Archive for Promoting your business
Friday Five - How TO promote your business on Facebook pages
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Following on from last weeks Friday Five, here are five tips on how to promote your business via Facebook page.
- Tag other pages - tagging pages is a great way to be seen on the business pages of businesses you support. One of the best ways is to do this as part of a recommendation to explain why you are tagging this page.
- Introduce yourself - some pages allow you to post on their wall. Post an introduction of yourself and tag your page, and include a comment about the business you are posting on. For example “Hi, I’m Jane from My Business Page (with tag). It’s great to be part of this page, I love your products”.
- Promotion pages - there are a lot of different pages that allow business mums to promote their business on their pages. Join these pages and use them to promote your business. Make sure you read the guidelines on the pages and post in keeping with their guidelines.
- Terms & conditions - review the Facebook terms & conditions & other hints Facebook has. They have strict conditions about promoting your page, and in some of these there are also some great tips. These conditions include how you can promote your page on other pages.
- Be involved - get involved with your favourite pages. Read posts and reply to the conversation. You never know when the chance to recommend your business may come up, or pages of some of your other favourite businesses.
I hope these tips are useful to help you promote your business on other Facebook pages. If you have any other tips, please share them with us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyFriday Five - How NOT to promote your business on Facebook pages
Posted by: | CommentsIf you have visited Facebook pages, you may see lists of people posting simply to promote your business. As a page owner, this can be very annoying, but people still do it.
I thought today I would post 5 ways NOT to promote your business via Facebook pages. These things may result in your posts being deleted, you being kicked off the page and banned, and even result in you being reported to Facebook.
- Introduction - do you go to networking events and say “Hi, I’m Jane and I sell widgets, come and buy from me”? No… well this is what a lot of people do when they join a page. They say “Hi, I’m Jane from World Wide Widgets (with a link to their business page) come and join my page”. This gets really annoying reading posts like these. Better to say something like ” Hi, I’m Jane from World Wide Widgets (with a link to your page), what a great page this is, I look forward to getting to know your business”. If people are interested, they will join your page.
- Tagging a promo - there are a lot of businesses out there who will post a promo on their wall, then tag a number of other pages. Sometimes this is good because the pages they tag are set up for these kinds of promotions, however others are not. Be careful when you do this to make sure the pages you tag are happy for these sorts of things to be added to their wall.
- Tagging to get on a wall - I have seen a lot of businesses who will tag other businesses just to be listed on their wall. Again, this is OK if the business you are tagging is set up to accept these sorts of posts, otherwise if you are tagging a business, be open to why you are tagging them. For example you may recommend Jane’s Widget Page because she has great widgets your followers would enjoy. This way you have a reason to tag this page.
- Inviting EVERYONE - when inviting people to join your page, be selective. Not everyone is interested in widgets. I get invited to join almost every page and at one point almost all of them had to do with maternity wear. I’m not pregnant and not planning to be, so these pages were of no interest. Especially if you invite a lot of people to a lot of pages, it can get annoying and will result in them blocking or deleting you off their list.
- Friending page owners - this is something else that can get annoying. Many business owners set up pages for their businesses so they can keep the personal things apart from their business information and don’t want to be friended by everyone, especially if it’s for the purpose of promoting your business. Instead, if you like the look of a business owner and want to friend them, include a note introducing yourself and why you want to be on their friend list.
I hope these help you with promoting yourself and your business on Facebook. If you have any other things to add to the do not do list, please add them.
Next week I aim to include points on what TO do to promote your business on Facebook pages.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyE-mail doesn’t always work…
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Email isn't always the best form of communication
Recently I changed the way people can get a newsletter from my business. Now, they can either get it via email or in the post. A number of people questioned this and the answer is simple - not everyone wants to get an email newsletter, some people prefer something in the post, and others simply don’t sit on the computer as much as we do.
I run a number of workshops and events - one is tonight - and I sent invitations to my database via email. Looking at the statistics, less than a quarter of the people I was inviting opened the email, and even less clicked on the link to book or for more information.
Thinking about my own habits, I often receive an email newsletter and leave it marked unread until I have the chance to go back and read it… and sometimes it stays unread until I delete it to clear out my inbox.
So, what have I learned from this?
Simple, communicating with your customers solely via email doesn’t always work.
It’s helpful to communicate via a number of methods, both online and offline. This could include sending something in the mail and picking up the telephone.
What am I going to do next time?
Next time I run an event, I plan to send a postcard or invitation to my database as well as send them an invitation via email, Facebook and other places they hang out.
How do you communicate with your customers? Is it solely via email, or do you have other strategies as well?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyChoosing a charity
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Choose the right charity for your business
If you’re anything like me, you are constantly asked to give money and donate products for charity fundraisers both for your business and in your family life. There often isn’t enough money in your bank account to give to everyone who is asking, and the same with products.
So, what do you do?
The best thing is to choose a charity or two that are important to you and give to those. Then, next time you’re asked to donate something you can tell them that you have your chosen charity and give to them (it’s amazing how effectively this works).
The next thing is to work out which charity to support. There are so many worthy causes out there it can be hard to know what to choose.
For a business, it can be a good idea to choose something that fits with what you are doing. For example, my chosen charity is Opportunity International because they help people start up small businesses, so it fits with what I’m aiming to do with my business.
I know of some business mums who use their family history as motivation for choosing a charity. For example I know of one business mum who supports Mummy’s Wish because a close friend of hers had cancer and received support from the. And another who supports Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids because her parents had foster kids when she was growing up. These charities don’t necessarily match their business, not in any obvious way anyway.
If your business does support a charity, it’s a good idea to have a page on your site explaining why you chose this charity to support. I have seen some businesses who make a big thing about supporting a charity, however if it’s not a charity I am not passionate in supporting and I can’t see an obvious reason why they are supporting this charity, then it won’t sway me to purchase from them. However if I can see a story behind why they support this charity, it is more likely to sway me.
Some time ago, I bought a gift online. Inside the package along with the item I purchased was a sheet thanking me for buying from them and explaining why they had chosen their charity and how my purchase helped support their cause. Unfortunately I can’t remember which business it was (it was quite a while ago), but their extra bit of information has stuck in my head.
Do you have a charity your business supports? Do you let your customers know about it? Please add a comment and share your story.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - drive people to your table…
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Last week, Mr Z (aged 6) and I helped pack goodie bags for a conference. At this conference, sponsors had the opportunity to get trade tables as well as advertising in the handbook and items in the goodie bags.
One of the inserts caught my eye - it was an order form marked “Trade Table Order Form”. As they were also a major sponsor, I assume they had the opportunity to have their insert highlighted during the notices part of the conference.
The point of this insert was obviously to drive people to their stand and place orders during the conference. As the conference was in Melbourne and the company was in Sydney, this also meant that a lot of the stock they brought down with them could be left behind as people ordered and bought their stock.
Have you ever had the opportunity to have a trade table, expo or market stand along with the opportunity for other promotion? If so, jump at it and use the other promotion to drive people to your business display instead of the others.
This company is also at the conference every year, and have been for a number of years, so the participants are expecting to see them and come ready with money to buy. Many of the products they now bring down with them have been pre-ordered by participants who simply fill in the form ready to take items home with them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyAre you paying attention?
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Did we get your attention?
Are you on Facebook? Do you have a lot of friends and pages you follow? How much attention do you pay to requests that are given out? Could you be missing out on opportunities?
My 6 year old is currently obsessed with lizards - I’m trying to get some inspiration for Christmas & his birthday (they are a week apart) as he says he wants a lizard as a pet (that’s not going to happen).
I know I have quite a few people who run toy shops and even someone who does kids parties with snakes & lizards on my friend list.
A few days ago, I sent out a request asking for responses from anyone who has lizard type products I could purchase for my 6, nearly 7 year old. I had 2 responses from people recommending other people who had goodies we might be interested in. None from the people who had toy shops or the person who does kids parties!
So, how much attention do you pay to the requests that are posted by your friends and contacts on Facebook? Could you be missing out on an opportunity for new customers? If your business can’t help, then maybe one of your friends or other contacts can.
Oh, and I’m still looking for ideas for my son for his birthday, can anyone help?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - can your promo items be collected?
Posted by: | CommentsWatching The Collectors on the ABC1 the other day, they had a guest talking about collecting promotional buckles.
This got me thinking - can your promotional items form part of a collection?
The example they were showing on the show were belt buckles from machinery suppliers. Other examples they have shown include t-shirts, things that are a particular colour, and so many more. Have a look at their site and check out some of the past collections that have been featured.
Now, I’m not suggesting you set out to create promotional products that can be collectors items. However, this is something you may consider, especially with the quality of a product. For example, a cheap t-shirt is unlikely to be kept, however one that is good quality with an interesting design might be kept.
On this topic, I have some mugs from the company my Dad used to work for. They have cartoons on them as well as the business logo and I have been told of people who would collect those mugs just because they loved the different cartoons.
Another business I know of has a series of magnets and will send out a different one with each order. Customers have been known to collect the set (meaning they have to buy at least 6-10 times to get the set!).
While your items may not be a “collectible” you may be able to create a series of something your customers can collect.
Put your thinking cap on and see what creative ideas you can come up with. Don’t forget, however, to remember the point of your promotional products so they still fit in with your goals for marketing your business.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums Daily“Free” Samples
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Are "free" samples getting you results?
Samples are great. They can help customers try before they buy, they can be used as fillers for goodie bags, they can great.
There is also a down side to samples. As a business owner, it usually costs money to purchase or create these samples, so when you get “sample hunters”, people who just want to get samples, they are not so free, or so useful.
I went to the Australian Business & IT Expo a couple of weeks ago and there were some high school students running around collecting pens and other samples off stalls. It seemed they were playing the game “He/she with the most free samples wins”.
I have also heard of a number of business mums being contacted by people who only want the free samples.
So, how do you get around this?
One idea is to pre-qualify sample hunters with a survey or similar. Also, let them know you will add them to your database and will follow up. If people are just in it for the samples, they may not fill in your survey.
Another idea is to charge for the samples. For example, you may charge $5 for the samples to cover postage and the sample. You may want to include a $5 voucher with the samples, meaning if the customer loves the samples and goes on to buy a full size product, the samples will be free as the voucher will cover the samples. If people are just in it for the sample, they won’t pay for them.
If you are at an expo or market and people just want your samples, put them a little further back, or only hand them out once people have either bought something or entered your prize draw. Again, this puts your sample to work for you and you are handing them out to people who are genuinely interested.
Samples also make a great gift with purchase - include a couple of samples with your orders so customers can try something else in your range. This works as a reward to your current customers as well as introducing them to new products.
If you are giving out samples in a goodie bag or similar, include a gift voucher or similar with the sample to encourage people to buy and so you can track any sales that may come from this marketing activity.
As with any other marketing you do, work out what you want out of it and put your samples to work for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - What’s the point?
Posted by: | CommentsThere are so many different marketing ideas and opportunities out there - from directories to networking to banner ads to letterbox drops to… the list goes on and on and on.
It is tempting to look at the opportunity and your bank account & jump on anything that comes along that can get you in front of your target market that you can afford. Much of the marketing material I see looks like this is what has happened - basically there is no thought to it.
Before taking up any opportunity, think about what you want to get out of it. Do you want subscribers on your newsletter list, traffic to your site, sales, people signing up to your next information session or do you simply want people to see your business name? Whatever the aim, make sure your marketing material supports this.
For example, you have the opportunity to put some items in a goodie bag that will be placed directly in the hands of your target market. As a first step, you want people to visit your website and subscribe to your newsletter. With whatever you include in the goodie bag, include an invitation for people to visit your website and have an amazing bonus for anyone who subscribes to your newsletter. It could be an eBook or audio or gift voucher or some other “no strings attached” gift.
Once you know what your goals are, you can then track how well your marketing material works for you. Make sure that whatever invitation you have in your marketing material backs up the goals you set.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyHost Beneficiary ideas for Baby Products
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Host Beneficiary ideas for baby products
Over on her blog, Brenda Thomson spoke about host beneficiary strategies. As she explains:
“A host beneficiary program is an alliance strategy where one business owner (the beneficiary) supplies another business owner (the host) with the offer of something of value to pass on to their clients.”
Over the years, I have either been involved in, at the receiving end of, or observed many host beneficiary programs. This post will share some of these with you, looking specifically at baby products.
1. New Baby Gifts - a while ago, we had many members having babies. A children’s clothing business contacted me about providing a baby dress or t-shirt for each newborn baby. We were then able to send each new parent a gift that included the details for the children’s clothing business.
2. Gift Vouchers - when a friend of mine was pregnant, she purchased some maternity wear (as you do). She shopped at a high end shop as she needed clothes for work. When she made her purchase at the checkout, she was given some gift vouchers to local baby stores to buy products for her new baby. She didn’t end up using all of them, however she did use a few.
3. Childcare Service - I heard recently about a hairdresser that was new in the area. Nearby there was a Maternal and Child Health Centre and an occasional care centre that welcomed babies. The hairdresser spoke to the health nurse to offer free hair cut to new mothers, especially ones who weren’t coping and needed some time out. She also spoke with the occasional care centre about a deal for these mothers to look after their babies while they got their hair cut. I haven’t heard how this went, yet, but I’m hoping it was a success.
4. Gift for Mum & Older Siblings - nappy cakes are a great baby gift, as are baby bouqets and any other sort of hamper. If you have items for Mum or for older siblings, you could contact some of these businesses and include a gift voucher for the parents and/or older siblings with the gift hampers.
These are just a few ideas. I’m sure you could come up with some more.
If you would like more strategic alliance ideas, or simply want to learn more about strategic alliances and how they can help you in your business, check out the Strategic Alliance Success Club.
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