Hi Everyone.
I often see requests for how to Market a service or a product on Social Media or what platforms are best to advertise a business on.
Firstly I will say, I offer a Mentoring Service and not a full Marketing service, and I will probably think some of the Marketers, and Website developers and other Mentors or coaches may have a different view to mine on Marketing and you as the business owner need to find something that works for you and your business.
One question which often comes up – do I need a website? and firstly most of people would say yes you need a website to promote your business, however, we have to remember that it was Website Designers/ Developers who started pushing the concept of every Business needing a website, which is similar to Mentors and Coaches often saying everyone needs a mentor or coach, guess what I am saying here is, ensure you know where the sources of information are coming from, to ensure they are in the best interest of your Business, does not really matter on what the advice is, as a lot of people will give you advice on something, which can encourage you to spend money with them or at least their industry.
Now back to the question of the website, whilst it is good to have a website, you need to go back to an earlier Blog I did on what is the Purpose of the website, why do you want a website, is it so people know how to contact you, is it to sell your service/product, is it to share information, is it to get people to sign up to your newsletters which are your sales tool, etc, if you need the purpose it can help you design the website, rather than just having a website built. However, a good reason to have a website is to ensure your potential customers/ clients can find you and know you exist, and offer the services or products you offer as if they don’t know about you they can’t use your services.
And again it does not matter what platform you use for marketing, whether it is leaflets, social media, websites, blogs, etc, you need to research what works for your industry or what works specifically for you, where do your potential clients hang out- e.g. do they look for services on social media, do they look for your products via google search etc, once you know where they look, then you know that is the area to target and spend your time on.
If you are a Business- whether services or products and you offer a good service/product you may find you don’t need any form of social media or websites etc as your clients or previous clients are happy to recommend your business to others, and this is the way your potential clients are finding you is through referrals- although at times the potential clients might only be told your name and not how to contact you, and you might need a listing somewhere with your contact details.
In summary Marketing or promoting your business is all about the fact people can find you, and find out more about yourself, your Business, and how you can help them achieve their goals or complete the projects they were working on- they really need to know will use your services or products help them complete or achieve whatever they need to achieve.
In short, whatever you do, People need to be able to find you, if people can’t find out about you, can’t contact you, can’t understand what you offer, then good chance your business won’t grow, and that is my real tip, ensure potential clients/customers can find you..
