It’s important now more than ever for the survival of your business and the economy that you market your business, to keep a stream of clients coming in. A lot of business owners, especially women feel ‘icky’ about selling and marketing at the best of times. Now is the time to get over that. It is often an adjustment to your mindset that is needed.

It really does break my heart to see businesses not selling their services/products during the last 12 weeks of Covid-19. Don’t get me wrong, I know that a lot of businesses physically can’t e.g. hotels, restaurants, hairdressers, travel, coffee shops, farmers markets, the list goes on and on.

However, you can plug the gap by offering tips, advice, support, and community. I have seen how businesses have pivot during these times. You are more creative then you realize. Businesses have adapted to provide online services, home deliveries, online shopping experiences, and virtual showcases.

To Sell is to Serve!

You have a moral duty to show up and serve your customers. If you don’t someone else will. If you haven’t heard Amazon is averaging $33 million an hour in sales at the present time. Don’t believe what you read in the press – people are buying!

Here are my Top 5 Tips to help you market your business now and coming out of lock down:

1. Show Up!

How visible is your business at this time? How are you showing up or have you been hiding?

This is not the time to shrink – everyone else is! You will stand out because you didn’t hide.

If you are trying to build a brand it is critical that you stay visible at all times.

Connect with your customers – reach out to them. Now is the time to have meaningful conversations with them. Call, DM or email them.

What tactics are you using to stay in touch – social media, website updates, email and content, offers, promotions, networking?

Be consistent. Build a plan that suits you not your customers and then make sure you show up when you said you would. Quality will always win over quantity.

2. Add Value

STOP selling customers what they don’t want! Businesses are too quick to run in with a solution. Rather than listening to find out what the customers actually problems are and helping them.

Adding value doesn’t have to be a massive gesture. It can be as simple as tips, advice, support, calling back when you said you would.

It can be as little as adding something relevant to what they have bought that isn’t going to cost the earth e.g. a foot health care practitioner I know added emery boards to peoples orders of foot cream, a consultant I know sent out thank you notes with a bar of chocolate included. I have been offering a number of FREE 30 min sessions.

3. Call to Action (CTA)

What are your current Calls to Action or as I like to say Calls to Adventure?

How clearly are you communicating to your customers/potential customers what you have to offer and how they can buy it from you?

Do you know that for every piece of content you put out from social media posts to blogs – 1 in 4 messages should be a Call to Adventure post!

The key is to put the CTA in the headline, image, or the first paragraph. Don’t bury it at the bottom of your content. People won’t read it, let alone scroll to the bottom of the article or the offer.

4. Ideal Client Avatar (ICA) & Niche

Who is your target client and niche?

You can’t sell to everyone! You are not Amazon!

You will waste a lot of time, money, and precious energy trying to serve everyone.

Drilling down on these is critical to the overall success of your business. The money is in the niche.

This is a great time to nail your Ideal Client Avatar & Niche and focus your business towards the success you both deserve.

If you have previously done this work, I strongly advise you to revisit it. It will have changed during this pandemic i.e. how you sell, what their fears are, what the problem is you solve.

Speak to your customers and find out what is the problem they actually want solving – NOT what you want to sell to them (as mentioned in point no.2)

5. Plan/Execute/Measure

Take all of the above and create a plan of how you are going to do it.

I advise my clients to work on 12-week plans. This is because it will give you enough time to see what is working and what isn’t. It allows you to tweak your message, call to adventure, and positioning for success.

Very often what is needed is JUST a small adjustment. Not a completely new strategy.

You are very lucky today that you can see real live data on what is working and what isn’t working by using the analytics on the back of your website, social media business pages, and email software.

Build a plan that fits into your timescale. Set clear boundaries’ and go out and smash it.

I would love to hear if you have found this useful. Let me know in the comments below

Take Care Shamaine x

Ps: If you’re looking to move your business forward, call or email to book in a session. Shamaine@marketingwithoutthebs.co.uk or 07783 928061