Tag: business growth

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10 lessons from 10 years: what I wish I’d known when I started my business

I’m celebrating ten years in business, and it’s a real pinch-me moment. Being able to call myself a writer when people ask what I do is still a thrill because it was a dream for a long time. I’ve been thinking about what ten years in business has taught me and what the ten essential lessons would be. So, here’s what I wish I’d known when I started my business.

Get everything in writing

I got burned early on by not having a written contract. I sent a proposal via email, then the client suggested a higher fee for more work. When a dispute later arose over what our agreement included, I ended up getting paid less. Always get the details in writing before you start work.

Trust your instincts

My work depends on me having good relationships with my clients. If it’s the wrong fit, no one enjoys the process, and you don’t get the results you want. I’ve ignored my gut feeling more than once, and it’s never ended well. If something feels off, trust your instincts and walk away.

Value your service

If you’re a one-person business, the idea of standing up and saying “this is how much I charge and I’m worth it” might have you scuttling away to hide. Remember, people need what you offer, so please don’t fall victim to ‘little me’ syndrome. Getting the right support will help.

Get good coaching

Speaking of good support, finding a good coach can transform your business. They’ll give you a different perspective, ask good questions and challenge you when you make excuses. The key is to find someone on your wavelength who’ll help you find the right answer for you, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

Network

Networking has helped me find most of my clients, either because I’ve met them at an event or someone else has recommended me. It’s helped me build connections with related businesses and find support. My business wouldn’t be here without it, and I’m very grateful I was introduced to it early on.

Set boundaries

When I started, I believed people would think I was unprofessional because I only worked school hours. Now I’m upfront about it, because I don’t want to work with people who expect me to sacrifice family life for work. Don’t be afraid to set boundaries with clients or your family if it helps you work how you want to.

Follow your definition of success

A successful business can look however you want it to. It doesn’t have to mean working all hours to earn six figures. It can be flexible hours and enough money to keep a roof over your head, living in a camper, or lots of holidays. Work out what you want and aim for that.

Pay professionals

Paying professionals, whether it’s a VA, accountant, website designer or copywriter, lets your business benefit from the skills you don’t have. It also saves you time so you can focus on what you’re good at and saves you money in the long run. Networking and recommendations help you find the right people.

Know your numbers

When you understand your numbers, you’ll know whether you have a business or an expensive hobby. I kept an eye on the finances from the start, but I wish I’d kept a closer eye on website traffic and social media numbers so I wouldn’t have wasted time on marketing that didn’t work.

Look after yourself

I started my business so I could enjoy my work and choose my hours so I’d get to spend time with my family. These days I know how important it is to look after myself, so I’m trying to get better at eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep. If you’re stressed, your health will suffer, and you won’t be able to enjoy your life.

Ready for a chat?

When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business and write content that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. That could be monthly blog posts or articles, social media posts, emails or pretty much anything else you can think of!

You can email me to arrange a chat or book a Zoom call to find out more.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook with fifty (yes, 50) topic ideas for your marketing as a thank you. It also includes hints and tips to help you structure your posts if you’re currently writing your content yourself.

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The story so far: celebrating ten years in business

Image shows a woman with dark curly hair wearing a purple jumper and a grey scarf (me). I'm telling the story so far as I'm celebrating ten years in business

In 2015, I was working as a solicitor, had two young children and dreamt of making my living as a writer one day. At that point, I wanted to be an author and hadn’t considered copywriting as a potential option. By the beginning of 2016, I’d left my legal career behind, and Kirsty France Writes was born. Here’s the story so far.

Early days

When I first decided to start a business, I quickly realised how supportive the community can be. I already knew quite a few self-employed people and business owners. They reassured me that no one really knows what they’re doing and shared resources that had helped them. They introduced me to Facebook groups, websites and a networking group that I’m still a member of today. Networking, whether on social media or in person, got me my first clients, and it’s why I still have a business today.

Good and bad clients

I’ve had some fantastic clients over the years, and a few that weren’t the right fit. I’ve learned some valuable lessons, including how to spot red flags and turn clients away if it’s not going to work.

Even the best relationships come to an end. If you’re starting out, you might think that clients only leave because something negative happens. While things definitely go wrong sometimes, needs and priorities also shift towards something you can’t provide. I treasure the people who’ve stayed with me long term, but I’ve also learned to reflect on the great relationships that have ended to help me spot more people like them in the future.

Lockdown

I’ve worked from home since the start, so when lockdown came, lots of people told me that my life wouldn’t really change. It turns out that my sanity depends on a healthy mix of time at my desk and getting to go networking and seeing people in real life. Some networking continued online, but it’s not the same. Oh yeah, and I also had two primary school-aged children who suddenly weren’t at school anymore.

My business went quiet, but I still had some work to do. I also experimented with introducing digital products. That lasted for a few years post-lockdown until I decided it wasn’t worth the effort anymore. These days, I give away my favourite eBook to new email subscribers as a thank you.

Learning what I stand for

When I first started the business, I believed that, as an ex-lawyer, I’d work with lots of law firms and other professional services businesses. I quickly learned that I don’t generally enjoy working with bigger firms. I much prefer supporting sole traders and smaller businesses with great stories who want to get their personalities into their marketing. There are exceptions, but it’s always about the people for me. I love the variety of working for different types of businesses, moving between writing about insurance, jewellery, dogs and lots of other interesting things.

It took me a long time to embrace leaving the corporate mindset behind and to start applying that to my work and marketing. Great coaching has played a vital role in helping me loosen up and be myself. It’s still a work in progress, and getting my clients’ voices into their marketing feels easy in comparison!

The future

As I look back on the story so far, I find myself thinking about the lessons I’ve learned and what the next ten years might look like. I’m still working on being a published author and wondering how that might combine with my business.

I still want to help more small businesses shine and grow as I head into the future. If I can support you as we head into the next ten years, let’s have a chat.

Ready for a chat?

When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business and write content that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. That could be monthly blog posts or articles, social media posts, emails or pretty much anything else you can think of!

You can email me to arrange a chat or book a Zoom call to find out more.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook with fifty (yes, 50) topic ideas for your marketing as a thank you. It also includes hints and tips to help you structure your posts if you’re currently writing your content yourself.

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Why is accountability important to you as a small business owner?

If you’ve worked in a larger organisation before becoming self-employed, you will have been used to having teams around you, and your manager may have set you goals with specific deadlines. Sound familiar? When you work for yourself, that doesn’t happen. You’re the one setting your own goals and deadlines. You have plans for your business to grow, but the time you spend actually working on your business can slip, especially when client work comes in, as that takes priority; that’s billable time after all. That’s where having a form of accountability that works for you is invaluable, as it helps keep you focused and on the right track.

How do I work out what goals/tasks I need accountability support with?

As a small business owner, you may have sat down at the end of the year and reflected on how much you have achieved in the past year. If you haven’t done that yet, don’t worry; try to plan it once a quarter. Take time out of your business, maybe head out for lunch and celebrate what you’ve achieved. If there are things you’d like to have done but haven’t, ask yourself why.

  • Is it that they aren’t aligned to your personal values?
  • You didn’t have the time to learn the skills you needed to achieve them.
  • Your goals changed, and they weren’t key to achieving your dreams.
  • You’re always putting off certain tasks until the last minute: submitting the tax return, creating/updating your website, and setting up a mailing list. They can be time-consuming and only become priorities when really urgent.

Does brainstorming ideas with other people really help?

In short, yes. It can help you to understand what tasks are the most important at the time to help you achieve your goal. Remember that if you worked in a team before, how useful it was to bounce ideas off other people (not literally of course)! Now you predominantly work alone and come up with some amazing ideas only to talk yourself out of them, often because you’re missing a piece of the puzzle or don’t know who to ask to fill a skills gap you might feel that you have.

You have the ideas, now what? They sit in that notebook only to be looked at again when you finally get around to sorting your workspace. Having a small group of people you trust can really help you reignite your passion, come up with ideas on how to set aside the time needed to focus on them and identify what support might be useful for you.

So, you have the ideas, how do you make them a reality? That’s where accountability comes in.

You could get together with a fellow business owner. This works well until one of you gets busy, and then accountability is no longer at the top of their list.  You’re then left knowing what you need to do, but it’s not the exciting stuff that you set up your business to do, so it gets put to the bottom of your priority list again.

That’s why I set up my Reignite and Refocus accountability sessions. They can be tailored to suit your way of working. From quarterly in-person sessions in Leicestershire, where I live, to monthly online sessions, right through to an online membership and 1:1 sessions. We meet once a week. First, to set business and personal goals, then refine those goals and break them down into manageable tasks. There’s a refocus co-working session to help you mop up the tasks that even with accountability nudges in our WhatsApp group fall to the bottom of the to-do list. Then we finish the month with a short celebration session to recognise what you have achieved. As all too often we just move forward to the next goal without taking the time to really realise what we have accomplished, and who doesn’t like to celebrate?

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Case study: the one with scope creep

This is how my desk looks when I'm organised and avoiding scope creep.

If you’ve never heard the term scope creep before, you might still have experienced it. It’s what happens when a freelancer sends a client a quote and outlines the work it covers. Then, when you start work, the client begins adding bits. It’s never anything significant at first. It might be an extra task that will “only take five minutes”. The trouble is, those five-minute tasks start to add up, and suddenly you’re doing a lot more work for the same money.

Here’s how it happened to me, and what I learned from it.

The client

The client had taken over running a business event that had already been going for several years. During our first meeting, they told me about their plans to improve the event, including some exciting new sponsors. They said I’d have opportunities to meet all of them if I performed well on the first part of the project.

Yes, I know. The alarm bells should have started ringing as soon as I heard promises of future riches. In my defence, I’d only been in business for about a year, and I was still very green.

The project

The project involved creating new content for the event’s website, reflecting the change in management and highlighting the new sponsors. They had statistics from previous events, so they wanted to include those to build credibility. The client had also taken over similar events at other venues, so would potentially need two more websites.

I sent them a quote, and they offered more than I’d asked for to cover the second website. They sent me the headline statistics, which someone else had already analysed and said they were working on doing the same for the second website.

The scope creep

I’d delivered the copy for the first website, and everything was going well. Then, they sent me the data for the second website and said I’d need to analyse it myself. I should have said no, but they were paying me more than I’d ever been paid, so I got on with it and wrote the second website. I was so stressed that I found myself crying at my desk on a Saturday night, keeping my fingers crossed that my analysis made sense.

Then the client mentioned a third website. We’d touched on it briefly, but hadn’t agreed on anything. Except the client said we had. I was due to go on holiday, so I gave them a deadline for the figures.

The end

My deadline came and went with no more information from the client. I emailed them to inform them that I wouldn’t be completing the work, as it hadn’t been included in my quote anyway. That’s when I got the phone call. According to the client, I’d promised to deliver the third website, and they hadn’t received the full value for the payments they’d sent, so they’d need a refund. They also said that my analysis wasn’t good enough. (No surprises there.)

What I learned

With hindsight, I should have said no as soon as they sent me spreadsheets instead of ready-to-use data. I was inexperienced and grateful for the money and the opportunity to connect with potential new clients.

The most important thing I learned was to get everything in writing. I’d sent a written quote, but we’d agreed on the increased price on the phone, so I didn’t have a contract to confirm what it covered, what information they’d provide and what would happen if they didn’t deliver it in time. I ended up refunding part of the final payment because I couldn’t prove what we’d agreed.

Ready for a chat?

I hope this helps you to push back against scope creep sooner than I did and get everything in writing before you start work. When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business, and write content that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. More importantly, I’ll put everything in writing before we start so we both know exactly what to expect.

Please email me to arrange a chat or book a Zoom call to find out more.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook with fifty (yes, 50) topic ideas for your marketing as a thank you. It also includes hints and tips to help you structure your posts if you’re currently writing your content yourself.

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Do you share your knowledge in your marketing?

Do you share your knowledge in your marketing?

It’s easy to feel intimidated when you compare yourself to people who know more than you or have more experience. You wonder why anyone would pay you for anything when far more impressive people offer the same service. It holds you back. You think you won’t succeed because there’s always someone better, so you don’t shout about what you do. You don’t talk about what you’re good at or share your knowledge because someone else has already written about it. I know because I’ve been there. On a bad day, I still think like that.

Here are four reasons why you need to stop holding yourself back and share your knowledge in your marketing.

You know more than you think

A couple of months ago, I was at a business expo and was chatting with someone I vaguely recognised on a marketing agency stand. I mentioned I was a copywriter, and he said, “Great, me too! Do you want to do an interview? We can geek out about copywriting.” Then I saw he was pointing to a nearby camera. Gulp. I have to psych myself up to go on camera anyway, but with another copywriter? What if I showed myself up? But I’m in my getting out of my comfort zone era, so I said yes. It was a great chat. There were a couple of questions where I thought of much better answers after it was all over, but that’s life.

I surprised myself, and if you sit down to think about how much you know, I think you will, too.

You know your customers

You’re the boss, and you get to decide who you want to work with and market to. I know that can be hard to hear when you’re starting out and just need to make some money, but over time, you’ll learn who your people are. Then, you can start talking to them in your marketing. Knowledge isn’t just about your work. It’s about people. The way you write and the images you choose can speak to the clients you want to work with and help you attract more of them.

You have skills other people don’t

Once you realise you know more than you think, you work out that not everyone has the same knowledge and skills as you. A graphic designer could explain all the principles of great design to me, but I’d never be able to produce the same quality work as them because my brain doesn’t work that way. Everyone has different talents. You might be great at making jewellery, or photography, or getting people organised and love doing it.

Sharing your skills and knowledge helps you reach people who’d rather stab themselves with hot pokers than do their own bookkeeping or haven’t got time to roam the high street in search of a great gift.

People need you

At some point, you’ve assumed your knowledge isn’t worth sharing anywhere because it’s too basic and obvious to bother writing about. Either that or someone who’s more of an expert has covered it already. The thing is, it isn’t obvious to the people who need you. You’re comparing yourself to other people in your industry and not to your clients. People buy from you because of who you are and not just what you know. It doesn’t matter if they can get the same information somewhere else. Hearing it from you lets them know that you have the knowledge to help them and that you’re their kind of person, and that’s what matters.

Ready for a chat?

If you need a copywriter to be your cheerleader and help you share your knowledge, let’s have a chat. When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business and write content that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. Email me to arrange a chat or book a Zoom call to find out more.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook with fifty (yes, 50) topic ideas for your marketing as a thank you.

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Are you scared to put your personality into your content?

Images of me encouraging you to put your personality into your content

When you’re a one-person business, you might not think of yourself as having a brand identity, but you probably know that your personality matters. Your character and values affect how you work, sell, and treat people. If you’re scared to put your personality into your content, you risk blending into the background and losing out on the right customers.

Why does putting personality into your content matter? I’m glad you asked.

It builds trust

People need to trust you before they’ll hand over their money. Putting your face and voice into your marketing shows your audience you exist beyond a Facebook page or website, so they’re more likely to click a link to buy a product or send you a message to book an appointment.

It can also quell nerves about contacting someone they’ve never seen. Remember, you’re a real person (did anyone else hear that in Hagrid’s voice?), so let your audience know.

It helps people get to know you

Your content shows your audience who you are and what you stand for. You might offer a similar product or service to lots of other businesses, but when you put your personality into your content, you show people the difference. In the face of many options, people often choose your business because you seem like their kind of person. You might share the same values or have a similar sense of humour, so don’t be afraid to share it.

It helps you stand out

Writing with personality can help you stand out, but images do too. I hate having my photo taken, so using images with my face on them in my marketing is challenging, but it is worth it. If your followers are scrolling their social media feeds, they’re much more likely to stop if they see a photo of someone they know and like than another stock image.

You can filter people out

You don’t have time to spare on calls with people who’ll never work with you, so putting your personality in your content helps you pre-qualify people. If you’re not for them, they can scroll on by. If they like what they see, that could lead to a call, a message or a new subscriber to your emails. The filtering process works in two ways.

Images

Looking at my photos, you won’t see a young, trendy fashionista, a beach babe or a sharp-suited city dweller. I look like someone’s mum, mainly because I am someone’s mum. You’ll see me with a cup of tea, walking in the woods or working at my laptop. If you visited the website for a corporate company or a surfing brand, the images would be very different. Working with a good photographer can help you decide how you want to appear and give you photos that reflect that.

Words

The language you use in your marketing works alongside your images. Your words tell your readers what it would be like to have a conversation with you and whether they’d get what they need. Put simply, if you like how I write, you might like me. If you think I sound weird, maybe not. I can still adapt my style to suit your business, but how I write can help you understand whether I’m your kind of person and care about the same things as you.

If you’re scared to put your personality into your content, I can help. When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business and write content that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. Email me to arrange a chat or book a Zoom call to find out more.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.

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Who do you want to talk to in the New Year?

Planning your New Year content - who do you want to talk to?

What do you do next when you’ve set your New Year business goals and worked out what your marketing needs to look like? Think about who you want to work with. Writing content that speaks to your ideal customers means you get to work with people you love, which makes everyone happy. So, who do you want to talk to in the New Year? Here are a few ways to work it out.

Your favourite customers

Having good relationships with your customers makes life a whole lot happier. They benefit from great results, and you can work with people you like and get repeat customers. It’s essential to my business. If we don’t get on, you’re less likely to show me your personality so I can share it in your content.

Think about your favourite customers, what they have in common, and how you talk to them. That way, you can use the same language in your marketing.

Creating a connection

What do your customers like about you? We connect with people for all sorts of reasons. You might share the same sense of humour or have a similar background. Maybe your business grew out of an interest that your customers share. Sometimes, they choose your business over a similar one because they like you or your approach.

Understanding where that connection comes from helps you to write in a way that engages your current customers and attracts new ones.

What gets people talking?

If you’ve looked at your numbers, you should have a good idea about the content that engages your audience and gets people talking. I often find that my most engaging social media posts are the ones that only have a tenuous link to my work. If it’s the same for you, dig a bit deeper. What type of content gets the best response when you talk about your work? Even if it’s only a few likes, it can help you to create new ideas or use similar language.

Are you being yourself?

Putting your personality into your marketing lets you relax and have a conversation with your ideal customers. That’s the theory, at least. I know I’m not the only person who worries about oversharing and putting people off.

As you create new content, ask yourself whether the words are flowing easily or not. If you find it easier to speak naturally in videos, transcribe them and turn them into written posts. Alternatively, you can work with a writer like me who’ll listen to you talk about your business and write new content for you.

What are you offering?

Do your products and services help the people you want to work with? For example, I love working with business owners who have a marketing plan and want a writer to deliver the words. I get excited about working with new people because I want to be part of their team. I still have products and services to help people who are learning, but it’s not what I spend most of my time doing.

Ask yourself whether you’re offering services that don’t get you excited or products you’ve fallen out of love with. Could you drop them and still help the people you want to serve?

If you’ve created a plan and want help writing engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.

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Five reasons why your customers are scared to get in touch with you

Kirsty thinking about why your customers are scared to get in touch with you.

It’s nearly Hallowe’en, so my thoughts turn to the spooky side of life. The thing is, what if your business is the scary thing? You might know that you and your business are lovely and not terrifying, but your customers could still hesitate. Here are the top five reasons your customers are scared to contact you and what you can do about them.

They don’t know what to expect

Contacting a new business can be like the first day of school; exciting but also terrifying if you don’t know what to expect. That’s why schools send out loads of information to parents and have settling-in days for the kids.

Use your marketing to share what happens when people get in touch, book an appointment or come to a class. Tell them what they need to bring or what to wear. They’re more likely to get in touch when they can see the path ahead.

They think they won’t understand you

This probably applies to you if you work in law, accountancy or anything technical, particularly with lay clients. When I was a solicitor, legal speak created a shorthand to use with other lawyers, but I never used it with my clients. Your customers might be putting off something important because they think you speak gobbledegook.

If your customer doesn’t speak the same technical language as you, don’t use it in your marketing. Show them you’re a normal human being who’ll explain things in a straightforward way.

They’re worried about pressure sales

I hate pressure selling. When I got married, we immediately rejected the photographer who offered us a 50% discount, “but only if you sign now.” Does that ever work?

If you use sales calls in your business, there’s no single way to reassure people that you won’t do this. You can share case studies and testimonials and talk about your process on your website, blog, and emails. Knowing they’ll have time to think things over will reassure people and encourage them to book a call.

They’re scared of asking a stupid question

No one wants to look stupid or feel like they’re being a nuisance. Your future customers might have a question whose answer is the difference between them booking and walking away, but they’re afraid to ask it.

The best way to deal with this is to use FAQs. You can use these as a list or a single post on any marketing platform. Answer questions that people have asked you, but make some up, too. Talk to people in your networking groups to see what they’d ask. I love coming up with questions for clients. I’ve lost count of the number of blog topics that came out of me asking a client how something works.

They don’t know you

What’s the biggest first-day-of-school fear you can think of? Yep, will the other kids be nice? Will I make friends? When you put yourself in your marketing, you help your customers get to know, like and trust you so they aren’t scared to get in touch.

Your marketing can show people who you are before they ever meet you (if they’ll ever meet you). When you write your marketing, be yourself, and you’ll ease your customers’ minds.

If you want to write content that puts your customers’ fears to rest and lets them get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to buy. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.

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How a VA can help you get your bookkeeping basics right

How much did your expenses come to this month?

Did your income for the month cover these costs?

You may think that these are two very simple questions. So it may surprise you that many business owners can’t answer these. Or maybe you’re wondering if you can answer this question accurately or have a good idea.

As your VA, I aim to understand what is working well for your business and what is not and how much you know about your income and expenses.

Why does tracking your income and expenses matter?

After putting so much hard work and time into your business, the last thing you need is for it to fail just because these very simple everyday basics were not in place. You are busy doing what you have chosen and are bloody good at it too! The admin takes up a whole lot of your time. It stresses you out and doesn’t earn any money. It’s much easier to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it has gone away. The thing is, it does not go away, and that pile of paperwork is getting bigger and even more overwhelming, and it is going to take forever to get it sorted!

It is important to know how much money you need to bring in each month to cover the essential costs of running your business. This is before you even think of paying yourself for all your hard work.

Getting invoicing right

You need to make sure that your invoice templates are in the correct format. I don’t know how many invoices I have seen that do not even have the word invoice on them, never mind an invoice number, and then they’re not sent out as a PDF. Don’t even get me started; believe it or not, it really does matter. If your invoices, statements, proformas or quotes are sent out in Word, the person receiving this could change it. You definitely do not want to have that issue. So please, please be mindful.

Then you need to send out your invoices, be it immediately, weekly, or monthly. Then you must make sure that payments are made and reminders are sent out if payment is not made within your agreed terms. You do have terms and conditions, don’t you?

How a VA can help

If your business has really taken off and you are busy, it makes sense to find a VA if your budget allows it. It is important to find one you trust. This person can look out for you and will support you to achieve your goals as you build up your working relationship). Just a few hours a week could make a big difference to your business and your work-life balance.

A client once said to me that he had got in touch with me as he had been given some advice by one of his clients, a retired accountant. It had made him think hard about what was happening in his business.

He had told him:

Don’t be too busy being busy that you don’t have a business.

Now go and get some help with your bookkeeping!

Quite a good thought, is it not?

Kirsty’s note

Ann is a brilliant VA (I can personally recommend her). If you think you might need some support, you can get in touch with Ann here:

Email: ann@ahsupport.co.uk

Website:    http://www.ahsupport.co.uk

 fb.me/annhuntadminassistant 

www.linkedin.com/in/adminann

Ann Hunt - VA helping you with your bookkeeping basics!
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Where will you find new people to grow your audience?

Marketing has two main goals. The first is to let potential customers know you exist, and the second is to show them how you help them (and that they can trust you) so they become customers. Of course, you need to grow your audience to achieve the first goal, but how do you do that? Where will you find all these new people who haven’t heard about you yet?

Here are a few of mine. If you have some of your own, let me know in the comments!

Your website

Your website can help you to grow your audience in loads of different ways. A good SEO strategy will help them find you on Google and learn about you or buy products from the comfort of their sofa. You can have a contact form so they can get in touch with you quickly or encourage them to sign up for your email list. Even if you aren’t ready to get into SEO, a website can act as a brochure where people who’ve found you elsewhere can check you out.

Social media

This is probably the first thing you think about when you’re trying to grow your audience. Social media can help you to reach people you might never meet in real life or someone who’s just up the road but hasn’t heard of you yet. This could happen because your existing followers share your posts or because each platform shows you new things that it thinks you’ll like.

You must think about what your audience needs, what platforms they spend time on and the content they’ll enjoy.

Networking

The idea of networking can strike fear into the heart of a new business owner, but it doesn’t have to be scary. It can give you a supportive community and new customers if you find the right group. Groups can vary immensely in their approach, so try out a few and see what you think.

The main disadvantage of networking is that it can be pretty time-consuming, but it can also be the fastest way to build a relationship. It can also have other benefits…

Referrals

Your network isn’t just the people you know; it’s also the people who know you. For example, you only have to dip into a community Facebook group to find someone looking for recommendations for a plumber or somewhere to get their nails done.

You could get a referral from an existing client or someone you met networking. That person you spoke to over coffee or in a Facebook group might not need your services but could end up chatting with someone who does.

The real world

How would you find new customers if every social media platform suddenly ceased to exist? I know that isn’t likely to happen, but I’ve seen plenty of people get hacked or banned and lose their business page. The reality is that you’d look to the real world. That could simply be networking or referrals. It could be making your shop front look inviting, so people walk in. Think about where your potential customers spend time offline, and you can expand your marketing horizons.

Do you want to grow your audience by creating content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.