Local Business Maven

Local Business Maven Giving local & small-to-medium sized businesses access to the most effective online marketing knowledge, systems & software. Be better at business. We are!

In mid 2016 a series of evidence backed realisations occurred:

1) Businesses that use videos are viewed as more competent than those who don't.

2) Businesses get increased customer engagement when they show off their positive work and good reviews.

3)People don't care about how good a business says it is. They care about how good previous customers think they are.

4)Video results on Google are

getting more and more clicks, beating expensive sponsored results, and results that preview a website with written content. So, WiseWords.tv was born. WiseWords will help your business show off your good work, your good reviews and your 'call to action' (call us for a quote now/visit our website now/arrange a viewing today) all through using highly optimised video. Bottom line, we get you more sales with less stress, less cost and less effort. Or, you pay us nothing. Do we sound confident? So get in touch now by sending us a message and arranging a call.

It's easy to find out what USP stands for. But what does it actually mean? And why is having one important? Who knows...
08/11/2019

It's easy to find out what USP stands for. But what does it actually mean? And why is having one important? Who knows?! Local Business Maven does. According to Rosser Reeves, all advertisements for your business should A) Make a proposition, B) Be unique, C) Must sell. And this is where the Unique Selling Proposition idea came from. It boils down to this; why should someone do business with you instead of every other option including doing nothing at all? Clarity here drives the rest of your online marketing efforts. And here's why this is important-you don't want to sell yourselves, you want to sell your USP's. Having a strong USP let's your prospective customers know what you're about because it stops you talking about what you do and starts you talking about what you offer. And this is the key in developing a digital marketing strategy-it's not all about clicks and leads you know! What's more, your USP's can be plentiful and stacked throughout your sales process. The unique idea of 'trying harder' got avis from 11% to 35% market share in a year. It sounds like slogan but it was much, much more than that. What are your USP's? At what points in a customers journey are they to be found? And how is it driving your marketing?

Hi-just a reminder that unless you really know your stuff, your business is probably underselling. It's not to undermin...
28/08/2019

Hi-just a reminder that unless you really know your stuff, your business is probably underselling. It's not to undermine your present level of activity, the quality of your product or the work of your team. It's just that 'sales', 'marketing', 'business strategy' and 'digital attention' must all be combined in the right way. And there are very few teams out there who can pull together to make it all happen. Luckily, I have spend 3 years picking and testing the greatest people and pulling together the best of them; the most willing, experienced and knowledgeable in digital marketing, sales, marketing and strategy. Please don't try to do this by yourself and undersell what you have created. Don't restrict your potential like that. Let me have a look at what you do and how you do it and if I think me and my people can help I'll be sure to tell you how.

There will be so much noise.This year will see an increase in ‘noise’ that everyone is subject to online, distracting...
28/08/2019

There will be so much noise.

This year will see an increase in ‘noise’ that everyone is subject to online, distracting them from what you want them to be doing, which is finding you and becoming a buyer. It’s highly unlikely, even with the above advice taken into account, that someone who visits you will return. You need to bring them back.

You need to make sure that they hear you. Even better, and I'm going to shout this because it is so important (and so that you hear my noise) YOU NEED TO CURATE THE NARRATIVE THEY ARE EXPOSED TO. You can do this with good marketing techniques. Get in touch with me to see how this can be done for your business.

A LOT OF WEBSITES WILL BE OF LITTLE VALUE TO THE BUSINESS. Many businesses have a website because it is ‘the done thin...
27/08/2019

A LOT OF WEBSITES WILL BE OF LITTLE VALUE TO THE BUSINESS.


Many businesses have a website because it is ‘the done thing’ but they have no plans for how they are going to use it. And, even those that do, don’t utilise it as they should. Businesses that continue to leave their websites as little more than extravagant online business cards will fall further behind this year, as more and more competitors focus on the flow of a customer from introduction to sale, and people become more used to being guided through a process. To find out more head to localbusinessmaven.com and check out the latest posts to see the rest of this one!



ALPHABET INC AND FACEBOOK INC WILL DOMINATE Who run the world?“Gurrls” is what Beyonce will tell you.She isn’t right a...
27/08/2019

ALPHABET INC AND FACEBOOK INC WILL DOMINATE


Who run the world?

“Gurrls” is what Beyonce will tell you.

She isn’t right at all. Alphabet run the world, And so do Facebook.

In case you didn’t know, Alphabet Inc is the entity which owns Chrome, Google, Android, YouTube, Adsense & DoubleClick, Picassa, Hangouts and many more.

Facebook, as well as being, well, Facebook, also own WhatsApp and Instagram. And, if you were to survey the entire world and ask them ‘who has access to the internet’ and ‘who has Facebook?’, more people will tell you they have Facebook than will tell you they have access to the internet. Why? Because they run the world, that’s why.

It’s actually a lot more complicated than that; in some places Facebook Inc are the internet provider, some people have intermittent access to the internet and always use Facebook when they get access, and in some areas Facebook is so intertwined with the idea of the internet it is considered the internet. People use Google and Facebook as a search engine for businesses. And Facebook and Google are going to continue to do as much to make those searches as accurate as possible.

Both will also continue to offer services to businesses too. In 2018 Google drastically expanded its offerings to businesses with its G-Suit (worth checking out!) and Facebook’s ad manager, which integrates with Instagram will become more powerful this year.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? Head over to localbusinessmaven.com (link in bio) and read the rest of this article!




IGNORANT INSTAGRAMMING AND FAILED FACEBOOKING;MY PREDICTION FOR THE YEAR:An ever growing number of businesses, having...
27/08/2019

IGNORANT INSTAGRAMMING AND FAILED FACEBOOKING;
MY PREDICTION FOR THE YEAR:
An ever growing number of businesses, having been told that they must focus on ‘social’ will get unqualified and unenthusiastic people running their social media accounts, or they will outsource this to ‘digital nomads’ who have a ‘social media agency’ and will be paid relatively vast sums of money to take haphazard shots at getting a business client through social media mediums, whilst paying no attention to the needs and wants of the business. Sole traderey–types who are some of the most respectable business owners and the best placed to take advantage of social media, will post what they want to on Facebook and Instagram without thinking about what their prospective clients want to see. Or, they will copy what others do, blissfully unaware that the account they are copying is posting based on a highly specific, fine-tuned strategy, or also has no idea what they are doing.



WHHO KNOWS WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? I do. Head over to the main local business maven website (link in bio) and look for this article in the 'recent posts' section.

REPUTATION.People don’t care how long you’ve been a family run business for, or that you’ve won an award (awards are les...
27/08/2019

REPUTATION.
People don’t care how long you’ve been a family run business for, or that you’ve won an award (awards are less trusted than ever) or how you’ve been established since 1842, or how amazing your logo is. In fact, they don’t care at all about what you say about your business. They care what other people say about your business, specifically, your past and present customers.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT:


There are three things I think you must do: and to find out you'll have to visit the main site, (there's a sharacter limit here you know!) link in bio and navigate yourself to the reputation article under 'latest posts' or find the local business maven page.

VISION 2020; EMAIL MARKETINGThis is the first in a series of articles looking at the landscape of ‘the internet’ for bus...
26/08/2019

VISION 2020; EMAIL MARKETING

This is the first in a series of articles looking at the landscape of ‘the internet’ for businesses as we prepare to enter a new decade.

EMAIL MARKETING.
THE PREDICTION
Using email will continue to work as a means to acquire new clients and customers, and as a way to encourage your previous buyers to become buyers again. But it will not work as well as it did in years gone by and the focus will, more than ever, have to be on offering ‘value’ and ‘engaging content’ to your list.



WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Imagine for a moment that it is November and the most important thing left for you to do before having your nearest and dearest for dinner at Christmas is to decide upon which Christmas cracker set you are going to buy. Every Friday, on your way to work stand two Christmas cracker sales people. One is selling green crackers, the other red. As you walk by the green seller, they shout politely towards you, “Hi there! Would you like to buy a box of Christmas crackers? They have
all of these different toys in them, and the crowns are perfectly folded and the bang is superb!”

“Thanks!” you’ll say as you walk on by. “I’ll think about it.” Then you reach the red seller. “Hey You!” they shout, slightly abrasively, maybe, but with a welcoming smile. “I’m selling boxes of crackers for Christmas. Our crowns are perfectly folded, here – have one!” You take a crown and walk on by.

The next Friday, a similar thing happens as you walk past the green seller. “Hello! Just to let you know, here are my prices, I thought you’d like to know them. Remember, there are great toys to be had in my Christmas crackers!” and as you get to the red seller; “Hi! These crackers have really good jokes in them, here, have a few examples. And, here’s a little advice slip on how best to tell your joke so all your family members think you’re the funniest! It’s just for you because you’re walking by my stand again”.

The third Friday, the green seller waves at you and reminds you, in case you forgot, that you need crackers for Christmas (how very helpful of them) and that the crackers stand is “Right here!”. The red seller this time has a selection of toys laid out on the table for you to see.

By week 4, the green seller takes the opportunity to tell you again how amazing Christmas is, and that you need crackers. The red seller this time has a special offer for you, their crackers are usually more expensive than the red ones, but because you have been engaging and polite every Friday morning, you can get some money off, so they are the same price as the red crackers.

Which crackers are you buying? If you’d buy the green crackers, I think you know something that I don’t and I’d love for you to get in touch so you can tell me about cracker sales. Most would choose the red, because the red seller offered genuine value.



More so than in 2018, you can be heard or you can be background noise. And the more value you offer your email readers, the more likely you are to be heard. The trouble is, business owners oftentimes are so impressed with what they have created they forget that just telling people that they are here and reminding them that they could buy is not adding value! It is being an annoyance.



To be clear. You should not email your list to remind them you are there, to update them on your prices or your offer and then expect them to be able to hear you. You must offer value.



So what is value? Here are some ideas:

Top tips on how to do (activity somewhat related to your niche) when
using (product relating to your business)
News & views
Thoughts and ideas relevant to the environment within which you and your
buyers do business
Relevant Stories
Humour
Special offers…and then, and only then…
Updates on your business, and reminders of how they can buy or book etc.


Once you have decided on how the email you will send will add value to your subscribers it’s important to get the structure right. This is something people have been doing incorrectly for years. Writing an email promoting your business is not the same as writing an email to communicate about your business. So here’s what to do. The subject line: Normally used to summarise
your email. In promotional emails there is only one purpose of the subject line. This is to make the receiver open your email.

The headline/Intro line: Normally used to say Hi Jenny, I hope this email finds you well. I am emailing to…
In promotional emails there is only one purpose of the subject line. Thisis to make the receiver stay on your email and get to the next paragraph: Hi Jenny, Something happened today and It made me think of everyone who
owns one of our ‘supersponge window cleaners’ – I don’t think anyone would have thought about this before!

And then you add the value: This can be news about your business, an idea, new trends, info about a product or service, updates on industry changes (your indistry or their industry), a story, an idea, etc. You have to be a little creative. But make the body of your email interesting, or entertaining, or thoughtful, or useful, or informative. It can sound like quite a task, but nothing will demonstrate how ‘do-able’ this is quite like sitting down and getting started. Or standing up and getting started if you have one of those healthy people desks. However you work, it is only begenning this and seing it through to the end that will show you how able you are to connect with your email contacts.

Call to action: This is where you get the receiver used to taking action after they have read your emails. You tell them to like your page, or to watch this video you saw on YouTube that also illustrates your above point, or to check out your Instagram story…anything which gets them used to being called upon to do something after they have read your email. This is important, because once you have done plenty of emails offering genuine value to your email recipients, you can do a sales email and the call to action this time will be something like click here to order now/ call in to buy. Something that makes you a sale.



If you haven’t been doing this in 2018, try it in 2019. It will take a while for your list to warm to your emails, but your open
rate will increase. And, once you have got your creative juices flowing, thinking of ways to give value in your next email will get easier and easier. Just please remember;

No matter how spectacular your business offering is, merely reminding people that you are there is not offering value.

ARE YOU USING SOCIAL MEDIA OR IS SOCIAL MEDIA USING YOU?I HAVE A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. I genuinely e...
26/08/2019

ARE YOU USING SOCIAL MEDIA OR IS SOCIAL MEDIA USING YOU?

I HAVE A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.


I genuinely enjoy the time I spend on the various platforms I have a profile on, and I enjoy sharing something that I consider to be ‘share-worthy’.

I feel like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest have added a lot of value to the internet. And If we include YouTube to that then almost my entire time online is taken up on social media sites. (Some say YouTube is a search engine, some say it is social media. I say it depends on context.)



However, Social Media use does also have the ability to literally rot your brain. Well, maybe not literally, but it decreases its functionality; It’s bad for performance, it’s bad for mindfulness, presence and productivity. When this is coupled to the fact that a lot of local businesses are finding that being active on social media is of benefit to their sales, a perfect storm is brewing. This is because when working in a task focused way, working towards a goal, this is when resistance is most likely to attack and lead us to procrastinate. And any social media site is designed with getting you to focus in ‘it’ instead of on ‘you’ as its main aim. So many times I have lost an hour to Instagram or Facebook when just trying to share a business related post.

THE KEY, IS TO THINK OF YOURSELF AS A CONTENT CREATOR, NOT A CONTENT CONSUMER.


They say if the product is free then the product isn’t the product, you are the product. And they are right. But you are not a product! You run or own a business and you will not be the product!!! And this is why you must not go on social media to consume, but to create.

Repeat this as often as you need to, out loud if you wish. “I am not a product! I am a successful business person! I don’t consume content, I create it! I don’t lose power, I gain power!”.

Yeah I know – it sounds a bit wooly but when it comes to the black hole that is social media anything is worth giving a try.

It’s a bit like fire – even though it’s dangerous it is also an incredible thing to take advantage of; it leverages the masses and it captures people in a way that can lead to your content going viral, getting more exposure and getting shared (and getting indexed on search engines higher as a result). And what’s more the content consumers want to consume content! So let’s give it to them.

HOW TO DETERMINE WHEN TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA
The guys at WealthyAffiliate.com (opens in new tab if you’re interested – and you might be! It’s not only good for affiliates its amazing for all business owners) say it best:

The best thing you can do is set aside a certain time of day to use social media. If you find that you are on any particular social network throughout the entirety of your day (in and out), then it is not a part of your business….it has become a BAD HABIT.

Social engagement can be good for your business if you are “engaging” for the purpose of business.

One thing I recommend you do is create a list of your social networks and then list the HOW and WHY you are using them for business, see the below. I recommend copy and pasting this and keeping the bold and filling out your own answers. I promise it will be insightful and you don’t need to make a change once you have an overview of how and when you are on social media sites, so don’t let that inner voice that hates change stop you from giving this exercise a go.

THAT BEING SAID, THE BEST WAY TO IMPROVE SOMETHING IS TO SIMPLY START RECORDING IT, SO TRY THIS OUT FOR ALL OF THE SITES THAT YOU USE:
————————————————————————————————–

Social Network: [eg Facebook]

How I am Using it? (What are your activities)

Adding content related to my niche/business
Starting Discussions Related to my niche
Posting all new and valuable content (articles, videos, and pages)
Offering Support and communication via the private messaging
Why I am Using it? (Will it really benefit your business)

To gain more followers in my niche
To increase traffic to my website through posting
To increase my brand presence
Offer customer service to my potential and existing customers
When I am Using it? (What time of the day are you using it and for how long)

No more than 15 minutes three times per day
————————————————————————————————–

There are some necessary engagement tasks that are fundamental to your business. To increase efficiency, you are also going to want to set aside certain times of the day that you handle these things. I recommend a maximum of 3 times a day to handle all of these:

(1) Getting back to comments on your website/blog

(2) Getting back to comments on your site

(3) Handling private questions and emails in a timely manner

For most people, what they need to do is to stop ‘hanging out’ and start ‘sharing out’ things about their business, product or service and industry – things that others might find helpful. Again, this is being the content creator not the content consumer.



TIME FOR SOME SUMMARY BULLET POINTS:
If you don’t have a following and are not interested in building a following, you’re consuming not creating.
If you find yourself trying to create a following by desperately following others hoping they will follow you back, you’re being ineffective and need a social media strategy.
If you are “active just sometimes” and not totally engaged this is a sign that you should move into Share Only mode within that particular social network.
If you find yourself just dropping promotions on a social network, then you are likely going to find yourself wasting your precious time. Remember it is social media not selling media so stop selling and start offering social value.
Remember, other people will share QUALITY content…

Just because you are not active within a social network, it does not mean that you aren’t getting social reach still. If you create awesome content on your website, it will get shared socially through all the social networks and see how it cascades.

Oftentimes, your reputation and your social media engagement is all there is to your businesses ‘brand’. So use it well, create, build your brand and see it benefit your business.

And I do suggest that you fill out an overview for each of the sites you use. Just being informed on how you are wasting time is often enough to fight off the tricks the platforms play on you. And who knows, maybe you dont waste time at all and this will be a nice esteem boosting exercise that proves you are a master of inner resistance!

Who else wants their business to be at the front?
13/11/2018

Who else wants their business to be at the front?


No one wants a tripod. They want their camera to stay still. Are your prospective customers trying to buy what you sell...
10/11/2018

No one wants a tripod. They want their camera to stay still.
Are your prospective customers trying to buy what you sell them? Or are they actually trying to buy the benefits it may bring? What are you spending your time telling them about?

The distinction is important.

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