Marketing Basics to promote and market your small business
When you are having a sales conversation with a potential customer it’s not unusual for them to have “objections” – questions about whether your product or service is right for them.
For many people who are new to the idea of selling, objections can seem like the end of the sales process. However, if you expect them and are prepared to respond, they can be an opportunity to move your prospect from a “maybe” to a “yes”.
There are only 5 basic objections. Read More→
If you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs, writing your own bio is hard. I’m a professional writer and I hate writing my own bio. I’ve written dozens of profiles for other people but when I have to write my own I’d rather clean the toilet.
There are a couple reasons why this is. First, it’s really hard to be objective about yourself. The things that you find most interesting and most important about yourself are not necessarily what other people care about. And the things that you think are unimportant are probably the stuff that other people really find interesting.
The second reason it’s a difficult to write your own bio is we grew up being told don’t brag about yourself and then suddenly you’re having to do it in writing. As a result it feels icky and painful.
Instead, imagine you are going to your high school reunion and you run into a bunch of your old friends. When they ask you what you do, do you tell them the name of your company, a list of your qualifications and the products and services that you sell?
No. You come up with the story about how you got the idea to start your business or what made you take that leap from being employed being an entrepreneur. Or you tell some funny stories about some wacky clients you had or brag about amazing clients you have.
You don’t go into the technical details of your business; you want to tell a story that’s entertaining. And that’s what your bio should be; that’s what your About page should be.
Because all marketing is about getting people to know, like and trust you enough so that they can reach into their wallet and buy from you. However if you don’t ever give anything of yourself so that they can decide whether or not they know you, like you and trust you that’s never going to happen. So if you are ready to rewrite your About page or your bio, take a couple minutes and think of some of the stories that you tell about how or why you started your business.
If you use these stories as the basis for your new bio I think you’ll be happy with the results.
If you have a really great bio, or you know somebody who does, leave a comment and share link to the bio so we can take get inspired by some other great bios.
When you spring clean your house you are getting into corners you may have missed and doing tasks you may only do once or twice a year. No one really likes spring cleaning, but it’s a necessary evil.
Same is true of your social media. You need to clean things up, ensure your profiles are current and fresh.
When was the last time you accessed all your social networks from your desktop computer? Many people look at updates and make posts from mobile devices or using a 3rd party app like Buffer or Hootsuite.
These are fine ways to stay in touch … I do it myself. But it’s worth it to every once in a while to log into your account from your desktop machine to see how your profile looks to others. Layouts, image sizes and content categories on social networks change from time-to-time. If your profile hasn’t changed as well, you’ll look out-of-date.
[bctt tweet=”Social Media Spring Cleaning: Layouts & image sizes change. Are you current?”]
Here are some things to include in your social media spring cleaning:
If you don’t have a master list of all your social profiles, Read More→
I often say we entrepreneurs are control freaks … that’s partially why we became entrepreneurs in the first place. However, if we want to really grow our business we need to learn to delegate. And if you’re a solopreneur like I am, that means outsourcing.
What should you be outsourcing? Anything that isn’t revenue generating. Administration, bookkeeping and technical matters come to mind.
For example, if you are designing a new cover photo for your Facebook page an experienced graphic designer can do it faster than you can and it will probably look much better.
And if designing that Facebook cover takes you one hour, that’s one hour you are not spending marketing your business or delivering your services.
However, outsourcing can be scary. First is the cost. Can you afford it? Second is how to find someone. How do you know they are good enough? And how do you know they’ll do a good job.
In this video interview with Dina Eisenberg we talk about her tips for using the site Fiverr to outsource many tasks. Looking at a provider’s rating is key, the number of jobs they have in the queue and their portfolio are all important. And best of all, many of the prices start at $5. That sounds like an affordable outsourcing option to me.
You can get a copy of Dina’s book The Essential Fiverr Buyer’s Guide for free until September 23rd.
Mark Satterfield says,
“Businesses don’t fail because of poor products or services. They fail because of a shortage of customers. And that occurs because they lack a consistent marketing strategy.”
I agree. I see tons of entrepreneurs who are extremely talented, smart offer fabulous products or services and yet they’re struggling because marketing is hard for them.
That’s why I was so pleased that Mark was willing to come on a Hangout with me to talk about his new book The One Week Marketing Plan: The Set It & Forget It Approach for Quickly Growing Your Business
On the first day Mark tells you to choose a niche. I think this is fabulous advice. It is very difficult to create a marketing plan if you are trying to sell to everyone. The more focused your niche, the more your marketing will speak to the people in that niche. As Mark says in the video, “It’s devilishly hard to get that initial attention.” Having a targeted niche makes it easier to get attention.
Think about an accountant. If an accountant says, “I can help businesses do your taxes” you probably won’t pay much attention. But if the same accountant says, “I help solopreneurs who provide a professional service pay less taxes” you’ll probably be more interested – assuming you are a solopreneur.
Of course, there’s no rule that says you can’t have more than one niche, you just to make sure each piece of marketing you create speaks to only one niche.
Please watch the video to hear more of Mark’s tips and examples.
