marketing Archives - Page 3 of 4

Here's the thing: a wedding vs a marriage

I have a client who is a wedding planner. Talented, creative, organised – she’s everything you could want as someone to help plan a very important day.

However, her greatest strength, I believe, is that one of her guiding principles is to value the marriage more than the wedding.

Working with her own clients, she explores what their relationship is like, and what they want their marriage to be like, in order to create a wedding day that is authentic to them, and that starts their journey as a married couple.

This, to me, is refreshing and brilliant.

I’m all about sustainability. I don’t find quick fixes or flashy short-term plans particularly enjoyable or satisfying – I’m much more about finding the long term goals and aims.

That’s not to say I don’t do short term or one-off – because I do, and this work with clients is often very valuable and enjoyable. But it’s because I use quick fixes to re-orientate towards sustainability and long term aims.

This analogy of wedding vs marriage can easily be applied to a small creative business.

Because both are important. The wedding (which could be a launch, re-launch, Christmas period etc.) sets you off on the right path. It declares your intention, celebrates something very important, and gathers people together. It creates something special, something symbolic, that will be looked back on and referred to as a wonderful, special, magical time.

But the wedding isn’t more important than the marriage. The marriage (day to day business life, the ongoing sustainability of your business) is how you live out your intentions. It includes the full range of life experiences – excitement, disappointment, vulnerability, starting afresh. A marriage requires daily attention, a million forgivenesses, and the commitment to learning, trying again, living by the principles you agreed on your wedding day.

Here’s the thing:

Are you living for a wedding or a marriage?

Did you expect your business-wedding (new website launch, new range launch, advertising) to change everything, to change the everyday of your business-marriage?

If you’re planning a re-launch, new product launch, or simply thinking about Christmas, consider what your principles for the long-term marriage are. How will you demonstrate them at your ‘wedding’?

What are your business-marriage principles and values? (Also, what are your actual marriage principles and values? Different, but connected.)

Are you living them every day? Is anything missing? Do you need a vow renewal with your business?

Ah, I do love a metaphor and analogy to get us thinking differently!

Suffice to say: build a business for the long term, with sustainability. Use any short term goals to work towards that.

(And yes, as always, I’m taking my own advice.)

PS I currently have a spot open for a weekly mentoring client, and space for one-off mentoring sessions, so if you need to edge back towards sustainability, or need help planning a business-wedding, please get in touch.

Here's the thing: marketing

Since leaving notonthehighstreet.com (almost a year ago!), two things have become really clear to me:

1. Online marketplaces are changing. It’s a great model, but NOTHS and Etsy (and even Folksy and smaller sites) are getting too big to guarantee visibility and sales to all who join. Etsy no longer shows all new products on a homepage or category page. NOTHS is so big now, you really have to be featured to gain page views.

2. Creative businesses who’ve seen success on marketplaces often don’t really know how to market themselves. Because it wasn’t necessary to market yourself when NOTHS did it for you (with gumption). Or Etsy provided the visibility naturally. I’ve said it about a hundred times in the last year: so many NOTHS sellers are at 9 out of 10 for general business skills (because they’ve had to be), but 2 out of 10 for marketing skills (because they haven’t had to).

If you’re reading and thinking, OMG, that’s me, don’t panic. You’re not alone, and there’s so much you can do about it.

The first thing to accept is that everything is a work in progress, because the world evolves constantly, and your business will evolve and grow in the next week, not to mention the next year. Your skills as a business owner will continue to develop even if you don’t do very much at all – the experience of running a business is a guarantee of that, no matter what.

Another thing I encourage you to see is that marketing isn’t a terrifying, technical piece of expertise that’s going to take you a degree and ten years’ experience to understand. It’s not. Marketing is basically flirting, and even before it’s that, it’s just talking to people. Hopefully about your business and your products.

People ask me for marketing advice all the time, and to be honest, it still stumps me on occasion. I still fall to the belief that you have to be “in marketing” to know what it is, or that you have to have detailed knowledge and understanding of Facebook or Google and how they work. There have been times, when faced with so many questions and so much fear, I’ve questioned whether I know about marketing at all! And then I remember that, in fact, I do – and it’s not as complicated or scary as the questions in front of me.

Marketing is not advertising.

Advertising (paid-for ads in magazines, newspapers, blogs, Facebook, shops, tubes, etc) might form part of your marketing strategy, but that’s not all marketing is. And advertising is changing – because consumers are changing. We’re used to online ads now, and magazine ads. Yes, it’s a good way to get visibility and awareness up (if you’re targeting the right kind of people with an ad), but it’s not a guarantee of sales.

If you choose to use paid-for advertising, whether on Facebook or in magazine, see it as an experiment that you’ll tweak next time based on the results. And always, always, make sure you’re targeting an audience who are likely to be interested in what you’re selling. (Extra advice: if someone calls you up to sell you advertising, be skeptical. Even if it’s Vogue.)

SEO isn’t complex.

Geek out over SEO research or other people’s reports if it floats your boat. But here’s my tried-and-tested experience: good content is good content, and if you write well, post good images (with image tags) and build links to your page or site, your online content will get found. There. One sentence. You can totally do that.

As with many things in small business, it’s often better to delegate what you’re not an expert in. But I encourage you to experiment with being your own marketing strategist, because there are charlatans out there. And you can totally do this. You might seek out a copywriter if that isn’t your forte. You may ask someone to manage your social media or advertising experiments, but be involved in the big questions, so that you know what works and what doesn’t for your business.

Marketing is something that you can do on your own terms. So embrace that, and get it working for you.

Here’s the thing:

Marketing is about consistency. Keep sharing your products, your message, your brand with people. And yes, keep sharing the same things with them. Variations on a theme, if you will.

Some things to do:

Find three marketing messages for your business. A basic example: ‘We sell shoes.’ ‘Our shoes are handmade.’ ‘We (and our products) are fun and high quality.’ Make sure every single thing you send out points to at least one of those messages.
Get the big paper out and plan your social media and other marketing. Create a marketing plan that involves regular posts on social media, regular advertising tests (should you wish), and regular press releases. Notice the most-used word in that sentence: REGULAR. You have to keep putting things out there, every week.
Send out press releases and samples to people who will like your products. Find magazines and bloggers who are talking to your audience, who are aligned with what you’re making. Create a press release that tells them, lovingly, about you and your products. Show them nice shiny images, or post them a sample of your product. Tell them where to find you online and how to get in touch. Do this for every new product. And consider doing something now for Christmas.

And I know there will be some of you who are already posting regularly (or not) and feel like you’re sending message out into a black hole, a void that never sees or returns your calls. That may be a signal that you need to shake it up. Post more images, if you’re always posting words. Or make sure all your images have nice captions, calls to action, or discussion points. Post elsewhere, targeting different people. Do something that simply brings a smile to people’s faces. That’s the point of marketing – make people feel good and associate it with you.

I promise marketing isn’t as complex or scary as it sounds. Every business is different and needs different things, so this is all about experimenting with what works for you.

My upcoming course, Inspired Action, will spend an entire week on marketing, and will include a lovely marketing planner. If you’re wondering about how to build your marketing skills and strategy, it might be just the thing for you. Read more and register here.

Have a lovely weekend!

Here's the thing: quality content

Every Friday I post a “here’s the thing” blog. “Here’s the thing” is something my mum (and many other wise people) like to say when they’re about to make a good point. Hopefully these posts are also good points.

I’ve written about quality before, but this time of year, when you’re still holding your nerve and waiting for the big sales to hit, it requires a little reminder.

When you’re busily fulfilling orders, or prepping stock, or managing and training staff, you’re in the thick of it and it can be hard to come up with a marketing message (on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or in your email newsletter) that’s clear, true to you, and something customers are going to respond to. In short, a quality post. Couple that busy-ness with worry about low sales or no sales, and you’ve got a recipe for reactionary, half-baked and potentially desperate messages that turn customers off.

And I don’t want that for you.

Your business, your brand, your products, deserve high quality marketing. They deserve to be shown in the best possible light. You’re putting your all into this. We want that to shine through to the world.

Of course, ideally, you’d have a marketing plan all mapped out, and great ideas and content coming out of your ears. You wouldn’t have to discount your products to make sales, because they’d just be coming in anyway. In a dream world, you wouldn’t have to compete with the likes of John Lewis making heart-wrenching ads about penguins, because your customers would understand that you’re a different kettle of fish: independent, small, creative, and high-quality.

But the reality is, it doesn’t always get planned down to what exactly you’re going to say on Facebook, you know? And we all fall in love with John Lewis and almost (okay, maybe completely) forget that they’re going to grab the attention of what could also be your customers.

I know you are capable of connecting with people who want to buy your products. I know you have great products. I know they (and you) have a story that will get people engaged and interested and purchasing.

So here’s the thing:

Tell your story. Bring your posts and emails and tweets back to what makes you, you. Start the conversation. The positive, brand-affirming conversation.

Here are some ideas and tips to use to connect with your audience without selling yourself short:

Tell people what you’re always up to. This isn’t just about getting sales at Christmas – you’re not that shallow. This is about your dedicated approach to your business. You craft products by hand. You spend hours designing, creating, testing, developing ideas. Show people what’s behind the finished item.
Feel festive. Get some Christmas decorations up and post photos of them. Are you buying from other small creative businesses for your Christmas gifts? Show people, and tell them it means a lot to have their support too.
Put your products together in a new and interesting way. Simply directing people to browse your whole range isn’t the strongest message ever – every brand and their dog is doing that at this time of year. Put together a new collection or category of products based on a colour, a personality, a new theme, and link to it. Tell a story about how you’ve really been inspired by metallics or musicians or travel this year, so you’ve created gifts to reflect those passions.
Share positive reviews and customer feedback. Perhaps someone had a really touching story. Ask them if you can tell it on your blog, or Facebook, and get more people sharing their stories and ideas with you.
Be kind and generous, but not desperate. If you’re going to do a promotion or offer, consider how you might find something that doesn’t cheapen your product, but makes customers feel special. Perhaps you add a little gift rather than discounting. Maybe you could offer gift wrapping for free for a limited period.
Post a photo of your products in progress. Either as you’re making them now, or a shot of you making them from earlier in the year. Show customers that you put time and effort into each order.

It’s not easy to always be “on it” at this time of year. But I know you’ll come out stronger in January if you keep your messages and marketing consistent with your brand.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Jenny x

PS This quote remains one of my favourite business mantras. Disclaimer: not suitable for those who are averse to swearing.

Here’s the thing:

Marketing is not advertising.

SEO isn’t complex.

Here’s the thing:

So here’s the thing:

Enter The Forge