Ideas
A really good friend rang me the other day, let’s call her Anna. She was telling me how business has really slowed down because of the economic climate, and she was having a rethink about her future. She loves the flexibility of being freelance (she’s a mum of three and loves travelling) but she was considering finding a stress-free employed role elsewhere.
We chatted and discussed the following options for her business between us. I hope they inspire you too if you’re in a rut. They’re obviously not exhaustive but there may be something in here that you haven’t tried before or need to restart.
A bit of background
Anna’s a nutritionist in California with all the qualifications under the sun and has built up a solid client base around her own name. She works alone and has been practicing for 15 years, even moving continents in that time and keeping the business going. She employs one person to help with admin.
Her USPs are her high standards and bespoke treatment plans and the pricing reflects that. Anna is really against a ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to nutrition and thinks that many ‘experts’ on social media are too generic in the advice they offer.
It’s important to note that neither Anna nor her business are on social media at all and she has grown her business through word of mouth, recommendations and literally walking round corporate offices handing out flyers to secure speaking gigs, an approach that has worked for her.
Marketing ideas to rejuvenate your business
Use your owned audience
I shared with Anna my new favourite concept, the owned audience. Anna has a list of client email addresses and although she used to send newsletters, she stopped.
This is something that she could easily restart and it may well have a big impact. She doesn’t need to make a big announcement that she’s starting the newsletter again; she simply needs to get it going.
Despite not acknowledging the email restart, coming ‘out of the blue’ this email, and those ongoing, may land well with clients and remind them of Anna’s services.
It’s worth noting that you don’t have to use an email service like Mailchimp – you could send an email from your email provider. Bear in mind that you need to make it appealing to read with plenty of paragraphing to create white spaces and add images too.
Newsletter content ideas
“So, I should give information away for free?” Yes, yes and yes! Providing free information in your newsletter is essential to building a relationship with your mailing list. If all emails were ‘sell, sell, sell’, recipients would be put off. In Anna’s industry of nutrition, health and well-being, there is so much content that can be given away for free without compromising potential work.
Providing information for free is one idea for content and it’s even better if you can provide an excerpt of a longer piece or blog that’s on your website. Your website is your shop window to steal Marie Brown’s analogy and you want to encourage email readers to go there so that they will browse and, hopefully, book or buy!
Other ideas include:
- Referencing related brands or topics that you’ve discovered. For my friend, it could be that she’s trying mushroom coffee, she’s bought a new cookbook or what she saw on her last clifftop hike.
Yes, mushroom coffee exists! Image from Unsplash
- Hacks or tips – for my friend it could be, for example, how to preserve fresh fruit and veg for longer. For me it might be how to overcome a writer’s block.
- Depending on your audience, you could consider including snippets from your personal life.
Whatever you choose, you want it to be varied and ‘skimmable’ and of course, it should include your contact details and a ‘call to action’ or CTA. If you’d like to sign up to mine, click here.
Anna isn’t on social media. Instagram is not her ‘thing’ at all, either personally or professionally and even in this slight dip, she doesn’t want to become part of that world.
As she’s not on LinkedIn, I recommended that she join for several reasons:
- Yes, it’s social media but it’s where professionals hang out and the type of client she wants. If potential clients, a professional body or a corporate are looking for a nutritionist in her local area, she wants to be found and they may well search on LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn allows us all to build credibility by requesting reviews or testimonials from people we’ve worked with. She has such a strong reputation that these should be willingly provided. We should, in turn, write reviews for other people too.
- This is a good way for her to have an online presence beyond her website and it’s still professional (I know some people argue that LinkedIn is going ‘downhill’ but I don’t see that). If you would like to connect with me, please do!
It’s important that you create posts on LinkedIn to build your following and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. That’s something I really need to work on! This was definitely a ‘Do as I suggest, not as I do,’ type of chat!
If you’re up for Instagram or Tiktok, give it a whirl! It can be such a rewarding environment, and I have definitely found clients via social media (again, connect with me on Instagram @Carolinekingswriter).
Corporate presentations
Anna has presented to large local businesses before and so I suggested that she return to them (via email) with other specialised presentations e.g. nutrition and menopause, nutrition and gut health, nutrition and stress.
In the past she’s spent a long time preparing the material, making it bespoke and practising it; we discussed having presentations on a particular topic ‘ready to go’. There may still be an element of practising but the more she does them (without changing them much or ‘tailor-making’ them for the business), the easier it will be.
Often businesses are looking for new speakers and going with an idea that’s all ready, makes their life much easier. I would love to do more of this so if you’re a NorCal business looking for a speaker, get in touch!
Repackaging what you offer
It’s always a good idea to have a think about what you do and why you do it, plus why you do it the way you do! We discussed whether Anna could rethink how she works and perhaps offer a more purse friendly, ‘lite’ service. She was very unsure as her USP is high standards, thorough research and a personalised service but the seed was sown.
Could you repackage what you offer to make it more affordable and accessible?
Image from Unsplash
Keep your website relevant
Anna has a great website already but she needs to keep it ‘well fed’ (😂) with articles to ensure that search engines don’t see it as dormant. If you are a little quiet, write up those blog posts, titivate your web copy and update the images. These quick, behind-the-scenes actions can help to boost SEO.
If you’re stuck in a rut and feeling as though you’re in a trough, perhaps these suggestions will energise you and get you back out there!
If you’d like help updating your web copy, with blog inspiration or simply writing the blogs, get in touch!