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June 4, 2018 by RonTester 1 Comment

The Best Marketing Plan Starts with You

“How’s business?”

That used to be the question I dreaded most. I had a different answer every day.

“Great!”

“Terrible!”

“I’m too busy to know for sure.”

I was trying everything I knew to grow my company. I had a great staff but I needed more clients. So I bought ads in newspapers, magazines, on television, billboards, etc. I didn’t have a coherent marketing message or strategy. If a salesperson suggested something, I was likely to take a chance on it. 

Some people responded to our ads, but not enough to pay for all that advertising. That was super painful.

In retrospect, I understand why that sort of advertising didn’t work for us at that time. The fact was, I was getting the word out, but I hadn’t built a system that allowed me to share who I was and who we were in an authentic way.

I had an epiphany one day when a brave friend told me, “Your advertising is so generic, it doesn’t feel like there’s any substance to it. I can’t tell if you can really help me or not.”

Ouch. That was a painful lesson, but one I took to heart. I started to look at our advertising messages through the eyes of my potential customer and I had to agree. Generic. Boring. And I was embarrassed. Because the truth is, our marketing messages didn’t reflect who I was, who we were, or how we were committed to serving our clients. Instead, I was trying to play it safe.

Here’s what I know now: generic feels “safe” because you’re not likely to offend or alienate anyone. But generic isn’t safe because your customers don’t really get to see or know the real you, and they sense that something isn’t right. They may not be able to articulate why they’re put off, but they are. So they don’t call, come by, or buy.

Here’s what I recommend instead of trying to play it safe.

Start with you. Who are you? Who are you really? Beyond being an accountant, a physical therapist or a [fill in the blank]? How did you come to do what you do for a living? What’s your passion? What energizes you? What’s your story?

When you share your story, it will resonate with the people you’re meant to serve. Your humanity will shine through, and that will help people to know, like and trust you. And people do business with people they know, like and trust. 

When a potential customer becomes aware of you or your company, they will probably check you out. They may check your company website, your company Facebook page, or your LinkedIn profile. And when they do, they’ll be asking “Do I have a good feeling about this person/company? Do I believe this person/this company can help me solve my problem?” If you tell your story, sharing yourself and your mission to serve others authentically, then people are much more likely to have a good feeling about you.

And if the answer is “Yes, I think they might be able to help me,” they will likely give you and your company more time and attention, an opportunity to earn their trust and their business.

But what if you share your story and some people don’t resonate with it? What if they don’t like your story? Then don’t worry about them. They’re not your people. If you’re doing business right, there will be others that you will be able to serve, and they will be the right ones for you.

So here’s your homework:

  1. Check out your current marketing materials/messages. Do they reflect you and your mission, or are they generic?
  2. Take a look at your website, company’s Facebook page, and/or your LinkedIn profile. If you replaced your name/info with your competition’s name/info, would it make any difference?
  3. Share your story authentically. Why you? What energizes you? What are you excited about? Why do you choose to serve those you do? What specific success stories can you share with your audience?

I know this may be a lot to take in, and it may be helpful to talk to someone about how you present yourself to the world and where you might need to tweak things. If that’s the case, please email me ron@rontester.com . Let’s set up a time to talk. I’d love to be of service to you.

Last but not least, if you’d like to read more about authentic marketing, I recommend this article by Brittni Kinney or this article by Stephen Zoeller.

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tagged With: Advertising, Ron Tester

April 25, 2018 by RonTester Leave a Comment

What to Say When You’re Turning Your Hobby Into a Business

What to say when you turn your hobby into a businessAre you thinking about turning your hobby into a business?

If you’re good at what you do so people really benefit/find value in your products or services, you might have a viable business.

One challenge?

Getting comfortable as conversations transition to business. It’s uncomfortable. Not just for some people, for most of us. Especially if you’re mission-driven and want to help everybody (or almost everybody).

So how do you get comfortable?

Sadly, there’s no magic bullet.

For most people, the answer is powering through, experimenting with what works, what feels right. Seeing how people respond. Learning, growing, habituating until it no longer feels awkward.

Here’s one way you can jump start the process of getting comfortable:

0. Think of 5-10 different ways you could have the sales conversation, introducing them to the idea that this is the kind of work that you do as a business now. Write them down. These don’t have to be long—a few sentences will usually suffice.
1. Get together with a small group of people you know and trust who will give you honest feedback. Ideally this group would have 2-5 people.
2. Tell them that you’re struggling with having a sales conversation and you have some ideas you’d like to run past them for their feedback.
3. Share 5-10 different ways of approaching the subject.
4. Get feedback/suggestions about what worked well, what fell flat.
5. Practice the ones that work so they roll easily out of your mouth. Believe it or not, practicing those phrases out loud will make it easier to say it when you’re talking to people who might be your prospects/ideal clients. You might even practice in front of a mirror. Sounds silly, I know, but it helps.

Here’s the bottom line: if you’re going to turn your hobby into a business, you’ve got to be brave. And the more you prepare and practice, the braver you’ll be.

If you need help turning your hobby into a business, let’s talk. You can email me ron@rontester.com and let me know what you need help with. I may not be the right person to help you, but we’ll never know unless you’re brave enough to raise your hand and ask for what you want.

If you’re looking for a great place to learn more about marketing for small business, check out the course I teach with Connie Ragen Green called How to Market for Small Business. You can find out more by clicking here.

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tagged With: Ron Tester, Sales

January 2, 2018 by RonTester Leave a Comment

Are You Leveraging the Right Resources to Grow Your Business

When you’re trying to grow your business, the right resources can make all the difference.

Is it time to get serious about growing your business online? Marketing your business with online content is the ultimate way to bring traffic to your website. You can use articles, newsletters, blog posts, social media updates, FAQs and more to help bring traffic. The trick is to use content in a systematic way to grow your business right. Having a lot of followers isn’t indicative of success. Earning money is. So, if you want to grow your business you have to know which resources to leverage.

Content Is Still King

Everything revolves around content. Content is needed for every aspect of your business. If you create information products you need even more content. However, even if you sell other types of product or service you still need a lot of content in order to educate, engage, and encourage your connections to buy from you.

Forms of Content

There are many different forms of content that you can use, such as blog posts on your website, guest posts and articles on other websites, inside print publications and online newsletters. Content can be text, audio or visual in nature. Having a combination of different forms of content will ensure that you reach more of your audience.

Have a Plan of Action

The other key to ensuring that you are leveraging the right resources is to have a plan of action. Don’t just create or have content created without a point of view, voice, and the goals for the content in mind.

Create a Publication Calendar

When you know what content you want to create, it’s important to spell it out in a calendar so that you will do first things first. For instance, if you are launching a new product in three months, you can start whetting the appetite of your list now.

The Email List Is the Most Important

They say the money is in the list, and that’s as true today as it was five years ago. Walt Hampton, the President of the Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training says if you don’t have a list you don’t have a business. The first time I heard him say that I winced. The reality is that social media marketing hasn’t replaced email marketing; it has created another way to lead people to your email lists. Leverage your social media to build your list.

Develop Incentives to Collect More Email Addresses

The point of your blog posts, social media updates, and even webinars is to provide useful, valuable information to your audience and, in exchange, collect information from your target audience so that you can market to them within your email lists. Host webinars, ask for sign-ups on social media, and incentivize lists with free give-aways or low-cost entry products and services.

All Content Should Work Together

Starting with the product, service or event that you want to promote, work your way back to today to decide the different types of content that you will use to get more email subscribers to whom you can market and promote your wares. Decide what type of content they need to become educated and informed about your products and services so that they will purchase.

Consider Drawing a Workflow

Looking at how all your content works together to bring in buyers as well as encourage the purchase, may help you identify gaps in your content needs. Your content workflow might look like this: Email Subscription Bait > 7-Day ECourse > Webinar > Short Report > Long Report > EBook > Coaching > etc… Seeing it written out should help you decide what you need.

By knowing what your goals are for the content that you create, you’ll be able to use it more efficiently to grow your business far beyond what you thought possible.

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tagged With: Content Marketing for Small Business, Ron Tester

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