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How to boost your PR |Small business edition

by with No Comment Business TipsMarketingSales

“It’s just for PR”, “it’s a PR stunt”. Public Relations PR] sure has bad PR 😂 We can imagine most people’s idea of PR is “it’s just for show”, and that it’s how big corporations and the government spins their words and people’s perceptions using propaganda. That’s not entirely true, let’s break it down. 

PR is all about reputation. Whatever has been put out there, a business/organization’s PR strategy is meant to protect its reputation. In this blog, we will help you see PR in a different light, and most importantly, how you can implement it in your small business planning. 

To enlighten you. Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their public. It is NOT advertising, it is NOT marketing. The whole point of PR is to create a positive narrative of the brand, which could be of course to grow the client base, for referrals, the media, etc, with the aim to help the company achieve all its goals. 

As much as PR can help bring in sales, it does not bring in sales as much as marketing efforts do. But rather, it helps proactively manage your company’s appearance online and in the media, so you can make sure that people associate your company’s name with good things. Otherwise, you could be turning away prospective customers before you ever meet them. 

Here are 5 ways Small Businesses can boost their PR:

1️⃣ Treat your employees, and customers well

This might be overlooked, yet so important. It is not cliché that people remember you, for now, you treated them. So treat your employees, associates, and customers well, they will become your greatest ambassadors and recruiters. 

2️⃣ Improve your online presence 

This has been spoken about a lot, and we have spoken about this too in one of our blogs. Invest some time and money to polish up your website, social media, and anywhere else that people can find you online. If you need help, hire a professional like a social media manager or digital marketing strategist. If you feel this will be too much of a cost for you, consult with them at least once a month to make sure you’re doing this the best way possible. 

3️⃣ Issue a press release 

Write a short, interesting story that the media can pick up and run with. This could be telling an inspiring story of how your brand started, how you scaled, etc. Write it and send it to different news organizations, make sure you contact the right person. What can also help is to connect with journalists through social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter. 

4️⃣ Book speaking gigs/local radio interviews 

A great way is to increase your company’s reach and improve your reputation within your community. Don’t look down on local radio stations and events. Connect with event organizers or radio hosts. Don’t be afraid to approach and ask for a feature. Put yourself out there. 

5️⃣ Stage a publicity stunt 

Be careful with this, it can get tricky depending on your strategy. All you really have to do is something strange enough to make news, if only in a niche or local media. Be creative, smart, and weird. Here are some ideas you can learn from: https://www.liveabout.com/advertising-pr-stunts-to-get-your-brand-noticed-4139850

There are a lot of ways to boost your credibility, we just hit the tip of the iceberg. Let us know which one of these will you be trying. 

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How collaboration can benefit your business

by with No Comment Business TipsMarketingMoney TalksSales

You have probably heard a lot about this before.. So let this be a reminder, education, or maybe just adding to what you know. We like to start our blogs with a brief explanation of the subject matter and in this case, let’s define COLLABORATION: which is basically the act of working together to produce something (desired outcome). This does not only happen between individuals, but amongst businesses too! 

We’ve seen big brands successfully do this, and you know what they say… if you want to be successful, copy what successful people do. ADIDAS and YEEZY did this successfully, so did OFFWHITE and NIKE, and many more. If anything, collaboration is essentially combining efforts to produce unique products that benefit both your cash flow and customers.

Collaboration is great in that it does these two things very well:

1️⃣ Open new markets: this is beyond boosting sales ut can lead to longterm results, collabos  help you grow brand awareness and followership, ultimately growing your customer case. 

2️⃣ Good for PR: this gets people talking!!! Social listening will help at this point because you get to fully understand your target audience and deliver what establishes strong personal relationships with your consumers.

An underrated one:

✳️ You get to learn: there is always opportunity to learn if you are observant. Always seek that opportunity. See how the other team from the other brand works, listen attentively and observe to see what you can take from those experiences. 

Final thoughts:

We have pretty much covered the important points to emphasise the importance of collaboration. You save money (as collaborative relationships split intellectual contribution, hands-on work and, sometimes, expenses). All this, while bringing in the numbers, and taking your team through a learning experience. 

Have you explored the power of collaboration? Let us know in the comments how that has worked for you! 

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How to gain a competitive advantage amid load-shedding

by with No Comment Business TipsMarketingMoney TalksSales

Eskom has warned us about load-shedding likely to be here for longer than we had anticipated and this is something we should be prepared for. A few things businesses are suffering due to load-shedding include but are not limited to spoilage of cold storage items, compromised [hysical security, and unhappy customers. Only businesses who make loadshedding work for them will gain a competitive edge, this will of course depend on what type of business you’re running. 

Here are a few things you can invest in:

Power bank: this is one of the most affordable and sustainable ways to keep your devices charged/on, including smartphones and card machines. This means you can still keep marketing and communicating with prospective customers, as well as accept card payments for those who don’t carry cash. 

Dongles and routers: an affordable and reliable option for mobile internet connection yet! You can connect multiple users at a time (e.g. your employees/digital marketing team), These devices use cellular data though, you can consult with your internet service provider to find out about affordable data costs. 

Generator: this can be a big cost for some businesses, but buying one can be intimidating. However, we have a few ideas that might help! Just like most things, you don’t have to totally buy a new one. You can either buy a second-hand generator from online markets and other avenues, or you can ease one. Just make sure you do your research here so you can get value for your money, calculate the numbers first and see if it makes sense. 

Other ways to stay ahead of the competition:

Give clients no excuses. Even though we’re all affected by load-shedding, no one really likes to hear “we can’t, we have load-shedding”. Give clients no reason to want to take business elsewhere but hurl their money at you!

 

Keep marketing so customers will never forget about you. You can do a month’s worth of work in just a few hours and schedule/automate. We wrote a full blog on this, take something from this:

Business Doesn’t Have To Be Hard. Read These 7 Tips
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Do you need a blog for your business?

by with No Comment Business TipsMarketingMoney TalksSales

Without assuming you know, a  blog (short for weblog) is a regularly updated web page that can either be used for personal use or to fulfill a business need. Regardless of your objective for your blog, a blog is a great tool to increase the visibility of your business online and communicate with existing and potential customers. Common uses are: to create an online presence or to drive traffic to your existing website.

However, blogging does require time, which can steer you away from the normal day-to-day running of your business. When managed correctly though, your return on investment will be far greater. In this blog, we will look at some of the benefits of blogging that can improve your business. 

A blog can help your business in this way:

Create an online presence and community

You don’t have to have a coding background or be tech-savvy for this, or you can just pay someone to do it for you. There are many blogging platforms you can choose from that make it easy for you to write and publish your content ideas. A blog gives you an online presence and creates a community outside of social media.  

Gives your business a human voice

Blogs are generally known for sharing information, OPINIONS, OBSERVATIONS, EXPERIENCES, and likes. In this way, it can open up a conversation, people get to relate as it is personalized and shows personality. One other thing is that people get to understand your brand. Blogs are a great method to share your small company’s voice, foster trust, and increase its likeability.

Drive traffic to your website

If you already have a website, a blog is a great tool to complement it and drive traffic. Sometimes people search random topics on the internet, and with the right use of keywords, they can stumble upon your blog…thus learn more about your business. More visitors to your website implies more opportunities to market your goods and services and draw in new clients.

Improve your search engine optimization

With search engines like Google, it’s a keywords game. The higher your website’s ranking, the more clicks you get. By increasing the number of pages that search engines index from your domain with each blog post, a small business blog is a terrific strategy to raise the ranking of your website in search results.

Does your business have a blog? Let us know how it has worked for your business! 

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7 powerful business lessons from 7 entrepreneurs

by with No Comment Business Tips

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, more especially, please read on. If you’re a tired entrepreneur, demotivated, drained, and on the brink of giving up, read on. 

Entrepreneurship is a unique journey for everyone. What’s guaranteed for everyone though, is that you will come across challenges, and you will be tested. It has been said that X% of startups fail in their first 1-2 years, it’s survival of the fittest. 

Some of these challenges may include: 

  • Lack of resources 
  • Lack of knowledge 
  • Lack of money management skills 
  • The barrier of access to market 
  • Some days, it’s really just a lack of motivation. 

The reasons are endless. And as we mentioned, they are different for everyone. We have had conversations with a few entrepreneurs, and we’ve collected 7 lessons from 7 entrepreneurs. That’s 7 motivations and mentorship lessons for 7 days a week! 

7 entrepreneurs said:

Lesson 1: There is no easy business. 

“Many think so, but I haven’t seen one yet. The grass isn’t any greener on the other side of the fence. That said, you can make your business SIMPLER – which will make things feel easier. Businesses naturally increase in complexity as they grow, so it’s important to continually look for ways to simplify it,”

Need we say more?

Lesson 2: Don’t underestimate the power of starting small.

In retrospect; 

“Just start”  is simply motivation. The reality is much more complex. Starting a business requires not only a business plan but also your life plan. How are you going to survive, eat, bathe, clothe and live without depending on the business? Survival instinct will always surpass motivation. That’s how you then start killing/eating the business.

Just to add to that, it’s best to start with a game plan. You don’t have to have it all figured out, but how are you going to get clients/make money? Think about money-making activities, then how to keep the money and grow it. You don’t need big equipment. Use what you have: resources, connection, skills. The goal is to start, small. 

Lesson 3: Consistency will get you noticed, one way or the other. 

It was once said that a customer has to see your business a few times at the very least, so your brand can register in their minds and consider you when making buying decisions. If you are not consistent in your marketing and advertising, you lessen your chances. 

Lesson 4: Slow money is better than no money 

As long as the money is coming in, you’re in business. What you need to think about is SCALING. Be real with yourself, you can’t open and run a business that doesn’t make you money for long. If all else fails, Close it or pivot and venture into something else.

This is if there’s no increase in your interest from the day u started. An increase doesn’t have to be a lot, something as little as a 0.01 increase every month or quarter is still an increase, it means you’re going somewhere. 

Lesson 5: Some goals are achieved through pain. 

And I quote “Often tragedy strikes when you least expect it, and the results can be emotionally and financially devastating”. Growth in business is not linear, success itself is not linear and sometimes as an entrepreneur/leader, you will have to make hard decisions. That could look like retrenching some people whose roles you can automate as tech improves, letting go of clients you built long relationships with, anything. It is just not that smooth, and sometimes it will hurt YOU, to make decisions that are good for your BUSINESS. 

Lesson 6: Cater for your market, not your preference.

The statement is pretty self-explanatory. And just to add to that, here are a few valuable business lessons: 

(1) the business money isn’t your money so treat it accordingly and 

(2) cater to your market, not your preference.

Quick tips:

  • Find a specialization: when you specialize, you can charge a premium because your knowledge is SPECIAL. A bit of knowledge on this and that won’t get you anywhere. 
  • Find a niche (not everyone can be your market).
  • Price according to your level of skill and market (not what is “cheap”).
  • Brand yourself and use that to help your business brand grow: this is completely optional, you can be the man behind the scenes if you prefer.

However, people do like seeing the face, the person behind a brand, and they are interested in your story. This is one of the best ways to build and grow a community, which you can ultimately turn into paying customers. 

Lesson 7: Give back

“Being an entrepreneur puts you in a position of power and many people look up to you for opportunities as well for inspiration. Especially in the context of a well-established business, therefore it is befitting to always stay humble and helpful to the ones that do not have the same privileges you have.”

Look, you don’t even have to adopt mentees, you can do something as simple as sharing valuable content for young entrepreneurs that come after you. This is actually good for PR for both your business and personal brand. People will quote you and write about how you’ve helped them without any personal interaction. 

Did you find any of these valuable? Let us know in the comments!