November Marketing Must-Dos

Hey everyone!! 

Welcome back for your monthly roundup of marketing must-dos, a series where I give you my three biggest marketing tips that you should focus on for the month to grow your business. I cannot believe we just turned the clocks back, Halloween is over, and we’re looking at Thanksgiving in just a few weeks. 

1. Do: Engage in a two-way conversation with your clients. We can get really stuck in the us talking, them listening flow of things, and I wanted to just quickly come in and remind us all that in order to have a business that feels open and enjoyable on all accounts, we need to constantly be in conversation with our clients. Here are a few little tips to open the conversation back up, and hand our clients the microphone for once.
   • Tips to do this:
     • Post a question box on social – ask clients to describe your service in one work. 
     • Start posting polls more often – allow people to show you who they are. 
     • Start requesting songs for playlisting, ask people their favorite coffee order, and surprise and delight them once in a while. 
2. Do: Challenge yourself to only market your business in a positive light. 
   • This one is tricky – and if we had a few hours, I’d go into a deep dive of how the language we use for absolutely everything from talking about ourselves, our health, our finances – matters so much… but more on that another time. For now, 
   • Psst – this is actually module 5 in my best-selling marketing course, Five Weeks to Waitlisted, and it’s SO fun!! It’s a core value challenge we used to do at lululemon, and I wanted to make sure that carried over into the businesses that I get to help every day. Basically, it’s a whole list of values – I think there are about 100 of them, and you circle the ones that feel really aligned with you, and where you want to go. You first circle 20, then narrow it down to 10, and then to 5. Those 5 core values are what I recommend you look at every single time you put content or marketing out there, to make sure you’re staying on brand, inspiring, and connected. 
   • For example, your 5 could be: credible, upbeat, aspirational, challenging, and ethical. When you look at these 5 words, do you get a sense for the kind of business you have? Then, take a look at your social media, website, and emails. Do they match up with these 5 words? This is a great tactic to make sure you’re remaining positive about the way you’re communicating – which goes a LONG way with how your clients are feeling about you. 
   • So, go ahead and either hop into Five Weeks to Waitlisted OR write a list of 5 core values that are incredibly close to your heart. Put those on a post-it and keep them with you, so you’re staying on brand, and staying on the right track.
3. Do: Approach Black Friday // Cyber Monday with strategy… 

If you’ve been keeping up on Instagram, you’d know that Black Friday Deals aren’t really my jam. Why? You’ve worked HARD to get where you are, and I don’t believe you should be discounting your expertise. 

There’s also the pretty insane negative connotations with the holiday, but let’s not get distracted – click that link if you want to learn more. 

With that said – it feels out of touch to just not do anything while every business you know is running promotions like their life depends on it, and I get that.

My top tips and ideas to make the most of Black Friday/Cyber Monday for small businesses: 

1. It’s okay to run a promotion, just don’t give away too much. Lead with VALUE here – instead of doing 15% off of a class package, could you instead add a class credit to their account? Maybe a 5+1, 10+2, and 15+3?
2. If you’re looking to push gift cards, here’s where I’d do a swag value addition. Don’t discount the gift cards, instead add a piece of swag for the giftee when they come to redeem.
3. Charitable components are always a winner in my book. Instead of a percentage off, could you donate a percentage of proceeds? 70% of Gen-z & Millenial shoppers agree they’d pay more for an item if they knew the company shared their core values. Now is the time to advertise your companies 5% to X non-profit declaration. And if you haven’t done that yet, now is a good time to start! Your clients will be more loyal to you, and you’ll support a great cause in the process. Win-win!

Get creative this holiday season – the old days of marketing a blanket discount are over, and good riddance to that. Throw in a donation on your clients behalf, surprise and delight them, and let them know they’re supporting a small business that’s not on a shipping container. 

If you’re looking for a place to stay on track and accountable with your marketing, The Friday Society Membership is the best place to do that! We have a monthly topic where I go deep in our hour long webinar, and then have office hours calls to keep you on track and free to ask as many questions as you need. We’ve also got our slack group with dozens of amazing business owners cheering you on and there for support, and the full library of webinars from the past. It’s a huge bargain at $50/month, and my goal is that ALL of you can get the accessible support you need to make your dreams a reality. 

& If you’re wanting a 1:1 session with me, I have gift certificates for private strategy sessions available! Forward this link to whoever is putting your gifts under the tree this year 😉 

Take a listen to the episode here where I go a little deeper into each marketing must-do!