Your Dream Business

This week’s Small Business Superstars is Joanne Roach who owns The Foodies.

The Foodies encourages children to grow, cook and enjoy eating their fruits and vegetables through stories, games and activities. The Foodies teaches children where their food comes from and how the seasons work.

Joanne did my free Instagram challenge and it helped to not only get her Instagram started but her following went up in a short amount of time. Joanne has now pledged to take part in more free challenges for other platforms to push her to focus on them.

Where you can find Joanne

Website: www.thefoodies.org

Instagram: @thefoodiesbooks

Facebook: @thefoodiesbooks

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Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Precious Rodgers who is a Pinterest marketing expert, helping established online coaches, services providers, content creators, and podcasters jump-start or enhance their Pinterest marketing strategies to skyrocket their visibility with or without Pinterest ads. We talk all about Pinterest marketing and Pinterest ads.

·     WIN an iPad! All you have to do is leave me a podcast review, screenshot the review and upload to your favourite social media platform! For TWO bonus entries, talk about my podcast and why you love it on social media and make sure to tag me.

·     Pinterest is a top eternal platform – it is a great place for people to find you.

·     As a business owner, you want your content to be found because more eyes on your content means you can grow.

·     Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform – people are there searching for your solutions to their problems.

·     Pinterest is at the top of the funnel.

·     You don’t have to specifically create content for Pinterest, you can repurpose content for Pinterest – driving traffic to your content from Pinterest.

·     Pinterest has social aspects such as comments and likes, but Pinterest does not aim to get to know you, it aims to get to know your content.

·     The success of your content has nothing to do with engagement activities, it is about your content.

·     Story pins is a new feature on Pinterest that is being rolled out – not about directing people elsewhere, all about the content.

·     Pinterest is there to help you find something and then leave the platform.

·     If you are using Pinterest for Business, hide your personal boards.

·     Try to keep pinning other people’s content to a minimum on your Pinterest business account as this changes your algorithm.

·     You can have a personal account and business account that you can switch between easily.

·     The life span of a pin is forever! Once something is on Pinterest, it can always be found. Content usually hits peak after around 3.5 months – you will not see an immediate reaction.

·     There is nothing you can post on Instagram and Facebook where people will still be finding it a year after.

·     When you promote blog posts on Pinterest, do not make them too long where people have to really look for the answers they want. Make sure your opt in pages and sign up pages are set up for cold traffic and quickly answers their pain point.

·     Pinterest traffic is very bouncy – users want to immediately know you are answering their problem.

·     Pinterest ads are the best way if you do not have patience and accelerate your growth quicker.

·     Pinterest ads mean you have to spend money in order to make money.

·     Pinterest ads do not optimise as quick as Facebook ads.

·     It is a good idea to build your organic strategy at the same time as running Pinterest ads.

·     Cost-wise, Precious recommends a $20 a day budget. You need to give Pinterest the money in order for your ads to be put in front of the right people. In the testing stage, you can start lower ($7-$10 per day) but aim to increase this.

·     Consideration campaigns - let your Pinterest ads run around 7-10 days to get a good idea before tweaking/testing it.

·     Conversion campaigns - give it 10 – 14 days before making any tweaks.

·     Pinterest ads allow you to build an audience via a ‘Pinterest tag’ (similar to the FB pixel), your email list, website traffic, retargeting or your product sales list.

·     You need to set up your Pinterest tag right away – that way it can track people who go to your website and interact with your content.

·     Pinterest ads do not require copy – they use keywords instead. The important thing for your Pinterest ads is the pin image and the keywords on that image.

·     Make sure to do your keywords research!

·     Get your funnel ready before you start your Pinterest ads – welcome sequence. You have to warm them up and nurture your audience.

·     Have a call to action on your pin image – then they know what they are going on to do next.

·     Don’t compare Pinterest ads to other platforms such as Facebook - your Facebook sales funnel may not work the same as your Pinterest one.

·     Audiences on Pinterest are different to other social media platforms.

·     You have to test and tweak your Pinterest ads, not just leave them!

·     You can retarget people on Pinterest via your Facebook ads and vice versa – they will be seeing you everywhere!

·     Pinterest ads help your pins to be seen by more people and saved, which will then organically help the pin even after you have stopped running the ad – it is the gift that keeps on giving!

·     Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – make sure you have a backup plan.

Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform.

·     An introduction to Precious 06:29

·     Why we shouldn’t be ignoring Pinterest 10:03

·     Engagement on Pinterest 13:45

·     Pinterest for Business 18:55

·     Promoting Blog Posts on Pinterest 22:55

·     An overview of Pinterest ads 26:12

·     What to do before using Pinterest ads 35:00

·     Common mistakes when running Pinterest ads 40:28

·     Using Pinterest and Facebook ads together 44:55

Check Precious out:

Pinterest

Instagram

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This week’s Small Business Superstars is Max who is the founder and podcast producer at Max Podcasting and co-host of The Wild Business Growth Podcast.

A little bit about Max’s amazing business…

Max produces professional-sounding podcasts for entrepreneurs and storytellers.

What one marketing thing made a difference to their business? 

What difference did it make to them and their business? 

Every week you are connecting with, starting a relationship with or strengthening a relationship with somebody you admire and your listeners admire. It opens a new door to that person and endless doors to new networks. You never know where a single connection is going to lead to.

Where you can find Max

Website: www.maxpodcasting.com

Wild Business Growth Podcast: Spotify

Want the full transcript-click here!

In today’s episode of the podcast, I talk about how to get clients for your business. There are lots of different ways you can do this depending on who you are and what business you have, so here are some suggestions you can try.

·     We can often busy ourselves with stuff that just isn’t moving things forward.

·     It is important to prioritise the important bits that help to get more clients and make money.

·     Write a list of people you know who may be a good referral for work and a list of people who would be a perfect client for you.

·     Let your existing clients or past clients know that you have some space available.

·     “Do you know anyone who may need some help with [Your Service], if so please could you introduce us?”

·     Getting clients is a number game – you will get a percentage of the people who interact with you to actually buy.

·     Referrals are simply your client telling someone they know that you exist.

·     Ask your network to share your content and help spread awareness.

·     Be proactive – no one is sat waiting for you to do something to share it with their audience, but if you ask them, they would be happy to.

·     Pick out some of your ideal clients – approach them and start a conversation.

·     Connect with your ideal clients on social media and engage with their content so they can see you exist.

·     Email lists are there when we need them – send something that says you have a space and that you are taking on clients.

·     People may assume you are too busy, so sometimes we need to be honest and say we are looking for a client.

·     Advertise spaces on social media and tell people what you offer.

·     Be more obvious and forward.

·     Keep an eye on Facebook group T&Cs to make sure you’re not breaking any.

·     Join Facebook groups where your ideal customers hang out – interact, offer advice, answer questions.

·     Offer a free discovery call or part of your offering that gives people a tiny taste of what you do – show your value and don’t give away too much.

·     Being busy but not moving forward – 03:08

·     Client Referrals – 06:16

·     Tapping into your network – 09:47

·     Reaching out to ideal clients – 11:28

·     Emailing your list – 13:17

·     Say it on social – 15:11

·     Facebook groups – 16:20

·     Offering a free call – 17:18

Book – Will it make the boat go faster?

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This week’s Small Business Superstar is Vardeep Edwards from The Branding Fox.

Vardeep designs brand identities for mainly female business owners. Vardeep has been a graphic designer for over 20 years now and has freelanced since 2006. Vardeep now focuses on branding and logo design.

Going on video every day for 30 days via Instagram stories! Vardeep spoke about who she is, what she does, her background. She told her audience it was what she was going to do which held her accountable. A little something every day towards her goal really made a different.

There was a great reaction and lots of engagement. Vardeep stuck to it for the 30 days and people loved it. It made her audience more personal with her, as if they knew her better. Led to Vardeep speaking in front of other people’s audiences which led to knew conversations and then sales!

Website: www.thebrandingfox.com

Instagram: @thebrandingfox

LinkedIn: Vardeep Edwards

Facebook: @thebrandingfox

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Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Christina Jandali who is a confidence-boosting, cash creating, business growth strategist who helps course creators build a raving fan base so they can sell through Facebook groups. We talk all about starting and managing Facebook groups, how to grow a Facebook group, and what content to post in your Facebook group.

• You can create the culture that is going to happen inside your group – you set the rules.
• You can choose to allow promotion or not within your group – it is important that the people promoting are also engaged and giving in the group.
• Once your Facebook group starts to pick up pace in terms of growth, Facebook naturally shows your group to more people and then your group grows even faster with less effort.
• When you first start a Facebook group, you will have to personally reach out to people to let them know about it and ask them to join.
• As well as giving value in your group, we also have to remember it is a business tool and we can’t just give out free content constantly.
• Your Facebook group is like your digital living room – people can come inside, relax and get to know you better.
• The purpose of a paid Facebook group is to give support to your members to execute the content in your paid programme.
• The purpose of a free Facebook group is to evoke desire and demand for your paid offer.
• If we put too much into Facebook groups (eg. How to), it can be overwhelming.
• Your group should bring people on a buyers journey to move them through to the buying decision.
• Types of content to put in your free Facebook group:
• Consider your sales system – your biggest priority is to promote your webinar, video series, challenge etc.
• Look at your core weekly content that is going to start conversation or demand for your sales system (eg. A live stream).
• Then we look at content that will start conversations surrounding the weekly content you are doing. Get to know what level your members are at.
• Start with the end in mind and then work backwards.
• If you want to build and scale, you have to bring people into a shared experience and a container that is going to move them through your sales system.
• It’s hard to get know for one thing if your group is all over the place.
• Asking questions and giving shared experiences creates community and connection.
• Facebook groups work for 3 different types of people:
• Those who are in the early stages of getting started – they know who they want to serve but may not know what they want to offer yet.
• Those making sales here and there but they want to see some consistency.
• Those doing well with their launches and campaigns and want to enhance the experience they are creating.
• If you are not going to be consistent in showing up, don’t open a group.
• It takes time to run a successful Facebook group and you have to value the connections and relationships.
• The larger your group, the lower your percentage of engaged users will be.
• There is no optimum size for a Facebook group – it is different for each person.
• It is important to make sure your members align with who you want to serve.
• In a paid group, you need to claim ownership and lead your group by being present.
• You don’t have to do absolutely everything in your free Facebook group, but you need to build the group up enough first with your voice.
• You can look at your Facebook group insights and see who are your active members.
• True measure of engagement is people observing, clicking ‘read more’ and watching videos.
• Make sure your active members are at least 50% compared to your overall amount of members.
• Facebook groups have changed a lot in recent years.

·     An introduction to Christina 05:35

·     Promotion in free Facebook groups 12:00

·     Starting and growing a free Facebook group 16:20

·     What content should you post in your Facebook group? 19:01

·     How to create a community within your group 34:00

·     Are Facebook groups for everyone? 38:24

·     Can Facebook groups be too big? 42:18

·     Should you be present in your Facebook group? 44:26

·     Engagement in Facebook groups 48:00

·     Facebook groups moving forward 51:35

Christina’s Free Facebook Group

Christina's website

FB Group Naming optin (freebie)

This week’s Small Business Superstar is Jenn Boyles from JB Direction Design.

Jenn is a graphic designer, web designer and branding expert. Jenn specifically works with holiday rental owners to help them achieve more direct bookings with their website and marketing.

Finding a Niche. Jenn chose to niche during the first UK lockdown. After many years’ experience of being a holiday rental owner herself, Jenn decided to help other owners with her skills.

When putting content out there, you can get right into their head as you really know who your audience are. You are not just shouting at the world, you are speaking directly to your target audience.

Facebook Group: Marketing Hub for Holiday Rentals

Facebook: @JBDirectionDesign

Instagram: @JBDirectionDesign

Website: www.jbdirectiondesign.com

LinkedIn: Jenn Boyles

Want the full transcript-click here!

In today’s episode of the podcast, I give you some practical tips you can implement into your business surrounding testimonials. I tell you why they are important, how to get them, how to get good ones, what questions you should ask and so much more!

·     Only 20% of people actually complete online courses they purchase. In my latest Follow Along Build My List course, 80% of the people who took part finished it!

·     Testimonials are so important for businesses because they build trust for potential customers.

·     Testimonials have evolved – you used to be able to do just put anything on your website and there wasn’t much proof. However, we now need that proof to be stronger that someone real has written it and experienced the product or service.

·     There are lots of different types of testimonials:

o  Written (includes name and business name) – these are the most basic type and you should always make sure to ask people that you can share them, along with their name and business name.

o  Written testimonials with photos are great because it shows it is a real person who has said it.

o  Social media testimonials – make sure you include a photo of them and tag them in your post.

o  Recommendation on LinkedIn – comes straight from their account so it instantly connects the testimonial to a real person.

o  Video testimonials – really important and effective. This can be mutually beneficial as if you share it on your platforms, they are getting exposure to your audience. You could ask them a question in Zoom and then edit the recording so it is just their answers.

o  Social Proof – someone saying something about you on their own social media. This is brilliant because they are sharing to the world how wonderful you or your product so their audience is getting to see it too. Social proof is also great because you then have content you can use and share.

·     Every time someone shares something about you or your product, screenshot it and pop it in a folder – you can then use them as testimonials.

·     Encourage social proof – ask for it, incentivise them with something like a prize draw, share any social proof you get.

·     Try to get testimonials that mention each of your products or services.

·     You should offer a variety of different types of testimonials.

·     If you don’t have any existing testimonials for a new product/course/service, try to use a testimonial you have with similar features or general ones about you and how you are to work with.

·     You have to give people a structure to follow when asking for a testimonial to make sure you are getting the right stuff out of it.

·     You need to make it as easy as possible for someone giving you a testimonial.

·     Things to ask for in your testimonial:

o  How did you feel before…

o  What inspired you to buy this product/course/service?

o  What made us stand out? (Why did they pick you)

o  What was the best thing about…

o  Why did they love working with you?

o  What did they get at the end – the result?

o  Why would you recommend to someone else?

·     Your task: Think of 3 customers you know loved what you did – ask them for a testimonial.

·     Why does my business need testimonials? 04:40

·     Different types of testimonials 07:05

·     How to get great testimonials 25:42

Build My List Course  - Cart is now open! Closes again on Friday 26th February.

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This week’s Small Business Superstars is Fifi Mason who is a personal brand and a visibility coach.

Fifi helps introvert business owners to figure out who they are in business, their core principles of their brand, their positioning, who they want to work with, finding a niche and what makes them different. As well as getting their personality across and the look and feel of everything they put out, helping them to have confidence to show up.

The summit quadrupled Fifi’s email list. Fifi connected with a lot of people in her industry who she is now collaborating further with. After the summit, Fifi gained new clients and it has a positive impact on her income.

LinkedIn: Fifi Mason

Website: www.fifimason.com

Next Summit - Quietly Influential Summit – 15th – 19th March.

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Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Fara Rosenzweig who is head of content at ManyChat. We talk all about ManyChat as a chat marketing platform that allows business owners to create engaging, meaningful conversations with customers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

·     ManyChat is a chat marketing automation platform – Using Facebook Messenger API to create an automated conversation.

·     This gives you the technology to have seamless conversations via messenger with your audience.

·     ManyChat also offers chat marketing through email and text.

·     ManyChat allows you to set triggers and rules so you don’t bombard your audience.

·     ManyChat can be a stand-alone email platform or integrate with your existing one.

·     When you use ManyChat, you build the conversation into the platform so you can make the copy adhere to your brand.

·     You can take the automated conversation to a human advisor.

·     Automation is great for saving you time and help your audience get answers quicker.

·     Automation also helps take your audience on a journey and allow them to instantly buy.

·     The whole situation right now is exhausting – everyone is trying to fight to be seen and grow their business. This time is also an opportunity to pivot and try something new that you hadn’t thought of.

·     You have to deliver value in order to stand out.

·     Everyone offers something, what can you offer?

·     Chat marketing is instant – people who want to buy are able to do it right there and then.

·     You can also offer content within chat marketing to get more people to see it.

·     People have to opt in to receive broadcast marketing messages via chat bots.

·     If you are going to send broadcasts via chat bots, you need to check the fine print on Facebook – you cannot do certain things.

·     As a solopreneur, you can’t do it all – there is software out there that can help you!

·     ManyChat also offers a tool to respond to comments on Facebook for you.

·     Think about how you want to communicate with your audience.

·     You can still get your personality across via your messenger bot.

·     It takes time to figure out and set up your messenger bot but it is so worth it!

·     Messenger bots are another way to communicate with your audience to add to your tools.

·     Set yourself up for success and outrank your competitors.

·     Have the conversation where your target audience is.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

As a solopreneur, you don’t have to do it all on your own! You can deliver better conversations and add value to your audience by using ManyChat.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

·     What is ManyChat? 05:22

·     Email marketing with ManyChat 12:45

·     How bots are used in automation 15:20

·     The advantages of automated conversation 18:30

·     Chat marketing in today’s social media world 23:51

·     Chat marketing performance 31:02

·     Your voice, but automated 40:32

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Build My List Course  - Cart opens next week!

ManyChat