3 Ways to Add Value to Your Marketing Strategy

Value Marketing for Small Businesses

Are you providing value in your marketing plan?! If not, you are doing yourself and your business a huge injustice.

But Tina, What the heck is value marketing?

Essentially, value marketing is the focus on providing what your consumers WANT versus what you think they SHOULD have. This is important because sometimes, we as business owners just throw content out there and HOPE someone likes it enough to convert to a paying prospect.

But….is that working? Probably not.

Let’s talk about the true importance of providing value and what that might look like for your business and learn how to offer it using three methods.

Connect

Give

Authenticity

Value marketing is sort of a new concept. It is the KEY to building relationships and emotional bonds with our customers, plus value marketing increases brand advocacy and makes others feel important.

But, how do you do it?

Connect

Provide content that resonates with your target audience. Is your target audience business owner moms? Share content that they can relate to like a quote about self-care or time management. This creates a connection to this target consumer and develops a trusting relationship. It does not always have to be about your business but should offer a way for your target to connect with you on an emotional level. You want your audience to be like “Oh, yes! This person GETS IT.”

Say you’re a restaurant owner and you notice your Wednesday night sales are decreasing. You know you need to bring in more customers during the week, but how do you do that AND offer value? Well, say – You have a target audience of couples in their 30s or 40s. You can create a romantic type post offering a quote or inspiration about the importance of quality time that connects with them. Say something about breaking up the monotonous week with a statistic. Then plug your business as a place for them to experience date night.

The goal here is to just connect with your consumers. Relate to them. Show them that you are human, just like them.

Give more than you take

Is your page just constantly pushing out products or services? That might work for some, but that’s really rare. People are not on social media to be sold to. They want value. So, give more than you take. Offer tips, tricks, tutorials, FAQs, host Q&A’s and so on. Platforms are really doing well to set you up for success here so take advantage of it.

The key here is to offer your audience something with no strings attached. You cannot expect that just because the person interacts with you in some way that they are going to become a customer. You are in business to help people. Building revenue will come along with that. Once you shift your mindset to this, the rest will come naturally.

Be Authentic

The majority of people are sick of seeing photo-shopped images of models trying to sell them something. People want to see reality. They want to see it raw. They want to experience life through your services/offers.content.

Be you. Not what you think others want you to be. If you aren’t the only one suffering is you AND your audience will catch on sooner or later.

Connect, give, and be authentic – you will succeed in your marketing if you do these three things.

Which one can you start implementing today? Tell me in the comments below.

Need help adding value to your content? Book a consult session with me today!

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Bonus

I’ve put together a calendar full of value added ideas for June! Want it? Get it below

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4 Time Saving Tools for Small Business Owners

Oh hey! 🖐

Look, as a busy mom of three daughters, a full-time employee, a partner, a household manager, and a small business owner – I understand the NEED to save time. Time is such a valuable commodity and we often forget that it is our most important asset.

Let’s walk through the top 4 tools that I use Every. Single. Day. to help me save time and stay on track.

Google Calendar 📆

Seriously. It sounds super simple but it’s super necessary. I schedule everything in my google calendar using time blocking (I’ll cover time blocking in a separate blog post). This tool saves my day and keeps me on track.

Got an upcoming appointment? Put it in the calendar.

Got an upcoming meeting? Calendar

Need to connect with a client? Calendar

Need to take your medication? You guessed it, GOOGLE CALENDAR!

Using a daily calendar allows me to be super intentional with my time, which I absolutely love!

2. Asana… 🗃

…or any other project management tool.

Having a project management tool that works for you is literally the bread and butter of organizing your time. I personally like Asana but any one of them will work. Example – Trello, Monday, etc… Just Google “Project Management Tool” and you’ll find one. 🧐

Here’s how I use Asana…

I add all the current projects I have going on in all areas of my life to include personal, professional, and even wellness. I add the task to Asana and then add all the steps that I need to take to finish the task or complete the goal. Then I assign due dates.

When I say projects – I don’t necessarily mean huge projects that need a timeline, budget, etc. I add my exercise, personal wellness, and Social Media engagement routine all to Asana – under different categories, of course.

This is even more beneficial if you have a team so you can share these project timelines with your team and delegate appropriately.

3. Hubspot 📈

This is a full service, client relationship management system.

What does client relationship mean? Well, if you are a service-based business, like me, you will need a way to connect and maintain your relationships with your customers. Hubspot is a very simple, and thorough, way to do that.

Hubspot allows me to log client and lead interactions and build on that relationship. Plus, there are so many different ways to utilize the offerings in Hubspot – I’ll leave the details to the experts.

There are a ton of other CRM platforms out there – I just prefer to use Hubspot. Again, Google CRM and…poof ✨ You’ll find something.

4. Canva 🖼

Your content creation sidekick!

Graphic design – TRUE graphic design, can be complicated – and I don’t know even ONE small business owner who has the time to learn the ins and outs of graphic design.

Enter….Canva.

I could talk about Canva all day!

The ability to create custom graphics, sized perfectly for your chosen channel is alone a huge time saver. Seriously, you can create graphics for social media, newsletters, business cards, websites, blogs – the list is almost endless. Plus, Canva offers templates, stock photos/videos, logo help, and so much more. And – the free version is outstanding and very robust.

But…

Just for you – I have developed a FREE Canva Template for Small Business Social Media!

Get the FREE Canva Template

So, reply below… Do you use any of the tools mentioned? 👇

Four Reasons Your Business Needs to be on Social Media

So, you own a small business. There is always so much to do when running a business but oftentimes, for small business owners, you wear so many hats that every day is like Halloween – having to wear a new costume – Eh, weak pun, I know.

Between balancing the books, developing the product or services, delivering those products or services, inventory, sales, marketing, customer service, employees, management, building upkeep, legal (icky) stuff, taxes (more icky stuff) …. You get it – I could go on for DAYS. You are often tasked with all of this, or most of it, on your own.

It’s no wonder we look at social media and cringe. Who has the time?! Well, it might kind of stink to hear it – but NOT being on social media can be seriously harming your business.

Here are four reasons your small business needs to be on social media:

Reason #1 – Customers want you to be on social media!

It’s really as simple as that. Be where your customers want you to be. According to Sprout Social, approximately 60% of people say they are more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media (Sprout Social, 2020). Can you afford to miss out on 60% of your potential following? Probably not.

Of course, having a social media presence is not all about selling – as a matter of fact a huge portion of your strategy should NOT be about selling. But! What you are doing is building relationships with your customers and future customers. Which leads me into reason number two.

Reason #2 – Personalizing the customer experience with relationship building.

Relationship building is seriously the NUMBER ONE thing I love the most about social media. It’s fascinating. There’s no way any of my small business owner readers would walk right up to a random person on the street and ask them what their favorite snack is. Things like that just don’t happen, no matter how outgoing you are. Or maybe it does for you, which is cool and I want to know where you get your energy! However, for the rest of us who are less brazen, social media makes that possible. Once you start a conversation, you can build a genuine relationship.

Personalizing the customer and treating them as they are – an individual – makes all the difference in gaining traction with your brand or increasing your online presence. People simply do not like being treated like an income. They are not there to give you money. Your customers are there to be involved with you; relate with you and your brand. They want to know you and they want to feel invested in you. So, you need to do all those things with them. Involve yourself with them, relate to them, get to know them, and become invested in their lives. Social media makes this easier than ever!

For me personally, this circles back into why I started my small business. I want to help people. I want to help the customer. That is my passion. That is my drive. I know that I can do that even better on social media.

Reason #3 – Social Listening

Social media gives you a resource to do so much as a small business owner. You can reach customers that you never dreamed of. Sounds cliché but it’s true! You can find people talking about your brand ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE. Then you can strike up a conversation with that customer and other customers and start building real personal relationships with people.

Let’s put it into perspective. Say a customer comes into your store, enjoys your product, and then makes a post about it on social media. If you aren’t there, how would you see this and interact with them? It’s not like you can actually follow your customers everywhere they go in real life …. creepy! But you can monitor what they are talking about on social media.

Also, how do you know what they are saying about you once they leave your shop, if anything? Aside from delivering what I’m sure is stellar customer service and products, how do you keep the customer coming back? How do you keep your name in their mind? How are you attracting new potential customers?

Listening to how people are talking about your products or products like yours gives you the opportunity to interact with people who never even knew you existed! You could have the answer to their problems! Why miss out on that?

Reason #4 – Free (or mostly) marketing!

We really don’t need the stats to know that there is a HUGE amount of people using social media. It’s a free service. That translates to FREE marketing. I’m sure you’re spending some money on marketing – or at least, I hope so. Why not take advantage of this free service?

Social media allows you to connect with your customers in a way that traditional marketing efforts fall short with. For example, we talked about how to know what your customers are saying about you. You can do this with social media with the added bonus of commenting and engaging with that conversation.

You also can use that conversation to keep the customer coming back and to keep YOU fresh in their mind. You are literally giving the customer service far after they’ve left the shop. Then, you continue to build that relationship with thoughtful content, engaging responses, and just plain personability.

If you want to put a bit of money into this, you absolutely can, and you can reach more people. Most social platforms have great targeting options for sponsored advertisements to help get you in front of more people who need you. However, creating paid ads is not always necessary, so don’t worry if you can’t.

If you’re reading this nodding, GREAT! You understand the value. But, how in the world will you find the time? Well…. I wouldn’t be in business if I didn’t plug my services here. Set up a call with me and see if I can help you with your struggles. That call is 100% free. No charge. No cash needed! Just about 30 minutes of your time. Even if you’re disagreeing with me….let’s talk.

Set Up Free Discovery Call

Motivation

I thought I would start this one off with a little about me and why I do what I do. First, I am a mom and partner. Second, I am a full time employee of a local nonprofit. Third, I am a social media consultant. But, above all, I am Tina.

I grew up in a pretty poverty stricken lifestyle and while I won’t bore you will the details, I did not have a delightful upbringing. I was pregnant when I was 16 and decided to get my GED and get out of school so I could focus on raising my baby. I got married and moved to Long Island when I was just 16. The first few years of my “adult” life was a bit difficult. Being a full time mom of a baby at just 17 and a wife of a husband who was working all the time in an area where I knew no one was hard. However hard it was, I was dedicated to my child. Those first few years, my motivation was my daughter. I was determined to give her a better life than I had – which I think we all are.

Fast forward a few years and I had two babies and was extremely unhappy. My life was stuck and I was going no where. My life revolved around my beautiful daughters but I wasn’t really progressing. I realized that if I kept on the path I was on, my girls would always struggle. So, I made some changes. A part of that change was a divorce and education.

After many years, another baby with a great man, and some sweat and tears, I landed the job that I worked so hard for and then I graduated with my Associate’s Degree! I was the first in my whole family to achieve this milestone and I was finally proud of myself. My life was headed where I wanted it.

Then, I wanted it to go even further. So, I went back to school for my Bachelor’s Degree and got that too! Here I am, 34 years old and starting my own Social Media business.

The answer to the question of what motivates me will always be my children first and the determination to providing a better life for them. But, perhaps bigger than that, my own dedication to growth, self confidence, and independence is a huge motivator for me.

So, what motivates you?

The Journey Begins

Hi all! I appreciate your support so much. This is a very exciting and terrifying experience for me. My plan is to offer value social media management to small, locally owned businesses in my community as my way to give back. I offer services from partial page management or review to full social strategy management.

I’m here for you!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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