Buckets: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Colorful buckets spilling craft supplies across a wooden worktable

Most small businesses are on social media, and having a good presence is an important part of building your brand. But one of the biggest challenges my followers tell me they have is knowing what to post. You’ve probably got loads of ideas running around your head at all times of the day, but when you actually want to post, your mind goes blank! Or you can’t think how to organise all the ideas you have into something a bit easier to manage.

This is where content buckets can help. They give you a simple way to organise your content, make sure you have variety, and take some of the pressure out of deciding what to post.

What are content buckets?

The first step in creating an effective content strategy is deciding what types of content you want to share.

Content buckets are the different categories or types of content that you choose to use regularly in your marketing, based on what will appeal to your target audience and support your business goals. I’m not talking about topics to cover; I mean types of content. Typical content buckets could include:

  • Educational
  • Entertaining
  • Engaging
  • Inspirational
  • Personal
  • Conversational
  • User-generated content
  • Listicles
  • Success stories
  • Promotional
  • Product content

Let’s look at some of these in more detail.

Educational content

One of the content buckets I use regularly is Educational. I’m sure you already know this and it is one of my most popular content types.

Under this heading I have a list of different things I can create to teach my audience something useful, such as:

  • Blog posts like this one
  • How-to posts
  • Tips and tricks
  • Infographics and statistics
  • Answers to frequently asked questions
  • Q&As about my business and what I offer

When I’m planning my social media and blog content, I can choose something from this list rather than starting from scratch every time. You can use the same principle in a product-based business.

For example, let’s say you sell personalised drinks bottles.

  • You could create a short video or series of photographs showing you making one from start to finish.
  • You could also create posts showing your customers different ways they could use it. Perhaps it’s handy to keep in the car, great for picnics and days out because the lid seals securely, or useful at the gym because it won’t leak in your bag. It could be for your children to take to school or college.

You might even give someone an idea they hadn’t thought of before.

It’s about painting a picture, so your potential customer can imagine themselves using your product – it’s that ‘imagining themselves using it’ that often gets a sale.

Entertaining content

Not everything you post needs to be educational or related to selling. Your audience also wants to be entertained!

Entertaining content can include:

  • Memes or GIFs
  • Jokes
  • Funny things that happen behind the scenes
  • Throwback posts
  • Fun days out or holidays
  • Pets
  • Light-hearted videos
  • Relevant current trends
  • Competitions or giveaways

Seasonal occasions can be useful in this content type. Halloween, Christmas and even Black Friday can all give you opportunities to create something fun and different.

Engaging content

Engaging content encourages your audience to participate rather than simply scroll past.

You could:

  • Ask a question such as “What’s your favourite…?”
  • Use a poll
  • Create a “this or that” post
  • Ask for opinions about a new product
  • Ask your audience to choose between two designs
  • Ask for suggestions for new products

For example, if you’re creating a new Christmas product, you could show two possible designs and ask your audience which one they prefer. You’re not only creating content — you’re also starting a conversation and potentially learning something useful about your customers.

Inspirational content

Inspirational content can make people think, motivate them, or simply brighten their day.

You could share:

  • Motivational or inspirational quotes
  • Something that inspires you
  • A book, podcast or person that has influenced you
  • Your story and why you started your business
  • Something you do that helps or inspires you

Your story can be particularly powerful because people often connect with the person behind the business, not just the product.

Personal content

This is about helping people get to know you and increasing awareness of your brand. You are part of your brand.

People often choose a small business because of the person behind it. They want to know who they’re buying from and what makes that business different – they like to see personal posts from time to time and feel like they’re getting to know you. This helps with the relationship building side of social media.

Personal content could include:

  • Introducing yourself regularly (and pin that post to the top of your page)
  • Sharing a little information about yourself
  • Action shots of you working
  • Pictures of your workspace
  • Your hobbies and interests
  • Something you’re currently enjoying
  • Your likes and dislikes
  • Behind-the-scenes moments

You don’t have to share your entire personal life. Just let people see enough of the person behind the business to make that connection.

Why use content buckets?

Content buckets work because they give your content variety. If every post is ‘Buy my product’, people may quickly become bored. But if you mix promotional content with useful, interesting, entertaining, and engaging content, your audience has more reasons to follow you and keep coming back.

They also make planning much easier. Instead of sitting down every week and thinking: “What on earth am I going to post today?” you can look at your content buckets and choose something from one of them.

You can then plan and schedule your content in advance, saving yourself time and effort.

And there’s another big advantage! Once you have your content buckets established, you can use them repeatedly — including when you start planning seasonal marketing.

In my next post, I’ll look at some more content buckets, including user-generated content, listicles, success stories, and promotional content, and how you can use your buckets to plan your marketing for Halloween, Black Friday, and Christmas.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my post and if you need any help with your content buckets, just drop me a message or email and we can arrange a free call.

The Metrics that matter – and what you can ignore!

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

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

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

There is no single most important figure!

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

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

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

Metric 1 – Reach

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

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

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

Metric 2 – Shares  

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

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

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

Metric 3 – Saves

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

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

Metric 4 – Comments

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

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

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

Metric 5 – Link clicks and website visits

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

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

Metric 6 – Profile visits

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

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

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

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

Metric 7 – Follower growth

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

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

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

Now – what can you ignore?

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

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

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

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

Don’t worry about…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marketing Made Simple. 

Bringing your Brand Identity to life

Desk with planner, pencil case with pens, coffee mug, plant, and open laptop

In my previous post, I looked at the basic foundations of your brand identity, and covered who you are, what you stand for, who you want to attract and what you want your business to be known for.

This post goes a bit further and brings it all together. Your customers need to be able to see, hear and experience your brand – and that’s where all those familiar branding elements come into play! 

Your business name

Your name is often one of the first things people encounter, so it’s worth giving it some thought. You might use your own name, particularly if you’re the face of your business or offer a personal service. I did this with my business, as I decided that with a marketing business, people are more likely to remember my name than some fancy marketing name!

There isn’t a right or wrong way to name your business – it’s just important that it feels appropriate for what you do, so your audience can recognise you and the brand you’re building.

Your business name doesn’t have to explain everything you do – you can use it to just create enough curiosity, then your website, online shop, bio and marketing on social media explains what you do in more detail.

Your visual identity

This is the part most people think about when they hear the word branding.

Your visual identity might include:

  • Your logo
  • Brand colours
  • Fonts
  • Photography or imagery
  • Graphic style
  • Patterns or illustrations
  • Packaging
  • Website design
  • Social media graphics

These elements should work together to create a recognisable look. Your branding should reflect your business, not whatever happens to be fashionable on social media this month.

For example, a vintage-inspired business might use completely different colours, fonts and imagery from a bright, contemporary jewellery brand.

Your tagline

I’ve talked about this recently on my social media pages. A good tagline can communicate something important about your business in just a few words.

Mine is Marketing made simple.

It’s short, but it tells you something about what I do and, more importantly, how I want to do it. I don’t want my audience to feel that marketing is complicated, intimidating or overwhelming. My tagline isn’t just a catchy phrase. It reinforces part of my brand positioning.

When you’re thinking about yours, don’t try to cram everything you do into one sentence. Instead ask yourself…What is the one thing I’d love people to remember about my business?

That’s a much better place to start.

Your tone of voice

Your brand also has a voice.

Are you:

  • Friendly and chatty?
  • Calm and reassuring?
  • Quirky and playful?
  • Straight-talking?
  • Inspirational?
  • Knowledgeable and professional?
  • Warm and nurturing?

Your tone of voice should feel natural. For example, there’s no point deciding your brand is fun and quirky if every social media post sounds like a formal business report!

Your voice should be consistent across your website, emails, social media, packaging and customer communications. That doesn’t mean every sentence has to sound identical. It just needs to have the same ‘feel’ about it – in other words, your brand personality!

What is your brand personality?

Here’s where branding gets particularly interesting. Imagine your business was a person. What would they be like? Would they be:

  • The colourful, energetic friend who is always suggesting something fun?
  • The calm, dependable friend everyone turns to for advice?
  • The sophisticated one who always knows what’s stylish?
  • The quirky one who sees things differently?
  • The warm, thoughtful person who makes everyone feel welcome?

These characteristics can help define your brand personality. And this is much more useful than simply choosing a few words or phrases because they sound nice.

Your personality can influence your photography, colours, language, social media content, packaging and even the way you interact with customers.

The very important customer experience!

This is the part that’s sometimes forgotten, but my goodness, it’s probably THE most important thing – in my opinion anyway!

You can have beautiful branding, a gorgeous website and a brilliant social media feed — but if your customer experience doesn’t match, your brand won’t feel authentic.

Think about every point where someone comes into contact with your business. These are called ‘touchpoints.

  • Your social media.
  • Your website.
  • Your packaging.
  • Your emails.
  • Your product descriptions.
  • Your checkout process.
  • Your thank-you message.
  • The way you deal with questions.
  • The way you handle a problem.

All these things contribute to how people experience your brand.

If your branding promises warmth and personal service, but a customer receives a cold, automated response to a problem, there’s a disconnect. Your brand needs to feel the same wherever people encounter it

Consistency – that old chestnut!

Consistency doesn’t mean boring, although I have heard it described that way! Some think that consistency means everything needs to look the same – it doesn’t!

Consistency doesn’t mean using the same template for every social media post or putting your logo on everything you produce. It means creating recognisable patterns, using:

  • The same general visual style.
  • A familiar tone of voice.
  • Similar values.
  • A consistent customer experience.
  • Enough repetition that people begin to recognise you.

That’s when your brand starts doing some of the marketing for you. Someone sees your colours, style or way of writing and immediately knows that it’s you.

Your brand identity checklist

Before you decide that your branding needs a complete makeover, take a look at what you already have.

Ask yourself:

  • Does my visual identity reflect my business?
  • Does my tone of voice sound like me?
  • Does my tagline communicate something meaningful?
  • Does my social media look and sound consistent with my website?
  • Does my customer experience match the promises I make?
  • Can someone recognise my content without seeing my name?

And finally:

  • Does my branding appeal to the people I actually want to attract?

If the answer to some of these is ‘no’ or ‘not really’, don’t panic! It doesn’t mean you need a complete rebrand. You just need to think about a few small changes that make everything fit together, so it’s more recognisable.

Conclusion

Your brand identity isn’t something you create once, upload to Canva and forget about. It’s something you build and reinforce every day. Think about your brand with:

  • Every post.
  • Every email.
  • Every photograph.
  • Every conversation.
  • Every package you send.
  • Every customer interaction.

And eventually, all those little pieces start to become familiar to your audience and start adding up to something much bigger – the way people recognise, remember and feel about your business.

And that’s when your brand starts to become much more than a logo.

If you’re feeling a bit stuck with your brand and need to talk it through to make it clearer in your own head, contact me and we can have a chat about how I can help.

Feature image generated by AI

Is your business suffering from the summer slump?

Collage of a young person in various poses showing frustration and contemplation with sketches, coffee cups, and polaroid photos reflecting a creative and emotional summer.

Summer is a season many of us look forward to – longer days, holidays, BBQs and, hopefully, plenty of sunshine. But while it’s great for relaxing, it can be a challenging time for many small businesses.

If you’ve noticed enquiries slowing down, engagement on social media dipping, or sales becoming quieter than usual, you’re certainly not alone. For many businesses, the “summer slump” is a familiar seasonal pattern.

During the summer months, people’s priorities naturally shift. Families are juggling school holidays, many people are travelling, spending more time outdoors, or simply taking a break from their usual routines. That often means they’re spending less time scrolling social media, checking emails, or making non-essential purchases.

Rather than seeing this quieter period as a setback, try to view it as an opportunity. While business may slow temporarily, there are plenty of productive ways to prepare for a stronger second half of the year.

Stay Visible

It can be tempting to stop posting on social media when engagement drops, but consistency is still important. Keep showing up for your audience, even if your numbers aren’t quite where you’d like them to be.

You don’t have to create brand-new content every day either. Refresh and repurpose older posts, update popular blogs, turn articles into short videos or carousels, or revisit topics that performed well previously.

The same applies to email marketing. Even during the summer, people continue to check their inboxes, often more consistently than social media. A helpful newsletter can keep you and your business on their radar until they’re ready to buy.

Refresh Your Marketing

Use quieter weeks to tackle those jobs you’ve been putting off.

You could:

  • Update your website.
  • Refresh your branding or social media graphics.
  • Review your pricing and service pages.
  • Update case studies and testimonials.
  • Improve your welcome emails or customer journey.
  • Organise your content calendar for autumn and Christmas.
  • Review your SEO and make sure your website is easy to find on Google.

These tasks often get pushed aside during busy periods, so now is the perfect opportunity to get ahead.

Review Your Content Strategy

Social media changes constantly, so it’s worth reviewing what’s working rather than posting out of habit.

Think about creating content that:

  • answers your customers’ most common questions
  • demonstrates your expertise
  • shares behind-the-scenes moments
  • showcases customer success stories
  • offers practical tips and advice

Short-form video continues to perform well, but don’t feel you have to dance on camera! Simple, authentic videos explaining your products or services are often far more effective.

If you use AI tools to help with content creation, remember to add your own voice and personality. Your audience wants to hear from you, not just read generic marketing copy.

Host a Live Session

Going live on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn can be a great way to reconnect with your audience.

You could:

  • answer frequently asked questions
  • demonstrate a product
  • share customer success stories
  • introduce a new service
  • give a behind-the-scenes tour of your business

People enjoy interacting in real time, and live content helps build trust.

Focus on Existing Customers

Sometimes the easiest sale is to someone who already knows and trusts you.

Reach out to existing customers and ask:

  • How are they getting on?
  • Are they making the most of your product or service?
  • Is there anything else they need?
  • Is there something you could improve?

Their feedback is incredibly valuable and may even inspire your next product or service.

Ask for Reviews and Referrals

Happy customers are usually willing to recommend you—they just need reminding.

Now is a great time to ask for:

  • Google reviews
  • Facebook recommendations
  • LinkedIn recommendations
  • Testimonials for your website
  • Referrals to friends or colleagues

You could even reward referrals with a small thank-you gift or discount where appropriate.

Build New Connections

Networking remains one of the best ways to grow a small business.

Join conversations in relevant online communities, comment thoughtfully on other businesses’ content, and support businesses you genuinely admire.

If there are local networking events during the summer, take advantage of the quieter season to attend. Face-to-face conversations often lead to opportunities that social media simply can’t replicate.

Let Customers Know Your Availability

If you’re taking time off over the summer, tell your customers well in advance.

Share your holiday dates across your website, email, and social media, and encourage customers to book early if they need your products or services before you go.

Equally, if you know you’ll be launching autumn or Christmas products, start creating interest now. Early planning helps your customers—and helps spread your workload too.

Invest in Yourself

A quieter diary gives you the chance to work on your business, not just in it.

Consider:

  • attending webinars
  • taking an online course
  • Learning a new marketing skill
  • improving your photography or video content
  • exploring AI tools that can save you time.
  • working with a coach or mentor

Even a few hours invested now can make a noticeable difference later in the year.

There are plenty of affordable online learning platforms available, including Udemy, LinkedIn Learning and Coursera…and of course, you could always look at the handbooks specifically aimed at creative businesses that I’ve produced recently – contact me to find out more!

Don’t Panic

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that a seasonal slowdown doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong with your business.

Many businesses experience quieter periods during the summer, and activity often picks up again as September arrives. People return from holidays, children go back to school, routines resume, and businesses begin planning for autumn, Black Friday and Christmas.

Instead of worrying about what isn’t happening today, use this time to strengthen your marketing, improve your systems, and prepare for what’s next.

Conclusion

The summer slump can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be wasted time. By staying visible, improving your marketing, nurturing customer relationships, and investing in your business, you’ll be in a much stronger position when things become busier again.

Enjoy the summer, take a well-earned break if you can, and remember that every season in business has its purpose. Use this one wisely, and your future self will thank you.

If you have any questions, or would like to speak to me about any of the coaching, courses or handbooks I offer, you can contact me using the contact form or email me direct at cindymobey@outlook.com

What is digital marketing and how does it work in 2026?

Home office desk with laptop showing analytics dashboard, smartphone on stand, notebook with notes, coffee mug, and small plant.

A Simple Guide for Small Businesses on a Budget

Running a small business in 2026 means one thing is almost impossible to ignore… digital marketing.

The good news is that you don’t need a massive budget, a marketing agency, or mega technical skills to make digital marketing work for your business.

Most small businesses can grow faster by using simple, low-cost online marketing strategies consistently. So, what are they and how can they work for you?

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the process of promoting your business online.

Instead of using traditional advertising like newspapers, flyers, or billboards, digital marketing helps businesses reach customers through:

  • Search engines like Google
  • Social media platforms
  • Email marketing
  • Websites and blogs
  • Online videos
  • Paid online ads
  • Messaging apps

The goal is simple. Help more people discover your business, trust your brand, and become paying customers!

How Does it work?

Right now, digital marketing is more automated, more personalised, and more focused on helpful content for your audience.

Customers expect businesses to:

  • Be easy to find online
  • Respond quickly
  • Share useful information
  • Have a professional website or social media presence
  • Offer smooth online experiences

If you really struggle with creating posts, writing captions, writing emails etc, AI can help. But for me, the key word here is ‘help’. I wouldn’t advocate using it all the time as it can be really obvious if you’ve used AI to write for you – and you need to still keep your tone of voice and your personality. Whilst AI can kind of replicate that, it’s not quite you, so make sure if you do use AI, you check all facts (it can often be wrong) and ensure it sounds like you.

Types of Digital Marketing

There are five main types of digital marketing. They are:

Social Media Marketing

Social media involves using your content to attract and engage your potential customers. This might be through…

  • Product photos
  • Short videos
  • Tips and tutorials
  • Customer reviews
  • Behind-the-scenes content
  • Special offers

People spend hours every day on social media. Good content helps your business stay visible and build trust. But, don’t spread yourself too thin – you only need to choose one or two platforms, where you know your customers hang out.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO helps your business appear in Google search results.

For example, if someone searches:

  • “best bakery near me”
  • “affordable plumber in London”
  • “dog grooming services”

SEO helps your business show up.

Google looks for websites that are helpful, fast to load, easy to navigate, trustworthy and relevant to their search.

Simple SEO Tips that will help your small business

  • Create a Google Business Profile
  • Use clear page titles
  • Add your location to your website
  • Write helpful blog posts
  • Ask customers for reviews
  • Make your website mobile-friendly

SEO takes time, but it can bring free traffic for years.

Content Marketing

Content marketing means creating useful information that helps potential customers.

This could include:

  • Blog articles
  • Videos
  • Guides
  • FAQs
  • Tutorials
  • Email newsletters

Content is the thing that really matters. Customers don’t want to see you constantly selling to them, they want to be educated about your products or services, see behind the scenes, find out more about you as a person – people trust businesses that have a mix of different type of content instead of constantly selling.

Helpful content builds credibility and improves SEO at the same time.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the cheapest and most effective digital marketing methods.

You collect customer email addresses and send:

  • Newsletters
  • Promotions
  • Updates
  • Helpful tips
  • Event announcements

Email still works well, because unlike social media, you OWN your email list. I know I’ve said this before and it is so true!

With your own email, algorithms can’t suddenly reduce your visibility and your account can’t suddenly be restricted or shut down. People sign up to your newsletter BECAUSE THEY WANT TO. They want to hear from you and find out more about you, your business and what you can offer.

Many email tools offer free plans for small businesses, such as MailChimp or Mailerlite, until you reach a certain number of subscribers, which really helps.

Paid Advertising

Paid ads can help businesses reach people quickly. You can choose from:

  • Google Ads
  • Facebook Ads
  • Instagram Ads
  • TikTok Ads
  • YouTube Ads

You pay to show your business to targeted audiences, for example, people in your local area, customers interested in your services or people searching for specific products.

If you decide to go this route, start small. You can pay as little as £5 – £10 a day, which can help you test what works for your business.

I personally don’t use ads, as I’ve found I don’t have to, but I know a lot of businesses do use them and it works well for them. Is this something you’ve tried? Let me know in the comments how you found it?

What Has Changed in Digital Marketing

There are a few trends that have changed over the past year. Here are some examples of the newer trends that you might want to look at.

AI is everywhere!

AI is the obvious one – you can’t miss it! You can’t go on any social media platform without seeing AI content. Some of it is so obviously fake, but if you use AI, you want it to still look and feel like you and your business, so you must be careful how you use it.

Most advice floating around about AI is to use it as a helper and NOT a replacement for real human connections. I use it for research, but I always check the facts and ensure that anything it finds for me is written in my own tone of voice. It can be useful for:

  • Researching content
  • Writing content
  • Creating images
  • Answering customer questions
  • Scheduling marketing campaigns
  • Analysing customer data

It’s up to you how you use it but always remember: Customers still value authenticity.

And that’s all I’m going to say!  

Short Videos Perform Best

Short-form video continues to grab attention on social media platforms.

Quick videos on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts often reach more people than traditional posts.

You don’t need expensive equipment. You can usually get a short video done quickly and efficiently using just a smartphone and good lighting. That could be via a ring light or natural light from a big window, or film outside!

Local marketing still works

Many customers prefer supporting nearby businesses. That might be for many reasons but could include no postage costs, if they can pick your product up in person, or just that they prefer to support local businesses.

For a small business, this means that…

  • Local SEO matters more
  • Customer reviews matter more
  • Google Maps visibility matters more

For small businesses, local digital marketing can often perform better than national campaigns by big businesses.

Digital marketing on a limited budget

Digital marketing doesn’t have to be expensive – in fact, there are many free tools out there that can help you. The key is to keep it simple.

Online presence

The minimum you should have should be…

  • A simple website
  • A Google Business Profile
  • One active social media page

Your website should clearly explain:

  • What you offer
  • Who you help
  • How customers can contact you

Focus on Helpful Content

Have a mix of content to keep your audience’s attention.

Simple content ideas include:

  • Tips
  • Tutorials
  • FAQs
  • Customer reviews/photo/success stories
  • Product demonstrations
  • Short videos – packing or unpacking a product/ talking to camera about your business or introducing yourself.

I always bang on about 80% of content being entertaining, engaging, inspirational and only 20% selling.  

Having a mix of content helps people get to know you and your business and builds rapport and trust.

Reviews

We all know how lovely it is to get reviews and recommendations – it’s happy dance time! Positive online reviews help build credibility quickly, so never be afraid to ask your customers to put a review on your social media page, or on your Google profile. It all helps build that trust and most people will look at a review before they buy, so they’re really important..

Use Free or Low-Cost Tools

There are lots of free tools you can use. Here are just a few:

  • Canva for graphics
  • Mailchimp/Mailerlite for email marketing
  • ChatGPT for brainstorming content ideas
  • And you can use Meta Business Suite on Facebook to schedule your posts for Facebook and Instagram.

Don’t forget your analytics

Regularly check up on how your posts/emails/website is performing by looking at the insights or analytics.

Pay attention to:

  • Website visits
  • Phone calls
  • Messages
  • Sales
  • Email signups
  • Social media engagement

This will help you see what works and what doesn’t. Then you can repurpose popular posts and you get to know exactly what your audience likes.

Common mistakes that we all make

The biggest mistake that most small businesses make is to spread themselves too thin by trying to be on too many platforms or taking on too much all at once. This can quickly lead to overwhelm and burnout. And none of us want that.

Start small!

Here are some other examples of mistakes that small businesses make…

Posting without a plan -Random posting usually produces weak results.  It’s a good idea to know what you want to post – create a simple weekly schedule – maybe have a weekly theme. Consistency matters more than perfection.

Selling too much – This is my age-old advice – 80% helpful content and only 20% selling. Your audience follow you because they like what you do – but they don’t want to constantly see you selling to them. They want to know more about you, your business and how your products or services can help them. If you just sell non-stop, you’ll lose followers and people will scroll by your posts.

Ignoring mobile users – Most customers now browse on smartphones. Make sure that your website and content, such as blogs and emails work well on mobile devices. Most hosting platforms will have a button you can press to check this before you publish.

Conclusion

Digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. A simple strategy would be to…

  1. Build a simple website
  2. Set up your Google Business Profile
  3. Choose one social media platform
  4. Post helpful content at least three times per week, every day if you can
  5. Collect customer reviews
  6. Build an email list
  7. Track results monthly

If you have a budget, you could think about small ads to test if they work.

For small businesses, success often comes from doing the basics consistently:

  • Showing up online
  • Creating useful content
  • Building trust
  • Staying visible
  • Connecting with customers

The businesses that win are not always the ones with the biggest budgets.

They are usually the ones that stay consistent, helpful, and easy to find online. Start small, learn as you go and you’ll get there.

If you want help with any aspects of your digital marketing, drop me a message or email and we can have an informal chat. I offer a free 30-minute consultation.

Artificial intelligence – what it is and how it’s used

Although most of us won’t be aware, Artificial Intelligence or AI has been used in day-to-day life for years. Virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa are great examples of AI in practice, supporting humans and making things more convenient.

But when ChatGPT launched, it made AI available to everyone and that’s when people started talking about machine learning and the ethics that brought up. 

This article looks at the basics and throws up quite a few questions!    

What is it?

I’m sure a lot of us have seen futuristic sci-fi films that show AI as sinister robots who become obsessed with getting rid of humanity! It makes for good viewing but isn’t what AI actually is.

AI refers to a machine or computer system’s ability to perform tasks that would normally need human intelligence. It is still guided by humans in that it needs programming for the systems to analyse data, learn by experiences and make smart decisions.

AI has great potential by enabling machines to solve complex problems and think intuitively, which takes it beyond automation.

The ethical question

AI is very powerful as it has the ability to act on vast amounts of data in seconds, but it’s vitally important that it is implemented responsibly – and that’s down to the programming. If AI were trained using date that hadn’t been properly checked and validated, it could replicate harmful biases about race, religion, upbringing, or other human characteristics. This could have disastrous results if that were then used in health, recruitment, or law for example! 

One of the key ethical concerns is around privacy and data protection. AI systems automatically collect data from databases across the world and there is a need to ensure that any personal information is protected and used responsibly. For example, facial recognition technology – often used on our phones or on social media platforms, raises questions about consent and potential misuse.  

Machine learning

Machine learning is about the ability of a computer system to learn from data without being explicitly programmed. A good example is spam filtering in emails – the email platforms can learn which messages are useful and which one could be potential harmful or useless.

Machine learning is all about algorithms, which are trained on massive amounts of data, which they learn to analyse to identify patterns, relationships, and trends. The one you’ll be most familiar with is the social media algorithms, which help the various platforms to push the right kind of ads to the right people, recognise things that go against community standards and ultimately can ban or restrict accounts. As we all know, they don’t always get it right and it can be very frustrating. 

Is AI a good thing?

AI has its place, as it can be used to teach machines to do mundane, boring jobs, such as assembling cars for example. They can do the job more quickly than humans, don’t need to take breaks or have a holiday and as they have no emotion (yet!) they don’t get bored or tired.

The downside is that companies and governments want to use it for lots of other tasks, mainly because it’s cheaper than paying a person, which brings up the ‘machines are going to take over our jobs’ scenario.

The future

It’s inevitable that technology will only advance and it’s increasingly likely that AI will be used in many different fields. But it’s important that it works flawlessly without threatening humans and their fundamental rights.

If we go back to the algorithm example, it’s important that humans still audit them properly to ensure that AI is functioning properly and not learning errors, which often happens with social media.

 It’s likely that AI will take over more tasks in the health and care sector, in education and in business. In my opinion, it just needs to be very closely monitored to ensure that it doesn’t take over peoples’ jobs and livelihoods. And the ethical side definitely needs to have plenty of built in controls to ensure that personal data and privacy is maintained to the highest level.

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.