The blog has been up and running for about a fortnight. Thanks to all those who have liked, commented and followed so far.
Now what?
Well, as others have no doubt also tried, I am now engaged in pursuing guest post opportunities. If anyone is interested in a bit of mutual backscratching, leave a comment below.
My focus is online business, marketing, multimedia etc.
But I can write in an eccentrically hilarious way about pretty much anything given a day’s research and a couple more to extract the word nuggets from my brain.
Shout out to all the bloggers holding it down and keeping it real in the electronic internet forums!
We’ve all been there. Working incredibly hard. Setting up a business. Refining our gut-wrenchingly important USP.
But who cares?
Well, no one does. Not unless you make them.
The most incredibly exciting/terrifying moment is when you realise that setting up your own business is just the beginning. Now you have to make people sit up, and take notice.
But how?
In one word: Marketing. In two words: Content Marketing. In four words: Freaking Brilliant Content Marketing.
Content Marketing as an idea has been around a long time, but as a term, it’s quite new. Well, perhaps not that new in business terms. But not everyone is familiar with it.
It basically means providing people with a solution they didn’t know existed, to a problem they’re worried they might be stuck with for good. This hinges on your ability to “frame” your service in a way that marks it out as both essential, and completely unique. And fabulous.
Who is your ideal client? (And don’t say “people who want to buy”…)
Who IS your ideal client? How old are they? What are their interests, their priorities? How do THEY want to be seen?
The more you can picture them in your mind, and empathise with them as an individual, the more sharply focused your marketing will become.
Think goals. Think targets.
Set yourself specific challenges, and reward yourself for completing them. Keep track of where you are compared to your goals.
Are you diabolically motivated to succeed? Because somewhere out there someone else, in competition with you, most definitely is.
Break down exactly what it is that drives you. Identify that. Be crystal clear. Then remind yourself of it every freaking day. Just before you write your to do list is a perfect moment to do so.
Find out more about branding, marketing, and the most effective ways to connect with your client base at: tomlynam.org.
We all know we should be producing content. But sometimes it can be hard to figure out how, or even why.
Let’s clear this up. Once and for all!
Content is there to raise your profile and build trust with your prospects. The idea is NOT to self-promote, but to find out what your clients need – and give it to them for free.
Shock Horror!
“For FREE?”, I hear you scream, in frustrated anguish.
Yes. For free.
Building up trust happens through content that you produce at cost. That. Cost. Is. Your. Time. So schedule it and use it well, and great things will start happening – both for you, and your clients.
Self-promotion is so off-putting. Basically, it turns you into that irritating guy at the party who won’t listen or discuss but just jabbers on and on about how great he is.
No one likes that guy.
So please don’t be that guy.
Be the person who reaches out, the person who helps, and gives people confidence. The person who motivates people and inspires them.
Hope costs nothing…
So give it to people! You’ll get so much more in return.
What do your clients need?
Ask yourself:
What issues are you solving for them?
Think about the big picture.
What problems, or pain points, are you tackling with your service?
Contextualise it in your mind. Create a mind map if that helps you.
Grab a notepad and pen.
Are there any other ways you can help them in this area? Any nuggets of wisdom you can provide?Anything they might need to hear, or make them feel more positive?
Spend some time head scratching. Then put the ideas pad down for a while.
Make an effort to walk in your clients shoes.
This is all about becoming useful to the people who are in a position to buy. It’s your self-penned, self-constructed internship to the world.
Start taking charge of it. Today.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s an example of the power of Explainer Video:
Find out more about branding, marketing, and the most effective ways to connect with your client base at: tomlynam.co.uk.
Research shows 90% of online businesses will fail in their first 120 days. That’s pretty shocking. And a bit depressing too.
But we won’t let that stop us trying anyway!
Why do they fail?
Well, there are two things that are the cornerstones of online business success. Your internet ranking, and your direct marketing.
Have you worked out a watertight marketing strategy? Is it working?
How could it be improved?
What about SEO? How often are you adding new content to your website?
What are you doing at the weekend? Lol!
We all need to take a break sometimes. Have a go at scheduling what you need to improve, identify what problems are currently plaguing your business – and seek to rectify them.
The most important thing you can do for your business survival is market yourself effectively. This ought to be targeted at specific clients, based on research.
There should also be a focus on raising your profile online for longer term wins. (Social Networking, SEO etc)
The marketing choices you make need to be sustainable and manageable, according to your schedule and routine. Try writing a To Do List in the morning.
Make time for the things that matter to you. You won’t be disappointed with the result.
Juicy Goal-Setting
Try setting yourself some goals. Not just general ones, or “in five years I’d like to…” but concrete, numbers-oriented, juicy goals with specific deadlines.
“I want to increase my website traffic by 300% in two months”.
Don’t overreach! Personally, I find setting a goal I feel is just slightly over-optimistic works for me. I know if I actually achieve it it’ll be great, but it also motivates me to get off my posterior and see how far I can get with it.
The kinds of goals you should set should relate to the areas that you know need work. Typical examples could be: Website Traffic, New Clients, LinkedIn Network etc. It’s also worth drawing up a list of big clients, your personal Hitlist, to help keep you sharp and focused in the long term.
How do you approach clients?
There are quite a few ways of doing this. It’s all too easy to make the mistake of focussing too hard on “general” networking! We’ve all done it.
Sure. A healthy, robust professional network makes your framework forsuccess more likely, but it’s not a certainty.
Actively seek out the people you want to work with, and for. Carefully and sensitively reach out to them, in different ways, (email, LinkedIn, Twitter) regularly and over time.
Don’t be a nuisance! But make sure you’re present and that they see you.
Thanks for reading.
Find out more about branding, marketing, and the most effective ways to connect with your client base at: tomlynam.co.uk.
Does the idea of selling your service fill you with dread? Or, to put it another way, do you ever feel a bit awkward with the idea?
You’re not alone!
Thousands of business owners, all around the world, feel the same way you do. They want to be successful. They want to make money – to provide, to prosper, to succeed. They want to get ahead. But they don’t want to feel like they’ve “Sold Out”.
The thought of that gives them that “Itchy skin” feeling, like what they’re doing is somehow wrong.
It isn’t.
In business, you need to be a little selfish…
But you also need to care.
You need to care about what people think of your service, your product. You need to care about the quality of what you do, and commit to it 100%, 24/7.
But most importantly of all, you need to care about your customers’ wellbeing. And what your business can do to help them.
The best thing you can do, on behalf of your business, is to brand yourself effectively. From great branding comes the possibility for great marketing. And great marketing will determine whether you’ll survive in this game in the long run.
How successful do you want to be? How much money do you want to make? How ambitious are you?
These are vital questions that every business owner needs to ask themselves on a regular basis.
Start thinking about the ways in which you can begin improving your branding. Take a course. Embark on a rebranding exercise. Identify your USP.
Only then will you have the drive and the passion to do what it takes to succeed. And, as a result, you will be able to make your customers happy.
You will be able to meet your business goals.
Er, you do have business goals, don’t you?
Find out more about branding, marketing, and the most effective ways to connect with your client base at: tomlynam.co.uk.
We’ve all been there. Waiting for the phone to ring. For that email to ping into our inbox. For that notification to pop up on our mobile.
But, how can we make sure that it will?
Ok, so it’s impossible to know that it will. But there are infinite things that we can do to improve the chances of it happening. One of those things is getting an explainer video for your website, uploaded to your homepage, front and centre.
Explainer Videos, or Website Explainers, serve two purposes. The first is to provide a friendly, approachable “face” for your visitors. A guide to help them navigate your site, and get to know you. The second is a chance to persuade them why it’s your service they need – not your competition.
It should be the very first thing your visitors click on. Your chance to make that first impression count.
Website Explainers are such incredible tools, far more effective than just plain text. Imagine, rather than reading this, that there was a calm, composed, professional voice walking you through this information, backed up by beautiful, tasteful music, and some stunning visuals too. You’d enjoy it a whole lot more. The message would stay with you. Not just in your mind, but hopefully, in your emotional being as well.
The key to building long relationships, ones that last, ones you can depend on, is to give people something they don’t just agree with – but something that they feel is right. Something that inspires and excites them.
Then they’ll buy.
We should never lose sight of the bottom line – making more money. That, of course, involves making more sales – and in the internet age, this requires making deep and lasting connections with the people who buy from you. More positive, lasting connections = more referrals. More referrals = more repeat business, and an improved reputation and profile online.
Starting a blog on my website to help identify just what it is that helps and enables customer and client engagement. In short: “How do I connect with potential clients?” Well, this happens on a mostly subliminal level, in the realm of emotions, intuition, and instinct.
