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?

Hi op your marketing job sounds really interesting, do you work for yourself or for an employer? Where do you find your clients?

I worked in house for tech companies for about 6 years, I managed a big budget and team from quite a young age. I really feel like marketing just made sense to me. I decided to to go freelance to change my pace of life and I had a strong specialism in one area, I got work via LinkedIn, I was on a big day rate and very flush.

More recently I decided to specialise in a different area which is a passion and I'm working with much smaller companies. I get work via instagram for that and word of mouth.

Thank you that's really interesting. I have a pet care business that has extreme peaks and troughs throughout the year. During the peaks I struggle to cope with demand but the troughs make me panic that I have no money!
Please feel free to dm me your details if you'd like.

What is the seasonality linked to? Do you have an email database? Could you offer an inventive for people to come outside of peak?

I work for a large drinks company who are looking into using Whatsapp to send mainly promotional messages to customers, do you have any recs for companies who support with the Whatsapp API platform? There are so many out there its a minefield so personal recommendations welcomed!

Sorry this is hard to answer as it depends on what else is in the tech stack, it's most important it's integrated to other automation channels like email and your crm so you can segment customers effectively. Has your team made a note of what their exact requirements are as usually with tech, it's a case of checking off if it meets the criteria you need which might be different to another company depending on your existing tech.

Sorry I can't be more helpful!

The seasonality follows school holidays - we care for our clients' pets while they go on holiday so we see extreme demand during each local school holiday. We do still have a lot of bookings outside those times but it quietens off especially Nov-Feb.
I do have an email database, we have around 250-300 current clients, many with school-age children.
I need to focus on getting new clients who take holidays out of term-times, young professionals and retired people. Just never quite sure where to find them. During the rest of the year we're in the very lucky position of not having to advertise or do any marketing as we're always so full.

@marketing101 I posted this yesterday but not sure if you missed it? No problem if you’re skipping it 😆

@Pinkpyjamas2468

Apologies was up very early for a train.

I'm trying to understand your business model, where to your clients come from? Do you have an nda with all of them? Can you create mock ups of the type of thing you create?

So I would split your thinking into:

Acquiring new customers
Retaining existing customers
Attracting back customers who have bought previously

When it comes to Acquiring work out your best channels, do you have a website? Google Business profile? Social media pages?

What a fascinating thread!

I'm about to start a personal coaching business. I actually want to avoid social media and work more organically without the added burden of posts and messages.

I do have a domain name that I did purchase from Go Daddy, 😁 and I also have an external office space and the skills needed.

I have a full-time career but want to move into the wellbeing sector, I'll start by offering evening and weekends to begin with.

I've also decided to begin as a sole trader as opposed to Ltd.

I don't have a logo/brand yet, and I don't have a website. Where do I begin, please?

Hi,

Exciting for your new business. It only makes sense in early days to register as Ltd if you'll hit the higher tax bracket in my opinion (but I'm not an accountant of course)

I would strongly recommend you do have social media - depending on your business this will be one of the most important channels for new clients.

I posted this earlier but this would be how I'd start. It's impossible to have no costs but it you're after minimal expense I'd do this below. If you have more budget you can get professional support.

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

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

1. 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

1. 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.

1. Make sure you have email sign up on your website and start some type of newsletter - mailerlite is a good platform

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

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

Hello again, is it possible for you to drop me an email?

I'm happy to share the address here, I'm interested in the services you offer.

3eeezcoaching @ gmail com

I'll get this post removed once you've let me know. If you'd rather not, then I understand.

Thanks 😊

I'm also in the health/wellbeing sector and struggling to get a coherent message across. I recently advertised on an, ahem, well known women's forum which translated to a huge jump in web hits but no conversions. Word of mouth is my best medium to date. How can a small business get noticed in a crowded market?! Thanks 😊

@marketing101 no problem! So my clients have so far found me through posts I’ve done in Facebook groups basically advertising what I do, i’ve cold emailed a couple, a couple through a freelancer site, cold DMs on insta and linked in.

only some request an NDA - basically I “ghost” design for them. I’m trying to
move away from this and stipulated in my contract, in order to be able to share process pics, and share when these items go on the market.

Yes mock-ups I do share occasionally
on socials, I do think that’s going to be something I share more in future and maybe put in my portfolio, as just flat prints probably isn’t amazing for clients to visualise on products, now you mention it.

So from what you're saying your site drives minimal traffic? Do you think customers would good search where you would be a good fit?

Hello,

There's a few things I'll say on this. The conversion could be low because of how you set up your landing page, if the call to action wasn't very clear. If you have budget I would set up the Facebook pixel and retarget those who hit your website. Are you selling a product or a service? Do you have a strong sense of identity and unique selling point?

Hi, I'm so sorry but I work part time at the moment and I'm specialising in a particular sector of wellbeing so not taking on clients outside of that. However I can likely recommend someone if you want to message me on here? 🙏

Thanks!

If you have budget I would set up the Facebook pixel and retarget those who hit your website. Are you selling a product or a service? Do you have a strong sense of identity and unique selling point?

A service, with a very strong sense of identity (see my AMA!) and USP.

Can an amateur set up the FB pixel, etc or is it best left to a professional??

@marketing101

Yes - my site gets barely any traffic, I don’t get many emails organically through my site either. Had a quick google, I didn’t find myself. Maybe SEO is an issue.

I’m in the process of setting up a mailing list for a newsletter, but only one signup so far 😂😖

1. What is your favourite colour?

1. Pick your favourite emoji for September and show it to me?

You’ve mentioned having a newsletter. Do you think this is better than directing readers somewhere like Substack?

I understand a lot of that is about growing an email list but I am wary of overwhelming people with emails (might be personal preference though as I get way too many emails!)

Remind me what your business does please?

Email is a highly effective channel and if you're asking people to opt in, you are spamming them if you have helpful and relevant information

what Do you find to be the most effective sales and marketing channels for b2b? We have a consulting business in a specific niche. Most work comes from intros and from speaking at events. How could we harness power of digital for enquiries?

Hi,

When I ran b2b marketing departments we did a mix of channel strategies within a campaign such as:
Produce a thought leadership report about a key topic we help with
Run a webinar series on this topic
Run media campaign with trade magazines where they syndicate to their audience
Paid LinkedIn ads
Hosted roundtable
Our own email campaign
Organic LinkedIn
PR

Depending on company size i might have a couple running at a time with different personas or it might be two per year.

Content marketing is at the heart of all b2b