Do This Not That Marketing

Marketing Advice, Grow Your Business

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Why Your Local Business Needs a Blog

Back to the Basics of Marketing

I’m going back to the basics, and I’m taking you with me!

I just got back from a conference in Los Angeles hosted by Connie Ragen Green. She and I teach a course called How to Market for Small Business and we gave a jam-packed presentation about marketing for small business to a room full of smart, ambitious entrepreneurs.

While preparing for the presentation, I was reminded that it all comes back to the basics, blocking and tackling. So I am going to go back to the basics myself and I am going to write about them as I implement. I hope you’ll come along with me and implement the ideas alongside me.

Let’s Start With the Blog On Your Website

The best way to get new eyes on your website is to have continually updated, relevant and useful content. The easiest way to display this content is with a blog. Businesses that blog generate a lot more traffic to their website than those who don’t. It’s just a fact. According to HubSpot.com, businesses that blog have more inbound links, higher ranking and up to five times the traffic of businesses that don’t blog.

Get More Traffic

The way search engines work is that a human enters words into a search bar, clicks Enter, and then is returned with what are, hopefully, relevant results that give them the information they want. The search engine uses code to compile a list of results, based on keywords and a bunch of other factors in hopes of giving the human results that are useful. A blog will help you deliver more useful content with appropriate keywords.

Increase Your Page Rank

The more relevant your website is (determined using an algorithm that considers keywords, links, and more), the higher your website will appear in searches. Having a higher page ranking will cause you to get more traffic to your website since most people don’t look past the first page of results to find the information they’re searching for. A blog will help you get more clicks due to having more keywords.

Keep Your Audience’s Attention

People have no reason to view your website more than once if there is a finite amount of information. A blog enables you to keep the relevant information flowing to your website so that your audience wants to keep reading the new information that you put on your blog. The blog keeps your audience’s attention by providing new reading material, as well as new content for the search engines to crawl.

Become a Local Expert

The more you blog, the more locals will begin to see you as an expert. If you blog about issues related to your niche, teach beginners something new, and share what other experts are saying, you will start to become the go-to local expert in your niche. The more you blog, the more you share, and the more you promote what you’ve written, the better.

Finally, writing a blog will help you build relationships with your audience in ways you may not have considered. As your blog becomes more popular you’ll be able to get to know your audience better, and thus you’ll be in a better position to offer them products and services that they truly want and need.

If you want a content-rich course to jumpstart your local business marketing efforts and would like to have my support on an ongoing basis, I recommend you consider How to Market for Small Business. We’ll be starting a new season soon and I’d love to be able to help you.

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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.

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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.