Notice that we didn’t say, “4 EASY Steps to a Legit Marketing Plan”? That’s because creating a successful marketing plan takes time and a lot of thoughtfulness. But, it could be the secret ingredient that you need to take your small business to the next level, so it’s definitely worth it!

As a small business owner, you may already be thinking about how this won’t apply to you because you’ve got one thing on your mind: your budget. But stay with us, because even if you have a small budget, it’s still super important for you to create and execute good planning for your marketing. We’d even argue that it’s MORE important to have a plan if you have a small budget. No business is too small to have a marketing plan, because if you have customers or clients, you’ve gotta communicate with them about your products or services somehow. That’s where a good plan comes in.

A good marketing strategy will be multi-faceted, actually doable (!!!!), and executed consistently over time. We’ve put together a list of some good steps to take in developing a plan that will hopefully help you get started.

1. Market Research & Profiling

The first step is to do extensive research on your industry, as well as on local and regional B2B or B2C trends. This step ensures that the planning and development of your strategy is as well-informed as possible. Once that research is complete, the next step is to create target client profiles. Before you spend a ton of time and money marketing your small business online, it’s important to know who your ideal customer is. Who do you think would be most interested in, but also able to afford your product? This will help with directing your planning and marketing towards your specific target audience.

You can categorize your ideal customer by demographics and lifestyle. Some examples are: What age, sex, income level, and geographic location is your customer? Are they trend setters or trend followers? (or neither?) Conservative or liberal? Spenders or savers? How often do they purchase what you have to offer? Once you answer these questions, you can begin to notice patterns that will be really helpful with narrowing down and properly targeting your advertising. This step is about getting the biggest bang for your advertising buck, and let me tell you, we are ALL about that life.

2. Branding & Communication Audit

When constructing a plan for future marketing and advertising, it’s a good idea to step back and take a 10,000-foot look at your past and current communication. Haven’t done much communicating with your audience yet? Take a look at other successful companies in your industry. A communication audit will analyze all correspondence on social media, on your blog, on your website, and anywhere else online or in print.

During this audit, it’s crucial to be honest and objective about your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and competition. This is necessary because in looking at the big picture, you may find things that you’re currently doing that you absolutely love and some things you really don’t. Try to view your company’s communication the way a customer would—imagine being in their shoes. This will help you to find new ways to strengthen communication about your brand, your mission, and your products or services. And you may even discover a make-or-break hole in your communication that launches you into new success.

3. Draft a Marketing Plan

After you’ve got all your research, profiling, and communication audit done, it will finally be time to create a plan for the marketing efforts. (Yay!) During this step, you’ll detail the exact methods you want to use to reach your audience going forward. In addition to typical methods, your plan should include detailed descriptions of high-level and low-level KPIs, how those will be measured, and an implementation timeline. If you’re not familiar with KPIs and what we just said seems like it’s in another language altogether, we wrote a blog outlining some important KPIs for small businesses to measure that you can read here.

A typical marketing plan will be a projection of 6 months’ to 1 year’s time and needs to be revisited after that period to see how things are going and to make any necessary adjustments. Keep in mind that your plan will be a living document with the intention of being revised and strengthened as various efforts are executed from month to month. So don’t forget to review your plan on a regular basis.

4. Set a Budget

In theory everyone knows to only spend what you can afford. But in reality, many businesses spend way more than their means on things like advertising thinking it will all eventually pay off. Maybe it will, but often times it doesn’t, and this is especially true for people who move forward without a set plan and a strict budget.

I know it’s hard, but try as much as possible to be as objective as you can about the costs you can expect. It’s best practice to over estimate rather than under estimate. (Isn’t it funny how things always add up?) Your budget should include and all aspects of your marketing, including ad spends, implementation costs, and production costs for any collateral.

Once you start figuring out how much each marketing campaigns and tactic you chose is going to cost you, you MIGHT realize that you don’t actually have the dream budget for your dream plan. (Womp womp.) Hey, that’s okay. The reality is, you should be spending somewhere between 10-15% of your overall revenue on marketing. And meeting that budget requires adjusting your plan until you have a mix that you can afford! Once you’ve set your marketing plan budget, it should be set in stone. I know that seems so obvious that we shouldn’t have to say it. But sticking to a budget is HARD. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it will pay off in the long run.

Conclusion

It’s important to establish a strong marketing plan for the future direction of your company’s advertising, branding, and PR efforts. First you want to identify the audience you want to target, then you need to outline specific methods you plan to act on to market toward your audience. Don’t forget to specify how you’re going to measure success, and most importantly, be flexible enough to allow adjustments when necessary.

We can’t stress enough how important this is if you’re a small business with a small budget. Creating a good marketing plan will set you up to grow. And as you grow, your marketing efforts will grow too!

If you have any questions, we’d love to meet with you for general consulting, to assist you in your research, or even help with marketing execution!

Remember your first algebra class? I know, I know, I just ruined your day with a bad memory—you’ll have to forgive me. You were probably 10 or 11 years old, and all of a sudden you’re trying to decipher variables and new vocabulary and get used to the fact that your teacher’s words are starting to sound a lot like a Charlie Brown special (wah wah, anybody?). Truth is, we’ve all been there. Stuck in a classroom with an instructor who’s a far cry from the world’s best at describing complex math concepts in terms we can actually understand.

Now think about this. Your customers are like students, and as a business owner, it’s easy for you to become the dreaded teacher in that scenario. There’s a chance you may be unknowingly presenting your services or products to your customers this way via your website. In the same way that it’s difficult for a beginner to be taught by an expert who isn’t good at simplifying information, a lot of websites built by business owners are built based on how the information logically flows to the owner, and not the customer.

Many business owners have a hard time realizing how someone unfamiliar with their product or service would experience their website. As someone so integrated into and knowledgeable about your field, it may be hard for you to imagine yourself as a person who is stumbling upon your product or service for the first time, and what their experience might be using your website. You’ve probably put so many hours and so much care into every detail. Could you possibly sit at your computer and experience your site as if you’d never set eyes on it before? Probably not, if we’re being honest… So let’s talk about user experience, because it’s something that few business owners understand, but it can make or break your conversions.

What is user experience, actually?

User experience is most easily examined by looking at user flows, or the individual paths your users follow through your website interface to complete a task. Each user flow takes them from their entry point through a set of steps towards a successful outcome and final action, such as purchasing a product or signing up for a service. While this all sounds fancy, it’s pretty easy to know when a website doesn’t have good user flow. I mean, chances are you’ve gotten frustrated with a website before. Think back to the last time you texted your spouse frustrated emojis or yelled expletives to the other room while in the throes of a non-user-friendly website situation. Yep, that was most likely due to bad user flow.

Knowing a site has bad user flow is easy, but knowing how to correct it isn’t as simple. But let’s start here: a few key components in understanding user flow are knowing how the user got to your website, what their motivation is, and how easy your site is to navigate for them.

Why should you care about possible user journeys?

It’s important to design a website with a consumer’s perspective and journey in mind. Prioritizing user flows and focusing on the ones that add the most value to the most potential users should drive your basic flow design. Whether you’re building a brand new website or looking to improve an existing user experience, a solid outline that establishes clear user journeys will keep you out of the pitfall of just having a bunch of individual pages with dead ends, and instead focus on fulfilling your users’ needs.

Think about it this way: if your goal is to close a sale, you should put a lot of thought and care into how that user will get from your landing page to searching items or services to putting items in a cart and finally to checking out or confirming an appointment. This means having a clear call to action for new visitors.

Once a user is on your landing page, it’s important not to leave them searching around a confusing website until they lose interest. Web consumers’ attention spans are short, and if your website is confusing or they don’t have a clear next step, they’ll just move on to the next site. If you’ve got their attention, show them a clear way forward. That’s what leads to conversions. While we’re here, it’s important to say that this doesn’t necessarily mean putting services and prices at the top of your website. Instead, show them your amazing product and educate them about why yours is the one they need, then give them a clear path to the service or product price.

If this all seems confusing, that’s because it is. But don’t fret, there are a few things you can do to educate yourself on these subjects so you can begin to optimize your website for conversions.

What can you do about it?

1. Educate Yourself on Website Content

Okay, so you may not know how to develop a website, but writing the content is a much simpler undertaking. It’s still important to keep in mind content writing isn’t just about the words you put down on paper. The best content writers rely on an understanding of the psychology behind digital behaviors, so do a little reading on that subject first. Once you’ve got a handle on how website visitors interact with content, create a plan for your writing that includes the more technical aspects such as tone of voice, sentence structure, length of paragraphs, transitions to other sections, search engine optimization (SEO) & keyword placement, and calls-to-action. Still not sure where to start? Here are a few resources we’ve learned from:

2. Research, Compile, and Test Possible User Flows

Spend time determining typical entry points whether SEO or AdWords advertising, or some other entry point. After, you’ll need to compile all possible user journeys and create sample stacked user flows. Then test, test, and test again. Which step in the flow does a good job taking users to the next step? In which step do a large part of the users drop out? You can measure this by using goal funnels. If you use Google Analytics, you can easily set up goal funnel tracking (as you can in most web analytics tools) for your user flow steps.

3. Research Your Clientele

Get an outside perspective by conducting client surveys. It’s recommended by professionals to spend time compiling a list of questions to ask your 20 or so last customers whose buying experience is fresh. Gather data, mull over it, and then survey again for a second round based on those answers to really optimize your survey.

Conclusion

These few steps should start you down the right path to creating a website content strategy that is sure to elevate your business above your competitors. It’s a lengthy process, but trust us, it’s worth it. Don’t have all the time in the world? You could just keep dedicating your time to what you love and leave all this nonsense to us. 😉

The bottom line is, content can make or break your business’s legitimacy, desirability, and searchability. Prioritizing your website content and developing good user flows will add the most value to your business and definitely increase your conversions, which we all know leads to a happy business owner.

By now we’re sure your Newsfeed has been flooded with everyone’s renewed sense of change and organized plans to make this new year “better than ever.” In our fast-paced society, appointments get pushed back, we begin spending less time at home than we’d like, and throughout our days and nights we get Calendar reminders, phone notifications, and emails telling us to juggle it all right now, because that’s why we did it on our own in the first place. To prove that we can pave the way ourselves.

As business professionals, we’re accustomed to curveballs and how to best adapt to them. It’s our playing field. Admittedly, when we’re each balancing different projects at the Tangible office, we sometimes get so lost in trying to complete our own checklists that it becomes easy to get swamped. However, we find our focus again by pausing and asking each other for help when we need it most. We like to keep this same group mentality when we host GVL Connect, our networking series. We’ve found that the best connections and the best creations we’ve made have been from maintaining our relationships. We’ve outlined three key steps to strengthening your networking in the future.

Your next networking venture can be a transformative experience as long as you bear this in mind: Don’t simply take, the key is to give back.

1. Share, Retweet & Repeat

If you’ve just gone to your first networking event or you’re a seasoned guest, chances are there’s been a time where you’ve felt uncomfortable and you couldn’t find anyone that could answer all your questions in one sitting, in one night. Instead of networking to only serve you, try thinking of who all is attending. Perhaps it’s an interior designer, the cafe owner down the block whose posts you always share, or even someone in your field that just started to build their social media presence and could use some tips from like-minded colleagues. One of the easiest ways to grow your presence and show support for your fellow professionals is to try sharing their posts/blogs/tweets on your business or personal accounts. Think of it as a way of saying ‘hi’ with a quick nudge, so everyone knows you’re always open for connecting. In return, you’d be surprised at how much your networking approachability goes up just through a simple like or share.

Of course, your main focus should remain in keeping the genuine relationships you make with your clients. With practice, you’ll see how transparency and open communication in networking is integral to maintaining loyal partnerships. You don’t want to stand talking to someone who’s only going to “sell, sell, sell” you on themselves and not offer to hear your story or seek your knowledge. You also don’t want to narrow your target audience to just your field of work. There are opportunities to help you personally and professionally on every social platform, as long as you keep your eyes open. Strike a conversation on common interests and what you both can do to increase your online presence, together. The regrams and networking invites will soon follow.

2. Build Your Networking Cloud

After you’ve left the networking space for the night, take some time to peruse through the business cards and mailers you received. And follow up with everybody. Depending on what topic the event focused on, it’s almost always a certainty that all who attended work in a variety of fields. Like we mentioned before, connecting with other professionals in different areas of work serves to extend your skill-set in the long run. Yes, creating these connections is one of the best ways to expand upon your brand. Are you needing help with buying a home? Or maybe your logo could use some fine-tuning. (Hopefully by now, you know who to call—sorrynotsorry for the shameless self-promotion plug.)

If you find yourself feeling like the evening was a little lackluster, ask yourself: while networking, are you only searching within your comfort group or judging the “relevancy” of your conversations to your interests? This is the best form of self-sabotage and will gain you no allies or followers. Step outside your box and offer what you know and how your services can help them. We know this for sure: eye-catching email blasts and salesy phone calls will only get you so far, but true interest and honesty will always boost your brand further than any other effort.

3. Be a Student and a Mentor

During your next meeting with a client or even someone you connected with from the event, be sure to be as present and “off-screen” as possible. Your time and undivided attention will always be noticed and rewarded. Technology pushes us all to be fast and concise, but find clarity in face-to-face interactions where you’ll have the chance to ask as many questions as possible. Here’s where the magic happens that you can’t find in a website bio. Listening to the personal quirks and stories behind a business or business owner is absolutely crucial in becoming a better networker. By understanding their personal message, you’ll find opportunities to provide them with suggestions on how to best increase their client market and presence based on your own personal experience. This is a true service to those interacting with you, and by default ups your status and credibility.

By being present (both physically and mentally) at networking events, you will find yourself learning more and better help those around you learn. Think of this as an opportunity to play the role of both the student and the mentor, being humble enough to learn in areas you’re less familiar with and being generous enough to offer insight in areas you’re more familiar with.

The value of your craft is in your helping hands. Be sure to be willing to share advice as much as you’d like to take away advice. Your networking opportunities will not only widen, but your brand’s reputation overall will inspire others to maintain the same level of authenticity.

The Takeaway

Being strategic in how you choose your interactions during a network event is important but it’s more beneficial to build upon those encounters and turn them into meaningful relationships. In the end, it’s about how you carry yourself and your skills socially. Do this simply by smiling and being enjoyable company all around without attempting to hijack every conversation. Should a situation arise where your expertise is called for, be friendly and more than willing to offer your help. By lending a hand to everyone that you come across, you’ll have gained a genuine support group of likeminded professionals that will be happy to assist you in the future.

If you’d like to hone your networking skills further, come join us during our next GVL Connect event. You can follow along and keep updated with our upcoming events on our Facebook page.

Heads up: We’re always available for personal consultations if needed to help your business be ahead of the rest. Let us know if you have any questions or if you’d like to schedule a meeting.

Content creation is one of the key business components that, while the most important, is probably the most stressful. How can you always be expected to come up with new ideas all the time? And further, how can you keep these ideas innovative and fresh? Here are five ways to encourage creativity and innovation while still in the office:

1. Make a list of topics

Even if these topics don’t end up on your company blog or your LinkedIn profile, this is one of the simplest ways to start the brainstorming process. Inc. has a few different kinds of techniques for this. When you’re making this list, make sure to use whatever medium you are most comfortable with (whether that is sticky notes, computer, whiteboard, etc.)

2. Take a walk

As simple as this seems, sometimes it just takes getting up from your desk and taking a lap around the office. You might spark a conversation that turns into content, or you might see something that reminds you of this cool article that you read recently. This oldie but goodie New York Times article proves that a walk might just be your best bet to boost creative thinking.

3. Think about your audience

Who are you trying to reach? Are you writing a corporate post with references? Are you writing a personal article for your own blog? All of these options have different people that should direct your content creation. If you work or are near the people that might be reading your writing, ask them what they would be interested in reading. This might even add to your list of topics. Forbes does a great job of articulating some questions for you to answer about your audience.

4. Find your “content crush”

Who is the personal or professional person who you admire? You love their website, their social media, their blog, or whatever they create. Read, write, research everything that they’ve made or done that you really like. When you’ve done your background work, create a list of the reasons that you’re inspired by them. Maybe one of those reasons is something that you’ve been striving for, and this could kickstart your creativity too! Here are some #artgoals from visual artists that might help you get started on your content crush list.

5. Start writing

Content creation starts with just that—creating content. Nothing helps more than putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Some inspiration might ease your mind. The easiest way to keep writing is to start writing, so if you follow these steps (or create your own), you will feel empowered when you sit down to employ your creativity. We want to see those words published! The more opportunities you take to write, the more you open yourself up to people reading and enjoying your content. Five steps later, and now you’re off to write (or walk) your way to a better, more creative feed.

The lowdown: Since December, Tangible Strategies has moved from its office space in the Village of West Greenville, launched its brand new website, and undergone a good bit of internal restructuring. Needless to say, it’s been a crazy few weeks, and we want to make sure you’re caught up on all things Tangible as we ring in the New Year. So here are a few thoughts from our Founder and Creative Director:

Laying the Groundwork

We seem to be talking a lot lately at the Tangible office about the idea of settling—settling for just three cups of coffee in the morning because we’re trying to avoid caffeine overload (seriously, guys, turns out this is a real thing), settling for a tiny desktop Christmas tree because we were too busy with the move to fully decorate the office, settling for a presidential candi—wait, no, we’re not getting into that again. I think it’s safe to say that 2016 was a more-than-hectic year (for us, it marked our first full January-to-December succession in good ol’ Greenville). But honestly, for all its craziness, the last month of a rather long year was one of the most exciting and encouraging 31 days we’ve ever had. Which has got us thinking, maybe settling isn’t such a bad thing.

As many of you know, Tangible Strategies has been around since 2011, but for most of its existence, the business was a simple husband-and-wife venture with big dreams of far-off grandiose. In July of 2015, we moved the business to Greenville, SC from Western North Carolina and quickly realized that the demand for small business marketing in the Upstate was much larger than the two of us could handle on our own. So in January, we began building out our team, getting settled into an office space in the Village, and building a reputation as a true-to-its-name agency in a marketplace still entirely foreign to us.

A Year in Review

We’ve learned a lot since then, as you might imagine. In particular, we’ve learned that doing business in Greenville is all about who you know—and getting to know the right people is no easy task (in fact, this realization has been the primary inspiration behind our networking series GVL Connect). We’ve learned that project workflow for a team of two people looks nothing like project workflow for a team of three people. Or four people. Or five people. We’ve learned that possessing the capability to do everything does not mean one should actually try to do everything. We’ve learned that following through on promises really is as impactful as we always knew it was. And we’ve learned that partnership and collaboration are two things we simply cannot live without. Which is one of the many realizations that persuaded us to rethink our processes—and our work setting—a bit.

In case you’ve missed the details, Tangible Strategies now lives inside The Wheelhouse, Greenville’s newest cowork space along the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The Wheelhouse is a collective office space specifically created for marketing professionals and agencies, where freelancers and creative teams alike can work together on projects while maintaining their own brands and unique identities. A rather unique business model as cowork spaces normally go, The Wheelhouse acts as an agency itself, bringing in a steady stream of marketing projects and then turning to its tenants for executing the work on those projects. At its core, The Wheelhouse is designed to support the growth and development of other businesses while sustaining the same for itself. It’s ingenious really.

Making the Move

In October, Wheelhouse co-owner Jeff White approached our team after several recommendations pointed him in our direction. I was immediately enthralled with his idea for a new kind of cowork space and, after a few conversations, realized that the business philosophy behind The Wheelhouse lined up quite nicely with what we had been building at Tangible for the past five years.

And so there we were, faced with the prospect of an opportunity that would help grow our business, allow us to work on larger scale projects, and connect us with other local marketing professionals. You can imagine how long and hard we had to think about our decision. (I’m kidding; it was a no-brainer.) I’ll admit, we had our reservations at first, as none of us are particularly keen on big change, but the more we thought about it, the more this move made sense.

Experiencing the Benefits

After more than four weeks of working in The Wheelhouse, the Christmas-morning-like excitement has worn off and the new atmosphere is beginning to feel more normal. We’ve introduced the space to a handful of our clients, and we’ve even hosted a few networking events here. In the few short weeks thus far, we’ve formed new client relationships and watched the interior of the building continue to develop (re: the new garage door behind our table). A lot has happened in 40-ish days, but most importantly, we’ve been able to experience exactly how moving into The Wheelhouse is going to benefit our business, and we are super excited to share our findings with you.

Better Focus

Hands down, the biggest benefit to moving into The Wheelhouse is that we are able to spend more time doing what we’re great at doing. In the Village, we operated a full-time art gallery, a passion-driven project that allowed us to support emerging and student artists in the area, something we truly loved. In moving, we closed down the art gallery, which was bittersweet in every way, but in transitioning away from our role in the arts community, we’ve only now begun to realize just how much time and energy went into maintaining that presence. Redirecting that focus toward client relationships and toward our own needs has made us better partners of the businesses we serve on a daily basis.

Stronger Service

In addition to prioritizing our own business needs, we’re beginning a shift toward narrowing down what services we offer, focusing on the things we’re best at doing, such as websites and branding. We’re not a one-strategy-fits-all kind of agency—and we never will be—which means that our services are vastly different from client to client. This was never an accident on our part. We knew many small businesses were tired of trying to maintain relationships with half a dozen freelancers—one for their website, one for their social media, one for their graphic design, one for their email marketing, etc., etc.—and so why not offer to meet all those needs under one roof? At The Wheelhouse, we are surrounded by marketing professionals of every kind, which in essence means our team just got a lot bigger. We are able to offer the same solutions to businesses we always have, but we’re able to pass off the execution of services that we’re not as familiar with. Which means we are able to dial in on the services we do really well.

Richer Networking

Because of the structure of our new office environment, we meet new people every day who are operating businesses of their own in the Upstate. Meeting the entrepreneurs around us leads to a bigger network, which really means a bigger community to collaborate with. A larger, more inviting office space means more opportunities to do what we love more than almost anything: connecting people. We couldn’t be more excited to see how our networking grows in 2017, and we hope you’ll be a part of it.

Looking to the Future

So in many ways, moving out of our own office that was occupied by just our team and just our ideas can be perceived to many as a downsize in business—or, like I said before, settling. We do share spaces with other business professionals now in a way we didn’t before, but to us if this new space and workflow is “settling,” we’ll take that and more in 2017. For us, settling has taken on a new meaning. It’s requiring us to focus on what we are best at, rather than trying to do it all. Our choice to narrow down who we are as a business has led to a stronger team, a more precise focus on serving clients, and a substantially larger opportunity to connect with other small businesses in Greenville.

The Daunting Elevator Speech

When you were graduating from college, heading out into the professional world, someone along the way probably told you to work on your “elevator pitch,” that is, exactly what you would say given thirty seconds to convince someone that they should hire you. They probably recommended you think of your strengths, your unique qualities that differentiated you from the crowd, what you could bring to that specific business or industry.

When you went out on your own and started a business, or joined a team, you most likely heard the same advice. Create, perfect, hone your elevator pitch in order to convince potential clients why they should choose you above your competition. Highlight what makes you different, why you’re the better choice. Convince them. Sell them. Make it impossible for them to say no.

Reality check: that’s a tall order. Especially because prospective clients, or bosses, or investors, or employees, don’t come in one-size-fits-all. So you probably need about 100 elevator pitches, each specifically honed and crafted for the individual to make them feel special, unique, not like you’re reciting a speech from rote memory. Which, let’s be honest, if you have to memorize 100 of them, you probably are doing exactly that.

So what do you do? How do you fix it? If you encounter someone you’d love to sell on your product, whether that’s your business or yourself, how do you make sure you have the fine points down and not sound like a less enthusiastic version of C3PO?

Identify Your Selling Point

Your guidance counselors and mentors weren’t wrong. You do need to spend some time identifying what makes you different. Do you have the best product on the market? The lowest price? The quickest turnaround? What makes you unique; helps you stand apart from your competition? Maybe you staff exclusively graduates from certain degree programs, so you guarantee the quality of work. Perhaps you only buy and source materials locally, so you can provide fresh, organic product while still supporting the local economy. Whatever your differentiations, make a list of the top few. Those will become the crux of your elevator speech.

Practice Public Speaking

Those with a fear of public speaking, I apologize; there’s no substitution for ease in front of a crowd of strangers. As much as it sounds like you’re checking a requirement off your list for graduation, public speaking is a skill which has no match. If you can stand up in front of a crowd of people and feel at ease, comfortable talking, you’ll be much more likely to feel at ease when talking to a potential client, investor, etc.

Imagine you’re at a networking event, but you’re standing in the corner. You make small talk with the few strangers who venture towards you, but you’re closed off from the majority of the room. Even in your brief conversations, you stay away from “political” topics like what you do and why you’re the best. The reality is, you’re probably not going to make any new clients or business contacts.

Now, imagine you’re at the same networking event, standing in the same corner. Instead of making brief small talk, you actively engage the first person who approaches you. Using your public speaking skills to read your audience, you ease into a conversation about what they do, then use your list of selling points to hammer home to them why they should hire you. After casually ending the conversation, you move around the room engaging in the same way with others. At the end of the event, you’ve probably met several contacts and potential clients.

Public speaking courses or clubs teach you not only to be at ease with an audience, but also to think on your feet. If you’re forced to study a topic, learn a speech, speak without notes, you’ll develop the skill set to adapt should something veer off script. The more familiar you are with a topic, the more you’ll be able to speak to it casually and easily, without the need for notes or a script. And what topic do you know better than you and your business? Practicing public speaking will help you confidently deliver your selling points to any audience, be it one person or twenty. If you need to hone your skills, look up groups or clubs in your area.

Hone Your Pitch

Now, I’m not saying you need a scripted, thirty-second pitch. But sit down and think about how you’d want to be sold if you were the customer or client. Think about how you talk to people. Are you better at the hard sell, pushing a person immediately to the sale? Maybe you prefer to sit down and understand a person’s needs before you sell him or her on your product or skill. Even in industries that seem customer-driven, you need a honed pitch. You might have a million-dollar contract walk in the door, but if you can’t convince them that you’re the best one for the job, you can kiss that contract goodbye. Practice your pitch on friends, family, and trusted colleagues that you can rely on to provide constructive feedback.

Leave Them Wanting More

Elevator pitches are designed to be short. Even the most genuine interest will wane after a certain period of time. Keep your pitch short and sweet, finishing with a call to action rather than spitting information and running away. You want to pique their interest in a way that encourages them to proceed with you but that doesn’t feel like an information dump. Unless you’re walking them through a contract, keep your pitch succinct.

 

The takeaway: If you need a little bit of guidance on strategy and overall communication, contact us to schedule a consulting session. We’d love to meet you, learn your story, and guide you along the way to conveying that story to those you meet.

Growing Your Business with Facebook Live

Last year, you may have begun to see certain large, geologically-named celebrities (looking at you, The Rock) streaming live content in your Facebook feed. Then your friends may have begun streaming their everyday journeys. In March, you may have noticed the opportunity to watch live videos more prominently in your newsfeed. More recently, you might have tried reacting to live videos and found that you can now “love,” “laugh,” and “appear shocked,” to name a few. This month, you might have seen the new video hub on Facebook mobile. And then of course, you may have read about the F8 summit and Facebook’s announcement that live streaming would now be open to all devices, including drones and hi-def cameras. But what does that mean for you, a small business or individual?

Choose Your Content Wisely

The algorithm change announced in March to show live-streaming videos more frequently in your followers’ newsfeeds is only helpful to you if you have meaningful content to share. So as an individual or small business, you need to be more selective and deliberate in choosing what content you stream live, rather than less. Because the algorithm will show live content at a higher frequency, your followers have a better chance of seeing it. Meaning, if you’re putting out content that’s not your best, your followers have a higher chance of seeing it, which could lead to unfollows. Your best bet is to choose deliberate, meaningful content to stream live in order to garner the best reactions. Announce your live-streaming times beforehand to help grow your audience and be sure to follow up your live stream with a recap and link to the video.

Do Your Research

Before beginning a live broadcast, look up best practices for creating live video, and make sure you understand how the platform works. Facebook allows you to take live video using both the front and back cameras on your phone, and with the advent of other devices, your options are pretty much unlimited. Similar to a regular post, you can also add copy to your live broadcast describing the topic. Once the video is live on your wall, you can go back and edit your video. Learn what your options are and how to make the most out of your live broadcast. Check out these tips from Social Media Examiner to help you get started.

Know You’re Not Competing with TV

Although there’s been some buzz about Facebook Live eventually attracting live-streaming television, director of product at Facebook responsible for overseeing Facebook Live Fidji Simo says that Live is not competing with traditional television. The focus now is on user experience, says Simo. She did note that Facebook Live could potentially supplement traditional television. For example, there have been a number of cases where TV journalists have gone live after their traditional broadcast to expand on a story they were covering. Currently, however, there’s no ad play to tempt TV marketers, and Simo doesn’t see that happening any time soon.

Founder/CEO of Deep Focus Ian Schaefer agrees. Although there may be some demand for certain live events, like sports (Twitter has already nabbed the rights to live stream Thursday Night Football in the fall in conjunction with the NFL), Schaefer is unclear whether there is any interest in premium live content beyond that. “The push for live is bizarre,” he says, “because there’s not really much precedent outside of sports for there to be any kind of money to be made from streaming live video. There’s not much that indicates to me that a generation that’s going mobile is going to be doing more live-show watching.”

So rest easy. You may be competing with larger brands and bigger marketing budgets, but Facebook Live hasn’t reached the deep pockets of TV advertisers, yet.

 

The takeaway: Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook to see what we’re doing with Facebook Live! Share your live journeys with us and we might just return the favor.