Marketing tips

You may be too busy with guests to do any marketing now, but it’s a great time to lay some simple foundations for the future.

Here are five things it’s worth doing to help promote your business, especially when busy.

1. Don’t forget to ask for reviews or testimonials. Write down any lovely things people say, and keep them someone safe to use in your marketing later.

2. Make a note of all the questions people ask, before and during visits. What do people not know, that you’d expect them to kno…

AI is amazing. Whether you use one of the Canva templates or ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude to create it for you, it now only takes a few minutes to create an image for social media posts or a poster for a notice board. 

We're all busy so it makes sense to grab the first thing that's generated and use it. After everyone else is doing the same. 

That's the problem. There's a 'style', a 'feel' to many social media post images and posters, so they're become really familiar. This means they lose th…

When we market our businesses - through social media, word of mouth, mailings, websites, advertising etc - we convey messages designed to attract the attention of potential visitors. We give them information, and hopefully inspiration.

That information essentially 'teaches' potential visitors about our businesses. 

Usually it's positive, and we tell visitors what we/they want to know. 

Yet sometimes we convey information that contradicts what we really want to tell visitors. 

I've recently h…

Here's a very quick marketing tip. It might seem obvious but many don't do it enough. 

Share. And show your relevance. 

That's it. 

When you spot a social media post about your local area, or something relevant to your business, share it. 

Sharing other posts does several things: 

• it gives you a post without much effort!
• it builds local relationships and collaborations and create a sense of reciprocity - if you share something, then eventually/hopefully maybe they'll share your posts or …

How does your business and local area look at the moment?

Everywhere I look I see beautiful (mainly blue) skies, blooming gardens, lush green trees, fresh produce and happy visitors.

Now’s a good time to take photos.

Not just now and then, not just a few but of everything, everywhere, whenever you can!

I'll suggest how you can use these images in a moment. 

First of all though, I really want to stress: any spare moment, when you’re taking a quick break, when you see something beautiful, wh…

What’s selling a Rolls Royce got to do with promoting your small business?

I’ll explain in a moment.

I’ve no idea whether this story is true or not, but it’s a great illustration that could help you show potential visitors that you offer exceptional value for money - whether you charge a little or a lot. 

The story goes that Rolls Royce decided to stop exhibiting at car shows and to take a stand at private jet shows instead. As advertising supremo, Rory Sutherland said, “when you’ve been look…

There's an easy way to grab attention and get potential visitors interested in what you have to offer, whether you write on a website, social media or a mailing. 

Turn your sentences around.

Here's an example of what I mean. The first version was written by someone who sells home-baked brownies: 

Our Brownies are lovingly made with local ingredients. Before selling them, I spent hours perfecting the recipe for my signature chocolate brownie – testing each one personally… I then chose flavour…

Most people scan-read whatever you write. They can't be bothered to read everything. Yet you need them to read to find out more about your business.

You need to make it easier for them.

You don't necessarily need to change what you write - just how you lay it out. You could probably shorten what you say too. 

Compare these two approaches:

First - how many of us write:

Most people write too many words, making text too long and dense, not getting to the point quickly enough. They don't start …

Remember being taught how to write essays? Your English teacher probably told you to write a heading and then an introduction before you go to the point. 

Many of us still do that but it doesn't work for marketing. Let's take the example of your website.

There are two things you need to consider before you even write a word: 

1. Most people are in a hurry or impatient: they won't spend ages hunting out information. If they don't find what they need or you don't grab their attention they won'…

'I tried it but it didn't work'

Ever felt like your marketing just isn't working the way you'd like?

It's usually for one of these reasons: 

• You're doing the wrong thing (e.g. spending too much time on social media when a mailing list would be more effective) at the wrong time (promoting something too early or late).
• Your marketing messages - what you say on your website, in mailings and social media - aren't quite right. Usually they're not targeted enough or don't stand out enough. 
• Yo…