Episode 33: Three Free Marketing Activities Every Small Business Owner Needs To Do
It’s another Tip episode for small business owners and if you need help with marketing, then listen now as Fiona shares three free marketing activities you need to do. These simple activities can help you the next time you make your marketing plan, so go ahead, find out what they are and hopefully, you will apply them in your business. Fiona also announces the winners of her recent contest.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction [00:54]
Announcement of Winners [1:15]
Three Free Marketing Activities [2:36]
No.1 Figurehead Marketing [4:21]
No.2 Retention Marketing [6:22]
No.3 Internal Marketing [8:52]
Conclusion [11:05]
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to episode 33 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. Today. It's Tuesday. It's a quick tip episode, and I'm really looking forward to sharing this one because I think it's really going to help any and every small business owner, particularly if you're someone who shies away from marketing or you feel like you don't understand marketing, but before I dive into today's tip episode, I wanted to say a massive, massive thank you to everyone who took part in the competition that I've been running on this podcast in relation to my new book, Passion, Purpose, Profit. I absolutely loved reading all the reviews that people were kind enough to leave around this podcast and seeing everyone sharing the podcast and their favorite episodes over on Instagram and people that have emailed and sent DMs to every single person who entered. Thank you so, so, so, so much for entering, but more importantly, for listening to this and taking the time to invest in your business.
I really hope that this podcast is helping. So drum roll the winners of the five sign copies of my new book are Lily poly, Burbridge+Burke, Emilybee01, DaisyCCeramics, and mosey me and the lucky winner of the one on one coaching session with me is Em Dillon. So congrats to those people. My amazing assistant has been in touch with you by email I think it is. If you haven't seen that email, please reach out to us at hello@mydailybusinesscoach.com to claim your prize. Thank you again for everyone who entered. So onto today's tip episode, let's get going.
So today's tip, tool or tactic, I guess it's sort of, well, I guess it's a tip, but it's also three tactics that perhaps you haven't heard of or thought about. And we're going to discuss, I guess, three free marketing activities that a lot of people forget about. So when I meet with new clients, one of the first things they often say is "I hate marketing. I hate it, hate it, hate it." And if you listened back to, I think it was episode 25, you'll hear me go into detail about the marketing hater. And often people have this inner marketing hater because they believe that, you know, marketing dilutes the integrity of their brand, it seems to be pushing something or it's too expensive, or it doesn't guarantee return. And in all of those cases, they're wrong. You know, marketing is about longevity, good marketing pulls people in long-term rather than pushing a message at them, you know, just very quickly in a short term with very little kind of brand loyalty being built up.
It's really about connections that are genuine and that last, and, you know, build, like I said, brand loyalty and brand recommendation. Marketing - It doesn't have to be expensive. And more importantly, it's something that happens to your brand, whether you make an effort or not, you know, often what other people are saying about you is forgotten that that is also part of your marketing. So in the words of Henry Ford, you know, I love my quotes, “Those who stop marketing to save money are like those who stop a clock to save time.” Now, most, most business owners I meet with, you know, they don't have a huge large marketing budget. And so we often start by looking at free or low cost options that they may not have explored. And that's what I wanted to talk about in today's tip episode.
So here are three things that perhaps you may not have thought about, or when you're putting your marketing plan together, you don't often include, so let's go through them.
No.1 Figurehead marketing
So I can almost hear everyone being like, "no I'm horrified. I'm going to have to stop posting selfies all over social media and attending networking events to swap business cards and do really random lame things like that." But exhale, everyone, figurehead marketing is simply any activity that lifts the profile of the person or the people who founded the brand so increases, you know, brand awareness. And it provides really importantly, a human element to the brand narrative. So this doesn't have to be super scary. It could just be as simple as, you know, updating your LinkedIn or Pinterest profile, adding your name to your Instagram bio.
I can't tell you how many times, especially now, it's amazing. People are sending me all these DMs with the book and that's great. And often I go to look at their profile to be like, thanks, Lisa, or thanks. Poonam and I can't actually find a name. So simple things, adding your name to the Instagram bio or the founder's name. Writing a monthly piece for your brand's blog or journal so that people can gain insight into what motivates and inspires you - you know, you, the leader, the person behind the business. Another way you could do this is chatting to someone over zoom for a podcast. Hello, that's relevant to your industry, you know, such as homeware or lifestyle. Another thing that could help with figurehead marketing is literally just adding a section about the brand founder on the About Us page. You know, often it's one of the most viewed pages on any site.
And if you listen to this, if you're a regular listener to this podcast, thank you so much. In my interview with Chris Crouch, the founder of Happy Valley, he talks about how important the about us page is as a buyer because he's, he's buying product from different creatives for his store, Happy Valley. So that is the first one - figurehead marketing. Really think about your business, how often a marketing, the figurehead, if that's you, or perhaps if you're working in a small business, it's the founder or CEO of that business. So that definitely is going to add a human element to your brand, which is really, really important. It's always been important, but it's a specialty. So now when there's so much competition.
No. 2: Retention Marketing
So again, if you've listened to this or you've come to any workshop or you've worked with me, you might've heard me say that it's six to seven times harder to get a new client or customer than to retain an existing one.
And yet, so few marketing plans that I've come across have detailed tactics for contacting people in the post-purchase period. So if you think about the buyer cycle, the post-purchase period is literally, as it sounds when people have, you know, after they have purchased from you or worked with you, you know, so it could be a month or it could be more that after they bought something or after they've worked with you, if you're a service-based business, you're getting back in touch, you're staying front of mind. So retention marketing looks at ways to increase brand loyalty. And in time, hopefully repeat purchases. This could be as easy as looking at your bestselling product, package or service and setting up an automated email to contact those people again, in a certain amount of months, and most email platforms will have a guide to setting up automated email sequences based on a SKU or whatever you call your products.
And it can be similarly with a service. Perhaps you do a marketing audit, or you do a rebranding, or you do websites. You know, maybe every six months you just get in touch with these people again. And like, how's the website going? What's not working, what's working? What kind of feedback are you getting? Have you looked at your analytics? Do you need some help with that? Again, that is retention marketing. You are retaining those clients. So again, for example, if you're in the product based business, if you sell candles, you may wish to contact people three months after they've bought, you know, asking if it's time for a new candle or if they have any special birthday gifts coming up or, or even just feedback on their experience in return for say a percentage of their next purchase.
If you're a florist or a gift company, you might wish to add a box on your order forms, asking people, would you like a reminder in 12 months, you know, which is super handy because often if you're buying flowers, they might be for an anniversary or birthday, or, you know, something exciting that by putting that box, you're not only helping to retain that customer yourself. You're also giving them like, "Hey, you know, it's your wife's birthday coming up." That's super stereotypical. It could just be, you know, your best friend had a baby at this time last year. Why don't you check in with her and see if she needs any help or, you know, some nice flowers.
One of the key ways that people buy is through familiarity. So by staying in touch, you build upon that existing relationship and you strengthen it for future proofing your business down the track. So that's the second one retention marketing.
No. 3: Internal Marketing
So if you have employees, you have brand ambassadors. You know, people be like, well, I didn't do an influencer course. Nope. If you have employees, you have brand ambassadors. The people who work for you, we'll talk about where they work at social events.
They'll talk to family, they'll talk to friends and they may even post about their jobs on social media. But how much time do you dedicate to marketing your business internally? So this could be providing a cute, welcome package to new starters, you know, that snapped and shared, you know, #ilovemyjob, preparing a lunch meal to eat together as a team once a week. You know, maybe not in Melbourne right now, and we're on lockdown, but for the rest of the world or putting key staff forward to speak on panels at creative events. One of the best things that I did when I managed staff was to factor in a training budget so they could attend conferences. They could go to one off classes, they could indulge in an online course to increase their skillset and share this knowledge with the rest of the team.
The output for me was minimal, but the return on investment was huge. I've recently just done this literally last week, I did this again with my virtual assistant, one of them, and she focuses in her own business a lot on social media management. She doesn't do that much for me in that area. And so I know that it's something that she's really working on. And so I saw a social media course. I just saw an Instagram ad and I was like, this looks like something that I think she would like. So bought it for her and, you know, passed it all onto her. And so she was super grateful. You know, there are small things sometimes that we can do to really help, you know, people work for us, feel great about where they work, even if they're a remote consultant or contractor, like a virtual assistant. People are really a brand's greatest asset.
So make sure within marketing that you're focusing on how they perceive and how they're going to relay your business. So if you're someone who balks at this thought of marketing, I suggest, you know, taking a minute and reframing your ideas around marketing, how can you best tell your business story and engage with the people who need it both externally and internally? That is really all marketing is.
So that is it. It is a quick tip episode today. If you're keen to dive into marketing in more detail, you might want to check out episode 24 and 25 of this podcast, or, you know, grab a copy of my new book, Passion. Purpose. Profit. I'll make sure all of the links are in the show notes. And on that point, if you're someone who likes to read their information, or you want to come back to this at a time that you can really concentrate, then you'll be happy to know that all of the show notes for this episode, including a full transcript and all links to everything I mentioned can be found over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/33 as it's episode 33. I also send a weekly email full of insights every single Sunday evening, Australian time. You can subscribe to that if you don't already at mydailybusinesscoach.com. Thanks so much for listening. See you next time.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
If you're keen to dive into marketing in more detail, you might want to check out episode 24 and 25 of this podcast, or, you know, grab a copy of my new book, Passion. Purpose. Profit.
I also send a weekly email full of insights every single Sunday evening, Australian time. You can subscribe to that if you don't already at mydailybusinesscoach.com.
