Five tips to networking during a pandemic

In a world where businesses thrive on customer interaction, physical touchpoints and getting out there to show off their business, networking is crucial to nurturing those relationships.  With the ongoing pandemic however, there is increased concern as to how businesses can effectively network during this ‘new normal’. 

Investing in an online presence is certainly recommended as it is reported that the global digital population now stands at 4.66 billion active internet users.  Consider these additional online statistics from www.statista.com as well:

-      Unique mobile internet users – 4.28 billion

-      Active social media users – 4.14 billion

-      Active mobile social media users – 4.08 billion

However you spin it, that is a lot of people, businesses, non-profit organizations, charities etc., using the online space.  This provides an opportunity for businesses to network not only within their locale but reach potential customers, investors and partners in other areas, regions and countries.

 

Using both online and offline tactics, the following are five ways that businesses can continue the networking process even though COVID-19 is still a present force.

1.    Talk to strangers – It may sound shady to just begin a conversation with someone you don’t know but isn’t that how the idea of networking came about!  Use this tactic both online and offline.  In online spaces, join relevant business groups, introduce yourself and your business.  Use every opportunity to talk about your business and what it offers.  In conversation, provide solutions, don’t just sell.  Show, don’t just tell the customer group why your offering is better than the competitions’.  Online provides the opportunity to showcase product videos and tutorials, use those opportunities to provide relevant and engaging information.  For offline spaces, it may mean striking up a conversation in the supermarket or at the pharmacy or at any other business space that may be open at this time.  Again, don’t just sell, offer solutions.

2.    Get comfortable with technology – With all the online platforms that have come to the fore since March 2020, it may be hard to keep up but your networking life depends on it.  In addition to engaging on social media, use platforms such as Zoom, Webex and Google Meet to host meetings and virtual events.  Virtual meetings keep the lines of communication open with your existing stakeholders and virtual events keep the business visible while allowing it to attract additional customers outside of its usual space.  Incorporate mobile in your suite of technological … as many more persons are accessing events using this device.

3.    Remain visible online – In the absence of physical interaction, it is recommended that small businesses remain visible online.  The business’s social media must be updated consistently with relevant, uniform information across platforms.  The website should be the ‘go-to’ space for information therefore it too should be updated regularly.  If there is an e-commerce platform, ensure that sharp images and pricing is available online; if the customer has to reach out to ascertain the cost of an item, you may lose the sale.  Be sure to optimise your website for mobile, 55% of customers who buy online do so from a mobile device (Pixel Union).  Additionally, extend the lines of communication with your existing client group through email marketing.  Good email etiquette suggests that emails are not sent too often to prevent messages being delivered to junk or customers unsubscribing from your content. 

4.    Invite feedback – Don’t forget to listen to and get feedback from your customers and stakeholders; it is important especially when having virtual conversations.  Set up systems that allow for ease of communication; online and mobile surveys, customer reactions post sales and online events or simply using traditional media outlets to invite views and opinions on specific activities.

5.    Provide contact information & follow-up – Just as you would provide an actual business card in the physical networking session, provide your new connections with ways to contact you and ensure that these phone numbers and email addresses work.  Additionally, follow-up, especially if you promised to.  Be the man/woman of your word.

A 7-step guide to launching a new business, product or service during a pandemic

Even in a pandemic, people will require new products and services to fulfil those new needs that will emerge during this time. As COVID-19 continues to rage across the world, everyday new businesses are opening and new products and services are coming to market.  How then do businesses open or launch new product offerings during a pandemic?

1.    Establish a need – Ensure that that the new product or business is solving an urgent customer need. Opening a business or launching a new product now should not be a casual effort.  Ensure that the decision is informed by research or a glaring need that cannot be ignored.

2.    Recognize that the product, service or business need may be temporary – The new product, service or business may just satisfy customer needs during the pandemic.  Be okay with that.  It is advised that the new venture should be able to stand alone so that when it comes to an end, your main business remains unaffected.

3.    Try new ways of marketing – Online marketing is the new normal but traditional and electronic media is still a great way to get the word about your new product or business to your ideal customer.  Don’t underestimate the power of an interview or paid traditional advertising, just ensure that you target, target, target.

4.    Focus on customer relationships and building credibility – The new product or business is not just about fulfilling the customer’s need, it’s also about building lasting relationships and establishing yours and your business credibility.  It has been said before and bears saying again, customers buy from people they like but more so from people they trust.

5.    Align with a cause – Even though most people are enraptured by all the happenings surrounding COVID-19, they still have a heart for their fellow citizens so aligning with a cause will allow them to ‘give’ to something beyond themselves.  And, especially during a pandemic, supporting the needs of others feels good.

6.    Embrace the digital movement – Since the emergence of COVID-19 more people have migrated online.  This means that the likelihood of being noticed by your ideal customer group online has increased considerably.  Share content, advertise and build consensus online.  Incorporate as many platforms and devices in your strategy as possible.  Social media is a great place to build a tribe, get attention and increase visibility likewise, in sharing online content, ensure that your platform is optimized for mobile as 51% of the global base of internet users access online using mobile devices.

7.    Utilise Public Relations – Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds relationships between a business and its stakeholders.  It helps to build reputation and positions the new business or product in a positive light.  PR is a great method to gain further visibility for the new venture.  Utilise elements such as interviews, print media ‘write-ups’, press releases and speaking opportunities to achieve additional visibility.

SMART Marketing tips – the COVID-Christmas edition

Take advantage of relevant opportunities only - Unfortunately for small businesses, now is not the time to experiment or stretch your small business too thin by acting on each and every marketing ‘opportunity’.  Identify opportunities that will increase your business’ visibility and positively affect your bottom line.

Increase your content output - This does not necessarily mean creating new content but re-working existing content to keep your business at the top of the customer’s mind.  It also means identifying and utilizing platforms to share content consistently.

Get active in business communities, with influencers and in the media - There is strength in numbers.  Sometimes when opportunities are presented, it’s for groups, coalitions or associations.  Standing alone benefits no one, especially you.  Identify and engage industry influencers who can give your business a boost.  These persons ‘talk up’ your business and influences customers to try your products.  And most importantly, don’t shy away from the media.  Opportunities for interviews or a ‘write up’ definitely gives your business a boost and a buzz plus it lives on, even after the encounter is completed.

Become the face of the business - Customers usually buy from people they know and trust.  Building your own personal brand and becoming the voice of authority on your business goes a long way in building trust. Putting yourself out there also allows customers to become more familiar with you, your personality, your business and your thought process.

Don’t depend on your customer base only - Yes, it costs more to acquire a new customer than to retain/serve existing ones but the fact is that your current customer base may not need what you are offering right now.  Look into new acquiring new customers through referral programmes or by expanding your customer search.

Invest in an online presence - I recently had a conversation with a small business owner who confirmed that most of his more recent business comes from his website.  The importance of having an online presence cannot be stressed enough.  Social media platforms are a ‘front’ for your business online.  Every online action must lead back to your website.  Also, ensure your website is optimised for SEO, SEM and Google.

Listen to your customers - If listening to your customers is not a skill your business has developed, now is the time to start.  No customer will buy a product or service that they do not want or need.  What is the research saying? Is your product or service still useful to the market? Will some tweaks here and there make it a better product or service for your customer group? Listen to what your customers are saying and act accordingly.

Have a budget - Sure, there are marketing activities that can be done for free or at little cost but certainly to take the marketing message further and reach those new customers, a budget will be required.  No, you don’t have to break the bank but that is why it is important to identify relevant opportunities.

Study your competitors - There is only one way to beat the competition; know what they are doing.  Buy their products, learn how they attract customers and beat them at their own game.  No, don’t copy them or engage is espionage, learn from and exceed their efforts.

Hire a professional marketer - Finally, someone once said ‘If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, just wait until you hire an amateur’.  Marketing is a professional’s job.  It is an art and a science.  Do it yourself only if you know exactly what you are doing.  If you don’t, hire a professional!

Five practical marketing tips to make money this holiday season

The ultimate goal of any business is to make money and so any marketing efforts that are undertaken must positively affect the business’s bottom line.  With Christmas only a few weeks away and other shopping holidays in between such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, here are some practical marketing tips to make sure your small business’s bottom line smiles this season.

1.    Pre-orders and appointments – Pre-orders and appointments are synonymous to guaranteed cash for small businesses.  Some clients will go as far as making a deposit on their pre-order.  Secure as many pre-orders and appointments as you possibly can, this will definitely result in money in your business account.

2.    Host a sales event – Hosting a sales day or ongoing sale is one way to move inventory but making the sales day an event with other customer engagement activities can generate even more sales.  Have a special to attract walk-ins and newly referred customers.  Offer discounts or BOGO on old inventory and special offer on new inventory.  If your business is fashion, a fashion show can showcase your new stock better than a mannequin and if you’re releasing new food-based products, a DIY session, tasting or menu suggestion increases the practicality of the product and increases the likelihood of the product being purchased.

3.    Create a customer referral/incentive programme with a timeline – This is a great time to launch a customer referral and incentive programme but put a timeline on it.  Remember, the aim is to make money for the holiday season, so a referral programme that is defined by time with specific incentives and coded offers can help your small business capitalise on sales this season.

4.    Get your products on shelves – Formally, this is called increasing market access but in lay man’s terms get the product into the eyes of consumers, the more shelves your products are on, the more likely they are to be seen and purchased.

5.    Upselling – Upselling is a great way to earn revenue for the business.  While upselling is a sales technique, it engages the customers once they enter the business space and encourages them to purchase more, upgrade or buy additional products to generate more revenue.  Upselling really exposes the customer to other options that were not considered before.  The intention with upselling is not to be pushy but to highlight the benefits of purchasing a higher end product.

5 Online Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Long before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19), online marketing was established as a significant method for businesses generally to connect with existing clients and find new ones, increase business visibility to new and existing audiences, engage with customers in real time and positively affect the business bottom line.    

For those small businesses that were online pre-COVID-19, the transition to serve clients during the crisis would have been much more seamless allowing some small businesses to experience unprecedented growth during the lockdowns across the globe.

For others though, the transition may have been so difficult that in some cases it caused a complete slowdown or closure of the business.  Now that the imperatives of online is there for everyone to see, small businesses that can pivot to online, are encouraged to get online NOW!

So, what exactly is online marketing?  Online marketing is the process of advertising or bringing awareness of a company’s products, services or brands to existing and potential customers through the internet.  Online marketing, done right, drives traffic to the company’s online platforms, boosts visibility and build brand awareness.

Among the more popular methods of online marketing are; the use of social media platforms, hosting a website, content marketing, email marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

 

The following outlines each method…

1.        Social Media – According to a survey conducted by smallbiztrends.com, approximately 73% of small businesses use social media marketing.  Put that in the context of the following information:

- As of June 2018, Instagram reached 1 billion monthly active users

- In the first quarter of 2020, Facebook had over 2.6 billion monthly active users

- As of the first quarter of 2019, Twitter averaged 330 million monthly active users

- Linkedin has over 575 million users, with more than 260 million monthly active users (Apr. 2020)

- At the end of 2019, Pinterest reported having 322 million monthly active users

Have you digested those numbers yet? Okay, let’s look at it logically.  There is no way that all these persons will be your target audience but certainly, there will be a significant percentage of your target audience on one or more of these platforms.  Depending on the type of business you operate, select the platform, set-up a business account and begin customer engagement.

The key to success on social media is engagement, useful, attractive and practical content and a following of loyal customers that will evangelize your business.  Social media also offers and unique quality in that you can target your business advertising to your specially selected audience.

2.       Website – A website provides your clients with 24-hour access to your business.  It is your storefront (in the case of a commercial business) or front of office (in the case of a service-based business).  Your website should articulate in clear language what the business does, who it does it for, what qualifies the company to do this kind of business and more importantly, why a customer should trust your company to conduct business with you.  If the website is properly done, the last question will be answered through client testimonials and other facts that can back up your integrity. 

For commercial businesses, ecommerce allows the business to operate on autopilot.  Imagine, your business is making money while you sleep, or while you are negotiating the next big distribution contract.  Regardless of size, having an online interface is critical for businesses.  

3.       Content Marketing/Blogging – One of my absolute favourites, maybe because I am a Content Writer.  Blogging is one of the cheapest, most effective ways to get the message about your business in front of your target audience.  If you do not have a website, no problem, sites such as Blogger and Wordpress will host your blog for free, providing free templates that accommodate both text and images and allows for building your audience.  Use your blog to share information about each of your products and/or services and target the blog to your ideal customer audience.  A blog is always best if supported by social media platforms that drive traffic to the blog.

4.       Email Marketing - Email marketing is one of the best methods to increase your business’s return on investment (ROI).  However, with so many messages being sent by so many different businesses, using this same method, it is important to increase your odds with a killer online campaign which helps your message to stand out. Make your email messages stand out by:

-          keeping your messages short and simple

-          giving your message an appropriate subject line,

-          consistently provide useful information

-          give the client the option to ‘opt-out’

5.       Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – SEO is especially important for small businesses because of the many challenges they face with digital marketing.  SBOs have smaller budgets, fewer resources and weaker brand recognition… SEO levels the playing field so that small businesses have an equal opportunity to get found online just as much as their bigger counterparts.  SEO is a tactic used by businesses to make their web pages visible to search engines like Google.  A webpage with a stronger SEO will appear higher on search engine results.  SEO is important for small businesses as most customers now use their mobile phones and search engines to find solutions.

5 marketing tips to prepare your small business for Christmas 2020

After all the topsy-turvy turmoil of 2020, we are finally in the last quarter of the year.  For many, this quarter brings with it, one of the most anticipated shopping holidays of the year, Christmas.  No doubt, many small businesses will be looking to capitalize on the season while consumers will be searching for the best value for their limited funds.

As you position your business for holiday sales, here are few tips to keep you grounded as you prepare:

1.    Have realistic expectations – 2020 has been a roller coaster ride for everyone including small businesses.  Many SMBs have either closed down, are operating part time or remotely.  Based on this new normal, set realistic expectations.  Take into consideration partial shutdowns, curfews and of course consumer spending power. Use current trends to project business performance.  Promote your business in those areas that are proven and sure to yield desired responses.  Emphasize maximizing your limited resources rather than spreading your marketing spend so thin that you achieve nothing.

2.  Start now – If your small business is to capitalize on what Christmas 2020 will bring, starting now is the only option.  There will be two types of customers this shopping period; one who will lay low and do only what’s necessary for the holidays and the other who will go all out for the bells and whistles. Do an inventory of the stock on hand and plan how to move it out now.  Whether its sales or deep discounts, move out the old inventory and prepare for the Christmas stock.  Identify what’s trending in your industry and place your orders now.  If its an international order, work out shipping to ensure that you know exactly how long it will take to get to your port of entry.  In the meantime, begin promoting your Christmas offering now!

3.  Use research to inform everything – Formal or informal, primary or secondary, use research to inform every undertaking this Christmas season.  Research will guide the products/service you invest in, your customer needs and demands and your marketing campaign.  Informed marketing does not support a ‘scattershot’ approach.  Informed marketing supports strategic marketing decisions which are designed to yield the highest return on investment.

4.  Increase your delivery capacity – Many countries are still under stay-at-home orders whether limited or full, therefore increase your business’s capacity to offer delivery services.  One of the positives of using a delivery service is that, it is an ‘as needed’ expense and so your small business does not have to contend with it as a recurring cost.

5.  Identify profitable partnerships – No doubt many SMBs would have set several goals for your business coming into 2020.  Some businesses might have achieved a few of their goals but sure there are others that have not.  Will a partnership help to achieve at least some goals?  Actively look for partnerships and collaborations that will build your business and improve your bottom line during this period.  Although times are challenging, there may be large businesses that will present marketing or other opportunities to their smaller counterparts.  Position your business to capitalize on these opportunities.  There may also be colleague small businesses with complementing products; join forces and clinch the #win for both businesses.

Ten ways to reach ‘offline’ customers during COVID-19

Much emphasis has been placed on connecting with customers digitally in the era of COVID-19 but what about those customers and potentials who are offline? How do you connect with and support them in this time?  Here are ten simple suggestions:

1.       Make a phone call – It may seem old fashioned but picking up the phone and calling a customer with an offer is an act of service.  The customer will be pleasantly surprised and reward your small business with referrals and future purchases.

2.       Text messages – This is quite possibly the quickest and easiest way to reach customers en masse.  Additionally, most mobile phones today have some smart feature that can facilitate high quality image messages.

3.       Send a direct mail – Believe it or not, the post office still works.  Use of other delivery services have also become popular.

4.       Place ads in traditional media – Although traditional advertising placement can cost a pretty penny, prominent ad placements still have the ability to attract the right clients.  Identify the right platforms, days and times so that the media spend targets the right audience.

5.       Talk to the Media – A radio or TV interview or a ‘write-up’ in the newspaper is still a great way to gain visibility and attract new clients.  Despite the emphasis on digital, there are still a significant number of persons who buy and read newspapers and magazines and tune into their favourite radio station.

6.       Run a competition – Competitions have a unique capacity to attract customers in droves especially if it is something they are good at.  Use traditional media outlets and make the competition exclusive for offline customers. Measure its success based on the number of responses, reach and the increased interaction with your business’s product or service.

7.       Offer printed coupons – Whether in-store, through a print advertisement or a flyer/coupon distribution, your business is certain to benefit from the take-up on the discount coupons at this time.

8.       Cross promote – Not only will you reach your offline customers, your business will benefit from and provide support to another, similar or complementary business.  Think of it as double-tapping, doing better together than apart.

9.       Give out business cards – A business card is usually the first piece of printed material that a business generates and it should be one of the primary points of contact with offline customers. Give one to every potential customer your meet, leave them in doctor’s offices and on community noticeboards.

10.   Invest in outdoor advertising – This doesn’t necessarily mean an expensive billboard.  It could be a ‘small’ sign on the signboard of the business complex within which your business operates or maybe a foam/stickie sign on the entrance door of your business establishment. Whatever you choose, ensure it identifies your business so that potential ‘offliners’ will see and act on.

How are you connecting with offline clients today?

 

MARKETING Tips to win the rest of 2020!

Marketing your small business for the remaining months of 2020 will take some reshaping, not just of the business but also of the mindset of the entrepreneur but it can be done! Strategically identifying where the customers are and targeting them specifically with well-defined marketing messages can help businesses to achieve some of those goals which would have been achieved earlier in the year, had it not been for COVID-19.

 

Still COVID-19 can be credited with the birth of several new customer solutions.  Customers are still buying and businesses still need to attract new and maintain old customer relationships.  Here are a few marketing tips to help your SMB ends 2020 with a win:

1.    M - Measure your marketing tactics carefully and don’t be afraid to adjust where necessary.  The idea for the remainder of 2020 is to maximize on those tactics that are effective, relevant and useful to building your brand and business and engaging with those customers who affect your bottom line.

2.    A – Agile marketing is even more important now than ever.  Focus your efforts on engaging not only existing customers but on reaching and retaining new customers as well.  And when you get those customers, deliver value!

3.    R – Be responsive. To both your clients and stakeholders.  Remember if you don’t respond in a timely manner, your competitor is right around the corner waiting to capitalize on your missed opportunities.

4.    K – Identify some key performance indicators for your business success.  Will it be increase in sales, brand visibility or increased customer engagement?  And, make them realistic, analyse current market and industry trends and temper your expectations accordingly.

5.    E – Increase efficiency by eliminating or outsourcing unnecessary or unmanageable tasks.  For example, most small business owners cannot manage their own marketing.  Now is the time to identify a marketing specialist to manage and execute these tasks.

6.    T – Training and capacity building remain crucial to personal and business development.  Schedule time to build your own capacity while increasing business output, connecting with clients and building the business.

7.    I – Useful, timely and relevant information that is consistent and concise is required especially now.  Develop a system that keeps your customers informed and updated on what is happening in your business and industry.  It may be a monthly email newsletter, social media updates or an occasional text/WhatsApp message.  Whatever it is, keep your customers informed.

8.    N – Add new elements to your marketing.  Not because the customer group may be burdened with COVID-19, change things up a little, excite the customer group and breathe new life into your marketing campaign.

9.    G – Growing the business should be at the forefront of the entrepreneur’s mind.  All marketing engagements should fuel the bottom line.  After identifying goals for the remainder of the year, write down your objectives … quantify your growth, know where each dollar is spent and how it will fuel business growth.

 

Three ways knowing your ideal customer benefits your business

There is no business, whether large or small, anywhere in the world, that can create a product or offer a service to everyone!  No one business can fulfill the needs of every single person on the planet.  There must be something that differentiates what your business provides from that of your competition.  There may well be overlaps in some customer groups but almost certainly there is no product for everybody.

Knowing your ideal customer is integral to business success.  It guarantees the business a place in the market and with the right marketing messages, such a business can realize profits from an engaged customer group who will consistently support the business, refer new customers and help to propel the business into new markets.

As small entrepreneurs venture into business especially now, it is crucial that customer solutions are not created in a vacuum.  Knowing exactly who is the targeted customer group, is even more important as smaller businesses must operate efficiently to reduce waste and maximize each element of the business to ensure measurable outputs.

The following are three ways that knowing your ideal customer benefits your business:

·         Researching customer groups defines the customer and validates the product/service – Conducting research to validate your business or product offering among the specific customer group can only yield positive benefits.  The research helps to refine the product or service thereby ensuring that the business is providing a solution for the customer.  Research also helps to identify the ideal customer for the solution being provided.

·         Product testing, sampling and trials runs refines the product/service - Usefulness, functionality and practicality are important to the success of any new product or service.  Doing trial runs, sampling and product testing are great ways to get feedback from the target group.  This allow the business to showcase their new product features and benefits, provides a preview for the customer group and gives the customer an opportunity to have a say in the final product.

·         Early customer engagement incorporates customer opinions, gets the business more leads and builds strong customer relationships – Customers love to feel part of the process and engaging them in the decision-making process makes them feel a part of, and ownership of the product/brand.  This ownership when properly managed can result in new customer leads and stronger customer relationships.

Five ways to automate your small business marketing

Automation is important for any business but even more so for small businesses who more often than not contend with limitations in resources such as personnel, budget and time.  Automating marketing tasks in particular frees up the business owner to focus on other areas of business.

As marketing continues to evolve into more tech-based solutions, it is crucial for small business owners to take advantage of the technology to improve the customer experience as well as customer response times.

While social media updates may come to mind as the first step in marketing automation, there are actually many other ways that small businesses can automate marketing to increase business visibility, improve revenue streams and increase customer recall. 

The following are five ways that small businesses can engage automation to maximise time, save money and build brand awareness: 

1.    Use an email signature – Your email signature says who you are, what you do and how to find you.  Those few lines are powerful for establishing yourself and your business as a legitimate contender within your industry.  The fact that you don’t have to retype it each time you send an email, is an added bonus.

2.    Use an auto-response for emails and social media touch points – Increase responsiveness to the customer by setting up automated responses to emails as well as on your social media touch points.  This buys you some time as you process the customers’ requests and the business will benefit from the boost in the customer’s perception of your business.

3.    Use appointment reminders – As a small business owner, doing it alone, it is easy to forget an important meeting or telephone call to a prospective client or investor.  Most email platforms offer a calendar which allows you to schedule reminders; mobile phones and computers/laptops also offer the same facility. Use it to remind you of important appointments so that you remain efficient.

4.    Email marketing – Emails are still a great way to keep the lines of communication open between the business and its client group.  Providing weekly or monthly marketing updates to customers can be a time-consuming task especially with the other demands of the business.  Have a content plan for your email marketing.  It outlines what is to be communicated to your client group and when.  Of course, allow room for adjustments as things can change on the fly but be prepared to generate those specific marketing emails in bulk and schedule for delivery as required.

5.    Social media marketing - Updating social media platforms can prove to be a time-consuming activity.  Utilizing social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social, can help small business owners to appear more active on social media than they really are.  Dedicating one or two hours out of the week to schedule the week’s post frees up the entrepreneur to focus on other critical areas of the business. 

 

5 ways to find fresh content for your social media platforms

While there are small entrepreneurs who sail through content creation and consistently share on their social platforms, there are others who struggle to find fresh content, let alone post consistently. They complain that the information they share is exhausted and overused. 

Another popular complaint is that they feel like they are repeating themselves, repeatedly! However, repeating content is not such as bad thing, after all repetition increases recall.

The reality is that no business whether large or small can get away with creating no content.  Content creation should be at the heart of any strong, effective marketing campaign.  When customers make major buying decision, it is useful and effective content that influences those decisions.

As always, it is not recommended that the entrepreneur takes on the task of content creation if they are incapable of doing same.  There are several marketers and marketing agencies that provide support in this area.

For those entrepreneurs who do it well, but struggle a bit, here are five ways to find fresh content to share with your audience regularly:

-       Repurpose old content and reuse – Nothing wrong with that.  Change a few words, add some new insight and reshare.

-       Comment on what’s happening in your industry – All industries are experiencing some level of change in the current climate, there must be something that keeps you up at night as an industry player … put it in writing and share it

-       Use video – Video is 60% more likely to be viewed than your written content (Google) and by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all internet traffic (CISCO)

-       Share something learnt at your last webinar/e-training session – Capture the key points in that webinar you’re attending and share it with your audience.  Put your own spin and interpretation on it … and share

-       Conduct research – Scour the internet, check the newspapers and watch Television for issues and problems facing your specific client group and address them. Whether you use video, your social media platform or your blog, put your consumer solutions on display by highlighting the benefits of using your offering.

Pivoting: the key to Marketing in the era of COVID-19

The word ‘pivot’ is probably the most trending word for businesses in the era of COVID-19.  Businesses both small and large are encouraged to pivot i.e. change the way they do business to serve their current customers, attract new ones and increase their business visibility and ultimately profits.  For pivoting to be effective, marketing plays an important role in crafting an effective message. 

In the era of COVID and beyond marketing must be part of any business’s significant plan to identify, target, reach, attain and retain customers.  After all, customers are the lifeblood of business.  In the era of COVID, marketing must meet some simple criteria to be effective.  The following are my suggested ten:

1.    Agile – focus your teams’ and marketing efforts to ensure that you deliver value to the end customer.

2.    Responsive – Identify current trends, events or activities and create relevant solutions that ties your brand to the activity while becoming a champion for your customers.

3.    Solutions-oriented – Aim to highlight the ‘how’ of your products and services.  How does this benefit the customer? How can it improve the customer’s life or a regular activity? Highlight benefits instead of features.

4.    Differentiable – Innovation is as important in marketing as it is in business.  Differentiate your marketing tactics by embracing new ideas.  Remember, your business is not for you, it’s for your customers and they will reward your attempts to please them.

5.    Out-of-the-box – Out of the box thinking in marketing will get your everywhere, especially with customer groups who are unafraid to explore, try new experiences and go outside of the box themselves.

6.    Strategic – Ensure your marketing plan incorporates an overall game plan with short, medium and long-term goals.  Planning must be included in the process, taking into consideration customer responses, budget and realistic expectations.

7.    Logical – Customers make buying decisions based on emotion and logic. While emotions may rule for small or not so significant purchases, large purchases are most often than not based on logics.  Highlight features for logical marketing --- in buying a house, a customer will always go for all the features that the house offers, emotions will seal the deal.

8.    Structured – Your marketing should take into consideration your current position, the direction of the organization and a plan to achieve your goals. Place your plan into easy, manageable steps, evaluate as you go along and pivot i.e. make changes when necessary.

9.    Cost-effective – Marketing is not an expense, it is an investment but it can be an expensive investment.  Identify cost-effective ways to reach your target audience without breaking the bank.  Tried and true marketing tactics such as networking, referral marketing and customer engagement tactics must always be included.

10.  Inclusive – Inclusive marketing requires that all of your stakeholders, not just your customers feel part of the conversation.  Ensure that your marketing messages leaves none of your publics out of the loop or without important information.

Where's my online audience?

While all social media are popular, all are not equal.

Many small business owners cannot identify the specifics of their target audience.  If your business is online, it is a lot easier to target your audience using demographics such as age, gender, income, etc., Here’s who uses the more popular social media platforms:

10 ways your Small Business can show up online without spending a dime!

1.        Customer testimonials/reviews – Give great service and encourage your customers to share their experience

2.       Business-to-Business collaborations – Find collaborators with complimentary businesses and do reciprocal sharing within your customer groups

3.       Write a social media post – Update your business pages consistently, whether you get engagement or not is another story but stay consistent.

4.      Engage with other business’s post – Especially if it resonates with you, comment, like share, follow or subscribe --- you never know, you might just gain an ally who reciprocates.

5.       Host an online event/Go Live! – Are you a DIY, craft based, coaching, training … or just about any type of business? Host an online event to share information, launch a new product or share a ‘how-to’ with your customer group.

6.       Do a giveaway – Giveaways are a great way to generate interest for your business online.  Free tips and advice, discount cards and access to exclusive business information make for great engagement.

7.       Join and network in online business groups – Identify and join relevant business groups in which you can share ideas, grow your online presence and connect with ideals clients in varying locations.

8.      Build a customer database & communicate with them – Engage email marketing.  Design a newsletter, choose a frequency and distribute it to your customer group.  Try not to become spammy but be a useful resource that your customers look forward to.

9.      Launch a Petition – Become an advocate on an issue that concerns your business, your industry or your passion and launch a petition.  Businesses that support social issues such as environmental protection, womens’ rights or violence prevention can benefit from this tip.

10.    Do a guest blog contribution – There are many online blogs, magazines and other publications looking for writers to share their expertise in specific subject areas.  Search for these opportunities and get to writing!