Fail to plan …

It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to a shiny new year and you start making plans (often called New Year’s Resolutions or the Annual Business Plan).  People who know me often hear me referring to them as ‘New Year’s Revolutions’ (with my tongue firmly in my cheek) on the grounds that they will either change the world (a revolution) or come around again next year (a different kind of revolution) because they didn’t happen yet!

However, I do believe that if you don’t have a goal and a plan to achieve it, nothing will happen.  The reason many New Year’s Resolutions or goals in the Annual Business Plan come around again is because the goal hasn’t been broken down into activities with deadlines and/or hasn’t been communicated to the people who will be responsible for helping to achieve it.

When it comes to marketing for your business, think of it as the stuffing for your sausage machine!  If you don’t have a way to keep business flowing in and giving your reputation a lovely, glossy shine you’ll suffer from feast and famine.  This is what happens when you’re so busy you don’t have time to do business generation – until that activity comes to an end and there’s a gaping hole.

A simple marketing plan

This is a basic plan – and you can add to it, but it will ensure that you have at least a foundation for business development.

Ideal client avatar:  This is a detailed description of precisely who you want to work with – their problems, challenges and headaches.  Also where to find them, which social media they are most active on, what they read and watch, where they network or visit.

The tools to reach them:  How you’ll be able to reach them, engage with them and/or influence them.  This will include social media, articles in selected publications or appearances on broadcast media, video material on YouTube, leaflets in their local venues e.g. gyms, clubs, at exhibitions, etc.

Budget:  Everything has a cost, whether it’s actual cash or the cost of your time (or that of your team or a contractor).  How much are you going to invest in business generation?  This is often a percentage of turnover or profit, but ideally it needs to be converted into a hard number of pounds (or whatever currency you operate in) as you don’t pay bills in percentages of your profit!

This now needs to be converted into an equation:

Number of contacts made / number of enquiries generated / number of proposals written = number of sales made.

For example 100 contacts made / 10 enquiries / 3 proposals  = 1 sale made 

So using those stats every sale requires making 100 contacts. 

Your numbers may be different, so you will need to track your results to work out what they are in order to work your own equation out.  Now how will you make the number of contacts you need in order to generate the sales you want.

Your marketing plan will have actions to take, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and as every small action will build to deliver your marketing targets, you’re much more likely to get the results you want.

My tip:  Keep a check on progress at least monthly to ensure the actions are matching the figures in your plan.

An abundant and prosperous 2024 from all of us at Inside News!

What's your style?

There’s a cliché that denigrates ‘style over substance’.  While I agree that style should not be a substitute for substance, style is important.

Your brand is about style – it tells people something about the kind of company you are, your approach to business and represents what you stand for (your values).

The way you talk to people, whether they are customers, potential customers, networking contacts or just people you come into contact with in the course of your day, give them an idea of what to expect from you.  This is especially important when you’re a sole trader or a small business where you are the primary deliverer.  

Style is particularly important when you are creating content.  Whether that’s for your website, a blog post or your newsletter people hear the ‘voice’ of your copy and get an impression of who you are.

Content style can vary enormously from conservative and corporate to quirky and cute and the most frequent influencers are social media and your newsletters (or email campaigns).

Even when you write your own copy, you may find that it doesn’t reflect your real style.  I blame English teachers who emphasis the need for correct – and often pompous – grammar and formally parsed sentences!  As a words geek I’m all for knowing the rules of grammar, punctuation (don’t get me started on apostrophes) and correct spelling, but style sometimes requires breaking the occasional rule!

Your newsletter is probably how your followers most often experience your take on your area of specialism.  It shouldn’t read like a text book; it should read as though you are talking to a friend or a business contact who has asked for enlightenment.

This is where the challenge occurs – and where the skill of a copywriter can achieve results that people who haven’t had that kind of writing training run into trouble.

I know of people who don’t like writing, instead they’ve recorded their thoughts verbally and had them transcribed.  Then they’ve simply published that transcription on their blog or as the value item in their newsletter (or both).  

While your written content should sound like you talking, when you actually talk you don’t speak succinctly – none of us do!  We change direction mid-sentence, several ideas or thoughts can run together, we ‘um’ and ‘er’ – and most of us have some repetitive verbal idiosyncrasies (‘you know’ at the end of sentences or an often repeated word ‘absolutely’, ‘OK’, ‘right’, ‘basically’ are some of the frequent offenders.)  When you speak you have tone of voice to help people to understand what you’re saying – when you write that’s missing and, therefore, your written content needs to be much clearer.   

Regardless of how you create your copy, my top tip is to then read it aloud and you’ll soon discover where the problems occur.  It might be a sentence that is far too long and leaves you gasping for breath or a phrase that you actually would never say.  Edit until it reads fluently – or work with someone who can capture your voice and generate content that sounds just like you.

Social diversity

 

All social media platforms are not equal – and your approach to each one should take that platform’s audience into account when you’re creating social posts.

Not everyone gets that.  Sharing cute cat videos is great on Facebook, but won’t go down so well on LinkedIn.  Does this mean that all the people on LinkedIn aren’t interested in cat videos?  No.  But they are on LinkedIn with their business head on and are interested in getting to know people in a business context.  Cat videos couldn’t be described as business content – unless you happen to be running a cattery and can deliver an appropriate message along with the video.

Someone recently told me that only ‘old’ people are on Facebook now.  I’m not sure my friends (and family) who are in their early 40s and still love Facebook, appreciate being categorised as ‘old’, but younger people are big consumers of video and images, so, if they’re your audience, check out Instagram and TikTok.

Even Snapchat has become ‘old hat’, apparently ‘everyone’ (LOL) is on Instagram now.

Who are your audience?

This question is critical to everything you do in business.  The clearer you are about exactly who you are trying to engage, the better your marketing message will get. 

On social media you can deliver the same message in different ways – appropriate to the platform, but sometimes you need to choose the best place to engage with your audience where they are mostly found – and talk directly to them.

Let’s not ignore the fact that most of us respond to visual material, so a good image or short video will get more attention than text only – even on a business platform.  The thing to get right is the content.

Let’s look at an example:

The core message:  A professional copywriter will deliver a more compelling message than you can do yourself.

LinkedIn version:

How do you know if your website is working?

It’s surprising how few people check if their website is generating enquiries or engagement.  When they do, they’re frequently disappointed by the sparsity of the results.

When I look at their website I can usually spot the problem – and it’s down to one of three things:

·       The message isn’t clear

·       It’s all about the company, not their visitor

·       It’s hard to find what you’re looking for.

These are all related to copy.

The visitor to your website should be able to understand what you’re offering in the first few seconds they’re on your site.  If they don’t, your headline and sub-headline need serious attention.

It may not be what you want to hear, but your visitor is not interested in what you do – they’re only interested in what they get.  The language on your website needs to reflect that.

If they can’t find what they want, your navigation is not doing its job.  Your products or services should be easily found with clear menus and sub-menus.  This is not only having navigation tabs that don’t require thought to understand what they lead to, but also in organising your website to make life as easy as possible for the visitor.

If you suspect that your website might be in need of an upgrade, why don’t you drop me a DM and I’ll be happy to give you some feedback.

The Facebook version:

You could also use this on Instagram.

TikTok would have a video, maybe showing before and after clips of what doesn’t work and what does on a website.  You could also post this on Instagram reels.

For X and Threads, you’d be looking at a short pithy statement –

“I can write, I don’t need a copywriter.”  “I can use a pair of scissors, would you like me to cut your hair?”  There’s a big difference between being able to write good English and understanding how to write commercial copy.

Your social media strategy needs social diversity!

‘What’s the goss?’

 

Everyone loves a bit of gossip – and, while women are usually up front with their interest in a good bit of gossip, men hold their own when talking about sport, business or anything else they’re interested in.

So, what has gossip got to do with reputation?

As soon as someone talks about you or your business, they’re either polishing your reputation or – as the phrase goes ‘dishing the dirt’.  Ideally, you want people to be gossiping positively.

Congruency wins

You can’t control what people say about you when you’re not there, but you can influence it.  Everything you do, say and write is grist to the gossip mill.  That means that you have to walk the talk 24/7.

Whether you’re attending a networking meeting or popping out to the shops, people will look at you and make judgments.  It’s easy to claim that your private life is private, but as soon as you step outside your front door you’re in the public domain and you can’t prevent people from seeing you and drawing their own conclusions from your appearance, your behaviour and your actions.

You can’t be one person at work and a completely different one at home and be sure that you’re projecting a congruent and consistent image. 

Of course, nobody expects you to step out of your house in business gear regardless of whether you’re on or off duty, but how you treat people and the actions you take will filter through to your business reputation.

If you’re shouting at a hapless waiter for dropping sauce on your white shirt while you’re out to dinner with your partner, don’t assume that there’s nobody who knows you in the restaurant.  You may not know them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t recognise you from social media, an event you’ve spoken at or a networking meeting you’ve both attended.

Treat everyone the way you’d like to be treated and you’ll be well on the way to getting a reputation that shines brightly.

Share your stuff on your blog

One of the biggest challenges that business owners face is convincing potential clients that their services are top notch.  It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a product or a service, it’s the knowledge that underpins it that matters to people who are considering you as a supplier.

We’ve all heard stories about companies who talk a good talk, but don’t follow through with a great service.  This is where blogs – and the content that you can spin off them – come into their own.

If you have a blog on your website it’s an ideal opportunity to show off your knowledge and help people to get to know you by reading your thoughts, ideas and opinions on your areas of expertise.

We’re not talking about writing a handbook, but about giving people good advice about the things you’re a specialist in.  Your style should be conversational and informal, so your reader feels as though you’re talking directly to them.

If you’re thinking ‘I don’t want to give all my secrets away,’ don’t worry.  The people who read your blog and decide to try and follow your advice are the ones who aren’t prepared to pay for your services.  The people you’re aiming to influence are the ones who read your article and think ‘These guys know what they’re talking about, I’ll get them to help me.’  And if the ones that don’t have the budget are impressed with your knowledge, they may recommend you to others – or even come back to you for help, when their business is in a place where they can afford to.

What to write about

That’s a common worry – I won’t have anything to write about.  But, if you’re an expert in your business you know loads of stuff. 

• What are the questions you get asked most often?  Elaborate on the answers to those.
• What do you find yourself explaining to people most often?
•  What are the problems people most often experience in relation to your products or services?

These are all potential articles for your blog.

Stick to simple language, don’t get technical and keep it conversational.  If you’re better verbally than you are writing, maybe record it and get it transcribed.

The double whammy

The advantage of sharing your expertise on your blog is that you are not only impressing the socks off your readers, but you’re also ticking the search engines ‘fresh content’ box, which gives your website brownie points!

If you know what people search for when looking for information relating to the subject of your blog, try to include those key words and phrases in both your title and in the main copy.

From pipedream to profit

First time authors often underestimate the amount of work that goes into writing a successful book.  I know many authors whose books don’t do as well as they could because they’ve neglected one or more of these essential stages.

1: Research

Before you even start writing, you need to do a bit of digging into who else has published similar books so you can ensure you’re not rewriting what has already been written. 

If you’re thinking of trying to get one of the mainstream publishers on board to publish your book, you’ll also need to research which of them publishes books similar to the one you’re proposing to write (if they don’t, they probably won’t be interested in a book that doesn’t fit into their genre).  Also you’ll need to look at their publishing schedules to ensure you won’t be in direct competition with another title published around the same time or a bit before yours.

2: Planning

To make your writing process as easy as possible, it’s wise to put together both an overview of the book and a schedule in your diary to ensure that you have time blocked out to write.

I like to use mind maps to plan out, first, the whole book so I can work out what each chapter is about and second, the content headings for each chapter, including stories and anecdotes, quotes, models, diagrams, processes, etc.

Finally, it’s a good idea to plan your chapter recipe.  This is the structure you will use for every chapter, so, if you begin with a quotation, every chapter starts the same way.  If you end with an action plan, you’ll need to do that on all the chapters.

2B: Your Proposal

If you’re planning to go with a mainstream publishing house you’ll need to submit a proposal.  Most big publishing houses have an on-line format for this and they’re all slightly different.  However, you can expect them to want:

• A synopsis of the book – 1-2 pages only.
• One or two chapters of the book for them to see your writing style.
• An overview of your target reader audience.
• Your marketing plan – don’t expect them to do a huge amount of marketing.

3: Writing

If you’ve dug deep in your planning, this should be pretty straightforward.  As long as you have time allocated to write, you can simply take each chapter plan and apply it to the chapter recipe, filling in the information as you go.

Writing to a plan ensures you don’t hit the ‘blank page syndrome’, where you don’t know what to write.

4: The title

You may already have a title in mind for your book, but before you carve it in marble, do some checking.  Search for your proposed title and see if someone has already used it.  It doesn’t mean you can’t use it for your book, but you could be creating confusion and even lose sales to a book with the same or a similar title.

Non-fiction books will also need a subtitle.  The rule of thumb with titles and subtitles is that if the title doesn’t tell people what the book is about, then the subtitle must do that job.  This means you can have a quirky title, with a practical subtitle explaining what the book is about.

Research what phrases and words people are searching for when they’re looking for the kind of book you’re writing.  This will help to ensure your book title turns up high in searches.

This research is much easier than it used to be – now there are huge online bookstores where all books are listed. 

5: Editing and proof-reading

If you’re self-publishing or going with an independent publisher you will need to have your work edited prior to submitting your manuscript.  Be prepared for at least two edits and a final proof-read.

If you are successful in getting a publishing contract then your publishing house will almost certainly have in-house editors who will edit and proof-read your work.

Don’t be tempted not to have your book edited – it will benefit enormously from a professional editor’s attention.  Unedited books are usually harder for the reader to get through.

6: The cover

Once again a publishing house will have in-house graphic designers to help with this.  A very few independent publishers also have in-house cover design services, but mostly you’ll need to get a graphic designer who is experienced in book cover design to create your cover. 

There is a cost to this – and it’s wise to take a look at potential designers’ work to ensure they’re familiar with the kind of cover you have in mind.

Having had at least one book where the cover was done in a hurry to ensure launch took place at a specific event, which resulted in something neither me nor my co-author liked.

You will need ‘blurb’ for the back cover giving potential readers an insight into why they should read the book.  Also a short biography of you as the author.

If you have people who will read a pre-publication copy of your book and give you a review, you may also want to include a short (one sentence) quote from one of these.

7: Marketing

There are two elements to marketing your book:

1. The launch
2. Ongoing marketing

There are many ways to create a successful launch, but don’t expect your publisher to do much.  You could have a launch bonus, a special launch day price reduction, email campaign, social media promotions, social ads, book yourself to speak about the book content at local networking or professional organisations, etc.

Once the book is published and launched you’ll need to continue your marketing campaign to keep sales moving, otherwise your book will vanish without trace.

If you’d like help with any of these elements, call us on 01245 473296 or email lesley@insidenews.co.uk for more information. 

How to get your website found

Most of us know that keywords are important.  Some of us know that search engine optimisation is how to improve our website’s visibility – but that’s expensive/time consuming/complicated, isn’t it?

If you engage a specialist SEO company, yes, there is a cost and the only way to work out if the cost is worth it, is to measure the increase in enquiries and sales coming from your website.

Yes, the all-singing, all-dancing SEO strategies can be very time consuming, if you are trying to replicate what a specialist will do.  And, yes, they can be very complicated.

But there’s a quick and easy way to ensure your website shows up in the right searches.

Here’s the strategy

Whether you’re planning a new website or revamping your existing one the first job is to look at each page separately and decide what people would be searching for in order for them to find that page useful.

The shortcut:  answerthepublic.com

This website lets you put your key word or phrase in and then generates all the questions that people typically type into browsers in relation to those.  

With a free account there is a limit to how many searches you can do each day, but you’ll get a ton of useful information.  There will be repeats and different ways to say the same thing, but it’s mostly useful.

Another useful resource: Keywords Everywhere

This is a Chrome plug in and for about $10 you can get tens of thousands of results, so it’s low cost.  You put your search term into the search box in Chrome and along with what Google delivers, you’ll see a box on the right with other terms that people search on.

All you need to do is to identify a list of around 5-10 phrases for each of your pages and then ensure that they are mentioned on that page once or twice in the main body copy.  

If possible, integrate the highest ranking phrase into the page headline and also in the page title.

When you add images to the page add the key phrase or word to the meta tag for that image too and into the image title.

Is that it?

That’s very basic SEO, and will, at least ensure each page of your website is focused on what that page is about.  If you really want to generate a lot of traffic you will need to think seriously about engaging SEO experts.

Every detail counts

When you’re making a presentation accuracy is essential.  Every typo, error or blurry image makes a statement about you and your company.  Worse still, there is a subliminal message ‘this company doesn’t pay attention to the details’; not the message you want a potential client to get.

I was recently at an event where there were a number of presentations.  The first one was clear, highly visual and made points effectively, but the second speaker stood up and kicked off by apologising that the presentation had not been created specifically for this event and he would skip over irrelevant slides.  So, he had set the audience’s expectations very low and the message was ‘this presentation wasn’t important enough for me to create a bespoke presentation’.

As the slides progressed there was a note at the foot of each slide that said [add title].  Clearly someone had not edited the Master slides to remove this.

The next presenter used slides quite text heavy, so more chance of the audience reading the slides instead of listening to her.  There were a couple of spelling errors and an incorrect statement (the slide creator had left ‘not’ out of a sentence, so reversing the meaning).

Yes, I’m a pedant – but when it comes to things that divert attention from the core message, I make no apologies.

Presenting your company to a new client can be as simple as a face-to-face chat with one person or a presentation to a whole team.  If you use a slide deck to help to get your message across, there are a few things that you need to take into account.

• Check and double check for spelling, grammar and punctuation (should it be ‘its’ or ‘it’s’, discreet or discrete, your or you’re?).
• Pare down the text – it’s a visual aid, not a verbal one.  Yes, you should include charts and stats, but let the images tell the story, with you as the narrator.
• Avoid whizzy graphics.  Text that cartwheels is annoying and distracting.  Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.
• Ensure your brand is consistent throughout the presentation, the correct colours, fonts and logo.

Remember that your presentation is for your audience, whether one person or hundreds, not for you!

Is outsourcing a good solution?

 

As an external agency, we offer an outsourced solution to our clients, but is it the right answer for all businesses?

These are the big questions that business owners and marketing managers need answered.

Will the content you generate be congruent with our values and beliefs?

A good agency will work with you to understand all these aspects of your business and this will run through all the content generated on your behalf, whether that’s a social media post or an article for a magazine or journal.

How will you maintain our branding and image?

One of the first things we ask is ‘do you have brand guidelines?’  If you don’t have this document for your business yet, you can give us the colour references for your brand, the fonts you want used (although in the text areas of social media, you get whatever the platform provides) and the way you want your logo to appear.

If we have something that needs posting quickly how fast can you take action?

Definitely within 24 hours, but usually within an hour or two.  We have a WhatsApp chat for each client that all our team have access to and this is monitored most of the time and anything urgent can be popped into that for fast response.

Who decides what to post or write?

This is a collaborative process, usually the result of a chat about your current focus and social media posts are created for you to review, while other written material such as blogs, articles, opinions, newsletters, etc. are the result of discussion – and, as we get to know you, we’ll suggest ideas if you run dry.

How much time will we need to give each month?

You will need to talk to us for 30-45 minutes each month, usually a regular monthly slot by phone or Zoom.  You’ll also need to review material we’ve created to sign it off before it’s made public. 

Couldn’t we use AI to generate our content?

You could, but you’ll need someone to work with it to programme all the information in, so at least a part-time member of staff.  Material generated by AI needs to be checked as it isn’t reliably accurate.

We have a lot of events that we want to feature in our social media and in blog posts.  How do you ensure that material about these is posted promptly?

There are two options – either we can provide templates for you to post this kind of material on social media yourself live from the event, or if you put all the photographs and video into a shared folder we can work with that material to create posts the same day or the following morning if it’s an evening event.

What are the alternatives to outsourcing?

You could:

• Train one of your existing team to create and post social media.
• Employ a commercial copywriter to be a permanent full or part-time member of your team.
• Get an apprentice and train them to be your marketing assistant, but they will need to learn marketing and copywriting skills.

Having someone in-house has advantages in that they are on the ground and can capture instant information, but long-term these options will probably cost you more than a monthly retainer for an outsourced agency.

What’s your marketing strategy?

If you haven’t really got past writing the odd blog article and posting on social media when you have time, you need to take some time out and put a proper marketing strategy in place.

OK – that sounds a bit like a teacher (or maybe your mum!)  But if you’re serious about business, marketing underpins every aspect of what your business does:

• Business goals
• Research & development
• Sales
• Purchasing
• Promotions
• Public relations
• Competitive analysis
• Demographics

These are all part of the marketing process.

For the purpose of this – let’s just focus on the part that relates to ensuring that your target audience gets to know, like and trust you.

There are, in essence, 5 steps to this – assuming you already have your business goals established.

Step 1:  Know your ideal client inside out

Who they are, what kind of business they own, who they serve, how many staff they have, what keeps them awake at night, what are these problems stopping them from achieving?

Step 2:  How can you help them?

How do you solve their problems and what is the impact of that for them?  They probably have more than one problem, although they may be related, be clear about exactly how you can help.  

It’s not just that the problem can be fixed, it’s the benefits they will get from it being fixed.

Step 3:  Where do they hang out?

When you are clear about who you are trying to attract, you’ll find life a lot easier if you go where they are and get noticed.  For instance, if your audience are crafters and hobbyists, you’ll struggle to get their attention on LinkedIn, but Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook are all good places to reach them.  Similarly, if you want to connect and impress HR managers, you’ll find they will be easier to engage on LinkedIn, particularly in groups where HR managers congregate to talk about their issues.

Step 4:  Take a look at all the tools that are available 

Before you start picking out the methods of reaching your audience, it’s wise to not only know the possibilities, but also to understand how they work.  These are a few:

Your website             Social media             Blogging

Newsletter             Email marketing             Marketing funnel

Podcasts                     Videos                             Webinars

PR                             Advertising                     Direct Mail

SEO                     Networking                     Joint ventures

Speaking                     Authorship

Step 5: Means, Manpower & Measurement

Now you can select the tools you plan to use, and you’ll also need to decide if you will do the work yourself, hire or train someone to do it or outsource some or all of it.  Start small and work up.

You’ll also need to decide how you will measure success – and give each one some time to bed in and start to deliver consistent results.  Marketing is a slow burn, not a quick hit.

Broadcast your message

If you aspire to get on the news programme’s sofa or be a feature on a magazine show on radio or TV, start locally.

There are dozens of local radio stations as well as regional TV stations and they’re all looking for interesting material for their listeners.

Do your research into what kind of programmes each station runs and consider who might be listening to or watching each one.  If you’re selling direct to other businesses you’ll probably find the morning shows (the breakfast show) or late afternoon/early evening (drive time) will work better in reaching your audience, than day time shows.  If any of the presenters has a regular business slot, that would be a good fit.  Also, sometimes there are evening talk shows that may be a good platform too.

If you can talk to the presenter that’s great, but a better bet might be the programme producer as they do a lot of planning of features and interviews.  

Check the station’s website for contact information – and don’t try and call during the actual show as they will have other things on their mind.

Alternative broadcasting

Radio and TV are no longer the only broadcast media available.  The world of podcasts and video interviewing is rapidly growing.

Of course, you could start your own podcast, but that will require a great deal of planning and you will need to grow an audience and then sustain it.  How much better to find existing podcasters who have already established their following and now are looking for interesting people to keep them engaged?

Go on iTunes or Spotify (or anywhere else that podcasts are hosted) and search under your key words.  You’ll find plenty of podcasts that target your ideal clients.  Now all you need to do is contact the host and suggest you’d like to discuss if you would be a good fit for them.  Some hosts have a questionnaire to complete, certainly the popular podcasts will have many potential guests lined up, keen to be involved.

Start with podcasts that are more modest.  If they have millions of followers and interview lots of well-known names in your industry or celebrities, you’ll probably struggle to even get into conversation with the host.  Look for podcasts with a decent following that feature ordinary business people with a message.  I have featured on several podcasts through meeting people on LinkedIn.

And don’t forget to check out the video channels for business hosts who do live interviews, either via online conferencing or face-to-face.  If you have an interesting subject or an unusual take on something that your clients (and their audience) will find useful, most podcast and video hosts are always looking for new material.

When is a newsletter not a newsletter?

 

Let’s get real here – none of us really want another boring newsletter cluttering up our inboxes.  Do you really need to know that we just had a team meeting or have a few exciting marketing projects in the pipeline?  No!  And I don’t want to know about your new team members or piece of equipment.

So – a good ‘newsletter’ isn’t actually a newsletter at all!

If you want to nurture the people who have signed up for your list you have to give them value.  Something that might help them in some way.  So here are five top tips for newsletters that get higher read rates and fewer unsubscribes.

1:  Plan ahead

If you get to newsletter time (whenever that is, whether you send something out weekly, monthly or less frequently) and you groan, invest in time planning the subject matter for your next 3-6 months newsletters.

If you have a system and structure things will get a whole lot easier.  You will at least have a starting point.  If your content isn’t topical then you could even have a half day once a quarter and write a batch.  Then you will just need to review and check the content before each issue actually goes out.

2: Lead with value

There are no rules that say you can’t include an offer, a promotion or some relevant (to your readers) news in your regular newsletter, but always deliver value first.

I use my blog content as lead articles as I always write blogs that are aimed to make online marketing and content writing easier.  However, it might be a process, a model, a template, some top tips or something else that will help your reader in some way.

3:  Create your own unique style

Write as you speak and imagine you’re chatting directly with the reader.  When you’re talking to someone live you don’t dive right in, you start with a preamble, setting the scene, getting into the why this came to mind.

While it’s sensible to ensure your spelling and punctuation are correct, a conversational style will be much easier to read.  If you think about what engages you – and what doesn’t – you know pompous corporate-speak is boring!

I’m on a couple of email lists where this has been done extremely well and I always looked forward to reading what they had to say next, it feels as though I’m checking in for a chat about their latest clever idea.  After all, there are a lot of people out there who do what you do, or something similar; it’s your ‘take’ on it that people are looking for.

4:  Be authentic and transparent

If you’re going to make an offer ONLY for people on your email list, ensure that it’s a genuine offer – and is only available to them.  Some people will check and it won’t do your reputation any good at all if they discover that you’re promoting the same offer on your website, on your social media and elsewhere.

People who have signed up for your list have already self-identified as being interested in what you have to offer, so make sure they don’t lose faith in you.

5:  There’s no rule that says a newsletter has to be long!

Say what you have to say and then stop. 

Don’t waffle.  Don’t fancy it up with lots of additional fluff.  Don’t try to write to a word count.  If it only takes you 50 words to get your message across, then that’s all you need to write.  Your readers will thank you for not wasting their precious time.

First impressions

You may have heard the quotation ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’.  It’s not just a clever phrase, it’s very true.  In a world where information is thrown at us in a constant deluge on social media, it’s doubly true.  That amazing first impression is what gets your followers, likes and even comments.

If you are on more than one social platform generating great content can be overwhelming, so pick the platform where your audience hang out and get really good at that first.  One step at a time!

5 Top tips to getting your social right

1: Take the time to write a great bio

Your bio is how people discover more about who you are and what is important to you.  If you’re posting to attract a specific audience, think carefully about what they really want.  Be you, but don’t get off the point.  It may sound brutal, but unless you’re promoting pet services/products, they don’t care if you love your dog or cat.  Stay focused on why you’re passionate about what you do (to earn your living).

2: Look friendly and approachable

A headshot is essential – and it should be just a headshot.  Your avatar tends to be so small that anything more just looks like a few smudges.  Even if you’re a fitness trainer and want to show off your guns, they won’t be able to see them properly on a tiny portrait beside your post.  What people are looking for is a smile that makes you look like someone they can relate to.  

Ideally get a professional to do your headshots, but even if you choose one someone has snapped, be aware of the background and ensure that there isn’t anyone else in the shot – not even an elbow or an ear!  If you want to clean up the background, use a background remover (e.g. remove.bg) and put your image on a coloured background (try using Canva.com).

3: Add a link that takes them to the right web page

Your bio link doesn’t have to go to your home page – it can go to a page where people can download a freebie (and get on your list) or to a specific promotion or offer.

Even if you can only have one link – or only in your bio (like Instagram), think about what you want people to do when they click that link – and ensure the landing page works hard for you.

4: Create a style

This works particularly well if you’re posting images or videos.  Create a style that you apply to all your posts, to make them recognisable as yours.  This might be a particular colour for the background or a border, or a style of post, experiment with one post and try different approaches, until you find something that you love and is authentically ‘you’.

5: It’s a two-way street

Social media isn’t the same as broadcast media.  Newspapers, TV, radio, podcasts, blogs are all broadcast media.  In other ways, the message is going out to consumers.  Social media opens the door for conversations – which is why you can comment, like and otherwise interact with what other people post.  

While you want other people to engage with your posts, you’ll get better engagement if you have time scheduled to follow and engage with other people.  If people comment on your post, respond or at least like their comments.  If you follow other people take a moment to comment and like their posts (tip: comment first, then like – the algorithms like that better).  Share posts that are relevant to your audience so you become the curator for great content around your area of specialism.

*****

It can become a full-time job to keep up with consistent social media interaction, so schedule time to do it.  If you develop a 15 minute ‘habit’ twice a day, you’ll be surprised what you can achieve.

Task v. People

Take any personality profiling test and you’ll find that, somewhere in the report, it will identify whether you’re a task-focused person or a people person.  Most of us want to be seen as people-focused, but even if you’re a task-focused person, it doesn’t mean that you don’t want to help people.

Confession: I used to think I was more of a people person, but all the profiles I’ve taken say otherwise.  I’m a process and systems geek, I love a good step-by-step process to make life easy.  

That doesn’t mean I don’t use my task-focus to help other people.  It just means I create structures, models and systems to make their lives easier.  I get lots of satisfaction from giving people something that will streamline their activities and save them time.

Process or Personal?

When my co-author, Peter Roper, and I were writing The Reputation Gap we discussed the difference between transactional and relationship driven businesses.  For instance, Amazon is totally transactional.  Everything is automated, even the feedback process.  It’s incredibly effective and mostly super-efficient.  They get 5 star reviews because it’s easy, reliable (mostly) and simple.

Working directly with your clients or customers is different though.  If you’re a consultant your value is embedded in your unique take on solving their problems – and your personal approach.  

If you’re a bigger organisation, it’s the approach of every member of your staff when they interact with customers, whether that’s in person, on the phone or by email.  That’s why customer service training is important, for everyone, whether they’re front-of-house or in the back office.  It’s the only way to ensure your customers get a consistent service and that new team members understand how to present your ethos and learn ‘how we do things here’.

Even if you only have two people working for you – they need to know how you expect them to interact with clients, whether that’s answering the phone, what decisions they’re empowered to make, how they deal with cranky clients and so much more.  

It doesn’t matter whether an individual is task-focused or a people person, a consistent and professional approach is essential to building strong relationships that ensure the company’s reputation is totally 5-star on every level.  And ‘professional’ doesn’t mean polite and distant – if the company ethos is friendly and approachable, then that’s how each member of staff should learn to present themselves.

I think that customer service should be retitled ‘Nurturing Relationships’!

Here are your blog starters for 10

If you’re an expert and you share your expertise to help your clients, writing a blog (or doing a video blog) is an amazing way to show potential clients that you know your stuff.

OK, you may be saying “But you would say that, you’re a writer.”  Yes, writing is easy for me, but put me in front of a camera and I mumble and stutter and a lot of rubbish comes out of my mouth.  I focus on that bit of hair that is sticking up and lose my train of thought.  I find I’m not looking into the camera, but somewhere where I think the camera lens ought to be (i.e. right in the middle of the screen, of course)!  We all have our strengths.  

If you find talking to the camera easy, then maybe a video blog will work better for you.  But if you’d like to write something here’s my cheat sheet to make it easier.

1: Get focused on your subject

Pick a core subject that you know a lot about.  That’s your starting point.  I have a list of these in a spreadsheet and work through them one at a time.  It saves me arriving in front of a blank screen and using lack of focus as an excuse to find something else to do instead of writing blogs!

2: Write a list of key points about your subject – or an aspect of it

Not sure where to start?  What do clients ask you about the subject?  What do you find yourself chatting to business contacts most about?  What are the biggest mistakes that people make in relation to the subject?  There are three possible blog titles – and lots of material to fill them out.

3: Know your key phrases

Hold up!  I’m not suggesting you learn how to do SEO – unless that’s your area of expertise, of course.  I am suggesting that if you know what people want to know about, it will give you plenty of ideas.  There’s a website that makes this really easy – answerthepublic.com (answer, not ask) where you put your core subject in e.g. ‘blogging’ and the website generates tons of questions that people ask about the subject.  You get one free search per day and can download a spreadsheet with the results.  If you really have no idea what to write this will give you tons of places to start.

4: Fill out your bullet ‘skeleton’

Introduce your article explaining why it’s important and then fill out your bullet list with more information under each point.  You can use your bullets as subheaders to guide your reader.

5: Write conversationally

Stick to straightforward language that everyone understands.  The rule of thumb is to write at the level of a 12-year old.  People who have university level English won’t notice and everyone else will get your message.  Write the way you talk, so people feel as though you’re ‘speaking’ directly to them.

6: Don’t get hung up on length

There is no rule that says a blog must be a certain length.  Say what you have to say and then stop.  If it’s 200 words or 800 words doesn’t matter, as long as it has value.

7: Polish it up

If your English grammar, punctuation and spelling isn’t totally accurate, don’t worry too much.  You can always run your copy through a tool like Grammarly to tidy it up, but as long as there are no glaring errors in spelling, you can get away with a lot if you’re writing a chatty article.  

I often write one day and review the next day so that I can cut out the waffle and sharpen it up.  Or get someone to read it and suggest improvements.

8: Craft a captivating headline

The late Ted Nicholas said you should spend 80% of your writing time on your headline.  That is probably a bit extreme, unless you’re writing hot marketing copy, but your headline is important as it’s the point where the reader decides ‘I need to read this’ or ‘That looks boring’.

Brainstorm a list of possibles and leave them to ‘stew’ for a while.  Then revisit them and see what works best.  When you’re getting the headline habit, it’s a good idea to suspend the headline writing until after you’ve written the article.  However, I admit that sometimes the headline is the trigger for the article.  It’s trial and error, see what works best for you.

9: Add visual focus

Most people are more likely to start reading when the headline is accompanied by a picture.  I use royalty-free image libraries such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels and then often play with the image in Canva.

10: Schedule time in your diary

The secret of consistency is to have your blog-writing time blocked out in your diary.  Firstly, it reminds you to do it, secondly, it avoids that ‘I don’t have time’ excuse!

If you really find writing a blog article is a massive pain, then try a video version – but many of these tips will be equally useful in creating a video blog too.

Me, an author?

Currently, the boot of my car has a couple of dozen copies of the latest book I’ve produced, The Reputation Gap, written with my co-author, Peter Roper.  It’s not my first book and I’m currently well into the next one.  As a writer, it’s probably not surprising that I’ve written lots of books, but when I suggest to some of the people I meet that they should write a book, they look astonished, quickly followed by a denial that they have the potential to be an author.

The process of writing, publishing and marketing a book is not one to be embarked on without a little thought, but there’s really no reason why anyone should not write a book, if they’ve got something worth saying.

Reasons why … not

There are multiple reasons people offer as to why they can’t write a book.

I can’t write

That doesn’t really matter.  If you can get your message out verbally, there are many ways to convert what you say into written words.  That might be working with a transcription service or with a ghost writer.

I don’t know what to write

There has to be reason to write a book; it’s a means of getting your message out.  However, if you’re running a business you have almost certainly have specialist knowledge and a wealth of experience to draw on.  You just have to decide what your core purpose is.

There are already several books about my subject available

Every book is unique – and what makes it unique is the author.  Your take on things is what will make your book different to all the others.  To be honest most mainstream publishing companies are not looking for something totally new, they’re looking for something they know already has a market.  If someone is interested in a particular subject they will buy several books about it by different authors.

I don’t have time to write a book

You will need to have some time to plan, but if you have blogs, long social media posts, articles in print, and other material you already have content to work with.  A good editor can work with you to create a structure and then use existing material to populate that.  You may need to add material, but it’s certainly not starting with a blank sheet.

It’s hard to get published

It depends on the route you take.  If you want to get a contract with a mainstream publisher, you will need to put together a strong pitch, as well as providing sample text from your book, a synopsis, etc.  However, these days self-publishing is common and there are some great independent publishers around.  Yes, it costs more, but it’s an investment in marketing.  There’s nothing like the kudos of being an author for enhancing your marketing impact.

Don’t let these reasons hold you back.  If you’re always dreamed of becoming an author, it’s within your reach – all you have to do is take that first step.

What’s on the menu?

Over the years website navigation has changed.  In the early days the menu generally appeared on the left in a vertical column.  Then it migrated to be a horizontal strip under the main banner.  These days it’s frequently presented as a ‘hamburger’ (three little lines on top of each other), a device created to use less room on smaller screens, now many of us access websites on mobile devices.

However, there are some rules of navigation that haven’t changed – but are frequently ignored.  At the core of all these rules is clarity.  How easy is it for your website visitor to find what they’re looking for?

How long should a menu be?

When it was in a column on the left, the length of the menu could be as long as you wanted (that doesn’t mean that a long menu is good practice), but when it went to a horizontal presentation a long menu looked clunky, because if it was longer than fitted on a single line, it wrapped onto another line and that almost always looked untidy.  

It was a good discipline to ensure everything fitted on a single line, no long page tags and fewer of them.  It meant that the site owner had to think carefully about how the site was organised.

Yes, there are sites with hundreds of pages, but they still only have a limited number of choices on the navigation, that take you to submenus with additional options.

Some sites have more than one menu with one above the banner – usually for the standard pages, such as ‘About, Contact, and maybe the blog or news page, leaving the main menu below the banner for the main content pages.  Often, another menu may appear in the footer, with more options too.  Frequently things like the privacy notices, terms and conditions, disclaimers, etc are all tucked away in the footer.

There are all kinds of reasons why multiple menus are poor practice.

1. People don’t always see things that aren’t where they expect them to be
2. Most website visitors are familiar with a single menu and, if it’s not on the main menu, they assume it doesn’t exist
3. Nobody HAS to visit your website, if finding what they’re looking for is hard work they’ll probably search for something ‘easier’.

What goes on the menu tab?

The first website I ever wrote was for a company I was director of, it had menu tabs that advised:

What we do

How we work

Who we are

I thought this was quirky and a bit different to Services, Contracts, and About Us.  What I hadn’t realised was that nobody was interested in us, they were only interested in what they got.  They weren’t immediately sure what these notations meant.  They weren’t looking for What we do, they were looking for ‘Services’ or, even better, given we were a training company, ‘Training courses’.

Steve Krug says it very well in his book Don’t Make Me Think; 

When I’m looking at a page that makes me think, all the thought balloons over my head have question marks in them.  When you’re creating a site, your job is to get rid of the question marks.

In other words, don’t get clever – go for the obvious!

The secret to good navigation is ‘keep it simple’!

Put your best foot forward

When you’re running a business there are plenty of times when you need to blow your own trumpet – as loudly as possible!

• When you’re presenting to a client.
• When you stand up at a networking meeting to tell people about your business.
• When you’re talking to a potential joint venture partner.
• When you’re talking to your bank manager or a venture capitalist about funding.
• When you’re entering for an award.

These are all marketing presentations and it’s important that you keep that in mind when you’re having that conversation or writing your pitch.  However, they each have a different focus, because the outcome you want is different.

The client wants to know ‘what’s in it for me?’, in other words what problem will you solve for me?

The people in your networking meeting need to know why they should refer you.

The joint venture partner wants to know how much effort they will need to make and what the returns will be for them.

The finance people want to know about your track record, your plans, what you’re prepared to do to ensure the plans come to fruition and how safe their money will be.

The award judges want to know what makes you stand out from others and more deserving of the award than any of the other entrants.

Sketch out your plan

I like to use mind-mapping for this kind of presentation.  It’s a great tool to gather information together in a logical format, while being creative enough to add data, anecdotes, quotes, etc.  But use a method that you feel comfortable with, whether that’s scribbling on a piece of paper or using a spreadsheet.

The first thing is to be clear about the focus. Think about the person or people who you are aiming to impress (because that’s exactly what you want to do) and identify what’s important to them.

Of course, you’ll have lots of things you want to tell them – but if you know what they want to hear, you can position your message so it targets that.

Then you’ll need all the supporting information that underpins that message.  What will help to convince them?

When you’ve got everything together, you can start to put your presentation together.  Even if you’re going to present verbally, it’s worth having it written down.  Not only will that embed the key points in your mind, but having notes to refer to just shows you’ve done your homework (which will win you brownie points).

In some situations the person you’re pitching to will expect you to provide supporting evidence.  In the case of a bank or VC they’ll expect a lot of paperwork in detail!

Don’t be a politician!

When you’re making your pitch, there are bound to be questions.  Always answer the question that has been asked, not the one you’d like them to have asked.  Politicians are famous for not answering questions they don’t want to – but you won’t win any prizes for employing that strategy.

Being honest, straightforward and focused is the key to success.  Will you present your business in the best possible light?  Yes, of course, and you should, but avoiding questions will only make you look a bit dodgy!

End on a high

Finish your presentation by reiterating how the other party will benefit from your proposal.  Often in award presentations the last question or one near the end is ‘Why should you win this award?’  Even if it’s not there, it’s a question you should answer.  The same applies to each scenario – why choose you?  What’s in it for them to do so?  Give them a great reason to say ‘yes’.

Create a following

When you post your videos on YouTube, in an ideal world you want subscribers who will then get flagged when you post more content.  In today’s world where attention span is short this can be a real challenge.

For a view of your content to count the viewer has to watch the video right to the end and so many people click onto videos, but then get distracted or lose interest and don’t make it to the end.

Likes help – but information is coming at people so fast and in such quantities that it’s all too easy to forget to click the like button.

Comments build validity, but to get people to actually stop and write a comment means that the video has to have a powerful punch that generates a need to engage from the viewer.

How can you get the traction you really want with your videos?

There are several elements and you need to get familiar with them.

1: Plan your video

You know that saying ‘Fail to plan; plan to fail’?  It’s not just a saying, it’s true!  

My advice is to create a plan that includes:

• The style of your videos e.g. talking head, film of activities, how to, etc.
• An optimum length to aim for or parameters to work within – if you’re producing talk head videos short and sweet are best 1-2 minutes only.  For other types of video the content will dictate length in most situations.
• A list of subjects to cover and the core message for each – invest time in researching the hot topics and what people search for online
• How the video will be created and who will do it.

This doesn’t mean you can’t simply capture yourself talking to camera on your smartphone, but it needs focus, purpose and be of importance to your target audience.

2: Practise

Learn the skills you need to produce a reasonably fluent delivery.  This is especially true if you are talking to the camera. 

Rough and ready video has a place, but when you’re using it to represent your business it’s wise to err on the side of professionalism.

Learn how to top and tail your video, clipping and adding the frontscreen and endscreen to introduce and leave the viewer with a strong message (and contact info).

3: Optimise

Ensure that your MP4 file has all the right keyword tags before you upload it and that these are replicated in the description and keywords you add during the uploading process.  Ideally, your keywords/phrases should also be in the title of the video to double down on the impact in searches.

Hot tips

Invest time in creating strong messages that will engage your ideal audience.  You don’t have to be everything to everyone – it’s far better to have a small dedicated audience that are fully engaged than hundreds of likes from random people who are unlikely to ever become customers.

Research keywords to target your videos on what people are actually searching for.

Aim for passion rather than perfection.  Yes, it’s important to do the best you can, but it’s your message that will make the difference.

Actively encourage people to subscribe to your channel by flagging up the kind of content your channel will feature.

Use social media, your newsletter and your networking activities to let people know your video is there to watch.

Let me tell you a story …

I belong to a choir and every member of the choir is really dedicated to not only the choir as a whole, but to supporting each other in the same way as a family would.  If anyone needs anything they only have to ask and someone will jump in and offer help.  

Members have given away tickets to gigs, furniture, baby equipment and loaned wheelchairs, kitchen appliances and offered lifts, time and love in the three and a bit years since the choir was formed.

There are more than 80 people in our choir and we’re just one of 16 choirs run by our choir leader, Andy. who is also owner of the choir brand.  Why is our community so strong, especially when we hear from members who have migrated to us from other choirs that this is not the norm?  It’s down to the choir values.

When Andy set up the first four choirs in January 2020, his aim was to raise £1 million for charity.  Not just one charity, but to help many charities.  As COVID hit in March 2020, he was in the unenviable position of having a new business, a wife, two little boys and another on the way – and his income had just been put on a knife edge.

As a professional musician, other gigs were no longer available.  Instead of crumbling he immediately moved over to delivering our weekly 90 minute choir sessions virtually.  Obviously, there were limitations as he couldn’t hear us and we couldn’t hear each other, but he continued to teach us and, instead of stopping for Easter he kept the weekly sessions going for months.  In fact, even when his third son made an appearance in May 2020 he only paused for two weeks – and even arranged for a temporary choir leader to take over.

Andy knew that many of us were isolated and struggling with lockdown and felt that the weekly choir practice, held using Facebook live stream, was a lifeline.  It was an opportunity for the community to continue and we used the chat to communicate with each other during choir practice.

How effective was teaching people who couldn’t hear each other – Andy was innovative and asked us to sing our parts into our mobile phones for one of the songs we learned and upload them to him via WhatsApp.  Judge for yourself how good a teacher he is.  This was our first virtual gig and raised over £30,000 for the NHS Appeal.

It went viral – and international – appearing on BBC1, local radio and also on Spanish and US broadcast media.

Since then we’ve done virtual gigs for the Poppy Appeal, Comic Relief (three years in a row), and live gigs supporting The Samaritans, Alzheimers, Brain Tumour charity and many other local charities.  Currently the total raised for charity has just tipped over that first £100,000.

We’ve sung in fields, our local cathedral and the high street in local towns where each choir is based.  We’ve made a single and most recently 600 of us gathered in a theatre and learned a song in an evening to raise funds for the Brain Tumour Charity.

What has this to do with business?

It’s all about values.  Andy had a vision and his values of helping others runs through everything his business does, whether it’s supporting charities, supporting members or supporting local communities.  Those values permeate the choir – and the other choir leaders who have joined, with currently 16 choirs running weekly.

Does Andy earn a living from it?  Yes, of course, what kind of businessman would he be if he didn’t.  However, the enormous success of the choir is due to what he delivers and the values that underpin it.  His customers (the choir members) get massive value from being a part of it and its reputation is 5 star.

It’s inspiring – and gives every member a huge dose of dopamine (the happy hormone) at every choir practice.  What could your business take from this?

If you’d like to support us you can donate here.  And if you’d like to join our singing community you can join Buskerteers Choir here.

Do you have a reputation gap?

You may have seen on social media that, along with my co-author Peter Roper, I published a new book The Reputation Gap in mid-May.  The question I keep being asked is ‘What is a reputation gap?’

It’s the difference between 4 stars and 5 stars.

It’s about customer relationships.

It’s what makes your customer remember you and want more of what you offer.

It’s when customers don’t just like you – they become advocates.

It’s not so much about bridging the gap, it’s more about growing to fill the gap.

So what adds that extra polish to your reputation?

Authenticity: Your business has clear values that everyone who represents it shares.  It doesn’t matter how big your business grows, it represents the founder’s values and that needs to be front and centre.

Congruency: Everything you do is in line with your values.  As soon as you compromise those, customers get an uncomfortable feeling and that’s the point at which they jump ship.

Attention to detail: From the colours of your logo to the way you (and your team) answer the phone, there is a plan with a clear process and systems in place to make consistent delivery simple, reliable and consistent.  

Communication: Great reputations are almost always based on excellent communication.  The customer knows what to expect, how it will be delivered (whether it’s a product or a service), how to get help if they need it and your systems include follow up to ensure the customer is happy.  I don’t mean an email asking for a 5 star rating, but a phone call or face-to-face meeting where you can have a conversation and hear any hesitation or doubt in their voice. 

And that’s where the gap is – between a transaction and a relationship.

More profitable business

If you close the gap and make business personal, you’ll find you get better customers who stay longer, spend more and talk about you to others a lot.

Even larger organisations can create this kind of personal relationship with their customers with the right customer service teams in place.  It’s even more important when you’re a small business or independent consultant.

As it’s been said many times “It’s easier to keep an existing customer than to recruit a new one,” so nurturing your customers is important.

What one thing could you do that would add that extra star to your reputation?