Category: Marketing

Celebrate your successes

I often tell my client to celebrate their successes.

Deep down we all love a bit of praise for a job well done. It might come from family, friends, colleagues, or clients, but just a simple “thank you,” “well done” or “that was great” can make us feel a whole lot better.

But sometimes it might feel as though compliments are in short supply. Maybe someone in your close family thinks “you should get a proper job” or “why are you bothering with that” and it can hurt.

Make sure when you do have a success you share it with people who will support and celebrate with you.

So will you help me celebrate?

This month has been absolutely amazing for me. Why?

1 –  I got given Member of the Week by Network Central.

This is from over 10,000 registered users, across 4 networking platforms, I was recognised for the effort I put into not only running 4Networking meetings, being part of 1Networking, engaging on the Network Central Social Media platform, but also for the support and time I give to other members and teams to help them understand how to get the most from networking.

Network Central's Member of the Week
Network Central’s Member of the Week

2 – I found out I was a finalist in Networker of the Year award at Business Success Recognition awards 2022.

From nearly 600 nominations, again I was recognised as being worthy enough for my nomination and supporting comments to be sent over to the judges  – Ian, Marine, Sarah, Abid and Emma, fo them to decide if I am good enough to win this prestigious award.

Good luck to everyone in all categories and I look forward to seeing you all at the awards dinner in June.

FINALIST - Networker of the Year 2022
FINALIST – Networker of the Year 2022

3 – Final throws of book collaboration

I’ve been writing my first book since Christmas and it’s going to be published next month. This was an idea which has come out of a friendship formed with Jenny Leggott from Transcend Zero, met through 4Networking,

So the first book in the Focus Guru Series, “Focus Guru – 52 ways to achieve your work life balance” was born!

We had a call between Christmas and New year, decided we could together come up with 52 tips on work / life balance and make a book. Less than 5 Months later, we have now added Jonathan Smythe to our collaboration. Here’s a sneaking peak at part of the back cover.

Sneak peak at part of the back cover
Sneak peak at part of the back cover

4 – Free marketing

I am passionate about making the most of everything a membership organisation offer to me. Part of my Network Central membership is the ability to go onto their social media platform and use it to raise awareness of myself and my business.

One of the best ways to do this is to get what is called “a full house”. This is where your name and picture is on every the front screen of every room. Just like this!

Full House - raising my profile
Full House – raising my profile

It means that everyone visiting the site has to see my name and my picture. The chances are if I track my profile views before getting the full house and after, there will be more visits to my profile after. This means more people will know about me, what I do and how I can help them than before I achieved the full house.

So remember, you should be celebrating every win.

What wins can you celebrate form this week?

Do You Know Who’s Watching Your Business Social Media Posts?

Do You Know Who’s Watching Your Business Social Media Posts?

Are you aware of your silent audience? These are people who have you as a LinkedIn connection, Facebook friend or follow you on Twitter, yet you almost never hear from them. They’re your silent audience, the people who are there, but those who don’t regularly like your posts or comment on your articles.

Who are your silent audience?
Who are your silent audience?

You might be tempted to remove these people, to delete them or block them, but I can share with you a story about how one person in my silent audience messaged me out of the blue and bought my services to help recover a debt from his customer. When I looked at his message, the last time we had exchanged messages was several years ago.

Why Me?

I asked him what prompted him to make contact and why he had chosen me to help solve his problem. He replied saying he’d seen my 4Networking 4Sight “Why I’m a Cyborg”, a presentation I deliver regularly on the networking circuit. He told me he’d read testimonials from my clients and that he wanted my help and no-one else’s. I solved his problem and I know he’s a happy customer who will recommend me for this service in the future.

When Is The Right Time?

I was chosen to provide the credit control debt recovery service for him because of my online reputation. It happened because he had a need for my service at that time. He stepped out of being part of my silent audience. It was the right time for him to contact me.

In my Focus Guru “Making The Most Of Your Silent Audience” Power Hour I help you choose the right ways to engage with your silent audience and how to bring them towards you at the right time.

Who Are You Reaching?

My good friend Stefan Thomas (The Networking Success Programme) is exactly right when he says, “you don’t know who’s watching or who you are reaching”. This means it’s even more important to keep your message consistent, to keep the same tone and language consistent, and to be the person that you portray online.

For example, if you post pictures of large houses and flashy sports cars and imply in your posts that you own them, your audience, silent or not, will find out and may change their opinion of you. So, always be you. Be authentic and you won’t need to keep track of what you’ve said because it will be part of your personality and lifestyle rather than a fake front to remember to upkeep.

Make It Easy

A bonus tip is to make it as easy as possible for your silent audience to reach you. Make sure your contact information is prominent and up to date. Make sure your website has the right information for the products and services you provide. Have you added anything new? Tell your silent audience what it is and make it easy for them to contact you.

If you would like to find out more about your silent audience and how to make the most of your social media connections, please book your Focus Guru “Making The Most Of Your Silent Audience” Power Hour and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Focus Guru Power Hours – How To Write Outstanding Content For Your Email Marketing

Keeping in touch with your customers and prospective customers using emails is one of the best marketing strategies available today. Your messages can be written and sent as and when you want, or you can schedule messages to be delivered at set times of the day or night.

This is perfect if you have a special offer to announce, or a new product launch to promote. You can write the content and it can be delivered on your unique timescale. This is where you can “write it and move on” or “set it and forget it”.

Top Tip: Contacting customers on a regular basis keeps your company at the top of the list when they need the services you sell.

Content, subject line & Consistency is key to your emails being opened
Content, subject line & Consistency is key to your emails being opened

Writing the Right Words

How do you know what to write? How do you choose the words to keep your reader interested? What are the “trigger words” to make sure they read your message? How do you encourage customers to click and buy from you and not one of your competitors?

These are some of the many questions I’m asked, and I can share with you my advice on how to make sure your emails are read and not deleted. Many people read their emails on a tablet or mobile device. This means they are making split second judgements to read or recycle your email based purely on the sender, subject and first line of your message.

Sender, Subject, First Line

In my “Unlock the Secrets of Mailchimp Success in 5 Easy Steps” Focus Guru Power Hour, I show you how to set up your Mailchimp email campaign with these key details. Having a properly formatted sender name and email address elevates your company above those who don’t take the time to check for spelling mistakes, grammar errors or missing punctuation.

Look at the difference in impact between using “Focus Guru Power Hour” and “focus guru power hour” as the sender name. Using capitals elevates the impact. It stands out more than using all lower case. Having a bigger and bolder presence in someone’s inbox helps your message to be seen. It also demonstrates attention to detail and shows value in the service being offered.

The same is true for the subject and first line. If these are potentially the only words between your email being read and being binned, it’s vital to make sure they are interesting, informative or entertaining.

Eye-Catching Images

There’s the saying how “a picture tells a thousand words” and with many email programs supporting HTML content and images, there’s no reason why you can’t add relevant images into your email campaigns.

You may wish to use your own product images, or images showing how your services can be used. Alternatively, you can find images (royalty-free or paid-for) from websites such as Canva or Unsplash. There’s no excuse for sending a plain-text email anymore!

Create Engaging Content

This comes back to writing the right words, using pictures and creating the informative, educational or entertaining content that will keep your readers interested and motivated to follow the links to your website, or to pick up the phone to speak with you.

I can help discuss the aims of your email campaign. What do you want to achieve? What do you want your customers to do? What’s the next step? If you need help creating the content for your email messages, I can help with this too.

Through the Focus Guru Power Hour “How To Write Outstanding Content For Your Email Marketing” you’ll learn how to use these steps to make your email campaigns come to life and achieve great results. You’ll learn how to set up your Mailchimp account and run successful email campaigns all year round where your customers actively read your messages and take note of your call to action.

Book your Focus Guru Power Hour here. I run 121 workshops via Zoom on many, easy to use, business tools, including Mailchimp, online calendars, networking tips and much more. Let’s get started! Book your Focus Guru Power Hour today!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Could You Benefit From Collaborating With Your Competitors?

Does the thought of collaborating with one of your competitors make your blood boil? Is the mere thought of chatting with someone who does what you do make you want to run a mile? We’re often taught to be wary of competitors and to keep them at a safe distance.

Create space, time for you by working with competitors
Create space, time for you by working with competitors

Are you concerned if they know too much they’ll poach your customers? It’s possible they could steal your business and take away your turnover. You might worry they’ll undercut your prices or include extras you haven’t thought of. Maybe you’re worried they’ll drive you out of business?

Changing Your Mindset

Of course, it makes sense to watch your back when you encounter a competitor. You might meet at a networking event where you’re pitching for the same business from the same people. If you’re an independent consultant representing the same company, offering the same products, at the same prices, you might think it can leave little room for differentiating yourself. You might think, “how can I compete?”.

But, that’s where changing your mindset from competition to collaboration makes a big difference. Instead of stressing, you can relax. Rather than racing to be first to follow up each potential customer, you can take a step back and see the bigger picture.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

There genuinely is enough business for everyone and working together to achieve a common goal can be extremely satisfying. To be able to say to someone – “I can’t help with that, but I know someone who can”, or, “I’m fully booked this month, but have you tried speaking with…”, puts you in a powerful position to be remembered as the person who went out of their way to be helpful, rather than the person who wouldn’t share information.

Being able to outsource surplus work is another good reason to have names of competitors in your address book. Attending 4Networking meetings always generates fresh leads for me, and my competitors. Yet, people in the same industry can and do work together. I have realistic expectations and I’m always looking for ways to collaborate with others.

Realistic Expectations

Unless you’ve invented something revolutionary, the chances are someone else will be doing what you do, or something similar to what you do. This happens in almost every industry across the world. It’s unlikely you’re the only plumber in town, or the only car salesperson, utility company, marketeer or life coach. If your business is network marketing, you’ll almost certainly meet a competitor at events. They may be from the same company or offer a similar product. Remember, there really is enough business to go round.

Having realistic expectations when meeting a competitor can open many doors to new customers and new opportunities. Instead of running them down, ignoring them, or being fearful of them, is there a way you could work together? Being open-minded to collaborating rather than competing gains respect and forges lifelong friendships.

I work with people who run businesses in many different sectors, from accountants, to IT companies, to freelance tradespeople, network marketeers and many more. Everyone has a common goal, to earn money to feed their family, provide a roof over their head, to afford nice things, and to grow their business.

I run Focus Guru Power Hour workshops via Zoom for individuals and teams to explore collaboration opportunities within your business sector. It all starts with an easy conversation about what you’d like to achieve. I’ll give you the tools you need to be confident in meetings when you meet someone who does what you do. Contact me on 07756 772950 to find out more.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Does Social Media Make A Difference To Your Business?

It’s hard to remember a time when social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc., was just used for social interactions. You’d post a photo of your dinner, or your cat, you might keep a journal, or share a joke. Your online friends were people you knew well, people you went to school with or who lived in the same town. Social media was a smaller pool of information with a limited reach and audience.

However, studies carried out in 2019 suggest there are 3.48 billion people using social media on mobile devices with a growth of 297 million users, a year-on-year addition of over 10%. That’s a lot of people you could put your message in front of and social media is now an integral part of most businesses marketing strategies.

It's easy to stop social media overload

For many people, social media is also an essential part of everyday life. Checking for new activity and commenting on recent posts is probably one of the first things many business owners do each day, along with making a cup of coffee and checking emails. You don’t even need to be in the office to do this as social media platforms are available 24×7 on your smartphone and tablet.

If this sounds strange, just consider these key reasons why business owners need social media:

  1. You have access to an instant global audience across multiple platforms.
  2. You can connect directly with potential customers using targeted marketing.
  3. Social media can influence whether people buy your products and services or not.

Going back to the idea of posting a photo of your dinner on social media, if this is done from a business perspective, it can have a substantial impact on the person viewing the post. If, for example, your business is in the fitness industry, a photo of a healthy meal along with a motivational message or special offer could prompt an enquiry from someone. This could lead to them buying a product, visiting your gym, or trying your health programme. All from a photo of your dinner.

Other examples include videos of car journeys to advertise car manufacturers, garages, taxi firms and travel companies. Before and after photos are popular with business owners demonstrating how their hair, make-up and skin care products can transform your look and your confidence. We are very receptive to visual stories and these are extremely successful ways to market almost any product or service.

Social media is an invitation to interact with people from anywhere in the world. If you can post regular, interesting, educational, informative, or simply fun messages, you’ll soon attract a loyal following of people keen to hear what you have to say next.

This is the key to becoming visible online. If you think of the 3.48 billion people online, it can be daunting to start thinking how you can stand out and how you can attract new customers. Simply by delivering regular posts targeted to users on via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, you can maximise the impact of your marketing budget.

This is where I can help. If you’re stuck thinking what to write or worried people won’t see what you’ve posted, I can help. I’ve recently launched a new service called “A Post A Day” designed to take away the stress of creating content and scheduling it across the social media platforms.

So, if you’d like to get your message in front of as many people as possible, please give me a call on 07756 772950 or visit http://getfocus.guru/a-post-a-day and let’s get started.

Merry Christmas And End Of The Year Reflections

Over the last twelve months I’ve covered many different topics through the Focus Guru and RachaelChiverton blogs. Some of the blogs have been written to address common questions I’m asked about business and contracts and others have been about mindset, creating habits and making the best use of time.

End of year reflection, what have you achieved
End of year reflection, what have you achieved

Here is a re-cap of everything I’ve covered, from my Communications and Cashflow Workshop with James Perryman, to the business skills we can learn from our pets.

I’ve had some lovely feedback from clients in different sectors who are gaining huge benefits from the improved time management and streamlined processes I have helped to implement.

If I can help you or your staff with any business related issue, please contact me either by emailing rachael@rachaelchiverton.co.uk or by telephoning 07756 772950. I offer a free 15 minute consultation and will work with you to make small changes that make a big difference.

January

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December

Thank you for sharing this year with me. As 2019 draws to a close, I hope to continue working with you, developing new strategies, boosting your social media presence, creating new habits and being accountable with sticking to them, writing your contracts and enhancing your processes and productivity. Let’s make 2020 your best year yet!