It still astounds me how many business individuals, supplying key business services, completely neglect to make their business visible online – in one shape or another.
Example: We are on the lookout for a man who can help us sort out our boiler. There’s a chap locally who comes highly recommended – but do you think I can find him? Do you think I can? heck. Having to resort to near-stalking behaviour, sending him a message via his personal Facebook profile – I can only hope that he happens to notice that little notification that someone random wants to have a chat.
And he was not the first.
I’m not saying you need the latest, greatest website. I’m not saying you need to even spend thousands of pounds to make yourself visible. There are fantastic tools that will do the job just as easily – provided that you take 1 evening of your week and dedicate some time to creating an online profile where people will be able to find you.
Remember – think about who your client may be. In my case – I’m a professional person – who works most of my day, and when I have a second to think, I google to find someone, make a call, and it’s all sorted out. Unless I’m not your typical customer in which case, I’m sure you’ll be absolutely fine with the homing pigeon, camel or reindeer.
Here are a few cheap / free ways for you to get yourself known online.
Facebook Page (FREE)
LinkedIn Page (FREE)
Google Plus (FREE)
Yell.com (FREE – unless you want additional chargeable fancy bits and bobs)
Websites (The creation may be free, but you’d need to pay something for the annual hosting)
The beauty of all of these is that if you do it right (ie: you spend time getting it updated, regularly) when someone searches for you on Google – they’ll find you.
And if you really don’t have the time to get this done – that’s where Fresh Brew Marketing comes in.
We can help get you set up and noticed.
Don’t waste another opportunity. Start today.
I had the pleasure, today, of trying something new with my Cocker Spaniel, Fia. Recently, our little chattering rescue ball of fluff of Who-Knows age, started having trouble with her hip. So off to the local vet we went. A bill to the value of half a month’s grocery shopping later, we were told that Fia has developed hip dysplasia and severe arthritis.
Not taking them up on the offer to operate, we decided that we’d take the long-term management option and change her eating habits, exercise routine and up her intake of vitamins and healthy stuff.
So we decided to try Raw Food feeding. Something we’ve never really tried for pets in the past, but with a good friend in the business, we thought we’d give it a go. Receiving our starter packs from Bruce, we start the intrepid process of chopping up raw veges, and mixing it with the relevant raw meat contents. (For the sake of my audience, I won’t go into too much detail right now).
If you’re a follower of my blogs, you’ll know that I tend to look at most situations and search for the lesson. And while I was standing in the kitchen, with food bowl in hand, the pungent smell of something I’d rather not know about wafting upwards towards my nostrils, I noticed my Cocker start to become more and more excited. And that’s where my lesson started.
The more I moved, the more she did. Her nose switched on, her ears alert, her eyes not moving from me. And she hadn’t even started. I had what she wanted, and once she’d locked on, it was very difficult to lose her.
She knew something was happening. And from what she could tell… it was going to be good…
Quick snapshot for the sake of positioning: Fia is a social eater. We buy good (pellet) food but she has never been a devourer. She eats when we’re around – and one pellet at a time. In fact, she’ll carry a few pellets into the lounge where we’re sitting, drop them all on the carpet, and then one-by-one pick them up to nibble, just so that she’s not eating alone.
Fast-forward to Raw Food Moment.
I have her sit, as I usually do. She does. I place the bowl in front of her. At this point, I know she loves the smell – and I know that she thinks she’s going to love this. But I have no idea whether what she tastes will match that which she has imagined it to be.
She tastes.
She tastes some more.
It doesn’t stop there.
She continues to clear that bowl until the very last piece of raw carrot and parsnip is cleared.
And then she promptly sits down and looks up to me as if to say, “Right. Great hors d’oeuvres. Where’s the Main Meal?”.
Success!
Her experience completely matched up to the image I’d created for her in her mind.
How often do we as business folk make the fatal mistake of building such a great impression – that by the time our customers taste what we’re selling, we leave them disappointed, let down, fed up, looking for somewhere else to eat?
Perhaps it’s time for you to ask yourself whether you’re serving that which you’re creating.
Perhaps it’s time we test it out.
Why not get in touch with Fresh Brew Marketing today and let’s make that recipe work.
Raw Food supplied by Keeping It Raw in Bridport. Check them out on Facebook today.
Recently, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to discuss branding, and what it represents, with local businesses. As the matriarch of the Marketing family, the Brand-mama is what sets the course for any other marketing activity that you undertake. At least it should.
And as I delved into my favourite Marketing books and blogs to get a feel for the latest brand misfits vs fliers – I was instantly reminded of a telephone conversation I’d had recently which perfectly proved a branding point.
We have been looking for an IT partner to work alongside – someone who we could call on for help, whenever we needed it. We’re doing this – because a). We need it and b). There is just very little chance of me being able to keep up to speed with what we need to keep the ship sailing. I don’t know my Microsoft Exchange from my Amazon Web Server – and thought it best to leave it to the people who do.
So I google. And I happen upon a business that provides exactly that. I also recall working with them in previous years, and feel confident that they’re the ones for us. Their website looks great – I understand what they do – I feel akin to how they can help me. They’re the ones.
Dial the number.
A timid female (gender being completely irrelevant here actually) answers the phone with the highest pitched voice I’ve heard since leaving high school.
(What is it with women feeling the need to raise the pitch of their voices to sound friendlier, more approachable, more helpful? I digress).
I explain to her my situation and that I’m looking to speak to someone about what they offer and how they can help my business.
She says, “OK. ”
Nothing more. Just “OK”. And remains on the line.
Thinking she’d put me through to someone in her sales team, I bumble along and say, “Oh, do I speak to you?” – to which she answers, “You can do”….
(Already not feeling this first experience much… I pursue my cause).
After explaining my bit, she starts to bumble along – and without explaining anything about their services, immediately starts to tell me about how I can pay for them.
Not what I’d asked, but I tolerate.
After a few more moments of me sitting with my mouth slightly open, and my head resting in my hands, I interrupt her (I admit, I may have sounded slightly impatient, but she was carrying on quite a bit – and the smell of someone’s cooking distracted me) and asked whether I could arrange to come and speak to someone, in person, and discuss the specific technical requirements I have.
We agree that a chap called Nathan* will call me to set up an appointment.
I thank her, and hang up.
Slightly frustrated by this entire interaction, I ponder her representation of Company X for a while over a cuppa, and I realise. She, to me, was their brand.
And it was rubbish.
The representation was unclear, timid, insecure in offering. It was one-man-band, just-doing-enough, slightly highly-strung. I look back at their website and I explore their social media, their tone of voice, their positioning. Very contradictory to the experience I’d just had. Hardly the upfront, no-messing-about, straight-talking, service-focussed message I get from their written presence depicted online.
Who do you have, in your business, that misrepresents your brand? The chap at reception that is waiting for pension-age to approach? The grumpy woman that makes the tea when the board visit? They all represent your brand.
The good thing is – there’s still time to do something about it.
I challenge you – Mystery Shopping works. Undercover Boss works. Review your team and make sure that they represent who you are, as you’d like to be known.
At Friday’s Freelancer Get-Together in Bridport – I spent a wonderful morning chatting to a fellow independent self-employed business owner, who I will refer to as Nancy Drew for the sake of this blog. Nancy and I have known each other for a number of years – both having been employed before, and both taking the plunge to change our lives, wear our hearts on our sleeves, and give self-employment a real go.
Nancy is, despite her protest, a wonder in her field. A gentle soul with so much experience in what she does and a wealth of energy bubbling over with ideas. We got to talking about things that many of us self-starters and freelancers deal with – things like dealing with Competition, knowing where our next Gig will come from, reinventing something that doesn’t appear to be working, looking for the break to get us in front of a new audience.
It dawned on me, as Nancy and I passed the time with our coffee and hot chocolate, that many of the things I’d been struggling with as a new business owner was anything but uncommon. The reality of having to face the challenges that are usually absorbed by individual departments in large corporates, by myself only was one that appears to be shared by all self-starters and independent workers.
We got talking about dealing with Competition. We both live in relatively small towns in Dorset – where there are probably a handful of other people in the county doing similar things. Yes, we’re carving ourselves out as individuals and we’re finding the perfect recipe to blend our extensive experience with our new independent venture – but despite our steadfast head-down perspective, we all too often become distracted by our competitor who is shouting louder, making bigger waves, getting more attention. And, as we both discovered on Friday morning, it’s not always the competition shouting the loudest, that ends up reaping the reward. Sometimes it’s simply those of us who do what they say, and say what they do, keep their heads down, deliver a fantastic service – and simply get the job done.
My dad used to warn me to be careful of people who were over-baked soufflés – looking great and sumptuous on the outside, but the minute you cut through that top layer – all you find is a bunch of hot air, and disappointment.
Me – I’d rather be an all-round bake – warm and mushy on the inside, toasty on the outside – a sure thing. And thankfully, Nancy and I are just that!
You know how we’re always going on about being able to determine the validity of social profiles and voice, etc etc etc?
Well – today, we thought we’d let you figure this one out on your own.
We had the joy of interacting with a fellow-Twitter person today.
Here’s what we noticed….
Do you see what we see?
Hint:
Check out the ratio of Tweets to Followers. Now – picture yourself at a cocktail party with this person. Either they’re about to chew your ears off with their verbal diarrhea, OR, they’ bought their stats.
You decide.
Either way – we’re 100% certain this profile aint getting the response they’re after.
That’s where we can help. Are you looking for real responses and engagement? Why not chat to us about your social strategy. And get there, the good, old-fashioned way – with hard work, interesting conversation and most of all – reasons to make people listen to you.