Brand Awareness, ROI and Choosing the Right Platform
We don’t finish up where we start - I learned this the hard way, a story from a small business owner.
A lot of small businesses start off with a simple marketing approach, some may take an ad, some start with straight up facebook posts on their own profiles or, if they’re feeling brave, the local business facebook business group. I was the same as the next guy. I remember my first business, a cake decorating business. I was a local business so obviously had a finite number of people to reach, and I took out an ad in the local directory for the yellow pages. I paid £250 and I got 4 leads. And cake decorating is detailed and takes long hours so needless to say, the return wasn’t there for me.
Next, I used facebook. Nowadays you’d likely try Instgram first but these were the days before IG even existed in its current form. So i took to facebook, bravely posting the scary, but barely noticeable, 5 or 6 times in local business groups. This brought nothing but then i tried google business profile and this has had my phone ringing once in a blue moon ever since!
How You Can Learn From My Mistakes
ROI
Directory was expensive, if i’d have invested this in a banner ad with the local paper’s website or newsletter I’d have gotten better reach. Local print ads are expensive (£100 per issue) so unless your lifetime value of your customer is likely to be worth this then your money is better off in your bank account.
At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium.
Incorrect Platform for Your Niche
Posting in local business groups might have worked for my local small business eventually, but unless you are in b2b and the groups you join are filled with potential business owners, it may be that your target audience isn’t even in there. Local networking is valuable so this might be a good by-product of this but the purpose for you isn’t to meet more business owners, its to generate leads and create connections with potential customers.
Maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus.
Get On Google
Once I’d discovered the free google tools like Google Business Profile it did bring me some good steady leads, leven ong after I stopped cake decorating!
The beauty of using google is things like reviews, SEO potential for your website and to give you searchability for people looking for services like yours. Google reviews are a crazy-good way to get highly visible endorsements from fans of your work, and as these appear with your google listing on the business profile, you’ll be able to use these reviews to give an immediate piece of credibility-boosting social proof.
Even if you’re not looking to do business online, your online visibility is key to gving people the impression of you that they need to decide whether or not your business is for them.
For online businesses, you might think that these methods are impossible to use in targetting your online customers too. But they’re not too far removed from the local business methods i used when i was first starting out, and what i use today follows the same priciples from that little cake business all those years ago.
Taking an advert in a directory has an online marketing equivalent, facebook ads for example. You can make a start by boosting ads really easily but using an online directory, or a place where a large number of your potential audience hangs out follows the same format; spend a bit, reach some potential buyers. Facebook groups do sometimes have a paid option which means that you can pay to be a stand-out member and post things like promotional posts to sell to thousands at a time, in a group where you know a large number of your target audience congregates.
Making the most of this new online way of advertising is critical in getting your money’s worth from it. Much like me and my directory mistake, choosing an irrelevant group to do this would be a mistake. So if you choose to do this, choose wisely.
Choosing the right platform for your niche is also important.
Written by:
Jane Doe
SHARE
Brand Awareness, ROI and Choosing the Right Platform
Trending
The tiktok-ification of social media
Is there such a thing as a fish?
Start Now While Social Is Free
Advice from the best in the industry.
Consume or Create
Don't hit snooze on your dreams!
About me
Hi there 👋 My name is Lucy Murphy, I'm the Founder of Honeybee Marketing LTD., a company designed to support you in your entreprenurial journey after leaving my stressful corporate career.
