Whatever type of business you run, it will only be a success if you tell people about it. That's essentially what marketing is: telling people what you do and giving them the option to buy your product or service. Sometimes we shy away from promoting ourselves because we don't want to be too in-your-face or we worry about putting people off. But look at it this way: people want your product or service. Your job is to find the people who want what you supply and giving them the option to get it. If you were to be planning a party for a 6 year old who loves unicorns, you'd be looking for activities, decorations, food and party bags that are linked to unicorns. You'd probably search 'unicorn party for a 6 year old' and you'd expect to find loads of ideas of relevant products and services. You wouldn't be annoyed to find The Best Party Shop in the Worlds* website selling a giant inflatable unicorn, you'd be delighted. You would then want to find out all the information you need to feel confident to make a purchase. But without effective marketing you'd never know that The Best Party Shop in the World* sells giant inflatable unicorns and your kid's party would be that bit less unicorny. So that's why we need effective marketing. But where should we start? Here are my essential marketing priorities for small businesses: 1. Customer first Always start with the customer. What problem do they have that you can fix? If you sell giant inflatable unicorns, your customer is likely to be a parent with a unicorn-obsessed child. They will want to know what unicorn based products you offer, how much they cost, how they can get hold of them, how long it will take, etc. Maybe you offer yoga classes. Your customer might be someone who is looking to improve their flexibility or strength. They might want an in-person class or prefer an online session. Again, they will want to know the details of what you offer, how they can access it, when it's available and how much it costs. This is all essential information that a customer wants before they purchase. When you are thinking about marketing your products or services, consider who is likely to purchase and what it is that they need. This is the starting point before you go any further, so spend some time on this step! 2. What's special about your business? If you sell inflatable unicorns, what's special about your offer? Are they the biggest, the best quality, the cheapest, can you deliver them super quickly, can they be customised? You don't need to be the best at everything. In fact it's not possible to be. No-one would expect the cheapest unicorn to also be the best quality. Decide what's special about what you offer and make sure people know about it. If your unique selling point is something about the service that you offer, make sure you can articulate what makes you different from people offering a similar thing to you. That could be something around offering a flexible, bespoke service or providing one to one support. With so much information available to customers we need to make it easy for them to choose us. 3. Where are your customers? Once you've decided who your customer is, and what you can offer them it's worth thinking about how they are going to find out about you. Where does your customer hang out? What social media platform are they likely to use? Would they be interested in a flyer or might they read a poster? Is your customer likely to live locally, or could they be based anywhere? Social media is a great tool, but research the average demographics of the various platforms and decide where your ideal customer is likely to spend their time so that you can focus on the most relevant platform for your customers. Be creative about where you promote your business. If you are offering an after school club for primary kids, you could ask local schools to distribute flyers to parents, but you wouldn't do this if your business brews craft ales! So think carefully about where your idea customer is likely to hang out, physically and online, and make sure that's where you are. 4. How do you want to connect with your customers? Marketing is often about building a relationship. Before people buy, they want to find out about you and what you offer. You need to make it possible for people to connect with you so they can find out more. You could set up a Facebook group offering tips on your area of expertise. Or you may offer something more bespoke that requires a phone/video call or an in-person meeting. Think about what will work best for your customer and add that to your marketing plan. 5. What's practical for you? Now you that you've thought about where your customers hang out, invest your time and resources in that space. Social media is a great free option but there's no point in deciding to post regularly on all the social media platforms if you don't have time to do it. If you spread yourself too thin you won't be effective. The algorithms prioritise regular posts on their specific platforms so it's worth making a choice and sticking with it. You might decide that a website would be a great way to promote what you offer but you need to either be able to dedicate the time to creating and maintaining it yourself or prioritise the funds to pay someone to do this for you. 6. Be consistent Make sure that the plan you come up with is realistic for you. It's demotivating and demoralising if you make a marketing plan and then give up on it after a week because you don't have time to create the social content or you haven't been able to keep your website up to date. We have to be realistic. Those of us who run small businesses also have lives. We might have a family, partner, other interests and it's important to not lose track of our physical, emotional and mental heath. We need to make sure we don't run ourselves into the ground trying to do everything all the time. So start small and build up if you're able. See what works for you and change things up if you're not seeing the results you're hoping for. 7. Ask for help Don't feel that you have to go it alone. At Cultivating Creative my aim is to provide support for small organisations. I understand that when you run a small business you do everything, and that can make it hard to find the time to do the thing that you're all about. There are lots of ways that I can help from one-to-one sessions, group workshops or bespoke solutions for your business. This can include website design, support with planning and creating social content and other promotional materials. Click on the contact button at the top of this page to find out how I can help your business to thrive. *The Best Party Shop in the World is a made up name as an example. Any real business with this name that also sells giant inflatable unicorns is purely coincidental.

1. Make sure your bio directs people to you Whether the purpose of your Instagram account is to direct people to your website, or to find out a bit more about you and what you do, it's essential that your bio is accurate and informative. Are your contact details up to date? Have you created a synopsis with the information of what your organisation is all about? Think about what links you want to share with your audience. It could be a link to your website or to sign up to a newsletter. You might want to try Linktree if you would like to direct people to differnt places. Linktree is a free landing page where you can connect people to your social media accounts, website, newsletter sign up etc. There is a paid for subscription option but the free version is pretty good. 2. Keep in mind who you are communicating with Your posts should aim to connect with your target audience. Think about your target customer and what they might enjoy from your posts. Do they have a problem that you can solve? For instance, if you run a yoga business and your target customer is a tired mum, her problem might be that she's struggling to sleep. Your solution to the problem of struggling to sleep is to try your yoga class which will help with breathing exercises and reducing tension. You could create a post explaining how your yoga classes help with sleep, or a reel showing what a typical class looks like. By tailoring your content around the interests and needs of your target customers you are demonstrating what you can offer and starting to generate interest in your business. 3. Post regularly The best way of getting interest in your business on Instagram is to post regularly. Posting consistently and regularly helps your posts to be seen by more people. But don't over commit to posting more often than you can realistically manage. Otherwise you'll just feel stressed and unable to keep up. Choose certain days and times that you think your audience are likely to be online and take it from there. See point 5 below to find out what works and what doesn't. 4. Mix it up Try different ways of sharing your content to keep you and your audience interested. If you only ever post pictures of the goods that you sell, your audience are likely to get bored. Try a behind the scenes video, or a carousel sharing helpful tips. Try to be consistent in using your brand style / colour scheme / logo etc. so that your content is recognisable. A mixture of types of content with consistent branding will make your grid look awesome! 5. Check your insights If you have a business account you'll have access to Insights which basically shows the results of your posts. You'll be able to see how many people have seen your content ( Reach ) and how many have interacted with it ( Engagement ). The more people that see and engage with your content quickly, the more people the algorithm will share it with. But don't get hung up on the number of followers you have. It's easy to get loads of followers that turn out to be bot accounts (they'll follow you, then leave a little while later), or real people that aren't interested in what you have to offer. It's better to have a smaller number of followers who are genuinely interested in what you do and are likely to consider purchasing from you than loads of followers who aren't remotely interested. I hope these 5 tips have given you some ideas of how to get the best out of your small business Instagram. If you would like to go into more detail in a workshop environment with other small businesses owners, hit the 'Contact Us' button at the top of this page to find out when my next Social Media for Small Business Workshop will run. They currently run in person in the Molesey area but online options are available.

10 easy to follow steps to create a new website.

Social media workshops focusing on Instagram and Facebook for business.

In my previous blog I shared about how Cultivating Creative came into being. One January evening at the start of 2022 I shared my new Facebook and Instagram pages with my network of friends. Stepping outside my comfort zone, I asked them to like and share my new posts and was delighted when they did! I don't know why I was surprised - people are usually happy to support a friend's new business and when it involves something as simple as a few clicks, they are often keen to help. I went out for the evening full of optimism for my new business but not really expecting anything to happen straight away. When I returned home that evening and had a quick look at my emails I was delighted to have received my first enquiry! It was from a friend of a friend who had seen the launch of my new business because a friend had shared the post. The potential client had started a business during lockdown and was keen to move it to the next level. She was looking for a new website and social media support but the thing that struck me most was that she was keen to support a new business as she had been in a similar situation herself a couple of years earlier. This first enquiry became my first client and it was a joy to work with a strong, independent woman who is an expert in her field.