Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.
I can’t believe it’s been 5 years of Yellow Dog Consulting! It’s the longest job I’ve ever had, the BEST job I’ve ever had and the most fun I’ve ever had!
I hope you celebrate milestones in your business as well – it’s a nice way to remind yourself of how far you’ve come!
Last week I was meeting with a non-profit I’ve done some work with. I had tweeted about meeting with them and someone responded to the tweet that the organization looked cool. They are. And I asked who’s managing the social media. They have been growing pretty quickly and the responsibilities have shifted. Which is fine! The development person said that it’s a goal to ramp it up in Q3. which is a GREAT plan. But in the mean time – I gave them a challenge:
I’m not asking you to jump on and interact but here’s what I want you to do:
What you DON’T want is to have someone talking crap about your organization and you’re not checking it to see what’s gone on. I also encouraged the development person to have “mentions” sent as an email to their account. This saves you from having to go in either.
My first suggestion with social media is to only setup what you WANT and feel you can and should use for your business. What makes sense to you, where is your target marketing hanging out online, etc. My second suggestion is, if you’ve already signed up and are overwhelmed so haven’t done anything, first things first, jump online and make sure you are paying attention to who’s talking to you. Once you have that routine in place, we’ll talk about getting you active online again.
What do you think? Is this manageable? Does is stress you out? You can do it while you’re waiting to pick up your kid from school, or while you’re waiting for your barista to make your latte, or while getting ready for work (teeth brushing leaves one free hand for posting…)
Today’s guest post is from my friend Britney Gardner, a brand photographer who has just launched a very cool 7 day Quickfire challenge that has kicked my butt. It was so great I thought you should hear about it too. Thanks Britney!
Results.I can talk about looking great, but when it comes to marketing photography, you want results. I know the photographs I create will help you carry more confidence into your business. And it will. But what my clients need to know is what results I deliver.
I deliver branded business photos to my clients, and it’s up to you what you do with them. Now, I know if I set you up properly before the photoshoot even begins, big results are a sure thing.
So how do I set my clients up before the shoot? I do branding work with them. There are a lot of myths around branding, so to clarify what I do, I help my clients determine their best client.
Gone are the days in which you can market to anyone. Time streams along nicely when you’re working with clients who are a great match. It halts and crawls when you’re working with a client who doesn’t fit well. You know that saying, 20% of your clients take up 80% of your time? It doesn’t have to be that way. When you know your own core values, it’s much easier to define your best client. We work through exercises that help you define your core values and that of your clients. Then we determine how to speak to and market to that best client.
We do the branding work together, and then we create visuals that show that brand. We show what it feels like to work with you in every element of your business, from photos on your website to how you create graphics for your next advertisement, whether on social media or in print.
I created a seven-day brand upgrade challenge that goes over many of the questions I ask my clients. It came as a result of feedback my own clients gave me. They asked for a checklist they could refer to whenever they had branding questions. A way to reinforce our work together. So I built that, a check list.
It didn’t perform well despite my clients telling me it was what they wanted. So I put on my brand strategist goggles and looked at the situation. I finally realized, it was too much information! I crammed the checklist into a single page PDF with another page of explanations. When I looked at it in thumbnail view, it was just one solid block of text. I tell clients all the time, white space is king in today’s skimming age. And yet I wasn’t following my own advice.
So I broke it up into seven days of actionable, bite-size chunks of information. Some days have just a few small tasks, others are still a checklist. They’re easy ways to look at your business like a strategist would. And when you complete this challenge, you’ll upgrade your brand and look the part of the successful business you’re ready to be.
You’ll attract clients who “get you” and don’t question your worth or services. You’ll spend less time explaining what you do and how you do it. You’ll have better clients that take up less time. Those are the kinds of results we’re talking about!
In the fashion of the reality TV Elizabeth loves, it’s an easy transition to let you know why I named this challenge after the Top Chef Quickfires. First, the Quickfire Challenge was a great show opener that reaffirmed they entire show’s premise. The contestants were never quite sure what was going to happen, but they knew that their results would depend on quick thinking and action. Second, it’s exciting! Do you remember when you first started your business and you were excited and nervous at the same time?
That state of energy is exactly what you’ll get back as you move through these seven days. Looking at your systems, your branding, your website everyday can lead to you having a filter. It’s not so much rose-colored glasses, but not-noticing glasses. It’s like that moment, the day before your in-laws are going to arrive and you look at your house with a different pair of eyes. If you’re like me, you start noticing all those niggly little details that didn’t seem like such a big deal last week, but now MUST BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY.
You can correct a lot of those little projects quickly. That will give you a great sense of accomplishment. I recommend you write down these things as you complete them. Next month if you feel behind on some projects, you can refer to how many unleveling tasks you took care of this week. It feels great!
The final reason I chose the Quickfire theme? Well, I have a thing for fire. There are so many stories and connotations there, but it’s really the idea that we all have sparks. Those sparks are ideas. If you ignore the spark and don’t give it the attention it deserves, it dies out pretty quickly. The same is true for your business. If you ignore your marketing, don’t define your brand, your business will die. But if you fan the flame, great things will grow out of that spark.