With digital marketing on the rise, many people would have you believe that you no longer need to meet your customers face to face to sell products. The evidence, though, suggests that this isn’t true. Despite advances in technology, people are still the same as they always were, and they naturally prefer meeting companies in person.
Meeting in real life with customers, though, is a challenge. We’re so well-adapted to online services and apps that we barely think about how to conduct ourselves during in-person contact with somebody. It can be an alien experience.
What Do The Data Say?
The data are still in support of the idea that customers want human interaction when dealing with companies. No amount of chatbots or same-day delivery services are going to change that.
Here are some of the data which suggests that people still want to meet company representatives in real life:
64 percent of customers prefer to interact with people rather than robots when visiting the store
30 percent said that they liked using the company’s mobile app in-store
64 percent of people said that they only interacted with automated solutions because of the queues that can form waiting for a human assistant
The data, therefore, suggests that companies should be focusing heavily on providing face to face interactions with their customers. But what form should these actually take?
Trade Shows
One of the best ways to meet new customers is to attend trade shows. These events bring hundreds of companies together to a single location, often attracting thousands of delegates and attendees.
Infinity Exhibits, a company that sells stalls, believes that they are a great way to grow your audience. Companies often discover that they have markets they never imagined that they had when they meet people in person. They find out that there are more people out there who could benefit from their products than their digital marketing analytics told them.
On top of that, trade shows are an opportunity for customers to get up close and personal with the products themselves. Seeing them on a screen is one thing, but holding them in your hand and playing with them is quite another. The physicality of the experience matters, and is a highly effective way to build customer loyalty.
Of course, trade shows aren’t the only place to meet people in person, but they are one of the most valuable. They give customers the chance to get to know you in person and find out more about the ethos of your company. You also have the opportunity to explain more about the products that you can’t convey in sound-bite marketing messages online. You often find that the small details are what interest your customers the most. They want to achieve a higher quality of life, and you can help them get there.
For these reasons, face to face interactions with customers are still king. Don’t ignore them – they could be the spark that allows your company to grow exponentially.
Mastering proper marketing and promotional techniques are tricky. Everyone has a different approach to marketing and has varying opinions as to how one should properly promote. That being said, some techniques are known to bring about success and certain habits are important to practice for a healthy marketing strategy. Here are six promotion and marketing tips to help you and your business do a little better!
6 Promotion & Marketing Tips
1. Know Your Target Market
While you certainly want everyone to be interested in your products or services, not everyone is going to be. Discerning what kind of person wants the things you’re offering is the first step to any marketing or promotion campaign. Who are they? What do they like? What do they need? What problems can you solve for them? Without narrowing down your target niche like this, you’ll end up wasting time and effort by marketing to anyone and everyone, most of whom won’t care in the first place. Before you start any kind of marketing or promotion campaign, take the time to determine who you’re selling to.
2. Publish Some Quality Content Marketing
Creating good content on your website or social platforms is one of the best ways to increase your SEO and help your business or coming launch be discoverable online. This doesn’t only mean publishing quality social media posts or regularly updating your blog, though both of these things are very important! It also means making sure all the pages on your website (About page, Products and Services page, Contact page, and more) are properly search engine optimized. It means writing smart and focusing on quality over quantity. These smart little steps will make a world of difference in helping your business get discovered.
3. Consider Email Marketing
Email marketing is sometimes considered an outdated marketing system, but it’s actually far from that. Sending regular emails through your email lists filled with quality, helpful information can help you in front of your customers’ minds. Not only that, but when it comes time for launches and new products, email blasts are a great and reliable way of getting your information directly in front of a real customer. Be sure to create catchy subject lines and prioritize quality over quantity. You might be surprised at how big of a difference it makes in your business!
4. Connect and Partner With Others
Cross-promoting with other savvy business owners can be a great way to get more eyes on your own business. Find smart, reputable people to partner with. Consider doing guest posts on each other’s blogs, co-hosting events or webinars, trading off posts on social media, and more. Just keep talking about your business, and if someone else talks about your business, return the favor. Network well and make quality friends and partnerships.
5. Start Promoting Early!
If you have an event coming up that you want people to attend or a new product scheduled to launch and you’re hoping to sell out, you have to start promoting early. Get people excited about it before it happens. Talk about your business and the new things coming on your website, via email, on social media, in person, and more. Explain what problems your services will solve, what value your event will provide, and how handy your product will be. Don’t wait until the last minute to talk about it, because then no one else will have the chance to talk about it. Start early and reap the results.
6. Don’t Quit
Marketing isn’t an exact science. Something that worked before might not work now. Strategies that worked for one business might not work for yours. Don’t quit after your first attempt, or even after your hundredth! Keep believing in your products and services, and soon other people will, too.
If you’re struggling with your marketing strategy, visit my website and schedule a call with me where we can discuss how I can help you grow your business with strategic marketing strategies.
Last week I shared with you how I set myself up for success when it comes to planning my goals, and I shared with you how my main goal for 2020 is to buy a house! But this week, we’re going to switch things a bit and talk about setting your business goals.
I think that setting goals and developing a plan to achieve them is what sets successful businesses apart from unsuccessful or sedentary ones. Regardless of your business’s age, history, location, industry, or profitability, goal-setting helps you stay focused, motivated, and on track.
Goals prevent stagnancy. I believe goals set the stage for success.
I want to share with you 5 goals you need for your business to have a successful 2020!
1. Increase traffic to your website, blog, and/or social media pages.
The more traffic you get to your platforms, the more opportunity for your sales and customer loyalty to improve. In order to accomplish this traffic increase, you need to first increase the quality and perhaps quantity of your content marketing strategy. Understanding social algorithms and your website SEO, or consulting with a professional who does, is a great first step! Developing a valuable, relatable content strategy for 2020 will help you drive more targeted traffic and build a warmer audience.
2. Delve into new networking opportunities.
If you are not actively networking your business, then you need to set a goal to start. Get yourself and your business in front of more people and start making more genuine connections. This might come in the form of attending conferences, more online networking, sharing your expertise at speaking events, or hosting events yourself. Whatever the case, get outside your comfort zone and start talking about your passions. The more people you know and who know about what you do, the better for your business!
3. Schedule in times of rest.
This might be hard for some, but it can be as simple as dedicating one day of the week where you will not work on your business. It might be as extravagant as planning a couple of weeks in the year where you’ll go on a vacation with your family. Whatever the case, making sure you have time to rest, reduce stress, and get a bit of space from work, this will help you avoid burnout, and it will also help improve your productivity overall. Hopefully you’re passionate about what you do, and you actually enjoy it, but you must be sure to get some downtime where you disconnect from work completely to not get overwhelmed.
4. Perfect your personal brand.
Often when we start a business, we’re focused on gaining clients and starting work, leaving a lot of other important details untouched. We start having some real success, which forces us to leave these details on the sidelines for longer than anticipated. However, there are certain things you should be doing for your business to make sure you stand out from your competition. Branding is one of these things. If you haven’t determined your brand yet, laid out your vision and mission statements, decided on your colors and brand “personality,” then this is the year to do it. Become memorable to your clients. Boost your credibility. Represent your brand for how unique and amazing it is!
5. Increase productivity!
This goal is pretty broad, so you’ll want to break it down into more achievable goals for yourself and your own business needs. Analyze your business and determine places where you’re slacking on productivity. Maybe you need to get more organized to get more done in a day. Maybe you need to automate some processes. Maybe you’d do better to outsource some tasks so you have more time to do what only you can do. Whatever your areas of poor productivity are, identify them and come up with goals to solve the problems.
Dive Deeper into Goal Setting with Goal Setting Bootcamp
I’m releasing my Goal Setting Bootcamp; It contains 4 content filled modules along with a workbook and checklists to help you stay organized. This home study class fits easily into your schedule and there’s no pressure to finish it by a certain date. Simply work on it as your schedule allows. If you do this planning work, you’ll be set in the new year to make massive strides in your business! Click here to get the Goal Setting Bootcamp
Have a great week! Robyn
PS: If you’re ready to dive deep into goal setting and set yourself up for success in 2020, then the Goal Setting Bootcamp is for you. You’ll be guided step by step though the process of making goals that are important to YOU and help you create action plans so your goals will become a reality. Get access here
Perhaps you’re considering moving into 2020 with a new goal in mind. Maybe you’d like to increase your earning potential and job satisfaction by going freelance. Becoming a freelancer could be a good idea if you have a skill that you know people want, but going from working with others to working alone does have a set of pros and cons. Below, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of freelancing in 2020. Take a look:
Con: Lacking Structure/Feeling Unfocused
The first thing you’ll need to consider is how easy it is to feel unfocused. With no structure to the work day and nobody ‘telling’ you what to do, it can be tough to get everything done. You’ll probably still need to have a schedule and act like you’re at work.
Pro: Set Your Own Schedule
There’s flexibility in setting your own schedule. You can have an afternoon nap if you wish, eat lunch when you want, and even go to the gym when it’s quiet.
Con: Can Be Isolating
Many people find working alone isolating. You may need to make more of an effort to see your friends and family and speak to people in general so that you don’t get lonely.
Pro: Selectivity With Who You Choose To Work With
You don’t have to take on every client or job. Maybe you feel like you do at the start, but eventually, you can get a little pickier and do only the work you want to do.
Con: You Have to Find Your Own Work
The hustle never stops when you’re freelance, because you have to pretty much find your own work all the time. Eventually people may come to you if you build a reputation.
Pro: No Commuting Costs/Fewer Overheads
Unless you plan on going to work in a coffee shop or shared space, you will have no commuting costs to worry about, as well as fewer overheads.
Unfortunately, freelancers rarely get paid on time. In cases like this, you may need to consider Invoice Factoring to help you get the money you’re owed. Chasing payments can be a pain, so coming up with a great way of invoicing your clients is recommended.
Pro: Higher Earning Potential
There can be higher earning potential as a freelancer, and some may say unlimited. You will likely get paid more than in employment providing you’re getting consistent work.
Con: No Paid Time Off
You’ll have to plan for any time off you want to make sure you can afford it. You won’t get paid time off for vacations, sick days, or even having a baby.
Is it just me? I’m seriously looking forward to the holidays. This has not been my favorite year for different reasons, but I don’t want to wallow in that feeling, I rather concentrate on what’s ahead for me and my business in 2020.
I’ve been working on a few things to get ready for the coming year and I’m excited. 2020 promises to be a great year! I’ll be launching a new course in January that will help you make a huge impact in your business, but I’ll share more about that in a future email.
Keeping with the New Year’s theme, it dawned on me recently that we’re not only starting a new year but… a new decade!
Today’s post is about goal planning for the new year and what I do to make my goals happen.
I have a method when it comes to goal planning… I start writing them down in broad terms.
For example, in 2020 I want to buy a house. Then, I start breaking the goal into chunks…
How much do we want to spend on the house?
What neighborhood do we want to live in?
How many floors do we want?
We need a backyard for the dogs.
The list goes on…
I try to get as clear as possible because when I’m clear things happen… When I’m not clear things don’t happen, they just stay in my head…
For instance, maybe I like the idea of owning a house BUT… I rather rent because…
Less responsibility.
More money to travel.
I can leave when the lease is up and change neighborhoods.
You get my point.
As long as I’m clear in what I want and break it down, I can work towards making that goal happen.
I can go on and on with examples about goal clarity and its importance. If I’m not clear stuff doesn’t happen, plain and simple.
Naturally getting clear on your goals is not going to automatically make them happen, once you get clarity, you have to work towards them and that’s when I do my second set of chunking, I look at what are the things we need to do to make this goal happen.
Making sure we have a deposit to put down towards the house.
Get pre-approved for a mortgage.
Start visiting houses in different neighborhoods.
and the list goes on…
There’s one more thing I do… I imagine myself living the goal… I’ll use my new house as an example.
I close my eyes and imagine how it will feel when I’m there in my new house sitting on the patio outside on a sunny summer morning, the birds chirping and my husband and I are eating breakfast laughing while the dogs play outside and the cats are sleeping in the sunroom.
or… I imagine what it’s like to sit on the porch at night with my husband talking about the day’s events and hearing the crickets sing.
I could go on… but I think you get my point…
Get clear on your goals, make sure you really want them, break it down and take action… and envision what it would feel like if you had attained that goal…
