Like a house of cards …

Your reputation is something that doesn’t happen by accident, it is carefully built.  Getting people to know, like and trust you - and rate your expertise as worth having takes time and effort.

Of course, a reputation should be authentic - especially a personal reputation.  It’s who you are, and that will make it much easier to build and maintain, because you’re not trying to be something you’re not.

With an organisation that has employees it’s really important that the employees share the organisation’s values.  If they don’t, they’ll always be ‘putting a face on’ at work and their actions outside of work can be damaging.

It only takes one member of staff to say something derogatory in a public setting and it can have a serious impact on the company’s shiny image. 

It only takes a careless comment

When we’re at work we will usually aim to meet the expectations of our employer, but when we leave work we’re off duty and it’s easy to make a comment on social media without thinking.  We all type and hit ‘post’ without thinking sometimes.

One of the Master’s degree students I was lecturing on social media a few years back tried to argue that what she posted on social media personally was none of her employer’s business.  It’s a good theory, but it doesn’t hold water.  People don’t stop to think whether you’re on or off duty when they read your posts.  If you choose to have a profile on a social platform, everything you post influences the reader about you and sometimes, indirectly, about your employer.

Even a joke complaint about another department has a subliminal effect.  Talking to a supplier and saying “Oh yes, that’s the accounts department, they never do anything on time,” says volumes about the relationships within your organisation.  Sometimes you have to remember that you’re all playing on the same team!

One careless comment and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

‘You only get one chance to make a first impression’

This cliché is true - and if you make a poor first impression it is a long uphill haul to resurrect that impression you wanted to make.  The same applies to a reputation that has been tarnished - getting it back is hard work.

It’s so much easier to make a great first impression and then keep reinforcing that.

So where is your reputation being built?

Online:

• On social media
• On your website with your content
• In every email your send out from personal communications to your newsletter
• In every piece of marketing material
• In podcasts - whether yours or where you’re a guest
• In video content - including Zoom meetings

Offline

• At networking events
• Business breakfasts, lunches or dinners
• Conferences and seminars
• Training courses
• Exhibitions and trade events
• Meetings of your professional body

And it’s especially important where you’re in the spotlight as a speaker or presenter.  But don’t think that the spotlight is ever off.  People observe and draw conclusions.

Helping your employees to understand and support your values is essential - in fact, it’s a good interview question (or questions) to ask ‘what do you understand our values to be?’  It will weed out those who haven’t bothered to do any research into your company and reveal useful information about each candidate.

Conscious care of your company's reputation will pay dividends in the long-term.

10 ideas for your blog

The most frequent reason people tell me they don’t write blogs is because they don’t know what to write about - so here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

1: Answer a question

When I’m networking people often ask me questions around my area of expertise.  My customers ask me questions too, so there’s always something to write about.  Cast your mind back to questions you know you’ve answered more than once - there’s a reason people ask the same question - you may think ‘it’s obvious’, but to them it’s not.

2: Write a case study

It’s always useful to have case studies on your website and having a blog category for case studies makes it easy to add your latest success.  Typically a good case study has 4 elements:

• The problem or customer brief
• What you did about it
• What the solution was
• What the customer said (it’s easy to ask the customer for a testimonial when you’re featuring them in a case study.  Remember to get them to focus on results.

3: Comment on something topical

Your opinion on any RELEVANT issue can make a good blog article.  You can either take the logical approach, by laying out the situation, the pros and cons and ending with your opinion or you can go into a full-on rant!  As long as you don’t descend into name-calling, you can end up with a compelling read.  My advice - if you’re ranting, set it aside and read it 24 hours later before publishing it.

If you struggle to stay up-to-date with everything that’s in the press, set up Google alerts for your keywords and you’ll get an email when those keywords are mentioned, with links to the relevant articles.

4: Review a product (or more than one)

If there are a number of  products that would be of interest to your clients and can be related to your area of expertise, do your own review of one or more of these.  If you’re doing more than one, create a structure for each - e.g. product name, what it does, features, cost, marks out of 10 or stars out of 5.

The products don’t have to be tangible items, they can be software, online tools, publications, anything that you can offer your opinion on.

5: Feature a customer

This is an alternative to a case study - ask your star customers if they’re willing to be interviewed.  You’ll need to come up with a set of questions and, if you do more than one of this kind of interview, maybe consider a standard set of questions to work with.  Stay focused around the area you are expert in and how this works for their business, otherwise your blog is in danger of becoming too random and general.

6: Share an image

If you’ve got an image that’s relevant to your business, share that and comment on it and why it’s important.  This might be new equipment that will make a significant difference to your business, so you can explain why you’ve got it and the outcomes that your customers can expert as a result.  It be the basis for a ‘how to’ article - like how to create an infographic or the post styles that work best on Instagram.

7: Solve a problem

If you know your customers well you’ll know what their biggest problems are.  You don’t need to feature a particular customer, you can simply set out the problem and the impact of it, then outline your solution and the benefits it offers.

8: Explain a process

If your business involves a process that progresses an issue from A to F, outline how it works showing steps B, C, D and E along the way.  Don’t forget to show how this benefits your customers.

9: Interview another expert

This is a great way to create joint ventures.  Find another company with the same audience that you have; they may offer complementary services or products to the ones you provide, so would make a great business partner.  Offer to interview them and introduce them to your readers and maybe discuss how they could do something similar - either by a reciprocal article on their blog or by featuring your business in their newsletter.  It’s a win-win situation for both companies.

10: Create a tips list

Every business owner develops smart strategies for things around their expertise.  Put together your top 3, 5, 10, 35 tips (odd numbers work better than even - with the exception of 10).  You’ll have plenty of material for your blogs with this!  (After all, you’ve just read my tips list, haven’t you?)

Style over substance

One of the things I’ve noticed as we’ve all had to change the way we work is that people are paying more attention to planning.  Maybe it’s because they are having to do more with less budget; maybe it’s because they are having to work differently and need a different way to present that to their audience or maybe it’s because they have more time.

Whatever the reason - planning is good news!

Instead of jumping on the marketing bandwagon and doing what ‘everyone’ says you should be doing, planning means that marketing activity is much more focused.  While you may have a glitzy website, a stylish Instagram account and professionally crafted blogs, are they actually making a difference?

How many business owners have:

• A Twitter account and don’t really know what it does for them?
• A Facebook Page when their audience is on LinkedIn?
• A newsletter that goes out every month, but doesn’t really achieve much?
• A blog that very few people know about or read?
• Random email campaigns just because there’s a product or service that needs to be promoted.

These all appear to be ‘free’ advertising, but they still take time and effort, so there is a cost.  If you were actually paying for an ad in a publication would you still just do it because someone said it was a good idea?

Focus gets results

The big things to focus on are:

Who? Your ideal customer, in as much detail as you can.  Imagine that person was standing in front of you and describe them, their business, their challenges and what stresses them out.

Where?  Where do groups of this kind of person hang out?  Know where to be active so you’re making an impact on the right people.  Better a few of the right people than thousands of people who are not interested.

What?  What have you got to offer?  How can you solve their problems - and what will they get when you do (apart from a warm fuzzy feeling!)?

How?  What tools are available to you?  Specific social media platforms, SEO, newsletter, email marketing, blogs, podcasts, video marketing, networking, sales funnels - there’s a very long list, and you need to choose the ones that will work best to reach and influence your ideal customers.

When?  Which activities will you do, how often?  And does it have to be you - or could someone else do some/all of them? 

Why?  There needs to be outcomes for your business, so measurement of some kind needs to take place.  Just be aware that high volume doesn’t necessary indicate success - so thousands of people visiting your website daily may sound good, but how many of them turn into enquiries? 

Some marketing tools are harder to measure - the number of followers, likes, etc. can give an indication of how your social media is working, but this is more of a longer-term influencing tool.  As with any new activity, you’ll need to give each one time to settle in and gain momentum.

A little focus gives your marketing (and business plans) substance!

Have you got a book in you?

There is a saying that everyone has at least one book in them.  However, most people never make the effort to get that book out.  What about you?

Have you ever considered writing a book?  You may have met other business people who proudly announce that their book is now available - or may even have a few copies in their briefcase to offer around.  So why not you?

3 reasons why not

When the issue of writing a book is discussed there are some very common reasons that are offered for NOT writing a book.

1. ‘I can’t write for toffee’
2. ‘Nobody will be interested in what I have to say’
3. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start’.

Let’s dig a bit deeper.

You don’t have to write to create a book

If you like writing and enjoy getting your thoughts down on ‘paper’ (even if it’s digital paper), skip to the next heading, but if this sounds familiar, then stay with me.  There are many ways of getting your ideas from in your head into written format.  You can:

• Hire a ghost writer
• Talk and record your ideas for transcription
• Dictate live to someone who will tidy your words up and capture your tone and style
• Do bullet points for someone else to develop
• Gather notes, blogs, podcasts and video material together and work with someone else to turn it into a cohesive book.

These are all variations on a theme - but the crux of the matter is that you can write a book, with help from someone else.  And remember that even those people who do actually write their own text will need an editor to knock it into shape.

You’re the expert

If you’re running a business and have clients who are willing to pay for your expertise, you’ve got something other people need.  You may not be the only person with your expertise, but you are the only person who is YOU.  That means you have your own knowledge, experience and viewpoint to share - which is not identical to anyone else’s.

Think about it - there are dozens of chefs who all write cookery books - and we buy them, because we like their different approaches to the same subject.  The same applies to your area of expertise - you have a unique take on it.

There will always be people who are very interested in what you have to say.

Where do you start?

If this is the issue that’s challenging you - you’re right to believe that there is more to writing a book than just getting the words down.  You’ll have a number of decisions to make along the way:

Who is it for? Who will be interested enough to buy it?

Where is your market?  How will you put the book in front of them?

How will you publish the book?  Will you submit it to traditional publishing houses or go down the self-publishing route?

These are just the tip of the iceberg.  Planning a book is more than deciding your chapter headings, you’ll need to do some marketing too - even if you get a contract with a publisher.

Yes, it all takes time - and you will have to decide whether you want to make that investment, but it’s a huge marketing tool and sets you ahead of your competition as a published author.

If you want to start planning your book download the Pipedream to Proposal worksheet here.

Why are you here?

This is not some deep and thoughtful question about the meaning of life - it’s the question you should be asking every visitor to your website.

Of course, that’s not possible, but when you’re revamping your website your web designer should be asking you what people want to do when they visit your website.

The answers are varied, but designing a website that works needs to keep the visitor front and centre when planning:

• What goes where
• What information - and how much of it - is provided at what stage
• How to get from where they are now to where they want to go with the least effort
• How to ensure they find what they want without breaking a sweat

In other words, to quote Steve Krug*, “Don’t make me think!”  This is all about usability (UX).

See your site through the visitor’s eyes

Your website is there to promote your business and you’ll have your own ideas of what you want people to do, but don’t make assumptions about whether your visitor wants the same thing you do.

Here are a few different reasons people visit your website.

Searches

If your site is well set-up for search engine optimisation (SEO) and someone has searched for a specific product or service, they may arrive on your website as a result.  They probably won’t land on your home page; the search engine will deliver them to the page that features whatever they were searching for.

The learning from this is that every page on your website needs to stand alone and get that page’s message across quickly and accurately without the visitor having to work hard to find out if they’re in the right place.

This means headlines that engage the visitor and reassure them that this page will give them what they want.

Networking connections

They may have met you at a networking event (in person or virtually) and decided to check you out.  That might include on a social platform like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.  This visitor is probably trying to get an idea of what you do and whether it’s something they need or could recommend to others.

This visitor needs to be reassured that your website is congruent with the message they’ve already received.  Your site needs to look professional and reinforce what you said at the meeting or on your profile.

Researchers

This group covers a wide range of visitors. 

• Some are there simply to get information - maybe for research for a project or dissertation. 
• Some are researching their options (or on behalf of someone else, a partner or boss, for example) to make comparisons before making a decision. 
• Some are trying to work out if this is something they actually want and trying to find out enough to make a decision.

While these people are not necessarily buyers, they may be influencers, so your website needs to satisfy them too.

Usability tests

Professional UX testing usually gives the testers a task and asks them to go to a website and carry out that task.  That might be:

• Find the company’s phone number
• Find out if they have this product [product name]
• If you wanted to perform [task], what would you do?
• What would you expect to happen?

Then they watch how the user gets on and also often ask questions about how they felt about the process, what they were thinking as they carried out the tasks, etc.

While a small business doesn’t have the budget (or need) for the high level UX testing big companies with websites running to hundreds of pages have, it’s wise to think about your visitor, why are they on your website?  Is it a good experience for them?

You might find this article useful too.

*Don’t make me think by Steve Krug is an excellent (and easy read) visitor-focused, practical book on website usability.