This week is a quick tip to make sure that people you're connected with online actually know the type of work you do. People often use social media for business but are connecting on their personal accounts. That's great as people choose to do business with other people, not companies. But do make sure that your personal profile shows what you do, and includes links across to your business profile and/or website too. Another quick win on this is on your personal email signatures. Why not add a line about the work you do and a link to your company web address too. If people like and trust you personally, there's a very high chance they'll trust in your work too. Even if they don't need whatever you provide, they'll possibly know someone who does and will be only too happy to introduce you if a suitable opportunity arises. If you've got any other comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

Ten Minute Marketing - Free Marketing Hints and Tips

Do people know what work you do?

People love free stuff, don't we all! And giving away free stuff is a great way to demonstrate your knowledge, make new contacts, and share something of value to genuinely help other people.  But (you knew that was coming!), tricking people with a promise of free info or help really isn't on. You see it quite often online where an article promises a free guide but it's actually just a thinly veiled sales pitch. You often get half a page into the article and realise it's not actually told you anything and slowly descends into an out and out sales pitch. Arghhh!!! So if you're going to offer something for free then do just that. Actually deliver what you promised and give away the value that you said you would. People won't even mind a little plug for your products/services within it if that's of use. Just as long as what you promised would be free, still is. If you've got any other comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

Free should mean free!

One key aspect of marketing is knowing exactly who your ideal customer is. Once you know this, it makes your marketing so much easier to do as well as much more effective. I hear people say "but my product/service can be used by anyone". Just because it can be, doesn't mean to say it should be ;)  Think about what is important to you. The kind of businesses and people you want to work with, the benefit to them specifically, and the kind of work you'd like to spend your days doing. Then focus on marketing that work to those people. If you've got any other comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

Don't try and be everything to everyone

I need to get a top of the range camera first! I'll do it next week when I have more time! I haven't bought the right microphone yet! I need to spend more time researching it! These are all things I see and hear all the time when it comes to marketing and getting content out there. Typically, these are just excuses for not getting started though. Often this is driven by fear of the unknown and failure. It's much easier not to do it and find excuses, as that way you can't fail. Well, actually you can, just in a different less obvious way. Without actively marketing yourself you won't make sales, and a lack of sales is a much more important failure than thinking some content could have been more polished or got more likes or views! I do understand your worries but if you want to be successful with marketing, you need to be visible. Things don't have to be as amazingly produced as you think. What really matters is the content and value of the information you're providing.  I'm obviously not saying to put out any old rubbish, but as long as the quality (be that writing, audio, or video) of what you're putting out is good enough to get your point across, it will work. And one thing I can absolutely guarantee to you is this. You'll make more sales from a video recorded on your phone where you stumble on a couple of words, than a perfectly planned and scripted multi camera angled recording session in a studio using a £5,000 camera that never actually happens... If you've got any other comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

Stop making excuses, and start marketing

This week I want to set you a little challenge. I call it the lazy like challenge and you apply it to your social media use for a week. When you're using social media, you are banned from just hitting the like button, you also have to leave a comment. Why is this a good idea? A like is just a one way street, you're effectively just agreeing with something. But a comment is so much more personal and interesting. It can strike up conversations with new and existing contacts and keep you on their radar. It also creates engagement for both the person who made the post and you too. Social media platforms like that, no pun intended! So this week stop just liking posts, and start commenting on them. Do give this a try and let me know how you get on.  If you've got any other comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

The lazy like social media challenge

Something that a lot of people find challenging is coming up with ideas of what to post on social media. The good news is that you may not have to come up with anything new after all :) A great way to create short social media posts is to look at existing longer-form content such as blogs that you've already published. You then take individual points from that content as ideas to use for social media posts. For example, if I take the blog I published last week "A Marketing Checklist – The 5 things you should always check!" (click here to see it) then here are just a few examples of social media posts that could be created from it: The obvious ones are to take each of the 5 points and create a post from each one. Another obvious one is a sentence about the blog and a link off to it. The blog mentions a couple of ideas for the process so posts could be created about those. Create a graphic including the 5 points. Make an Instagram post with multiple images, 1 for each of the 5 points. Create a video or animated GIF of the 5 images above. That's over 10 different social media posts from just 1 (very short) previously posted blog! If you have longer blogs you'll be able to create even more posts, and of course the more existing content you have the better it is. So next time you're struggling to come up with some ideas for your social media posts, give this method a try.  As usual, if you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

Don't know what to post on social media? Try this...

Before you publish any form of marketing, I always think it's worth doing the following 5 point sanity check. This is quick and easy to do but is really worthwhile to make sure that your marketing is effective and that nothing ever gets missed. Here are the 5 things you should always check before publishing: 1 - Branded - Is it branded with your brand style/colours/fonts? 2 - Exciting - Is it exciting or interesting enough to get read and remembered or actioned? 3 - Valuable - Does it give something of genuinely valuable to people? 4 - Call to action - Is there a call to action? You need to tell people what action to take. 5 - Target market - Is it aimed at your target market? The more specific the better. Keep this list somewhere and get into the habit of referring to it whenever you publish anything. I personally use Google Sheets for simple processes and checklists like this to make sure they always get done. But your system could be as simple as those 5 points written on a sticky note on your desk! If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

A Marketing Checklist - The 5 things you should always check!

It might sound counter-intuitive but stop trying to do everything in your marketing. If you do a bit of research or ask a marketeer about marketing you'll typically get told you should be spending hours posting and engaging on social media, blogging, writing emails, publishing videos, recording podcasts, doing Facebook live's etc etc. That's all well and good and a great approach to marketing if you have the time or someone dedicated to doing so. But the newer you are to marketing, and the smaller your company is, the less chance there is of this being achievable. Not only do you need to learn how to make each of these things work the best for you, but you also have to find the time to carry out all these tasks consistently week in week out. Most people can't commit to the amount of time needed to do so properly. So what I suggest is to spend a bit of time researching what form of marketing you think will work best for you and focus purely on this. At least initially. Once you've been doing one form of marketing for a while, you'll find it becomes quicker and easier to do. At that point, you can add the next marketing activity into the mix and keep building it up in that way. If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. If you don't have the time, knowledge, or inclination to do your marketing yourself, we can do it for you. Example packages with prices can be seen here www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

Don’t try and do too much

This week I want to tell you about the importance of personal branding and how you can use it to win business. People often hear the term "personal brand" and it turns them off or they think its something complicated. It doesn't have to be. It's basically showing up as yourself in your company and using your true personality in your marketing. So how will this win you business? Because people want to do business with people, not just a faceless company. They'll get to know the real you, your interests, and they'll remember you. If you're open, honest and genuine about who you are, you'll build rapport far more quickly with like minded people. And those are just the kind of customers we all want. If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. Did you know we have various online marketing courses that cost just £10+VAT? More info at www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/marketing-training/

Using your personal brand to win business

I talk about consistency in your marketing all the time, and the importance of regularly showing up and being visible. Most people understand why this is so important and have good intentions, but then they get busy or distracted. So here's a quick practical tip to make sure you keep doing the things in your marketing that you know you should be doing. Have a process to follow. The simpler the process the better, and use a tool that you already like and use. For example, if you want to make sure you write a blog every week and already use your calendar for planning your week, add the blog writing and publishing time into your calendar as a recurring weekly event. Another example could be to add a recurring task to your daily to do list, if that's what you use, for making your daily social media posts. It really doesn't have to be complicated, you just need something to remind you to do it and have the time set aside to do so. That way it will always get done. If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. Did you know we have various online marketing courses that cost just £10+VAT? More info at www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/marketing-training/

Don't leave your marketing to chance...

A short but effective tip for you this week... Don't just show up in your marketing when you want something! For example; Don't only go to networking events every few months when you have a new course coming up that you're trying to sell tickets to. Don't only post on social media when you've got no work and desperately need to sell more. Marketing is something you should be doing all the time, not just when you need something. It's about building relationships over time and constantly and consistently reminding people who you are and how you can help them. That's the key to selling more, not just showing up whenever you want something. If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. Did you know we have various online marketing courses that cost just £10+VAT? More info at www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/marketing-training/

Don't do this in your marketing!

You never know when inspiration for your marketing will strike, but you need a way of capturing it as otherwise it can be forgotten just as quickly as it arrived! If you're like me then you have great ideas for blog posts and marketing campaigns when you're not working or sitting in front of your computer. It could be when you're out and about, if you wake up in the middle of the night, or any other inconvenient time, lol! Because of this, it's very easy to forget these ideas so I recommend you capture them while they are still fresh. Whenever I have an idea I quickly make a note of it using an App called Evernote in a specific "marketing ideas" note I have there. This is typically just one sentence about the idea that is really quick to write down but is enough of a prompt for my whole train of thought about the subject later on. The beauty of doing this is that whenever I do need to write a blog post (like these 1 Minute Marketing Monday tips!) I have a whole list of ideas to write about. It's far better for you to have an existing list than to try and force creativity when you're under pressure at the time. Of course, there are other ways to capture your ideas and you don't have to use Evernote. You could have a Google Doc, use your phone's notes App, even write them down in a good old fashioned notebook and pen. Use whatever works for you. Just make sure than you have access to whatever method you use at all times which is why I think a phone App works so well for this. The important thing is to just get it written down so it's not forgotten. By doing this in the same note/doc/notepad, you'll always know where to find it too. If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. Did you know we have various online marketing courses that cost just £10+VAT? More info at www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/marketing-training/

How to remember your great ideas

People often check how well they are doing in the search results on Google. I highly recommend you do so, but also make sure that you are seeing the real results. What most people do is simply go to Google and enter the search term (which could just be their company name or their product/service/area). The problem with doing that is you will get skewed results based on your previous searches and your online activity. So if you've spent time on your own website (which you no doubt will have) it will show much higher in searches than it will for other people. So the solution to this is to do the searches as a user with no history. The easiest way to do this is to open a new incognito window (on Chrome, Safari calls it private browsing) in your browser. You can do this from the "File" menu. Once open, you can do your searches as usual and see the real search results. If you've got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here.  Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. We now offer a "done for" marketing service. So if you don't have the time or inclination for marketing but know you should be doing it, we can do it for you! Prices start at just £99+VAT per month. More info at www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

How to view your real Google search results

This week I want to set you a challenge… For around 10 years I’ve used business networking as one of my marketing channels. It’s also been one of my most successful leading to multiple £100k’s worth of business over this time. As well as making lots of sales, I’ve also had fun and made lots of friends and hundreds of connections. And in my opinion, business and marketing is ALL about connections. Here are 3 other blogs I’ve written about networking over the years too: Does networking work? (January 2015) Networking. Stop Rushing to Tell People Everything That You Do (September 2017) A big mistake in business networking and how to avoid it! (July 2019) But when I left the UK I wasn’t able to continue business networking as it was face to face. And the networking organisation I was a member of (4Networking) was back in the UK. That was until earlier this year when it went online! I jumped back into it and despite my reservations of networking online it has continued to be really successful for me. So back to my challenge for you…  If you’ve never tried online business networking I’d like you to do so and go to a meeting this week. To make it even easier for you I’ve got 10 FREE visitor passes to attend any 4Networking meeting over the next week. So you have nothing to lose by trying one! There are multiple meetings a day so you should be able to find a day and time to suit your diary too. You can see all the different meetings here https://www.4nonline.biz/find-meeting. Just choose one and drop me a message and I’ll sort it out for you. A usual, if you’ve got any comments or questions, just head to the Ten Minute Marketing Facebook group here and comment there or just reply to me here. Thanks Richard Ten Minute Marketing: Training, consultancy, or we can do it for you! www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk P.S. We now offer a “done for” marketing service. So if you don’t have the time or inclination for marketing but know you should be doing it, we can do it for you! Prices start at just £99+VAT per month. More info at www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk/full-marketing-service/

A challenge. Business networking

Free Marketing hints and tips for small businesses. Each podcast episode is typically published every Monday and is less than 1 minute long!

hubhopper

Ten Minute Marketing - Free Marketing Hints and Tips

hubhopper