What is your marketing saying about you?

I specialise in Reputation Marketing – and I have to admit that, whilst I passed an exam in Marketing many years ago, I don’t cover the whole marketing spectrum.  However, most small business owners consider marketing is about making yourself visible.

This might be with your website, print ads, radio interviews, social media, blogs, newsletters, press releases, magazine articles, flyers, exhibition stands, conference presentations and brochures.  Not all of these work for everyone – so your first step to a good marketing plan is to work out what your target audience is most likely to respond to.

Some of these media cost money, some take time and effort, so you need to put your budget for both of these in place beforehand.  It’s no good planning an in-depth blogging and social media campaign if you are too busy to invest that time – unless you’re able to outsource this to someone who understands your business and your audience and can deliver content in your voice.

The Voice

This is important – your business has a voice.  If it’s just you – it probably is a version of you, but the bigger the organisation gets the harder it gets to maintain a personal approach.  Your organisation’s voice and style needs to be reflected in every piece of marketing that goes out.

When it IS just you that’s easier, because you almost certainly walk the talk.  The challenge is when other people come on board – they need to understand what’s OK and what’s not.  Even if they’re not your spokesperson, people meet new people all the time, socially and in business networking.  They need to represent you as you want to be seen.

If someone says to them “Where do you work?” what do you want them to say about your organisation?  Can you be sure they won’t say something negative?  We’ve all heard people talking about their bosses in less than favourable terms.

The Style

There’s an argument that what works on Facebook or Twitter won’t cut it in an industry journal, which is a more formal environment.  However, I believe that you shouldn’t be someone you aren’t in any environment.

Using business language, whether informal or more formal is still important.  There’s nothing worse than a business that publishes text speak, bad language, poor English (or any other language) or less than respectful content. 

If you’re in a fun and funky business that doesn’t mean your marketing should sound like a rapper or use bad English and lots of slang.  If you’re a serious organisation it doesn’t mean that you have to come over as a faceless corporate.

The Message

Consistency is the key.  Even when you’re promoting different aspects of your business, you need to stay focused on your core message.  In reality all your material should look as though it belongs together.

Be clear, be concise and be to the point.

If you get all this right your marketing will work well to raise your profile and reach the people who want what you’re offering.

Get more leads on LinkedIn

If you’re selling to other businesses you could be missing opportunities if you don’t have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile.

I teach people to use LinkedIn effectively as a lead generation tool – and it does take a little effort, but not as much as you might think.  It’s all about having a strategy and system that work.

One of the most frequent complaints I get from clients is ‘I’ve only got 6 (14/23/50 etc.) people following my Company profile – how can I get more people engaged?’

The answer is that, unless you’re a big organisation like Ford or Minolta, most people are not going to follow your company page.  People buy people and will connect with small business owners on a personal level.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a company page, but don’t get stressed if only a handful of people follow it.  Instead focus on getting your personal profile working as hard as possible.  These are my tips for this:

Write a professional headline that tells people your profile is for them.  If you know who your ideal client is, this should be straightforward.  Include two or three of your key words.

Put in a good (up-to-date) headshot of yourself – just head and shoulders, smiling at the camera and looking friendly and approachable. NOT your logo, products or premises – LI T&Cs say it must be ‘a recognisable image of the account holder’.  Also people like to see who they’re dealing with.

Include email and phone contact info.  This is only visible to first level connections – and people will connect with you if you make it easy for them.

Make the links to your website more interesting.  How likely are you to click ‘Company website’ If you’ve got something more interesting more people will click.

Write a summary that is focused on getting you the results you want.  If that’s marketing your services or products then tell people the benefits of your services, the problems you can solve, the passion you have for the business.

These are my DON’Ts

• Don’t start your summary by thanking people for visiting your profile.  That will immediately ‘tune them out’.  Give them a good headline to hook them in.
• Don’t include any irrelevant experience and any role that’s more than ten years old is probably history now.
• Don’t put your endorsements at the top.  Most switched-on people think these are low value as you often get ‘endorsements’ from people who don’t know you and have no way of assessing your skills. Do ask your clients to add a recommendation though – these have real value.

This is just for starters – there are many more things you can do to improve your LinkedIn profile and start getting found in searches.

What is your website for?

I usually ask people this question during the first discussion when they ask me to write content for them.  It’s surprising how many of otherwise savvy business people haven’t really thought much about this past ‘Everyone has to have one these days, don’t they?’

To some extent they’re right – there is a credibility issue if you can’t be found on the web, but I do know some businesses that don’t have a website.  They do have a Facebook page though – and work hard keeping it up to date, interacting with customers and building their community.

If you’re going to invest in a website it’s wise to have thought about a few things first:

Who is it for?

If you even think about answering ‘Anybody who wants what we do’; STOP!  You need to be much more focused on your ideal clients or your website will be a bit like jelly, quite nice, maybe attractive – but doesn’t actually fill you up and is impossible to nail down!

If you know who you’re trying to reach, your design and copy will be much better focused and will deliver the information those people are interested in.

How will they find it?

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that it has a big flashing neon sign saying ‘my website this way’.  Unless it gets found in searches nobody will know it’s there unless you tell them.

That doesn’t mean you need to invest in expensive SEO programmes, but it does mean that you need to think about where your traffic will come from. 

If you have a list then you can email them, but if you haven’t had a website until now, you probably haven’t grown much of a list.  If you’re active on social media you can spread the word via that – and you definitely should be doing this.  In fact, you should have a strategy to bring people to your website by a number of methods.

If you want a website that acts as an online brochure for people who already know about you and want to check you out, then traffic may be less important.

What are they looking for when they arrive on your site?

Knowing who your target visitor is will make it easier to give them what they want.  It’s worth knowing why people buy you – if you’re not really sure ask a few of your existing clients what they like about dealing with your organisation – and, critically, what the results have been. 

This information will make it much easier to deliver to meet expectations and make the visitor’s journey much easier and intuitive.

What do you want them to do before they leave?

It’s surprising how many websites don’t have any kind of call to action – on any of their pages.  You should know what you want visitors to do on every page – whether that’s to:

•         Move to another page
•         Sign up to your free download
•         Read your blog
•         Follow you on Twitter or other social media
•         Complete an enquiry form
•         Pick up the phone and call you
•         Buy something

If you’re clear about this – creating the copy to get results gets much easier.

Whether you’re creating a new website or revamping an existing one – I recommend you answer these questions before you ask for designs or content writing.

You might find the Perfect Client Profile Worksheet a really useful tool.  It’s free and you’ll find it in the Treasure Chest.

Get our Newsletter!

How many websites do you visit and they ask you to ‘sign up’ for their newsletter?

There’s no indication of what the newsletter will deliver and these days most of us are smart enough to recognise it as a means of getting our email address to market to us.

There’s nothing wrong with that – but let’s be honest – do you really want another miscellaneous email in your inbox?  How many of the newsletters you’re already signed up to do you actually read?

If you’re anything like me most get deleted – because they don’t deliver anything of interest or value to me.

A newsletter should deliver value for the reader

Many don’t.  These are NOT value for your reader:

• A new member of staff
• New clients
• An award
• Moving to bigger offices
• A busy month

As Rhett Butler famously said “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”

They may all be things you and your team are excited about, but why would a potential, or even an existing, client find these interesting?

Your newsletter, like your blog, is an opportunity to show off your expertise.  Give your reader something useful.  This might be:

• A ‘how to’ article
• Some tips on a subject of interest (in which you are expert)
• Some inside information on developments that are relevant to your target audience
• A case study that explains how to get specific results

Don’t write a long article – short and to the point is the secret of getting your newsletter read.  For an e-newsletter a maximum of three items – one longer information piece, some PR for your latest offer and, maybe, a paragraph on your business updates – in that order.

How to get people to sign up

Everyone gets excited about building your list – and it’s true that it’s a really effective way to market. People who have parted with their email address to get something they want have, effectively, raised their hand and said “I’m interested.”

What will get them interested enough to willingly part with their contact information?

You need an ethical bribe; in other words you give them something of value and they’ll agree to be on your list.

The four things people respond best to are:

• How to ... (something you’re often asked about)
• 10 top tips on ... (your area of expertise – it can be 7 or 17 or any other number, but typically people respond best to odd  numbers – with the exception of 10)
• Your ... Checklist
• The 3 biggest mistakes people make when ... (something you’re expert in)

These don’t need to be long ebooks, a one or two page document delivered as a pdf is enough.  If you happen to have written a good ebook with a catchy title and really good content then you could give that away, but you could also sell it for a nominal amount and just give away the first chapter.

There are different approaches for different companies – you will need to find something that works for you, but remember it’s all about delivering value in the first instance – and then continuing to do so in every communication.  After all – it’s easy to unsubscribe too!

The Chattering Classes

Blog 28-Nov-16

Auberon Waugh invented this phrase to describe the middle classes who were well-educated, had strong political views and were social concerned.  It wasn’t a compliment!  Today it might be used in a completely different way – to describe people who spend all their time on social media.

I’m a big fan of social media – but don’t want to share every detail of my life on it.  I find it really useful for all kinds of things, both business and personal, but I do think before I post.

Quite apart from the personal advantages of being able to keep in touch with family and friends scattered all round the world, I find social media is a really powerful business tool – as long as it’s used intelligently.

Social media for business

It’s a great way to connect with people you would, otherwise, never meet.

LinkedIn is a valuable tool to make connections with potential clients and build relationships, which is particularly valuable if you’re offering products or services to other businesses.

LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to get in front of a bunch of people who are, potentially, all ideal clients.  As long as you share your knowledge to help others, you’ll soon become well-known as an expert in your field.

Facebook is an excellent platform if your business offers personal products or services.  Bags, shoes, crafts, gifts, wedding stuff, personal development, fitness, nutrition and beauty all do well on Facebook.

That doesn’t mean that there are no business people looking at it – it’s just that, when people are on Facebook, they’re usually ‘off-duty’ and are operating as a husband, wife, friend, son, daughter, football fan, etc.  They’re in social headspace and aren’t looking for business services so much.  

Facebook is community oriented where like-minded people gather round the things they’re interested in.  Elly Prizeman launched her unique shirt business on Facebook and has grown a successful business as people get to see the latest designs and feel part of her community.

Twitter is a much more random means of making connections.  You may be connected to someone who has 30,000 connections and, if they share something you tweet, all those connections have the potential to see it – which is why things go viral really quickly.

Some of the big organisations use Twitter to respond quickly to customer queries and complaints.  It moves much faster than LinkedIn and Facebook – and it’s unfiltered so you can see everything, unlike Facebook where only a percentage of what’s posted is presented for you to read.

The other plus with Twitter is that, using a social media management tool, like Hootsuite, you can run a permanent search for any terms you want to keep up with.

If your business is visual Instagram (owned by Facebook) is a powerful tool.  For example; Joe Wicks, owner of The Body Coach, has become a millionaire through Instagram.  He uses it really effectively to share before and after pictures, short video clips of recipes and to establish his hashtagged keywords.

The other visual platform is, of course, YouTube.  Not only does it carry a wealth of information, but many people use it as a search engine.  If you want to know how to do something, there are probable several videos on YouTube explaining how.  That means it’s a great place for you to have short videos about your services.  

To get the most from YouTube see it as a means of showing off your expertise.  If people can see how good you are there’s a much higher chance of them considering using your services.

Clearly, there are dozens of other social media platforms – but these are the ones most people look at first.  If you want to get your name and expertise in front of people you really do need a sound social media strategy.

What a show-off!

If you follow what I write about you’ll know that I talk about the RAVE acronym – Reputation, Authority, Visibility, Expertise – and today I’m focused on Expertise.

Unless someone has actually paid for your services, how do they know how good you are?  They have to take your level of expertise on trust.

OK – sometimes people can read testimonials or recommendations that have either been written or recorded on video.  But you’d be unlikely to publish anything that wasn’t complimentary, so there’s a likelihood that even third party validation is only the plus side of the equation (and could be from a selection of your friends who have been recruited to help).

So how do you get people to WANT to use YOU?

Become a big show-off!

There are a number of ways to do this:

1. Do presentations at your local networking groups
2. Offer to speak at conferences and trade shows
3. Run a webinar as a ‘taster’ freebie
4. Organise a seminar or workshop at an affordably low cost for delegates.
5. Write magazine articles
6. Write blogs

1 & 2 require you to be reasonable confident presenting to a crowd and to learn some of the skills of a professional speaker to appear professional.

3 & 4 need some training skills to ensure your audience gets their learning in a way that is easy for them to follow.  It also means you need a way to get ‘bums on seats’.

5 will require some schmoozing with the editors of the magazines that your target audience reads to find out if they accept uncommissioned articles and what kind of subject and angle they’re looking for.

6 is the only one of these that is totally down to you.  It’s your blog – you can write whatever you like.  Here is your opportunity to show off your expertise in a big way.

I’m not saying don’t use the first five – they’re all great ways to get your expertise in front of more people, but writing a regular blog is definitely the easiest of all of them.

Not all blog posts focus on a ‘how to ...’ approach, but if you use this you’ll be able to demonstrate your considerable expertise in relevant subjects. 

This is not the first time I’ve said this – and the usual response is ‘but if I give away all my secrets people won’t want to buy my services, they’ll just follow the instructions and do it for themselves.’  This is rarely the case.

If people don’t want to or can’t pay for your services they were probably never likely to become your client – so you’ve given them some help – that’s great. 

Most people like to know that there is a solution, but don’t actually want to go through the hassle of doing it themselves.  For instance, I can manage to complete a spreadsheet and upload my invoices and receipts, but I really don’t want to spend my time doing that.  It’s definitely one of those tasks that would keep getting put off – so I pay an accountant for their time.  They do it faster, better and leave me free to do what I’m good at and enjoy doing.

Using your blog to show off how good you are is a great way to create a positive image.

Footnote:  When you’ve posted your blog, don’t stop there.  Promote it on your chosen social media, add it to your LinkedIn profile as a post, use it to lead your newsletter.  There are lots of ways to ensure more people see it – and what an expert you are!

What is your website's message?

It’s a conversation that I have over and over again and it usually starts with “What do you want to say on your website?” when I’m taking a brief from a client.

The answer varies a bit, but almost always includes things like:

•  We want people to know about all our services/products.
• We want people to understand what we do.
• We want people to trust us.
• We don’t want to appear to be a small company.  
• We want people to ring us up and buy.

All these seem reasonable things to want and I can see you nodding in agreement!

Now could you just take off your Website Owner hat and put on the Website Visitor one?

So you’re visiting a website that you are interested in for some reason – what do you want to see:

• A list of things you can buy?
• The details of all the things you can buy?
•  Accreditations and testimonials?
• A lot of creative description on the About page?

Are you ready to buy now?

If the reason you visited the site was specifically to buy something the answer will be ‘yes’.  But what percentage of website visitors are planning to buy before they even enter the URL or click a link?

Most people are looking for information.

• They may have met someone from your company at a networking event, conference, exhibition or other business event and made enough of a connection to want to check you out.
•  Some people have searched for a particular key words to find out about what kind of products or services are actually available and get an idea of prices or specs.
• Some people have been delegated by their boss to do some research on a particular subject and have no intention of buying anything at this stage.

So how much effort will they put into reading your carefully crafted copy?

There are three key elements:

1. A website that looks professional – and up-to-date in design.
2. Good, strong headlines and section headers that hook the reader in and entice them to read more.
3. Enough information to satisfy the reader that you are ‘their kind of organisation’ and can deliver what they’re looking for.

Clearly if you want to sell products off the website you’ll need enough information on each one for people to understand the specifications – and a price.  However, if you’re selling services people buy YOU.  That means your website needs to in your voice and a good reflection of your company values and beliefs.

Most important of all it needs to tell people WHAT THEY GET – not what you do.

If you really want to impress visitors to your website you need to understand why your existing clients like using your organisation.  Ask some of them – and ask them what changed for them when you’d provided them with what they were looking for.  THAT’S what other people want to know – what it’s like working with you and what the results are likely to be.

It’s all about reader engagement – not just presenting information.

Lessons from the newspaper

Anyone who has watched a few old films will be familiar with the newspaper vendor on the street corner, shouting 'Read all about it!' in relation to the latest big story.  People buy newspapers to get the latest stories about events that are happening right now.  There are a number of reasons they read newspapers:

• They want to keep up with what's going on in the world
• They are interested in a specific story for some reason
• There's something that may affect their lives and they want to ensure they know about the latest developments

If you're producing a newsletter - whether a digital or hard copy publication - bear in mind that your readers must WANT to read it.

People who know you or deal with your business will be mildly interested in what's going on in your company

People who are interested in your industry may be interested if there's a good story

But the huge majority of people are not interested in investing time reading the happenings of your business - unless there's something in it for them!

Remember that journalists are trained to write compelling stories - and news is only news if people are interested in knowing about it.

What does this have to do with your newsletter?

Everyone is busy - they will only start reading your newsletter if there's a good reason to do so.  This means you need to lead your newsletter with something that will engage the reader; something that will impact on them in some way.  This might be an article that helps them in some way, a heads up about a forthcoming change that will impact on their business, an offer or sale.

It won't be:

• Your new office
• Your latest member of staff
• What's going on in your business.

While these are interesting - and possibly exciting - to you, most of your readers won't find that riveting!

Think about how stories are told - there is a beginning, a middle and an end.  There is a hook at the beginning to get people interested and want to know what happens next.  There is the meaty bit in the middle where you develop the plot and your readers get to know who is who and what is what, then there's the ending, where everything comes together and a nice satisfying conclusion occurs.  How can you write articles that fit into that formula?  Check out your newspaper and you'll see they have the same basic approach - even to news stories.

Think like a reader

Whatever you write keep asking yourself - will my reader want to know more?  It's really important to be focused on what the reader wants, what he or she will be attracted by and what will get them to start reading.

There's a subconscious theme running in the background ... 'What's in it for me?'  You must satisfy that with every item you write.

Admittedly, there are some people who have the skill to write quirky items about practically nothing - and there are loyal readers who love being entertained by them, but first you have to capture your reader by delivering something they'll read - the very first time it's delivered to them.

Take a leaf out of the journalists book and deliver a publication that engages your reader's interest and which, when read, will leave them feeling they've got some value out of it.

... every move you make ...

When you meet people networking or you’re networking online it’s usual that, at some point, you ask people ‘what do you do?’ 

Some people will answer with the industry they’re in, but people who are good at marketing will actually tell you what their clients get, rather than what they do.  It’s the difference between a description of how the mechanic will fix the leak in your radiator (yawn) and the benefit of getting your car back on the road fast, confident that it will be reliable (relief, reassurance, happy customer).

Most of us have marketing messages we use for both written and spoken material.  The question is – do our actions support our marketing?

As the Police sang ‘Every move you make, every vow you break, every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you!’  Whether you realise it or not, that’s exactly how the people you meet see you.

So what are your marketing messages?  They are, effectively, the promises you’re making to potential – and existing – customers. 

They include:

• The strapline that underpins your brand
• Values-based statements aimed at getting people to see you as trustworthy and the kind of company they want to work with
• Every word on your website
• Everything that goes into newsletters and email campaigns
• Your personal profile – including anything that you have on social media.

And that’s just for starters.

That means that you need to walk your talk 100% of the time.  No time off, no opportunity to ‘just be me’ – because, especially as a small business owner, you are always representing your business, whether you’re at a networking meeting or a family celebration.  You never know who else is there – and watching you!

The other side of this coin is that when you establish your business and are growing it, you should never make a claim that you are not prepared to stand by. 

Even if you don’t have a strapline or any big statements about how you operate – just ask your best clients how they see your business and you’ll soon discover that you’ve already got a reputation.  

Maintaining a good one is essential.

Take an audit of your website, your marketing material, your social media profiles and posts, the way you do business – are they all congruent?  Is it effortless to maintain the actions that support the words?  It should be.

If you’ve set yourself up to emulate your competitors, you could be making a big mistake.  The one thing that differentiates your business is YOU – so be you, be authentic and you’ll have no problem walking the talk.

As a small business owner it’s much easier to be authentic as people know that they’re getting you, your vision, your ethics and your dedication.  The bigger the organisation, the harder this is to define and deliver.  Authenticity may be a bit of a corporate buzz word, but smaller businesses actually have the edge in presenting this.

What is marketing?

If you own a business you know that marketing is one of those things that everyone tells you are essential.  Most people understand the sales process, but marketing is often seen as a bit 'woolly'!

I used to work for a big organisation and their marketing manager covered advertising, press releases, promotional activities, sponsorship of events, PR and liaised with the ad agency.  This included things like preparing our entries for industry awards, getting articles in local and international press, getting photos of famous faces in our shops and us featured on TV worldwide (if you've ever heard of Dubai Duty Free - you'll know they've been pretty successful!)

It was only when I was studying for my professional qualifications that I discovered the part of the marketing iceberg that lies beneath the surface.  Did you know that an essential part of marketing is statistics?  No, neither did I (and my appalling schoolgirl maths quailed at the thought of correlation coefficients and mean deviations, not to mention scattergrams).  So are demographics, both target and actual.  In fact when you dig about in the marketing equation and it's revealed in its full glory it affects:

Research and development

This is where the maths comes in, who is in your market and what do they want?  Only the really big organisations can afford to invest huge amounts of money in developing something really brand new.

People hold up products like the Sony Walkman (you need to be over 35 to remember this) and the iPod as revolutionary, but they are just an innovative next step from 45s and LPs, transistor radios and portable tape recorders.  The market for portable music was already established - and Steve Jobs was smart by using customer language (1000 songs in your pocket) rather than manufacturer language (digital storage for music) - that's good advertising!

I learned long ago that, instead of developing a brand new product and then having to find a market for it, it's much better to find out what people want and then develop a product (or service) to fulfil that need, it's far less effort and has a much higher success rate.

Finance

Marketing costs money!  The smart finance department doesn't try to prevent the marketing people from spending money, but they DO want to know the expected return on investment.  Having to prove that your marketing is highly targeted does wonders for focusing the mind.  It also stops creative marketing people from grabbing the next new shiny thing.

How many companies have got a Facebook page that they invest lots of time on?  But their primary market is businesses, not consumers - and they spend very little effort on LinkedIn.  That just means they haven't thought it through.

I've come across companies who advertise in publications that very few of their target market read, appear on prime time TV ads, when they're promoting something that won't appeal to the majority of viewers, grab a great deal for local advertising in places their ideal clients rarely visit, etc. etc.  Getting your marketing targeted and developing a budget that you can justify makes sense no matter how big or small your organisation is.

Purchasing

Some people think this is part of the finance function - and in some organisations it is.  If you're buying goods either for resale or to manufacture a product there will need to be a purchasing plan - and that needs to be coordinated with the marketing people.  There needs to be enough to meet the customers demands, but not so much that you have to pay for expensive storage space when you're overstocked.

Sales

Contrary to popular belief, marketing is not part of sales.  Actually it's the other way around - sales is part of the marketing function.

HR

OK, I can hear you thinking 'You've got to be joking!  How can HR be part of marketing?'  Marketing drives sales and people are needed to either sell the products, deliver the services or manufacture the goods - or all three.  If sales volume is low, fewer people are needed.  If sales volume is high, the customers will get snitty if they can't get hold of anyone to buy from or there aren't enough products available or they have to wait to get service - that's a quick way to lose your business to competitors.  High sales are good, but only if you're equipped to deal with them.

You're probably beginning to get the picture - marketing underpins everything the organisation does.  It impacts on every department and is the lynchpin around which the organisation revolves.  Marketing messages aren't just something that result from the creative's latest brainstorm, they're researched, targeted, tested, focused and supported.

I specialise in reputation marketing, which is just a small slice of the marketing cake.   However, whether you're working in a big business or running a sole consultancy all these aspects need to be considered.  The more effort you put in, the better the results you'll get out - that translates to money in the bank and the success of your business.

How to make your business successful

Promising you a ‘magic bullet’ to solve all your business challenges isn’t very realistic – BUT these five things will make a significant difference.

ONE – Make your mind up!

If I had £1 for every time someone at a networking meeting described their ideal contact as “Anybody who wants what I do”, I would be very, very rich!  I wouldn’t recognise an ‘Anybody’ if they bumped into me, to be able to match people to my network’s ideal clients I need much more detail.

• Is your ideal contact male, female, young, mature, an entrepreneur, HR manager, sales director?
• What industry are they in?
• What type of business are they in – micro business, SME, corporate, large SME, not-for-profit?
• What words would make me recognise them instantly?

If you network, online OR offline or both, this kind of detail will get you much better (and many more) good referrals, recommendations and connections.  It’s a numbers game – lots of referrals are no good if they aren’t a good match; lots of good referrals are almost certainly going to end up in doing some business.

TWO – Know your ideal client

To really help people you need to understand what rocks their boat, what they struggle with, what’s keeping them awake at night, what frustrates the hell out of them.  Why?  Because if you can solve some of their problems you have a very powerful proposition.

Also if you can describe what you do in terms of benefits you’ll get far more engagement.  For instance, instead of answering “What do you do?” with your job title (“I’m an accountant/marketing coach/HR consultant”) try coming at it from another perspective: “You know how small business owners usually find there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done?  Well, I help them to develop marketing systems that take the pressure off, don’t take up much of their time and get them more business.”

If the person you’re talking to suffers from any of these pain points, you can be sure they’ll want to talk to you some more.  If they’re not your next client, they’ll recognise other people moaning about these things and may suggest you talk to each other.

THREE – Give stuff away

I give away loads in my Treasure Chest – and there have always been people who say “Why should I give away all my secrets?”  I don’t see it like that. 

Firstly, people can see I know my stuff by accessing my free material – and not only gain a level of trust in my expertise, but also have a subliminal obligation from having received something from me.  That means that they’re more likely to use my services or recommend me to someone else.

Secondly, most people have their area of expertise; if what I offer falls outside their area of expertise they are more likely to use someone who has already demonstrated their skills, than an unknown person.  I can manage a spreadsheet, but I hate it – that’s why I have an accountant, so if someone wants to improve their image and get control of their reputation, they’ll probably come to me.

Thirdly, if someone is going to take the free stuff and try and do themselves they’re probably not going to buy my services anyway.

FOUR – Shout about it!

If people don’t know you exist they can’t ask for your help.  In fact, even if they do know you exist, it’s easy to forget you when they’re getting deluged by information via the internet.

Make sure you maintain your visibility by:

• Attending local networking groups regularly – find the ones that work for you and stick at it; it takes time for people to get to know you.
• Using social media intelligently – pick the ones where your target audience are likely to be active (do your research) and post regularly.  Not just where you’re going and what you’re doing, but tips, advice, etc.  Also keep an eye on what’s going on and help wherever you can.

Remember that everyone is not crouched over their screen watching for your next gem of wisdom, so a few posts a day, spread out at different times won’t appear to be overkill – unless someone is stalking you!

FIVE – Build relationships

‘People buy people they like’; that means you need to get to know people for them to know you well enough to feel as though they like you.

Social media is great for maintaining contact with people, whether it’s on a Facebook Page, a Twitter chat, a thread in a LinkedIn group, watching a YouTube video or a response to an Instagram image or video.  Of course, there are many more options, but that should be part of your research – finding out where your target audience hangs out.

Another way to build your connections is to grow your own marketing list – often by sharing a download of value in return for name and email.  As long as you don’t spam your list, a regular contact by email with something of value will help people to get to know you, value your advice and remember you when they need your services.  It doesn’t matter if they don’t buy right away – it can take between 5-12 ‘touches’ before people say ‘yes’ to an offer.

Is that it?

Of course, this will not solve all your problems, but, if you actually action these five things your business WILL grow.  You might be very surprised at how much!

How am I doing?

Children don’t respond well to being ignored.  Most children want some kind of interaction as reassurance that they are part of a group.  They need telling they’re being good; that people are happy to have them around.  In fact, if they aren’t getting any feedback they’re likely to start being naughty, simply to get attention.

As an adult this trait of demanding attention is ‘trained’ out of you.  As you get older, if you’re trying to be noticed you become a show-off, an exhibitionist, an attention-grabber – perhaps on a good day ‘the life and soul of the party’.

But who wants to be ignored?

Nobody.  We all like to know how we’re doing, whether it’s a compliment on doing something well or feedback on what’s not going so well.  Yes, really – most people would rather know if they’re not doing things right so they can improve, than to gain a reputation as a poor performer.

There are organisations who have a policy of not giving feedback on the grounds that people will simply do as they are told.  What does that do for job satisfaction?

There are organisations who encourage feedback at every level – even, in some brave cases, upwards.  What does that do for relationships and for the people who get regular ‘notice taken’?

Feedback helps people to improve – and how they handle it and respond to it also builds their reputation.

• Testimonials are feedback from clients on how the company has helped them.
• Recommendations on LinkedIn are feedback from your connections on what their experience of you has been.
•  Happy sheets at the end of training or seminar events are feedback on the trainer or speaker (don’t be fooled into thinking they’re a measure of what people have learned, that takes time to become apparent!)

If you’ve had a good experience with a supplier you’re happy to give them a recommendation or testimonial, but often forget unless you’re asked.  The same applies when you’ve given great service to a client – if you don’t ask them for a testimonial they probably won’t actively give you one – so don’t forget to ask.

Here are my tips to get great testimonials:

1.  Make it as easy as possible.  Faced with a blank sheet most people don’t know where to start, so ask the right questions:

a.    What did we do for you?

b.    What was it like working with us?

c.    What changed as a result of what we did for you?

2.  Get an online system – use something like TrustPilot.

3.  Ask people to put a recommendation on LinkedIn (if you’re B2B) or Facebook (if you’re B2C).

4.  Send a testimonial form (just one page – and no more than 3 questions) with the invoice.

5.  Call former clients and ask them for a testimonial for the work you did (you might be surprised at how many will ask you to do some more work for them).

What to do with your testimonials

• Add them to your website – but NOT on a dedicated testimonials page; nobody reads more than a couple and, if you have several different services, they may never get to the relevant one.  Better to put them on the relevant page, so third party validation sits alongside where the visitor is reading about the service.
• Include them on your marketing flyers.
• Tell people about them on social media.
• Write a case study giving more detail about the work carried out with the testimonial on the end and publish it on your blog.
• Boast a little at your networking groups and read one out from time-to-time.

So – how are you doing?

Package your expertise to help you grow your business

If you’re running a service business you’re probably exchanging your time for money.  That means that to really grow your earning potential you need to:

• Charge more per hour or day
• Employee people and charge their time out at more than you pay them
• Find a way to earn residual income where you do the work once and get paid many times.

Most people have at least half an eye on market rates for their industry – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put your prices up.  If you’re confident that you deliver value (or course you are) and you get positive feedback from your clients, they’ll pay to have your expertise working for them.

Employing others can be a double-edged sword!  If you find the right people and have a 5-star training programme to polish them to perform at a really high level (and ongoing refreshers, skill upgrades, etc) then it can make growing your business straightforward. 

In the real world small business owners often take on new staff and then are so busy that they don’t have time to provide really good training.  Then you get people who may not be ready to provide the same high level of service you do yourself – less satisfied customers and staff who leave quite quickly, as they don’t feel they’re getting real job satisfaction.

Then there’s the issue of doing the work once and getting paid many times for it – how does that really work?  Well, it depends on your business.  If you are delivering a service you almost certainly have a bank of knowledge that you deliver to your clients, but what about all the people you can’t serve?

They may not be able to afford your service or simply hadn’t heard about it – but there are definitely lots of people who fit your client profile that you haven’t reached or don’t have enough hours in the day to help.  If you convert your expertise into a knowledge product – an ebook, a series of video tutorials, an online resource, DVDs, CDs, podcasts, etc. – you have packaged your knowledge into a product that you can sell.

Most of us have bought these and paid from £5 to hundreds, depending on the product and our perception of what the knowledge it holds could do for us.  People are always looking for a better way to make their business better; to give them more time, earn more money, grow their business to a bigger organisation – everyone has different goals.  What do you know that you could package?

Of course, creating the product is only the first step – then it’s getting it ‘out there’ so people know about it, but it’s a start.

We’ll talk about getting visibility in the next blog, but first you need something to sell.  Get a piece of paper and jot down the skills your clients appreciate most.  How could you turn these into a knowledge product?  

The name of the game is collaboration

CC BY-NC by Ari Herzog

If you work in a large organisation collaboration is part of the working environment; whether it’s working with colleagues in your department or as part of a multi-functional team.  When you’re in a smaller company it’s less in evidence – if there are fewer than 20 staff you could be the only person in your ‘department’.

So does this mean that collaboration is only for big organisations?  Certainly not, there are plenty of small companies that collaborate on a project – the web developer works with a graphic designer and a copywriter to create a website for a client – and, possibly a videographer and an online marketing system builder too.  That’s collaboration between a number of suppliers to deliver a single project.
But what about when that’s not possible for you or if it doesn’t happen very often?  Does that mean that collaboration can’t be part of your business strategy?

On the contrary – there’s plenty of opportunities to collaborate – often disguised as ‘networking’!

Online people get to help each other through platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  Ask for help and it will almost certainly be given.

Offline people attend networking breakfasts, coffee sessions, lunches, dinners and more.  Some people think that this is how you get business – but if that’s all you’re looking for you’ll quickly find it’s not working very well.  Collaboration is the name of the game – who can you help, connect, support, advise?  If you start to do this you’ll soon find that good things come to you as a result.

Here’s an example:

Susan sat next to someone she hadn’t met before at a networking lunch.  They started to chat and it turned out that her area of expertise was one that his professional body was looking for to present at a forthcoming conference.  The original speaker had let them down.

Although this was not her target market Susan decided to help out and made a very successful presentation.  What she didn’t know was that someone in the audience was from an influential consultancy – and contacted her to work on a contract for a multi-national organisation.  She would not have made it past the reception desk any other way and this turned into an ongoing lucrative contract.

Networking is asking for people who are willing to collaborate on a specific task – whether that task is finding you a good supplier of widgets or introducing you to someone you want to talk to about potential business.

Of course, the other side of the coin is being willing to do your bit for others too – and I must admit I always get a buzz from ‘plugging people in’.  If someone says “Does anyone know a cartoonist who does film?” my mind immediately starts scanning my network for likely connections.  Being able to put the two people together is very satisfying.

So how have you got collaboration integrated into your business strategy?

It's not about YOU!

The toughest lesson many of my clients have to learn is that their marketing is not supposed to be all about them.  “But it’s our marketing, it has to be about us,” they argue – but let’s look at it from a different angle – the customer’s.  When you visit my website are you trying to find out what I do – or what you get?

Ah, I thought so.  Most of us are trying to resource a product or service so we want to know ‘if I buy your product or service how will that benefit me?’.  You too? Of course!

Let’s think about this from a psychological perspective.  If you ask someone “What do you do?” there’s a high probability that they’ll respond with something like:

“I’m an accountant.”

“I’m in shipping.”

“I provide corporate gifts.”

“I sell cars.”

At this point you probably think ‘OK, I know what that is,’ and half tune them out.  They’re talking about themselves, it doesn’t sound particularly exciting, you’ve heard it before, blah, blah, blah.

How would you respond if, instead, they responded with:

“You know how infuriating HMRC can be – always grabbing your money at every opportunity?  Well, think of us as your personal warrior to help you to protect your hard-earned cash.  You know a bit of planning can make your business much more profitable, don’t you?”

“If your products are being manufactured in another country, you can leave the whole process to us.  Just tell us where the raw materials are and they’ll be collected (from anywhere in the world), delivered to your manufacturer to meet your production slot – quality checked before shipping and then delivered to your warehouse just in time to hit the retail outlets.  You don’t have to chase and your warehouse isn’t full up with stock waiting for distribution.”

“If you want your brand to make an impact – and keep on making one – you’ll be surprised at the opportunities you could be missing.  We’ve got a cycle shop that give away waterproof saddle covers with their brand on, a business consultant who delivers coasters that make up a jigsaw and even a financial advisor that has their logo gold-leafed onto the inside of a leather wallet.  Have you ever thought of what you might do to get your brand under people’s noses?”

“You know how some people get someone to go shopping with them who can advise them on colours, styles and so on – a personal shopper?  Well, think of me as a personal shopper for cars.  You decide what you want, colour, model, age, mileage – and I’ll find it for you!  What’s more I can sell your current car too so you don’t have the hassle of that either.  It’s one less hassle taken care of for you.”

OK – the replies are much longer, but also much more interesting – and more likely to generate a conversation.

What’s the difference?  It’s not just length or detail; it’s more positioning and using the word ‘you’.

When someone says ‘we’, at best, you have a polite interest.  The same applies to ‘they’ (some of my clients argue that they aren’t talking about themselves, they’re talking about other clients – usually in case studies).  However, when you say ‘you’ people respond differently.  They start running that little video in their head of themselves experiencing what you’re talking about.

They’re engaged with your message at a much stronger level.

Remember this when you’re creating your next marketing material – whether that’s on your website, an email campaign, a newsletter, a blog like this or even on social media.  You’ll get much better results.

Get your network to give you leads

In 2016 the most effective way to get business is by referral.  People who rate you refer others to you so what do you do to make that referral process easy?

Most business owners network – online and offline.  They’re on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and/or have a page on Facebook.  They go to breakfast meetings, networking events and association meetings.  In all these places there’s usually an opportunity to talk about your business, even if it’s just for a few seconds.

Here are my top tips to make it easy for your networking contacts to bring you leads.

1.  Know exactly who you are trying to attract.  The more detailed your description of an ideal client, the easier it is for your networking contacts to recognise them when they meet them.  “Anyone who wants what I do,” is not a description that anyone can relate to!

2.  Plan your opening statement.  When you stand up (or sit down) to do a 60 second ‘pitch’ open with something memorable.  “Most of you know what I do,” is guaranteed for half the people present to tune you out.  It doesn’t matter if people already know what you do, it’s an opportunity to educate them about why it’s important for them to connect you to their contacts so open with a statement that will get their attention.  This might be a challenging question or an outrageous statement or using a prop that will focus attention (and maybe get a laugh!)

3.  Think in terms of outcomes.  People don’t want to know what you do – they want to know what they get – the answer to ‘What’s in it for me?’  The more examples of measurable outcomes your clients have got as a result of using your service or product are much more powerful than a list of the services/products you sell.

This can be quite hard to get your head around, but, for example not “I write commercial copy to help people with their marketing”, but “I persuade your clients to take action and purchase ... ” or better still “The copy we create results in 15% more sales than most of our clients previously experienced.” 

4.  Be visible.  The very least you need today is a website – and that website needs to be focused on the customer (not what the company does).  However, you also need to be active on social media and post content in a variety of places, from your blog to emailing useful information to your list.

People have short memories and quickly forget you exist if you’re not popping up in their eye-line regularly.

5.  Deliver value.  Don’t just sell at people – they’ll disengage and that means that you lose a potential client and/or a potential referrer.  Share your knowledge, curate useful material – blogs or articles, connect your network to each other when you think they could help each other.

If you have a system for people to sign up to your list – don’t offer them a newsletter – most of us won’t volunteer to get yet another email to deal with.  Instead, offer them an item of value in exchange for their contact details – a checklist, a ‘How to ...’ document, a ‘3 things to avoid when ...’ document or your top ten tips on ... whatever your area of expertise is.  Make sure it looks professional, is in pdf format and carries not only your brand at the front, but your contact details and a short biography or company profile at the back.

If you do just these five things consistently you’ll see a significant difference in the quality and frequency of your network sending you potential clients.

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If you want an online marketing system that will help you to tick some of these boxes with the minimum of effort – give me a call on +44 (0) 1245 473296 or watch this free one hour video tutorial.