Marketing For Introverts

Vicki Lovegrove has worked as a graphic designer for over 30 years after finding her passion for the subject as a teenager. A conversation with a client a few years ago made her realise that she could support clients in new ways and she retrained as a coach. Today she runs a successful coaching business that supports creative people.

We talked about finding your focus and purpose and the power of giving yourself time to dream. Vicki is a big believer in defining that big exciting goal, and revisiting it from time to time. She described the unconscious mind like a spaniel – which was a lovely comparison and made me smile!

Vicki was particularly interesting on the subject of resilience and how we can grow our personal resilience. She talked about collecting experiences that will help you build your resilience, including failures. Especially in the creative industries, we regularly get our creative ideas criticised, but that can make you a better creative.

We had a very interesting conversation about the dangers of procrastination and perfectionism. Vicki was passionate about the importance of raising your energy so that you attract other high energy people and projects. The language we use when we talk to ourself is so important – our brains take it all in, so stay positive.

Vicki recommended Creative Blindness by Dave Trott and The Element by Ken Robinson

Find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickilovegrove/ or www.vickilovegrove.co.uk

Series resource

Download the Define your Ideal Customer cheat sheet to go with the series (which includes 15 ideas for marketing a small service businesses just like yours)

Anita Popat is a social media strategist, who supports her introverted clients to show up on Instagram effectively. She believes that introversion is her superpower, and we had a great conversation about Instagram and how introvert service business owners can use it.

Instagram has gone through a massive amount of change recently, and we talked a lot about the shift to short form video and the introduction of Reels. Not everyone wants to be dancing and lip syncing on Reels but Anita shared a lot of ways to use Reels as a service business.

She is a big advocate for trying all the different aspects of Instagram and seeing what works. Use the data to see what works and ask your audience what they want to know about – Stories are good for gathering this information.

She outlined the need to create different types of content to build awareness, explain who you are and how you work, and finally to sell your services.

Anita recommended Atomic Habits by James Clear

Find her on Instagram @ItsAnitaPopat and get hold of the lead magnet she mentioned here https://www.subscribepage.com/introvertbizownersignup

Series resource

Download the Define your Ideal Customer cheat sheet to go with the series (which includes 15 ideas for marketing a small service businesses just like yours)

This is a solo episode prompted by something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. It is also an issue that many of my guests have mentioned.

The introvert hangover is the name given to that feeling when you have spent too much time in the company of other people. I talk about why we get that feeling, how we can recover and how we can look after ourselves and prevent it.

When I started to explore how we get and recover from the introvert hangover, I found myself thinking about mental health for introvert business owners, so I talk about that too.

It's an important conversation to have in our small businesses, and I raise a number of issues. But I am not an expert in mental health so if any of this episode rings uncomfortably true for you, please take some steps to learn more about your own situation and talk to someone who is an expert.

Mental health resources

Resources from the Federation of Small Business: https://www.fsb.org.uk/knowledge/knowledge/mental-health-and-wellbeing.html

Mental Health at work toolkit for small businesses:

https://www.mentalhealthatwork.org.uk/toolkit/mental-health-for-small-workplaces/

IPSE resources on mental health including a link to the report I quote in the episode: https://www.ipse.co.uk/member-benefits/ipse-advice/mental-wellbeing-advice.html

Series resource

Download the Define your Ideal Customer cheat sheet to go with the series (which includes 15 ideas for marketing a small service businesses just like yours)

This conversation is a little different from my usual interviews. Dan Edwards runs an accountancy practice, and we talked about what he does to market his business. He revealed a really comprehensive marketing strategy for both existing clients and prospects, and I was able to suggest a couple of areas for him to work on.

We know each other through networking and that is a big part of Dan's new business strategy. We talked about the benefits of networking, both online and face to face, and the importance of building those relationships by turning up regularly.

Referrals are also a successful tactic for him, and Dan has a planned process of asking his clients to recommend him in local Facebook groups.

He is also super planned on Facebook – he gets a gold star for having helpful social media posts planned all the way to the end of next year! But like many introverts he struggles with how to be more visible on social media, so we talked about some ways for him to ease into that.

Dan has a great system for keeping in touch with existing clients from a newsletter and WhatsApp, to direct mail. He even sends biscuits!

This episode is a great insight into how much marketing you need to be doing to keep a regular flow of new business into your business, thank you Dan for sharing that with me!

If you are a small business owner, you need to listen to his explanation of the Profit First principle – and find out what he spent his first bonus on!

Download the Define your Ideal Customer cheat sheet to go with the series (which includes 15 ideas for marketing a small service businesses just like yours)

Resources

Find more about Dan and work with him at https://www.dkaccs.co.uk/ or connect on LinkedIn

He recommended Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

I had a great conversation with Fiona Minett of Boss your PR. We both worked in PR in our twenties, the difference being that Fiona was calling Vogue and I was doing live interviews about late running trains! Which is why she's exactly the right person to talk about why PR is such a great tool for your small business and how to get started.

Fiona uses the pick and mix analogy to explain the range of opportunities that come under the banner of PR – talking to journalists is just one of the ways to promote your business. She does have some great tips for finding the right journalists for your business, and approaching them without having to resort to cold calling.

We talked about the importance of your story and how you define that, particularly if it's something difficult or sensitive – or if you don't think you have a story. Through snippets and anecdotes you have the opportunity to decide how much or little to share, and make it work for you.

This episode is full of great advice, I hope it leaves you with the confidence to get started using PR in your business.

Download the Define your Ideal Customer cheat sheet to go with the series (which includes 15 ideas for marketing a small service businesses just like yours)

Resources

Find more about Fiona and work with her at https://www.bossyourpr.com/

She recommended Built to Belong by Natalie Franks

I'm pleased to launch series 4 of the Marketing for Introverts podcast. Throughout this series I will be talking about trying something new in your business marketing.

And those of you who have listened to previous episodes will be saying "hang on a moment Jenny, I thought you were big on saying no to the bright and shiny things" –yes you are absolutely right, I regularly advise clients and podcast listeners to avoid jumping onto the next new thing in marketing.

But I think every now and then you need to look at what you are doing in your business marketing and decide if it's giving you the results you need. You need to look at your ideal client profile and make sure that your marketing activity is still reaching those people. Businesses change, algorithms change and sometimes you just want to experiment with something new.

Listen to the episode to find out what happened when I tried direct mail, and jumped onto TikTok! (hint, one was super successful and the jury is still out on the other!). I definitely learned some lessons about each tactic, so listen out for those, they may help you get started in both areas.

Download the Define your Ideal Customer cheat sheet to go with the series (which includes 15 ideas for marketing a small service businesses just like yours)

Resources

You can access the episode transcript here: Marketing for Introverts series 4 ep 1 Trying something new

The episode on email marketing mail is here https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/everyone-should-be-using-email-marketing-with-natalie-rockall/

And networking here https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/networking-for-introverts-dr-ivan-misner/

Today's episode is about continuing your marketing activity when you want to take a holiday, you are too busy with work or life, or your energy levels have taken a dip!

I share a series of options to help you stay visible:

• Repurposing and reusing all forms of content – and why its rude not to
• Batching, automating and scheduling, the benefits and the pitfalls to be aware of
• Focusing on the tools and the audiences that make the most impact
• Engagement as strategy for the time poor business owner
• Outsourcing

I'll be using all of those to keep me visible during the summer, and the podcast will be back for a new episode in September. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the new series.

Resources

The full transcript of the episode is here

The episode on outsourcing is here https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/i-need-help-with-my-marketing-top-tips-for-outsourcing/

You can go to the Marketing for Introverts Bookshop to see the full list of books recommended on the podcast

Need some marketing planning help? Go to https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/services/

And just for fun – what's your marketing personality? Find out on my website https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk

Emma-Louise is an online business coach and strategist and host of The Ambitious Introvert podcast. After a successful career as long-haul cabin crew and as an air traffic controller she trained as a coach and set up her business just before lockdown. She now helps ambitious introverts create the strategy and mindset for massive success. Emma-Louise defines mindset as "the thoughts we have and how they serve us" so I was very keen to talk to her about the mindset challenges that introverts face around visibility.

We discussed the point that as introverts we don't feel compelled to share every aspect of our lives and also we don't need the external validation – so getting more visible on social media, for example, can feel very "show offy!" We can also be very self-critical about how we look or sound, so if content is less than perfect we don't always want to share it. And how many of us worry that our former colleagues will see our content and judge us harshly?

Emma-Louise shared some ways to think about visibility to help us take the steps we need to market our business, as well as some practical tips. She shared the power of accountability in her journey to get more visible and emphasised the need to take action, even if it is small steps to grow our comfort zone a little bit every day.

Resources and books

You can find Emma-Louise and her podcast The Ambitious Introvert on her website: https://emmalouiseparkes.com/podcast or on any podcast platform.

She shared her reading list, all recommended to her by her podcast guests, which you can find here: https://www.emmalouiseparkes.com/readinglist

She particularly recommended:

Do less by Kate Northrop

Billion Dollar Loser by Reeves Wiedeman

You can go to the Marketing for Introverts Bookshop to see the full list of books recommended on the podcast

Need some marketing planning help? Go to https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/services/

And just for fun – what's your marketing personality? Find out on my website https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk

In this episode I answer a call for help! This is a conversation I have sometimes when I first talk to new clients. It's rarely about a crisis, it's not that everything is falling to pieces but they often have a feeling that it's all a bit bleugh, and they need to fix it – but they honestly aren't quite sure of the problem so they aren't exactly sure how.

This is the episode you need when you are feeling a bit fed up that you don't seem to be getting any results, that things aren't working, or you aren't making an impact. Maybe you feel you are doing all the marketing things and you just can't see the difference it makes.

I'm going to ask you 4 questions to help you get back on track. Take a listen and let me know what answers it brings up for you.

Resources

To receive the marketing audit download I mentioned in the episode to go https://www.subscribepage.com/marketing-audit

To listen to the episode I mention with Laura Robinson to go https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/your-customer-needs-clarity-with-laura-robinson/

Need some marketing planning help? Go to https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/services/

And just for fun – what's your marketing personality? Find out on my website https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk

Book recommendations

You can go to the Marketing for Introverts Bookshop to see the full list of books recommended on the podcast

Gus Bhandal is a social media manager and trainer, and an introvert who has found a way to stand out through creating a very specific online personal brand. While he works across many platforms for his clients, for his own business he focusses on long form content.

Gus is a big advocate of using social media content to build the "know, like and trust" factor. We talked a lot about the changes on LinkedIn and why we are all showing more personality in our posts. We discussed the need for virtual water cooler moments and how to decide which bits of your personal life to share and what to keep private.

We had a great chat about how he uses social media, where he draws the boundaries and who he's inspired by on social media right now. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Book recommendations

Gus recommended 3 of his favourite marketing books:

John Espirian Content DNA

Gary Vaynerchuk Jab Jab Right Hook

Steven Bartlett Happy Sexy Millionaire

You can go to the Marketing for Introverts Bookshop to see the full list of books recommended on the podcast

Resources

Find Gus at https://www.themguru.co.uk/ or connect with him on LinkedIn

Need some marketing planning help? Go to https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk/services/

And just for fun – what's your marketing personality? Find out on my website https://bondfieldmarketing.co.uk