It’s Not Over Yet: Making an Impact in 2020

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We are close to the end of 2020. The last quarter of the year is right around the corner. This is the moment. This is the time when we decide if we are still going to declare 2020 to be a good year.

Yes, I know we have been hit hard, some of us harder than others. But have there been any silver linings? Any lessons learned?

When it comes to your business and your personal brand, what can you do to still make this a good year, a productive year? Below are a few tips. Let me know which you will try and let’s make it happen.

1. Launch. I love launches. I love new stuff and fresh ideas. Do you have an idea, even if its a small one? Make the idea a podcast, a newsletter, a product or a course. Launch it and get it moving. Don’t wait for the moment of perfection. As one of my favorite marketing gurus proclaims: “Ready is a LIE!” Just do it.

2. Create One More Thing. Create a blog, an article or a speech. Creating content and our creative minds is a great reminder of why we do what we do. If you create products, try something new. Teach us, show us and remind us what makes you and your business incredible.

3. Invest in Yourself. I cannot stress the power of investing in yourself. It is a good reminder to yourself (and others) that you believe in yourself and what you bring to the table. A reminder that there is more to the story and growth of your brand and company. I helps us to position ourselves better and gives us a little more confidence. How can you invest in yourself before the end of the year? A conference, a webinar, a course or coaching? How will you invest in yourself before the end of the year?

4. Ramp Up Your Social Media Set a goal for your social media engagement before the end of 2020. Where do you want to be? How would you like to improve? More content? More engagement? More followers? Even if business is not the best, we don’t need to be silent on social media. If we are struggling with your personal brand, we don’t need to shy away from engaging with others.

5. Collaborate Before the end of 2020, think about another business, entrepreneur or organization you can collaborate with that may open up your audience and opportunities.

It’s not over yet.

If you need assistance with planning for the end of the year, contact me about next steps and how you can make an impact in 2020.

P.S. In case you missed it, check out my latest article on Forbes.com on the power of client service. Click here to read it.

Be Intentional In Your Marketing

We are more than halfway through a very difficult year and on our way to the final quarter of 2020!  How are you doing?  Are you surviving or thriving through it all?  I have truly learned what it means to be intentional.  

Intentional in my business. 

Intentional with my health.

Intentional in relationships. 

Intentional with my time. 

When life seems completely out of control, being intentional helps to anchor us and remind us that there are better days ahead.  Below are some tips on how you can be intentional in your business and personal life:

Know what you want.  Be specific with what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts. 

Watch what you consume.  The world is filled with fear right now.  Are we taking it in from various news sources and social media.  If we are not careful, we will take in the fear and this will impact our business growth and vision. 

Do something that brings you joy.  People are attracted to joy, whether personally or professionally.  Do things that you

Communicate Often.  Keeping in front of your customers, clients and network is critical right now.  There is so much noise out there, but you want to bring value and compassion during this time.  Set a goal of how much communication you’d like to have with your audience, via email, social media or other platforms. 

If you need help identifying the right goals for your business right now, please contact me for more information. 

The Keys to Building Your Tribe

Do you have a tribe?

Yes, a tribe.

Tribe /trīb/ – noun – a group of people, or a community with similar values or interests

If you have a business, nonprofit or in the building phase of launching one of these, it is important to build your own online tribe. Having your own tribe in person is important too!  We all need those friends and cheerleaders to encourage us and challenge us along the way.
But building a tribe online allows for significant reach and a way to scale your business. 

Below are some quick tips on how to build your tribe:

Build Trust: Similar to an in-person relationship, your goal should be to build trust with your audience. Trust is achieved by consistency and authenticity. How consistent are you with sharing content? Real content… not just selfies.  And how authentic is your presence on social media? Review your online presence and ask yourself “Am I building trust?  Am I building a two-way relationship?”

Be Generous: What are you talking about online?  Be intentional with providing good content. Content that your audience will find valuable or inspiring.  If your content is all about you, it will be difficult to build a genuine tribe.  And don’t hold back.  Don’t worry about giving too much away.  Generosity is a great business strategy.

More on Authenticity:  We can never stop talking about authenticity.  It is so important when building your brand and tribe. Authenticity can include showing behind the scenes video or pics of your business, or being honest about the challenge of growing a brand and working a full time job.  Show your challenges, share the struggle, tell your audience what you need.  People don’t always want to see the perfect moments.  Your future tribe also want to see the REAL moments.

Know Your Tribe:  Be sure you know what is important to your audience, your tribe.  As brand owners, we often have so much in your heads that we want to share.  But what is it that your true tribe wants to hear.  Stop sharing what YOU like and share what your audience is truly interested in.

There are so many other ways you can begin building and KEEPING your tribe.  If you are interested in hearing more, click here and let me know.  I will set up a free online class soon sharing more tips.

Learn Important Tips for Creating and Connecting with Your Ideal Audience

Creating a target audience is foundational for your company and building your brand! This does NOT meant you cannot sell to those outside of your ideal audience, however when you are clear on your ideal client – you will know how to communicate with them and rise above the noise. You are clear, and clarity creates REVENUE. Reach out to me if you need assistance lee@ashbyandwatts.com.

The Magic of a Lead Magnet

Lead magnets can be beneficial to a business for growth and leading a prospective customer or client to learn more about your business or organization. In this episode I will provide some quick tips on creating one and examples of great lead magnets.

Let Go and Get Creative – Tips on Thinking Creativity

Creativity is not reserved for the select few. All of us have some degree of creativity, it is just a matter of improving it and learning how to let go and use that muscle of creativity. Check out my podcast on 5 tips for exercising creativity in your business, life and even relationships.

Be Visible

With the world changing so rapidly, now is not the time to scale back and hide your magic, your business or your brand.  Now is the time to let the world (your audience ) know how you are able to solve their problems and add more value.

Below are a few quick tips on how to raise your visibility in your industry:

  1. FB and IG Stories:  If you are on Facebook or Instagram, we are discovering there is a lot of power in the stories feature of each platform.  Using stories more often (and strategically) can help your visibility.

  2. Add More Content:  Do not get overwhelmed with the word “content.”  It doesn’t always mean creating a blog or newsletter.  Content can mean tips, videos, interesting pictures, quotes, etc.  Content helps create an emotion.  What emotion are you creating with your audience?

  3. Get Consistent:  Consistency is key.  People notice and trust brands that are consistent.  How are you being consistent?

  4. Invest in Paid Ads: Targeted ads can help gain visibility for brands or a new campaign. Careful keyword selection, targeting and ad copy creation will help keep budgets from getting out of control and make it affordable.  

  5. Don’t Ignore SEO: This will help potential clients and customers find your company or organization when they are looking for solutions and may not know whom to turn to. If you can identify the types of terms they are looking for, you will broaden your audience and reach. By using keywords within the copy and headers of your web pages and in the way you talk about your services, you will bring people to your website and social media.

These are just a few recommendations.  I’m certain there are more things you can add to your list.  The key is not to second-guess yourself or hesitate on your greatness.  That is one of the biggest hurdles we often face.

Just go for it!!

How to Get Excited About Marketing Again Despite Our Crisis

Wow… the past several weeks have been surreal.  So much has happened in our lives, so much emotion and uncertainty.  Even as we get used to the “new” normal, the uncertainty of the future still looms over us.

Admittedly, the first few weeks during the pandemic, I struggled emotionally and mentally on how to approach my business. People were dying at rapid rates, companies were furloughing and laying off employees, a worldwide financial destruction was looming. 

Who really cared about marketing, right?

Now that I’ve come out of my fog (slightly) … I am starting to see things differently. As I listen to news reports about the importance of small businesses to our economy and more phone calls from new clients begin to come in for marketing help, I realize that this was not the time to back down from marketing, but to ramp up marketing efforts. 

Below are a few lessons learned over the past several weeks:

1.) Digital Marketing – Every business should seek to have a digital presence.  Even if the presence is not perfect, it is important to be found and connected to your audience in various ways.  If you are relying on your audience primarily by events, networking lunches or dinners, you probably found yourself a little lost.  Digital marketing is more critical than ever. 

2.) E-Commerce – Creating something to sell online and extend your services and brand is important. Most of my clients sell or offer a service.  However, I do encourage all my clients to think of a product to add to their services.  This can be a book, candle, clothing, hair products… anything.  Having another option for selling is critical. 

3.) Social Media – When the world shuts down – everyone turned to social media for content and information. LinkedIn usage increased by 52% over the past month.  Many people who had a presence on social media, but was not actively using it, suddenly found themselves trying to figure it out. 

4.) Business goes on.  It truly does.  And it needs too. The economy is a powerful thing and affects everyone in varoius ways (financial, emotionally, physically, etc.) But even in the depths of a recession, there is continued investment and new spending.  We want to be a part of that spending, therefore NOW is the time to build your pipeline. 

Go visit and like my FB page this weekend.  I will share a video on tips to improve your marketing during a crisis.  There are may things we should consider doing. 

Oh.. and if you have time – check out my online time management course for working marketing into your business and life.  Lots of practical tips!  Click here to start your online course. 

If you need assistance with your marketing efforts, please reach out to me! I would love to chat with you. 

Podcast: Growing Your Business Through Events

So many organizations and businesses spend a lot of time and money in hosting events, but do not see the results they would like.three-woman-having-a-meeting-1181626

In today’s podcast, I offer 3 ways to grow your business through events.

 

Working From Home, but Always On: Personal Branding Tips for Video Conference Meetings

Below are a few tips to remember before jumping on a video call with your team or a client.

1.)   Look Behind You. When setting up your work space, look at what your viewers will see behind you. We are human; therefore, we will be distracted. Does your background represent what you would want your clients and colleagues to remember about you? Take a moment to create an atmosphere that serves your professional brand and values, or choose a simple, clean wall background. The some video conferencing platforms will allow users to choose a background. Choose wisely. The bottom line is that you do not want your background or surroundings to be so distracting that people are not able to pay attention to the value you are offering during the call.

With our current crisis, many of us are faced with new work from home (“wfh”) strategies and routines. Video conferencing has been an essential component to working effectively. However, are we putting our best foot forward when jumping on a call with colleagues and clients? With so many team meetings and work being done via video conference, it is still important to be professional and consider your personal brand.

2.)   Professional Grooming. Although most people are more relaxed right now, we should be careful not to be too relaxed. We are not on vacation, we are still working. When you show up for work on a video call, be sure you still are well groomed and casually professional. A disheveled team member and can result in less trust and credibility from a client or colleague.

3.)   Know Your Angles. Understanding the best camera placement is important. The wrong placement can be awkward, and again distracting. I was recently on a video call and one of the participants had the camera very low on the ground, with the camera facing up… sigh. Try to place the camera as close to eye-level or shoulder-level as possible. 

4.)   Let Your Light Shine. Lighting is important on video calls. You want viewers to see you and not a dark shadow. Make sure the majority of the light is behind the camera or side light for the best lighting. Natural light is always best. Also, take a moment to clean your camera to ensure there is not dust or a fog on the camera.

5.)   Hit that Mute Button. As soon as you enter the video conference, be sure you are familiar with where the mute button is located and able to use it. When you are not speaking, as a courtesy, stay on mute. There are noises around you that you are likely not aware is happening. Microphones will pick up typing, movement, sirens, etc. In addition, when it is time for you to contribute to the call, you want to be able to do this seamlessly.

6.)   Eat and Drink Later. Just as we would not likely come to a client meeting with a large Big Gulp fountain drink or eat a full course dinner during a meeting, be discreet with eating and drinking on video calls. It can be distracting to see someone turning up a bottle or struggling to keep lettuce from dropping on his or her lap.

7.)   Join the Party. If the majority of the team is joining via video, try your best to also join via video. Try to avoid being the team member that decided to not turn on video and only join via audio. Engaging and showing a friendly face is important during these times when people are craving connection. 

These are just a few fun and practical tips to remember when jumping on a video call and remaining professional during this time of working from home. 

Let me know if any of these tips were helpful to you. 

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