July 2023 - Happy Summer!
Summer has arrived, and so has the heat. I sympathize with my readers who are working hard to keep cool. Let's hope it doesn't get any hotter. I visited my son, Tim, in northern Sweden for a few days in early June. It was warm before I left, so I traveled light. Big mistake! It was actually cold and windy, and I was pretty miserable. Well, not that miserable, but I didn't spend much time outdoors and was happy to fly back south.
I have a new client in the conference interpretation industry. This person sits in the back of the auditorium and translates the presenter into another language. Participants can listen in on the speaker in their native language by using headphones. You've probably heard this if you've watched any international news event where the president is interviewed while traveling overseas.
I'm just starting a new OGH (Online Growth Hacks) series for this client. More details are below.
I also share some tips on how I gain new clients. Oops! Read my "lessons learned" at the bottom.
I always appreciate people's comments on my newsletter. Thank you for taking the time to send me your questions or reactions.
Stay cool! 😎
/Andrew
NEWSLETTER DESIGN
Online Growth Hacks (industry specific, see below)
Growing Your Business Online (other tips & hacks)
Latest podcasts (none - but ideas are coming along)
Tom Sawyer Travels (my updates)
Online Growth Hacks
As I mentioned up top, my newest client is a conference interpreter looking to gain net new business clients. She’s been in the business for over 20 years but has not put much effort into her online presence. I came up with a 5-part series that covers some of the main topics I am working through with her. Next month’s newsletter will contain the other 4.
How to Use the Internet to Attract New Customers to Your Conference Interpreting Business: 10 Proven Strategies
https://digital-done-right.com/blog/attrack-new-clients-10-proven-strategies
Create a Professional Website 🌐
Optimize Your Website for Search Engines 🔍
Provide Valuable Content 📝
Utilize Social Media Platforms 📱
Collaborate with Influencers and Industry Partners 👥
Oh, the remaining are on the blog post!
Growing Your Business Online (Other Tips & Hacks)
Make it Easy for Yourself: Why You Need a Content Calendar for Your Business
https://digital-done-right.com/blog/you-need-a-content-calendar
A content marketing calendar is a tool that helps you plan, organize, and execute your content marketing strategy. With a calendar in place, you can plan your content and ensure that it's consistent, relevant, and aligned with your overall marketing goals. This helps you stay on track, avoid last-minute scrambling, and ensure all content aligns with your business objectives. By keeping track of your content, you can measure the performance and analyze the results of your content. This helps you understand what type of content resonates with your audience and what can be improved, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your content strategy accordingly.
Getting More Reviews: 4 Actions to Improve Your Business's Online Presence
https://digital-done-right.com/blog/4-actions-for-getting-more-reviews
Take an inventory of your current reviews
Make it easy for customers to leave reviews
Respond to every review
Embrace negative reviews in a positive way
Customer reviews affect your business's visibility in search listings and help attract customers. To encourage positive reviews, make it easy for customers to leave one by providing a direct link, asking in person or via text, and giving them a reason. Respond personally to positive reviews and address negative ones constructively. A few negative reviews among glowing ones can actually be beneficial, as they make the positive ones more credible and show that your business is human and cares about its customers.
Tom Sawyer Travels
My random thoughts. ✌🏻
In 2023, I switched my focus to small, local businesses, but quickly realized that selling to them was a whole different ball game than selling to mid and large businesses. I had to adjust my approach to meet their unique needs. In the process, I learned three valuable lessons that I want to share with you.
Lesson 1 - Get personal
Small, local business is all about personal connection. You can't just shoot off an email, social media post, or digital ad and expect to close a deal. You need to go out and meet your prospects face to face. Show them you're genuinely interested in helping them grow their business and building a relationship with them. Small business owners want to work with someone they know and trust, not just a big, faceless corporation.
One way to build a personal relationship with your clients is to go to their business. You can introduce yourself and your services and start a conversation. You can also ask your clients to meet you in person for coffee or lunch.
This will give you an opportunity to get to know each other better and build a rapport. You can also invite them to attend an event you are hosting, whether a workshop, seminar, or other business event. This will give them an opportunity to learn about your business and how you can help them.
Lesson 2 - Speak their language
Small, local business owners don't speak the same language as digital marketers. Mission, USP, SEO, SERP, Bio, Profile, Carousels, and Tagging might be your bread and butter, but it's meaningless jargon to your clients. You need to break down the concepts into bite-sized pieces. Over time, teach your client these terms if they are interested.
When working with small business owners, you need to use language they understand. Instead of talking about "SEO" and "SERP," explain to them how you can help them rank higher on Google and get more traffic to their website. Instead of talking about "USP," explain to them how you can help them stand out from their competitors and attract more customers.
Small business owners are experts in their own field, but they may not have the same level of knowledge about digital marketing. By breaking down concepts into simple terms and explaining them clearly, you can help them understand how digital marketing can help their business grow.
Lesson 3 - Take it slow
Small, local business owners are busy running their businesses and don't have a lot of spare time to devote to marketing. You must respect their time and adjust your expectations and schedule accordingly. Build easy-to-achieve mini-milestones to show progress. It will take longer than you originally thought.
When you're working with small business owners, it's important to be patient. They may not be able to devote a lot of time to your project, so you need to be flexible and work around their schedule. Instead of trying to accomplish everything at once, break your project down into smaller, manageable tasks. This will help you show progress and keep your client engaged. You can also set realistic deadlines for milestones and check-ins to ensure that you're making progress and staying on track.
My Secret Sauce
I thought long whether I should include this portion in this post. I am really giving away the crown jewels here! As I wrote in Lesson 1 I just go to businesses and introduce myself however, I do have a bit of hot sauce with me.
Before I go visit a potential new client, I perform an Online Health Check on that person’s website, social media, and wherever they may be active online. It's no surprise here, but I make a video of the review and send it to them before my visit. Now that email with the introduction and containing the link to the video is almost never read and that’s fine.
A week or so later I head out to visit the business to which I sent the email previously. I introduce myself as a digital marketer and mention that I was the one who sent them an email last week with an Online Health Check video included. Their reaction is almost always the same - “wow!”.
This is how I make that “first impression” really sit. The personal interaction plus the investment I make in advance shows them that I am serious about taking their business to new heights.
Thank you for coming here and sharing your time with me.
/Andrew
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