by Karen Petrauskas | May 25, 2023
Who is the ideal client?
If you’re a startup or small business owner struggling to get clients, this can be a hard question to answer: “Should you work with every new or potential client that comes along?”
It’s hard isn’t it. On one hand you want the clients to be rolling in, on the other, you want to be happy and content in the work that you’re producing, but if you work with someone who’s not a good fit – it could tip the balance.
We’ve got some news for you. 🤩
Not all clients are your ideal client.
- This means that not everyone who enquires has to become a client.
- Not everyone you speak to should become a client.
- That doesn’t mean they’re not great people, or great businesses. They’re just not a good match for you.
One sure way to scale and grow your business is to be working with your IDEAL client – making sure they’re a good fit before you start working is the best way to avoid disappointment, on both sides of the fence.
You might be thinking that as a start up, or someone who struggles with gaining new clientele, you should jump on everyone you’re even close to signing. We’re going to advise you otherwise!
You see, if you’re already working with your ideal clients, and you have established the demographic or type of businesses you’re ‘good’ at working with, jumping onto something new may not work. You might clash, you may upset other clients, you may find yourself less excited about working with them. The dynamic of your business might change and your values and trust points which people know you for may suffer. The last thing you want to is to give less than 100% in anything – especially a new client – it’s not good for business!
Clients are your future, the only way for your business to be sustainable is to have regular or ongoing clients who share your goals and vision. What happens when you don’t have these coming in? You’re back to square one and the drawing board.
Understanding your ideal client is KEY to growth. I can’t emphasise this enough – work only with your ideal client. And how do you know who these are? You create a marketing strategy that digs deep into your business aims and expectations, and you research who it is you want to help. The map begins to grow from here.
If you already are working with your ideal client, and only work with this group of people, you’ll get where we’re coming from.
If you’re not and are praying for success to happen, we urge you to make this a focus in coming months.
All your marketing, your social media, your outwardly facing communication that happens to anyone who sees your content, people should know if you’re speaking to them.
No watered-down, wishy washy promotions that speak to everyone. Direct communication between you and your ideal prospect.
If you’re struggling to nail this and need a nudge in the right direction, We’d love to help. Simply get in touch and let’s talk, We’d love to coach you through this stage in your business and to see the benefits it can bring to you and your brand. It all starts with a conversation.
In the meantime, why not sign up to our weekly newsletter to ensure tips, tricks and advice are dropped in your lap every Friday. ** Freebies and extras are included on a regular basis!
Speak soon!
by Karen Petrauskas | Apr 4, 2023
Motivational / Inspirational
We all like a good inspirational quote to keep us going or to pluck us up in the morning. As a small business owner, especially if working solo, it can be hard to know how to motivate yourself or where to find the right advice.
Here at KJP Creative, we love motivational and inspirational quotes to give anyone a nudge, a spice of courage and the push you need to get to work, create great results and feel good about yourself.
In our latest Yearly Social Media Planners, which are a great resource to plan and create a workable social media strategy and action plan throughout the year, you’ll find one of our motivation quotes at the start of every month! Available now on Amazon for just £5.99, with free P&P!
But in the meantime, here’s 24 quotes to inspire you – that’s almost one a fortnight. Bookmark this page and come back and refer to them often. We hope you’ll enjoy reading them, feel free to use them in your social media calendars as well.
“Be confident to start afresh with a clear vision and mission. New year, new goals” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Every opportunity and moment is a chance to see business growth. Grab hold and take action.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“You are your brand. Everything comes together to form your tone, your voice, your passion.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Be joyful of the things that come across your path. Everything happens for a reason.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Give good reason for your audience to love and trust your brand.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Growth comes from consistency – keep pushing – you’ll discover breakthrough if you keep going.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Social media should be enjoyed! Find your sweet sport to grow your brand online.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Trust your instincts. When it feel right, keep going and don’t look back.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Every new day allows you to make new decisions. Follow your heart and be happy with your choices.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Step into the shoes of who you are marketing to, what do you want to see and hear?” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Stand up and stand out, don’t be afraid to be set apart in order to get noticed.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Use the gifts and talents you have to make a difference.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Every opportunity is a chance to grow your business. Allow the doors to open.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Get creative with your marketing, always be authentic, passionate and desirable.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Pursue your passions and create a brand which represents your values.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Your visions will become reality when you focus, believe and take action.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Strive for what you want. Persistence will create results.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Crazy ideas often create the u-turn to success.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Inspiration comes when you’re not looking for it.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Imagine a world where everything felt good.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Know your calling. Listen to your heart. Be there for those who need you.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Passion and drive enable you to flourish and get results. Pursue.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Work backwards. Discover your end game and find the solution to get there.” – Karen J Petrauskas
“Turn your dreams into a new year reality.” – Karen J Petrauskas
If you’ve got a motivational quote to add to the above, we’d love to hear. Perhaps we’ll include it in our next round of social media planners!
On a separate note, if you’re a small business owner who struggles with finding the inspiration they need to create engaging social media content, we’d love to have a chat. We can discuss your needs and goals and help put a strategy and plan together. Use our contact page to start a conversation.
by Karen Petrauskas | Mar 9, 2023
It’s all in the list! But how do you grow your business through email marketing?
Understanding how to get good open rates for your emails is a good place to start.
What made you open the last newsletter that was sitting in your inbox?
Coming up with new ideas for your marketing on a regular basis can be tiresome and frustrating – we know and we’ve all been there!
Small business marketing
As a small business owner, and especially if you’re the only one doing everything, you can get either fed up or even annoyed at good results not happening when you feel like you’ve put in so much effort into your marketing and social media. Let’s face it, you’ve got so much to focus on as a business owner, not everything gets 100% of your time. Add in the need to write emails, and good ones at that, email marketing can be something that gets pushed aside.
Let me tell you, you’re not alone.
… Even when you feel like you are.
So, let’s twist this thought on its head and think –
“Why did you open that email?”
a) Because the subject line sounded enticing or interesting?
b) Because you trust the person sending it?
c) Because you were just going through all your emails and opening everything?
Usually it’s either a or b.
Your inbox is a sacred place, and to have an email opened needs to be earned. That’s how I look at it anyway!
I only open emails from either people I already know I can learn from and who I trust, or emails that look like I can gain some value and hopefully put that into practice. Your time is valuable – you don’t have time to look at every email that comes through (especially when you’re good at subscribing to lots of lists)
Email respect :: Relationship building
You see, the more relationship you build with your audience, the more they get to know you. From here you can build rapport and trust. This is important – and we’re always taught to ‘build your email list‘!For me, it’s not about selling and promoting a service every week, it’s about giving value to the readers and knowing that if we can help just one person get further in their online marketing, then we’ve done a good job. If we help more, even better!
Email etiquette :: Communication
Communication is key in marketing. Understanding, knowledge, relationship, nurture, value… the list is endless, but all relates back to communication. How you communicate and what you communicate really matters.
It’s common courtesy to respect the person you’re emailing and to think of them when you email. Keep providing uninteresting content, sell consistently, go on about you, you, you – or are not relevant to the reason why they signed up to your newsletter in the first place – you’ve lost their trust.
Focus on what you’re good at
So, when you’re struggling to know what to do next with your marketing, what post to create for social media, or what to write on your blog, I urge you to reach out to the people you already know are doing what you want to achieve. Open the emails which look like you can learn something. Reply to the emails where you’re invited to and get to know them. Comment on social media content and start conversations. DM prospective mentors or collaborators.Always think further than the now.
Coming up with new ideas for marketing can be challenging – so, seek advise, get ideas and speak to others in your industry who could help. Even consider outsourcing your marketing for a little while to give yourself a break and a breather – you might come back with new inspiration and fresh perspective.
Tip: taking just a 3 month break from your social media channels can be good for you!
Just because someone is doing these tasks for you, doesn’t mean that you have failed. It means that you can focus on other important tasks – and ones that you enjoy the most. You can then bring in a little extra money, so that you can afford to pay someone else to take the things that are not your strong points. This is a win-win situation!
Focus on what’s right for your skillset – and the rest will fall into place.
We invite you to reply to this post, let us know what you struggle with in your marketing – or what you enjoy the most! Let’s have a conversation and get to know each other 🙂 Either comment below, or send us an email – we’d love to chat.
~ Karen, owner of KJP Creative
In the meantime, why not download our free social media awareness days calendar, to give you ideas on what to talk about with your audience!
by Karen Petrauskas | Jan 31, 2023
How do you grow a small business strategically through social media, whilst dealing with overwhelm and perhaps even a little imposter syndrome?
Do you find yourself overwhelmed by all the social media channels; knowing which ones to use, which trends to jump on, what strategies to follow, who to watch, how much content to put out, etc. etc.? So much avenues, so many questions, your mind feels like it’s going to explode?
There is A LOT going on in the world when it comes to social media and the simple fact is, as a small business owner, you cannot do it all, on your own at least.
So how do you know where to start or what path to follow?
Strategy and communication.
Start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start!
Understand what it is that you want to achieve and have goals in mind that you want to meet.
From these goals you are able to establish some ground rules and a steer your marketing in a way that will help you achieve them.
Creating a strategy holds everything in place for you to build from. This is the foundation of what you are going to achieve. It can be easy to sway or to get distraction on social media, what should take 10 minutes can easily become an hour if you’re not careful, so knowing what you’re going to do and when will help deter this from happening.
And don’t be afraid to refer back to your strategy, once it’s created, it can be adapted and grown, just as your business experiences growth – your strategy will grow with it.
Marketing Knowledge
The most important step comes in the research, and for starters, research on your ideal customer, your audience and anyone who might be remotely interested in your product or service. You may need multiple streams for your marketing to flow in order to capture each of these – speaking to all of them at once might mean that your content is not relevant or catchy enough… break it all down.
Where does your ideal customer like to hang out online? This will be where you need to focus your efforts. There’s no point spending all your time on TikTok, if your audiences lives and breathes Facebook – get the drift?
Research.
And what type of content do they respond to best? Are they engaging with funny videos, do they prefer knowledge based images or carousels?
Research.
There’s no harm in asking a few questions too while you’re getting to know them. Communication is a good tool to nurture – and this is two way – interact and engage as much as possible to understand them as best you can.
Overwhelmed by social media?
Overwhelm is common on social media, some people deep-dive in, hit every channel at a fast pace but sink very quickly or burn out after time. It’s not always sustainable to be BIG all the time. Some people take their time, test the waters, discover their path and grow slowly but steadily.
Each and every business is different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ in this – however doing the ground work well will pay off.
If you’re struggling to get ahead on social media, find it too intense or can’t keep up, take a step back and start from the beginning. Create a strategy that works for your business. And don’t be afraid to reach out and speak to those around you who are already successful and achieving.
We’d love to help you strategise and put a plan of action together in order to smash your goals this year, helping you to realise your full potential. Hit the contact button and let’s talk 🙂
In the meantime, why not download our FREE Awareness Days calendar to get your audience talking!
by Karen Petrauskas | Dec 23, 2022
When you’re creating your marketing strategy, especially as we come into a new year… a customer journey is SO important. The way a consumer is looked after and treated throughout their experience with your brand is absolute key. If they love you, they’ll want to talk about you and recommend you to others. And that is the result we are looking for. Have you heard of word of mouth marketing?
As a business owner, you can spend so much [wasted] time creating content after content, scheduling up your social media channels, creating free content or giveaways, and everything else in between – but if it is not noticed, this is wasted time and resource.
A strategy holds the key to creating content and an audience that will love your brand.
Lots of small business owners, start-ups and anyone who doesn’t necessarily understand marketing thoroughly can struggle because they lack direction, knowledge and wisdom. But with a little steering and guidance this can change dramatically and amazing outcomes can be born.
Money can be poured into advertising campaigns, staff, experts and more – but for someone starting out, a good business plan is to utilise the most cost-effective strategy there is… word of mouth marketing.
WOMM is not a new thing, in fact it is the most original and basic strategy we have, and also the most effective, but not many focus their efforts on it.
Word of mouth marketing relies on customers sharing their experiences and recommendations with their networks, friends and family. They are bringing their own feelings and thoughts to the table and giving people an opportunity to trust their views. An extremely powerful process – and one that when done correctly, can impact massively.
And the facts speak for themselves; according to Nielson, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising. WOW!
How can we utilise word of mouth marketing?
We can stop thinking about our needs and what we need to achieve and start to connect with people on their level.
Engage: Drawing people into conversations, understanding their pain points and creating relationships and rapport that can be nurtured and developed.
Solutions: Providing the solutions to what people are looking for and understanding what would work for them. Empower them with the answers that makes sense.
Emotion: Everything has an emotional value. If you can trigger an emotion in a consumer, you can start to relate and bring them on a journey.
Influential marketing
WOMM has influence and can trigger the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of anyone’s decision making process. Its powerful effectiveness is often not known to outsiders, however, when you can take hold of this, and incorporate it into your business and marketing plans, you’ll see big results.
How can you influence the people you want to work with, or the types of people you want to love your brand?
Customer experience
Success with word of mouth marketing starts right at the beginning of a customer’s journey. Before they even know you exist.
You want to get to know your ideal customer [persona], understand what they are looking for, how they engage, who they talk to, where they hang out, what their pain point is, what would be the ideal solution, their budgets, their lifestyle, their demographics… research.
You also want to know what attracts, what looks good, what sounds good, styles, colours, feelings, what brands do they already engage with – this all play a part in the process.
When you have all the information you need, you can formulate a plan of action incorporating all these aspects, making sure you tick every box. When your ideal customer comes along, they will be attracted to your message and want to find out more. Their journey has begun…
Bring them through a process. Not many people will buy on the first message. They need to know, like and trust you. They will want to see proof that you are legit and when they get to a point where they trust you, they’ll start engaging with the things you say.
The more you can nurture and build a relationship, the better your chances of winning that customer.
That customer will then be happy to share their experience with others. When family members ask, when a friend is looking, a recommendation can be a powerful action.
If you’ve fallen down within the process, that review may be tainted, so it is essential that everything part of their journey is 100% good.
Have you experienced word of mouth marketing in your business and has it helped push your brand forward?
If you’re looking for exceptional results in your business marketing and would like to make the most of WOMM, we’d love to chat with you and get you started. Get in touch today, and let’s talk.
