I will be honest, running a business is hard. I am all over doing the work well and keeping all my current clients happy. But I really struggle trying to find ways to engage with new clients in a way that I enjoy. Often, with my scattergun approach to marketing, I feel like I am standing on a street corner waving my arms like a netball defender and nobody is taking any notice. Or like the recurring dream when no-one can hear you shouting at them. Getting recognition from potential clients, or even from the industry you love and work in, is an uphill battle for small business owners. Well, in this blog I will not be giving you the silver bullet of how to climb that hill because I do not know where to buy that bullet. But I am happy to share the fun things that I have tried that might be fun for you too.
Recently, there was an offer from the Federal Government for five hundred small businesses “to receive 12 months of free digital support to improve their online presence and sales”. I signed up and am about 2 months into the program. The link to apply is below
https://www.navii.com.au/program/digital-launchpad
Navii, the digital partner, provide you with two 1-hour meetings every fortnight where you can ask questions of marketing experts in a group forum. They give you practical examples and advice from SEO to social media strategies and beyond. There are also self-directed online courses to complete and a health check of your business’ online presence. I am really liking the program and have learnt tons. There has been a selection of hints as to how to find what sort of content you should be putting out there in cyberspace. My favourite tip so far is a free service called Answer the public. You type in a word or phrase that would describe your business and it tells you all the questions people ask Google about that phrase. If you then develop content around answering that question, chances are your business then appears in that Google search. Coincidently, this blog was not one of the suggestions. It was my idea, I promise. The link is below.
I have also been playing with putting together a selection of client testimonial videos. We already have happy clients that refer us to their friends, so I wanted to give them a platform to share their stories with a wider audience. I lucked onto this great app called Vocal Video that allows you to create remote videos testimonials for free. You create a video collector with the questions you want answered, send the link to your happiest clients and they spend 5 minutes singing your praises. You then use those videos on your website, on YouTube or on socials to up your profile and your fabulousness. Prepare yourself to see a bunch of Appy’s real life clients on socials soon. The link to the app is below.
By far, my current favourite marketing strategy is talking. I am channelling all those years spent in speech, drama, dance, and musicals and harnessing my inner chatterbox to share my knowledge of all things bookkeeping. So far, I have been a guest on a few industry webinars and a couple of podcasts. The first time was a little daunting, but once I got into the swing of it, it was a blast. So that is my next project. I am going to have a crack at doing a short series of podcasts. I want to interview smart and interesting people who will give practical tips to solo business owners. How do we feel about “Appy to meet you” as a working title? Ok, maybe that needs some more workshopping but if you think you have something to share and want to be my first guest, let us learn to podcast together.
