Selling your products or services for Christmas? Planning your marketing will give you the sales boost you’re hoping for – and it’s not too late to start.
Set aside some time to plan your content – what it is and when it will be sent or published, so that you’re ready to go.
Here are the Izzy PR tips to help get you maximising your Xmas sales marketing...
 

TARGET AUDIENCES AND KEY MESSAGES
Who uses your products / services and why? Each target audience will need different messaging – don’t go general, go targeted.
What does each target group want from your products/services? What problem can you solve and what’s the outcome once they’ve bought from you – tell them.

USE YOUR DATABASE
What did they buy last year, last time, how often do they buy from you, what do they buy? Use all of this wonderful data to let them know what you have and why to buy again or for the first time.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Choose the best platforms – where your buyers will see you. Think about your target audience again – where are they? Online, offline, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc?
Use a mix of images and videos that show the product/service in action, used by the different target audiences, including the relevant key messages for each. Post demo videos, ‘how to’ information, flash offers and previous customer reviews.

WEBSITE
Make sure the customer has all the information they need to know and that the buying process is quick, easy and secure.
If it’s not all there, you might lose them.

EMAIL MARKETING
Plan targeted campaigns – you will need to segment your audience for this to be really effective, so that you are telling the right people the right key messages.
Don’t tell all the people all the messages – you’ll start to look like you don’t know what they want.
Plan a sequence, so that they are sent a series that makes sense, moving them closer to a purchase. Remove those who have already bought, into a different audience and send different messaging.

REVIEWS
Always ask for a review, or user-generated content (UGC) - this is where they show of your product on social media...they're doing your advertising for you!

ADVERTISING
Digital advertising can be fairly instant, but print advertising needs to be booked asap – publications close to adverts 2-3 weeks ahead of distribution.
If there’s a place you want to advertise, think about it soon!

*Image credit Canva September 2024*

You need to do more with your content! You know it and you know it will help grow your business - so what’s stopping you producing it?

Here, from my experience, are the four main roadblocks to getting going.

What do I  have to offer?

You may think you couldn’t provide valuable content but that’s simply not true. Everybody has something they can produce which will add value to the audience.

Remember that your audience are not looking for a unique concept, they’re looking for new perspectives and new ways of explaining things. There are no new ideas, but there are always new viewpoints.

Your skill set is a valuable source of content, whether you’re a restaurant owner- sharing recipes, a carpenter with DIY advice, or a content alchemist- explaining how to develop content.

You wouldn’t be in business if you didn’t have value to offer. Content is all about explaining that.

I don’t have time!

Unfortunately there’s no easy solution to this, other than to simply make time. When considering my time limitations, I often think of this quote:

“If it is important, you will find time, if it isn’t you’ll make an excuse” (Anon.)

Assuming you get things done on time for clients, use this approach to get things done for yourself. When producing content, you’re effectively your own client.

Make sure to get help rather than battling with things, too. For instance, if you have a choice between spending several days producing a flier, or hiring a graphic designer who knows what they’re doing and can do it in an hour, seriously consider each approach. More than anything else, value your own time.

If you were working for a client, what could you be earning rather than struggling with content?

‘Perfectionitis’

It’s a common problem where someone spends a disproportionate amount of time trying to make their content perfect. True perfection is impossible.

Instead the level of perfection should directly relate to the lifetime of the content. For example, a flier needs to last longer than a single email. This means that you can afford to make that email less than perfect, but the flier might require more time.

Some things matter more than others but ultimately perfection is less important than whether or not you’re getting the message across, or the value is clear.

There’s a blog post on this in my last series entitled “Spoiling and Grammering” which should help you here.

I really hate….

If you hate producing a certain type of content, the quality of the content will probably suffer. Livestreaming, for example, is great and extremely powerful, but if you dread being in front of the camera, don’t start there.

It’s important to experiment with a range of content, but build your confidence by starting with content you’re already comfortable with. Remember, if you enjoy doing it, you’ll produce better content and it won’t even feel like work.

When you’re ready to use something else, consider re-purposing existing content. Take a blog, far example, and turn it into a livestream. This makes the new format less intimidating.

With these blockers out of your way, you should be well on your way to producing great content. And, if you feel there are other road-blocks in your way, comment below or contact us and we’ll be happy to see how we can help.

Image credit Canva

So, you’ve been online and everything you’ve read about marketing is telling you that having “a list” is key. Or to put it another way, everyone is telling you to build a large database of subscribers who have signed up to hear from you by way of your newsletter. And that seems simple enough, doesn’t it?

The answer

Well, yes and no. An effective newsletter is a great way of keeping yourself “top of mind” of all your fans, helping spread the word about your business, and with luck (or hard work) win new clients.

So far so good, but if you’ve ever written a regular newsletter, you’ll already know that getting those subscribers and creating great newsletters is hard! And getting subscribers to actually open your newsletter and click on those all-important links is even harder.

So, what’s the magic formula?

Actually, there is no magic or mystery to newsletter success. The real secret is to always keep in mind a few standard but golden rules:

1.Know your objective and get organised

It’s all too easy to think, oh cr*p, it’s newsletter day I better just get something out. But in fact, like all marketing tools, you need to have some clear objectives in mind: What’s the overall objective of writing a regular newsletter (more visits to your website, increased brand awareness, more phone call enquiries)? What’s the objective of each individual newsletter? Promotion of a particular product or event? Hand in hand with objectives goes planning. Your newsletters will perform better and be much easier to manage if it is thought out and planned well in advance so that it dovetails nicely with your other marketing activities. You also need to consider how you’re going to organise the content you include. If you just chuck everything in, don’t be surprised if it looks a bit like lumpy porridge.

2. Quality and relevance

When I’m writing a newsletter, I always start by reminding myself that my readers are very busy. And if they’ve been kind enough to allow me into their inbox and better still, if they’ve given me 5 minutes of their time to read my newsletter, then I better make it worth their while, or they might just dump me. Think about your own behaviour when you’re busy and your inbox is filling up. The chances are, you’ll only read stuff that you know is going to be interesting or useful. And won’t take too long. So that’s your mission when writing your own newsletter, to deliver something worthwhile… every… single… time. In a nice succinct and easy-to-read way. The other thing to bear in mind is that although it’s called a newsletter, just telling readers all about your news and what you’ve been up to is rarely interesting enough. There, I’ve said it. Your readers are much more interested in themselves than they are in you, so unless your news is somehow of use to them, less is more!

3.Frequency

Frequency is going to be dependent on the point above, namely how much really interesting and relevant news can you generate consistently? If you’re writing lifestyle newsletters with regular recommendations for great things to do (a weekend away, a new restaurant, a local wine) then weekly newsletters just before the weekend may be absolutely fine. But if you’re writing about widgets, honestly, how much do your clients really want or need to hear from you? Would monthly be more than enough? Consistency is also key here. If you’ve announced to the world that you’ll be publishing a weekly newsletter, that’s what you’ve got to do. Every week. However busy or boring your world has been.

4. Length

This is super tricky and again depends on your audience and what else is in your newsletter. Does it have links to articles on your website, links to external content, lots of photographs, and testimonials? I’ve seen newsletters that are just one sentence long but have perhaps four links (with a compelling Call to Action with each) and it works really well. What you don’t want to do is write too much. Nobody really has time to read for more than a minute or two so a couple of paragraphs is usually sufficient.

5. Keep it simple

OK, so you’re one of those lucky businesses which have lots going on and lots of great information to share. Great, but don’t overwhelm your reader. Remember your objective? Do you want them to visit one particular page of your website perhaps? Well then don’t include 6 links to all sorts of other places. And don’t forget to make it really clear and simple what you want them to do… or they won’t do it. Keep the design and format clean, and make sure every aspect of is it easy. That usually means one clear Call to Action. And while you’re thinking about your design, go back and look at your newsletter sign-up page. Is it clear and compelling? Does it tell subscribers what to expect from your newsletter and give them a reason to sign up in the first place?

6. Not too much sell

Of course, ultimately you want to get more sales, but nobody wants something rammed down their throat. That means keeping a healthy balance. Focus on delivering really interesting, valuable content and keep the sales to about 10%.

7. Spend time writing a “wow” factor email subject line

Most of your readers will decide whether or not to open your newsletter based on the email subject line. As internet users, we’ve all become pretty good and using these one-liners to filter out the stuff we don’t think is interesting or might be spam. That means, in order to get your readers to even open your newsletter, your subject line has got to be pretty damn compelling. Don’t write it as an afterthought. Tempt them, tease them, let them know what amazing things are within. Use emotive and sensory language, be playful… but never, ever promise something in the email subject line and then fail to deliver. It’s a breach of trust and you will lose subscribers.

8. Promotion

Spend a little time thinking about how you will promote your newsletter. Will you invite people to sign up in your social media posts, or as your Call to Action at a networking event. Think about the wording you will use to encourage people to sign up. These little snippets can be as important as the newsletter itself but can easily be neglected.

9. Have faith

There are simply hundreds of newsletter gurus out there that will promise you that if you sign up to their course for a small fee (for which read large), they can give you the magic formula to 10,000 subscribers in less than a week (or something like that).

They can be tempting but the bottom line is newsletters take thought, and time and require dogged consistency. But stick with it if you can. Make it a religion. Make it the one thing you do exceptionally well and keep going!

Or, of course, if that all sounds like too much hard work, you can always ask me to write them for you!

Please get in touch if you would like to know more.

*Photo credit - Canva

Have you ever felt a bit deflated after posting a blog that you’re really proud of, only to receive little to no results from it?

With so many things to think about as a business owner, you want to be sure that your efforts are going to bring you results. If they don’t, it's tempting to move on to the next thing that promises to bring you success. 

But sometimes, the things that aren't working aren't completely wrong. Sometimes, with just a few small tweaks - changing this, polishing that - we can drastically improve the results we get from our efforts. 

Here are four small tweaks you could make to your blogs to begin seeing better results. 

1: Keep titles clear and concise 

Aside from SEO, titles might be the most dreaded part of writing a blog. There are so many other blogs and web pages out there to contend with that it’s not surprising we all feel under so much pressure to write the perfect headline. 

Thing is, after a LOT of research and experience of blogging for myself and for clients, I can say with certainty that a clear, concise title will always win over something clever or funny. 

The reason: if you’re ambiguous about your topic in the title, the algorithms at Google won’t have a clue what you’re on about and therefore won’t show your blog to anyone googling the topic you’ve actually written about. 

It’s important to specify exactly what the reader will gain from reading your blog too. Notice how I titled this article to be clear that it’s about getting better results from your blog? I didn’t just call it “tips about blogging”. Being too vague means that anyone who spots your blog in search results or on social media won’t have the faintest idea what they will get from reading your blog. 

If they can’t see what the benefit is of reading that blog, they’ll simply keep on scrolling to the next bit of content that DOES feel relevant and helpful to them. Then you’ve lost their attention for good. 

2: Write like yourself

It can be hard to throw off the corporate shackles when we begin writing content for our own business. Perhaps you think that instead of writing like yourself you should try to sound more professional so that readers will take you seriously. 

I’m going to rock the boat and say that this is the last thing you should do in your blog.

Why?

Because ‘professional’ means something different for everyone. Maybe for you it’s about not swearing. Or is it a way of hiding behind jargon and unnecessarily complicated sentences because you’re too afraid to really be yourself?

Instead, focus on developing a tone of voice that really shows off your personality and your brand values. This is what makes you YOU, and they’re the things your ideal clients will be intrigued by and fall in love with as they’re deciding who they want to work with to solve their problem. 

You’re doing yourself a real disservice if you try to cover this up with professional or corporate lingo. 

3: Space text out into short paragraphs

As we all start to use smaller and smaller devices to consume content, it becomes more important to make your blogs as easy to read as possible . 

Big chunks of text are difficult to follow, not to mention quite daunting for some. This encourages your reader to simply skim your blog instead of really engaging with it. In the worst case scenario, they might be so put off that they don’t even start reading. 

To keep your reader interested and engaged, split your paragraphs into the smallest chunks possible while still retaining the sense of them. Each paragraph, or sub-paragraph, should be no more than three or four lines long. 

By their nature, some readers will still skim your article, but you’ve made it much easier to stay with you and to take notice of the Call to Action you’ve left them at the end.

4: Include a clear and obvious Call to Action

The Call to Action is one of the most important parts of your blog in terms of your strategy. Missing it out is like telling your friends about a party you’re hosting and not telling them when or where it’s happening. 

To make this really obvious to your reader, you could weave the Call to Action into the final paragraph of the blog itself. If you prefer to separate the Call to Action from the main text of the blog, make sure it’s still very easy for the reader to spot the Call to Action from the end of the blog. Don’t hide it at the bottom of an extensive biography or underneath a photo. 

Tell them exactly where to find you if you want them to connect with you on social media and include links so that it’s easy for them to click through. Or if you’d like them to download a freebie, tell them why it would be useful for them and, again, make it easy for them to access. 

Keep at it

Remember that blogging is a long-term strategy, so you’ll need to stick with it and stay consistent over many months to truly reap the rewards it promises. But by making these tweaks to your blog-writing process, I hope you’ll start to see more engagement and results in the short term too. 

For more tips on how to write blogs that generate leads and drive more website traffic, make sure you connect with me on LinkedIn. Connect with me here and let me know what you found most useful about this article!

Photo credit: Katie Earl