I'm a Marketing and Business Adviser - AMA

[marketing101]

I work with small businesses across their websites, social media, digital, events and business strategy. I used to work with large corporations. But I find small business more rewarding.

I know it can be expensive and overwhelming to get marketing consultant advice.

Is there anything I can help you with?

Yes please! Is this OK to ask - Would you say it's worth paying ££££ to have a professional website built? Currently have an online shop on wix and have paid for some SEO but still getting barely any organic traffic. Thanks in advance!

I'll try to avoid starting every answer with "it depends."

Firstly, how competitive is your sector and what you're selling? Have you looked at your keywords in Google Ad Planner? Where do you rank currently for your keywords? Is your main business the online shop or is this a part of your business? And what have you paid for SEO wise? - do you mean you've paid for Google ads or you've paid for help optimising the content on your site?

Sorry a lot of questions but every single business is unique and has to be treated thus.

Thanks for your reply! I've been told it's very competitive, I sell home decor, faux flowers, vases etc.
I haven't looked at keywords in Google ad planner (making a note to do this tomorrow!)
The online shop is the main business and I promote mainly through Instagram.
I paid £160 for the SEO work, this is a 'Wix partner' who they recommend and he optimised my site.
I just find SEO so confusing and don't know where to turn next🙈

Okay. I wouldnt pay that again as you aren't clear what work they have done therefore they don't seem like a good consultant to me.

You need to start by thinking what would people search for, where you would be a good fit. Then you need to make sure those keyword phrases are in your h1 title, your meta description, in the website copy, in your image descriptions. You need to tell Google and your customers exactly what you do. If you have a new Web page, submit it to Google search console - it will also tell you any errors on your site you need to fix.

Is local business important to you if you're doing flowers? If yes, you need to set up your Google Business profile - this is really important as it shows before organic Web pages.

I know it's a huge minefield, running a business now relies so much on digital skills. I hope that's helpful what I've added but feel free to ask for more information.

Im looking at starting a small business , where do I start? Complete novice so any advice would be gold to me!

Okay, this is where I start but it does depend on what the business is and whether it's local or you're wanting to attract a national audience.

Get a name - and check go daddy or similar to see if the website address for this name is available but don't buy it from there.

Establish who your customer is and create persona's - who are they? Where do they go for information? What do they like?

Think about your brand - who are you? What makes you special? What is your expertise? What adjectives would people use to think about you?

Create a brand palette and logo - if money is tight you can do this is Canva - it's worth upgrading to the paid version - it's about £100 a year

Create a website with wix or squarespace - you can register your domain as part of this. Think about your keywords and what someone would search to find you. Look at competitors. Submit your website to Google search console so it's indexed.

Make sure you have email sign up on your website and start some type of newsletter

Create social media channels and post regularly with clear calls to action.

Create social media templates for yourself in Canva in your brand colours and be consistent with messaging.

Hope that helps 🙏

Thanks SO much, you've actually just taught me more than the consultant who I paid! Do you mind sharing your business details in case I decide to get professional help in the future?
Also 1 last question if i may, you mentioned about image descriptions, is that the same as alt text?

What businesses/sectors are flourishing right now or do you feel are worth getting into?

@Rachaelrachael

Awww good! Could you dm me and I can share? I'm not an SEO specialist I look across the whole business but I do know ones who are absolutely excellent and not out to con you!

Yes I meant alt images but I was trying to be less technical! 😂

I have a health and wellbeing business myself and I've been amazed at how much more people are spending, post pandemic and cost of living crisis I was convinced we would start to decline but we've had rapid surge in profits. I think people are spending more on health than ever before.

I come from the tech world and the mass lay offs are a sign to me that many large businesses will increase their use of AI and outsourcing cheaper labour so this isn't good for UK job market.

Interesting, thank you for your insight! I wish you could critique my business and tell me what to do 😂

How do you think it’s best to link sales strategy to marketing?

Haha can you say any more about it here? I can try

I probably do need help across the whole business to be fair 😂
Yes sure! I'll send u a dm

I don't think the two can be separated they both feed each other.

You need to build brand awareness of yourself but also the problem you solve or the opportunity you offer. By doing this, it enables you to speak about what makes you special. Modern marketing strategy replies a lot on channel strategy, how you disseminate your message (eg instagram, email, display ads) but this isn't the what it's the how.

The more you have a clear vision on who you are and why you exist, the easier it is to sell.

Hope that answered your question.

Is it better to have my own website for my business or sell on websites like Etsy? I sell digital products on Etsy but not getting many sales.

This is great thank you. What % of turnover should a small business be spending on their marketing and advertising?

Well - I design prints and patterns, mostly for fashion but I also do public art commissions. It’s really feast and famine - I think struggle with reaching out confidently and with a coherent and good portfolio, alot of my clients have NDA’s which makes sharing previous work difficult. I also only have 3 days a week during school hours to work on it! I’m @ mowatanddaughter on insta if you were interested.

It depends.

Have you joined any SEO groups about etsy? It's a real art form! There's one called underachievers which is great.

I'd say if you have a following on social media, and you can build a well optimised site, something like shopify could be good for you but you need to have traffic going there so you'll need excellent branding and social media.

It's all a bit of trial and error unfortunately I know that's not the best answer to hear.

I couldn't possibly say this as honestly I can tell you I've worked with close to 50 companies and every single one was different.

I run a wellbeing business and our advertising costs are minimal because we rank first for all our keywords and we have strong word of mouth. I'd always say invest in your foundations - get your website good, make sure you have things like Google business profile populated (if you sell locally), grow your community on social media and capture email addresses.

If you do spend money make sure you can quantify it, eg have a code on a flyer or in an ad so you know what business has come from that.

Thank you, great answer

@Florabelle thank you! ❤️

I’ve inherited a marketing team in new promotion, massive global company so trying to learn a lot quickly. What are the best books/events/courses/whatever for a non-marketing professional (but who is pretty savvy as built and ran big businesses where marketing was a part of job) ?

Hubspot have great resources as does the Google Academy

I would start with them

If you wanted to do a longer qualification I'd recommend the Mini MBA with Mark Ritson

Hope that helped and happy to answer any other questions if anyone has a small business or is hoping to start one 🙏