Marketing-advice Concerning Small Service-businesses

Marketing-advice Concerning Small Service-businesses I teach my customers how to boost and maintain sales over the long term.

My interests include aquaculture, aviculture, behaviourism, cryptozoology, marketing, martial arts, paranormal phenomena, and tracking with dogs.

🔴 Can I run paid advertisements on Facebook to target business-owners?​Yes!​In an attempt to do so, one would select tar...
07/10/2024

🔴 Can I run paid advertisements on Facebook to target business-owners?
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Yes!
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In an attempt to do so, one would select targeting-criteria that describe the average member of the relevant target-market or the types of business-owners to which one would like to have Facebook deliver the relevant advertisement or advertisements.
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Additionally, if one had the contact-details of business-owners that have given one permission to retarget them using Facebook, one could do so.
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🔴 How do I differentiate a service?​To differentiate a service, one must undertake to offer one or more differentiating ...
02/09/2024

🔴 How do I differentiate a service?
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To differentiate a service, one must undertake to offer one or more differentiating value-propositions.
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A “value-proposition” could be defined as that which may incline a customer to make a purchase.
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Value-propositions should generally be made in accordance with the needs of customers, which can be determined by such means as inviting customers and potential customers to comment on what they like about a service, inviting customers and potential customers to make suggestions concerning a service, or both (ideally, potential customers would also be invited to make comments and suggestions concerning services that one is thinking about offering).
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In consideration of the preceding recommendation, one could generally ask oneself the following questions when attempting to differentiate a service:
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1️⃣ Does the location of my business benefit the customer?/Would the location of my business benefit the customer?
2️⃣ What more could I offer in relation to this service than my competitors do?
3️⃣ Could I offer better pricing than my competitors do?
4️⃣ What guarantees and warranties could I give customers that my competitors don’t?
5️⃣ Could I improve customer-service in ways that my competitors haven’t?/Could I offer a level of customer-service that my competitors don’t?
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Concerning the questions of point 5, improving customer-service needn’t be expensive or generally difficult. For example, one could:
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☑️ generally greet each customer or potential customer with whom one interacts;
☑️ generally smile when speaking to a customer or a potential customer;
☑️ generally undertake to give each customer or potential customer one’s attention when interacting with him or her;
☑️ generally undertake to return promptly any calls from customers and potential customers that one was not able to take;
☑️ generally undertake to reply promptly to messages from customers and potential customers;
☑️ generally undertake to honour appointments and other commitments that one makes to customers and potential customers;
☑️ generally refrain from smoking when interacting with a customer or a potential customer;
☑️ generally refrain from eating when interacting with a customer or a potential customer, unless where dining with him or her.
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🔴 Is it better to run free advertisements on Facebook than it is to run paid advertisements on Facebook?​In my experienc...
05/08/2024

🔴 Is it better to run free advertisements on Facebook than it is to run paid advertisements on Facebook?
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In my experience, not generally.
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If an advertisement did not reach sufficient numbers of the right people (i.e. potential customers), it would not likely boost sales, even if it were seen millions of times by millions of people.
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Statistics concerning e-mail marketing and direct mail suggest that an advertisement may have to be seen by as many as 100 or more potential customers before the relevant advertiser receives a response (in other words, each group of 100 or more deliveries of an advertisement may result in the receipt of only one response, which means that if one hoped to receive at least 10 responses per week, one’s advertisement may have to be seen by as many as 1 000 or more potential customers per week).
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The free advertisements that are published to Facebook could be divided into three categories: those that are each published to one or more Facebook-pages, those that are each published to one or more Facebook-groups, and those that are each published to one or more Facebook-pages and to one or more Facebook-groups.
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The average free advertisement that is published to the average Facebook-page is not likely to be seen by 1 000 potential customers per week, despite its reach (as you may know, “reach”, in the context of Facebook, is an estimate of the number of Facebook-users who have seen a post).
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By running paid advertisements on Facebook, one is not only able to increase the reach of each advertisement, but also to set parameters that may increase the frequency with which each advertisement is delivered to the right Facebook-users (i.e. potential customers).
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Some business-owners attempt to boost sales by publishing free advertisements to large Facebook-groups, but one reason that this strategy is not likely to succeed generally is that each member of a Facebook-group is given the option to specify the frequency with which he or she is notified of new posts, if at all, which means that the average member of the average Facebook-group may never see many of the free advertisements that would interest him or her.
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By running paid advertisements on Facebook, one would be paying to have Facebook deliver each advertisement directly to Facebook-users.
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🔴 What advice do you have for someone who wants to start a small service-business?​These are some of the general pieces ...
01/07/2024

🔴 What advice do you have for someone who wants to start a small service-business?
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These are some of the general pieces of advice that I’d presently give to someone who wants to start a small service-business:
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1️⃣ (where possible) consider entering an industry in which competitiveness is relatively low and demand relatively high;
2️⃣ consider offering one or more services that customers are likely to purchase two or more times per year or for which customers would each pay a monthly fee;
3️⃣ (where possible) consider targeting one or more areas in which there are few to no competitors;
4️⃣ conduct a SWOT-analysis in the context of each potential industry or market;
5️⃣ formulate a service-related marketing-plan for each prospective service with an emphasis on making at least one differentiating value-proposition per service;
6️⃣ formulate a strategic marketing-plan in the context of five years and adjust the said plan where necessary;
7️⃣ generally undertake to ensure that every advertisement that is published on behalf of your business comprises an offer and a call to action that is intended to induce a sense of urgency;
8️⃣ generally undertake to deliver good or superior customer-service (examples include generally smiling when interacting with a customer, generally being attentive when a customer speaks, generally returning a customer’s calls, generally honouring the commitments that one makes to a customer, generally being punctual, and generally taking responsibility for one’s mistakes);
9️⃣ be customer-orientated (being customer-orientated involves conducting ongoing research into market-related trends and adjusting the product- or service-portfolio or -portfolios of one’s business accordingly).
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🔴 What should I do when the number of sales of a service begins to decline consistently?​The first step that I generally...
03/06/2024

🔴 What should I do when the number of sales of a service begins to decline consistently?
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The first step that I generally recommend that one take when undertaking to boost the consistently declining sales of a service is to revise the situational analysis that one may have conducted in the context of the relevant service (ideally, one would conduct a situational analysis before starting a business or having one's business offer a service for the first time).
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The second step that I generally recommend that one take when undertaking to boost the consistently declining sales of a service is to revise the marketing-plan that one may have formulated concerning the relevant service, with emphasis on unique value-propositions that correspond to the needs of the average potential buyer (ideally, one would formulate a marketing-plan before having one's business offer a service for the first time).
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The reason for the preceding recommendations is that the running of a profitable business over the long-term involves keeping abreast, to the extent practical, of changes concerning the contextual needs, behaviours, and psychographics of customers (whether former or potential) and undertaking, to extents that are profitable, to modify one's services or range of services accordingly.
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The following is a moderately edited version of a general copywriting-formula that I drafted earlier today for a local t...
21/05/2024

The following is a moderately edited version of a general copywriting-formula that I drafted earlier today for a local tree-feller who wants to boost his sales and who has agreed to have me teach him how to optimise his business’ Facebook-page.

The aforedescribed formula could be followed by any tree-feller, subject to his or her discretion, when formulating a graphic post for his or her business’ Facebook-page or when formulating a graphic, paid advertisement for Facebook.

The aforedescribed formula could also be used for the formulation of the narrational and textual components of videographic posts (because statistics reveal that most Facebook-users watch videos whilst they are muted, one ought always to include text in one’s videos).

▶ Step 1: create, or have created on your behalf, a graphic that features a pair of before-and-after images that feature in your business’ portfolio (in other words, part of the graphic should depict one or more trees prior to their having been felled by you or your team and part of the graphic should depict the same tree or trees after their having been felled by you or your team).

Ideally, one ought to select a pair of before-and-after images that do not feature in any other advertisement that one may have published for the featured service because the greater the variety of images that one’s business’ advertisements feature, the greater the degree of trust that one may elicit in potential customers who have each studied more than one of the advertisements that one may have published.

Additionally, one ought to ensure that one has obtained, in the necessary formats, any requisite publicational permissions concerning any image that one may wish to include in an advertisement (such permissions may be described by a copyright-lawyer).

▶ Step 2: formulate for the graphic that is described in step 1 a headline that describes one or more of a potential customer’s needs.

The following is a generic example of such a headline:

“Do you need a tree-feller?”

▶ Step 3: formulate a caption that does one or more of the following:

• identifies the intended recipient, whether directly or indirectly;
• describes the featured service;
• describes one or two key value-propositions;
• prompts the intended recipient to make a purchase (the relevant prompt ought to be worded to induce a sense of urgency).

Where possible, one would also include 2 to 12 supportive testimonials that were submitted by customers from whom one has obtained the relevant publicational permissions.

The following is a generic example of such a caption:

“... We fell all types of trees in and around [insert name of region] and we undertake to match or beat any written quotation!

Call us today on [insert contact-number] for a fee quotation before we become fully booked for the rest of the month!

Alternatively, send us a message via WhatsApp or Facebook and we’ll call you back!

This is what some of our happy customers have said about us:

[insert 2 to 12 supportive testimonials]

Regards
[insert name]
Founder and expert tree-feller …”

If one were formulating a videographic post, such as one that features a recording by a second person of one engaged in the felling of a tree on a customer’s premises, one could divide amongst the frames thereof the text that one will have formulated using the preceding formula.

Happy selling!

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🔴 Which marketing-strategies are the most effective?​Marketing-strategies are a diverse group of strategies that could b...
13/05/2024

🔴 Which marketing-strategies are the most effective?
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Marketing-strategies are a diverse group of strategies that could be divided into subgroups based on the activity or activities to which each strategy relates. For example, there are marketing-strategies that relate to market-research, marketing-strategies that relate to market-penetration, marketing-strategies that relate to targeting, marketing-strategies that relate to sales-models, and marketing-strategies that relate to pricing.
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Additionally, the efficacy and suitability of a marketing-strategy may be determined primarily or exclusively by circumstance.
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Accordingly, it may be that the most effective marketing-strategies can only be identified in both the context of a specific division of a marketing-plan and the context of a specific business.
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🔴 What’s the difference between marketing and making sales?​In one sense, the term “marketing” is used as a synonym for ...
01/04/2024

🔴 What’s the difference between marketing and making sales?
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In one sense, the term “marketing” is used as a synonym for the term “selling”, ​ but in another sense, the term is used in reference to additional activities.
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The following is a personal, provisional definition for the term “marketing”, as used in the context of a for-profit business, but outside the context in which the making of sales is the sole consideration:
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“... The analysis of the needs of customers, whether potential, former, or otherwise, for the purposes of planning and co-ordinating the fulfilment of one or more such needs in ways that contribute, whether directly or indirectly, to the financial well-being or growth of the relevant business. …”
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🔴 Should I hire a social-media manager to grow the Facebook-group that I've created for my small service-business?​Assum...
04/03/2024

🔴 Should I hire a social-media manager to grow the Facebook-group that I've created for my small service-business?
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Assuming that one’s small service-business is of the variety that could benefit from a Facebook-group and that the management of the relevant group facilitated the making of sales, I’d generally recommend that one only hire a social-media manager to grow the said group if he or she could guarantee that every new member would be a potential customer and that he or she would achieve the desired degree of growth by adhering to both the terms that are applicable to the use of Facebook and any applicable laws (I use the term “potential customer” in reference to a person who is likely to purchase one or more of the services that are advertised in the relevant group).
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If one considered the number of the aforedescribed Facebook-users to whom a social-media manager would have to issue invitations for the purposes of facilitating only one sale whilst adhering to the aforedescribed terms and laws, one may realise that the hiring of a social-media manager for the aforedescribed purposes may not be economical, profitable, or possible.
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For example, assuming that one’s small service-business has achieved an average rate of conversion from potential customer to customer of 1 %, ​ a social-media manager may have to grow the relevant group by 100 potential customers per day in order to facilitate only one sale per day.
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🔴 Should I run paid advertisements on Facebook on behalf of my small service-business?​Statista report that, as of the s...
05/02/2024

🔴 Should I run paid advertisements on Facebook on behalf of my small service-business?
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Statista report that, as of the second quarter of 2023, there were approximately 3 billion active, monthly users of Facebook. Consequently, a small service-business may benefit significantly from the running of paid advertisements on Facebook, subject to such factors as:
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• the demand for the relevant offer;
• the audiences that are targeted;
• the order in which the relevant audiences are targeted;
• the quality of the relevant advertisement.
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However, because one could lose access to a Facebook-account at any time, without warning, and for indefinite periods, I presently recommend that one generally not rely indefinitely on the running of paid advertisements on Facebook as an exclusive means of generating sales.
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🔴 Why should I not undertake to make sales as a consequence of attracting followers on behalf of my small service-busine...
11/01/2024

🔴 Why should I not undertake to make sales as a consequence of attracting followers on behalf of my small service-business?
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One primary reason that I would not recommend that one undertake to make sales as a consequence of attracting followers on behalf of one’s small service business is that one may inadvertently build a following that comprises more casual followers than potential customers. Accordingly, I generally recommend that one who is inclined to attract followers on behalf of his or her small service-business generally undertake to do so as a consequence of making profitable sales through which the relevant customer-needs are fulfilled.
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