The Power of a One-Page Business Plan and Continuous Updates

Welcome to the Make It Happen Podcast, brought to you by Strategies for Small Businesses. 

In today's podcast, we will delve into the significance of a one-page business plan and how consistently reviewing it and if needed updating it can benefit you in various ways. Many entrepreneurs may think that once they've created a business plan at the outset of their venture, they're finished with that aspect of planning. However, over time, the dynamics of your business can evolve significantly, making it crucial to revisit and revise your business plan periodically.

At the end of each year, we recommend that our clients review their business plans to align them with their upcoming goals and strategies for the new year. However, we also advocate for more frequent reviews, such as quarterly assessments. Regular reviews not only ensure that your plan stays relevant but also contribute to enhancing clarity and focus in your business endeavors.

Strategies for Small Businesses is an agency with a laser-focus on strategies supporting small businesses both online and offline. Our support ranges from Brand Strategy to Marketing Strategy, to Task Implementation Strategy, to Team Management Strategy.

Organization Removes Stress and Brings Success

Welcome to the Make It Happen Podcast, brought to you by Strategies for Small Businesses. 

Hi, I’m Christina Littrell-Williams and today I am going to talk about how easy it is to get overwhelmed working ON your business; setting up marketing plans, communicating with your database, creating content, and building out products/programs/offers.

To create a strong sense of organization in your business you should have the following:

Message Marketing - Direct Mail

Welcome to the Make It Happen Podcast brought to you from Strategies for Small Businesses (#SFSB).  We are continuing with the Message Marketing Series. Through this series I have covered an introduction to Message Marketing , Email Marketing, Text Message Marketing and Social Media Message Marketing. Today we will focus on our final piece in Message Marketing, Direct Mail and using it for Marketing Purposes.

YEP, Direct Mail ... Snail Mail… Pony Express…  it is still valuable and it does increase revenue along with expanding your email marketing lists & text messaging lists.

In this digital age, people look forward to messages and notes in the mail. Of course not the junk mail, but an actual meaningful message. 

You can send flyers or promotional offers that resemble advertisements you currently receive, but they don’t generate an increase in response or engagement. 

These are just a few of the reasons for sending heartfelt messages to your list.

What businesses can benefit the most from Direct Mail? The simple answer is ALL, but some businesses can see a greater exchange in engagement than others.  

I recommend the following small businesses use direct mail to connect with their current clientele, and I would even risk saying it is a must:

Message Marketing - Social Media Messenger Platforms

Welcome to the Make It Happen Podcast brought to you from Strategies for Small Businesses.  Hi I’m Christina Littrell-Williams and we are continuing with the Message Marketing Series. Through this series I have covered an introduction to Message Marketing , Email Marketing, and Text Message Marketing. Today we will focus on Social Media Messaging for Marketing Purposes.

It seems that just about everyone is on one Social Media platform or  several of them. Social Media started out MANY years ago with just a couple platforms and has grown to include a wide variety of places to "be" and "things to do".

It can be confusing which platform is better than the other, which one should you focus on, or which one is the easiest one to use. 

Truth: Social Media is not going away!

Each of the social media platforms have a public connection along with the ability to private message people.  You want to use all methods of connecting with the right people, methods that are available to you. Having said that, you will also want to not overdo it!  There is a thin line here: be sure you have your boundaries set before you start.

There are 3rd-party programs out there that can assist in automating your messages within different social media platforms.  Be very careful using any 3rd-party program, the different social media platforms have set up strict rules to “messaging” people to avoid spamming and I respect that, I know personally I do not want to end up on someone’s spam messaging list, do you?

What are some of the rules we have to adhere to?

Message Marketing - Text Messages (SMS)

Welcome back to the #SFSB Podcast -  Message Marketing Series. Today we will be discussing Text Message Marketing.

In the past two podcasts I have shared what Message Marketing is and shared tools along with best practices in detail for Email Message Marketing.

To recap, Message Marketing is marketing using any and all messaging tools available. The most familiar and used set of tools consists of: 

In the next few podcasts, I will continue to break down these different tools and share “best practices” you should be using in your marketing efforts in order to achieve the best results.

In the last podcast I went into detail about Email Marketing, still the most effective marketing tool to date, and I listed best practices along with Spam triggers to avoid.

Today we are moving on to the next tool, Text Messages, or SMS - Short Message Service.

Like email marketing, text message marketing has a list of best practices…

Message Marketing Series pt 2 - Email Mailing

Welcome back to the #SFSB Podcast and the Message Marketing Series.

In this episode Christina Littrell-Williams shares about one of the four most used platforms for Message Marketing. Email Marketing. Some people will say Email Marketing is no longer effective and that is WRONG! The fact it still is the most used platform out there for marketing and still retains a high ROI (Return on Investment)! She also shares some tips and best practices advice.

In the next few podcasts, I will be breaking down these different tools and sharing “best practices” you should be using in your marketing efforts in order to achieve your best results.

Probably the most familiar Message Marketing Tool is Email. In one way or another we have all been exposed to email marketing. Currently it has been recorded there are 4.26 billion email users around the world and increases are  projected to continue each year.  Email is consistently the most used “messaging tool” around.

Another question prospects ask is “How many emails should I be sending?” The answer differs based on a few metrics:

• Your type of business
• What can you be consistent with
• What content you are sharing

The type of business - brick and mortar product offerings businesses and restaurants are usually based on “special offers” looking to drive traffic through their doors or increasing online orders, so these would be suggested monthly.

The 4 Platforms for Message Marketing Series

As small business owners we have a lot on our plates every day. We work daily to manage a little bit of the chaos going on but really, we're striving to serve our existing clients/customers along with attracting more of them. On top of that, we manage daily business tasks behind the scenes. Along with handling admin tasks, we meet face-to-face with prospects, work with clients/customers, network, and the list goes on.

On top of all those regular, everyday tasks, we must think about and build our marketing platforms.

In this series, we're going to discuss Message Marketing.

Over the next few weeks in this series, we're going to break down each of these different message marketing methods. I’m going to talk about them in detail. I will share some of the tools that will provide support for you, and even help you automate some of these processes.

It's really important to make sure that your messages are reaching people and that they are congruent.  Be sure they all contain the same tone of voice and the same kind of messaging.

With your message marketing, instead of a hamburger, if you will, you're providing information and that information should be consistent. No matter if they are potential clients, prospects that you're already chatting with, your current clientele, or past clients within your nurturing cycle. No matter where they see a message from you, it should be consistent with who you are.

So, let's look further into these different platforms and their performance value in our next episodes.

Customer Life Journey Final Stages 6, 7 and 8

This week we are continuing our conversation about the customer life journey and how that works in your business. In past podcasts, we've gone over basics of a customer life journey, life cycle funnel flow, and different aspects of each. Then we talked about the first three stages of the customer life journey, which are: 1) bringing awareness, 2) engaging and encouraging them to subscribe to be part of your list, and 3) inviting them to be part of your community.

We talked about conversion; making prospects customers by investing in one of your products or services and getting them excited about your brand, and also how that's going to reflect and build on your business.

One big thing to remember is advertising, because you are building awareness.  Look at social media advertising with Google or in your local paper, radio stations, TV, or those types of things. You will be offering different products and services, not just your low-level offerings, so at that point, anybody can begin their customer life journey. Once new customers  come in, you want them to become multiple buyers and buy more from you.

If you sell things on Amazon, you're going to be asking them to engage, and to go back and leave a review on Amazon. Amazon is  really good about asking for reviews on your behalf as well, but these are testimonials. These are social proof that what you sell: your programs, products, and services, work for people. They indicate how people feel about their purchases. By asking buyers  for their opinions you’ll be getting reliable information because it’s coming right from them. You're not paying them to give a review. This validates what you sell, what you do, and what you give, because people are sharing it back to you. You've asked their permission. “May I put this on my website?”

Make sure you're using some sort of sign-off because you want to make sure that legally you're in compliance. Video testimonials are awesome. So are written testimonials. Getting their picture or profile or them holding your program or product is awesome. So, ask them to spread the love, and that's really just sharing how they feel about your product, program, or service. If the review is  bad, obviously you're not going to post it, but it still has value to you. Never be afraid to ask how your product or service worked for your buyers, and if it didn't work for them, asking them to share gives you feedback so you can adjust.

So, now we've gone through all eight stages of the customer life cycle, and I hope this helped. We are here for you. There's a box below. Send us your questions. We're happy to support you and get back to you with the answers. Enjoy your visit. Thank you.

Customer Life Journey Stages 4 and 5

 Customers, are you looking how to retain more and make more sales? Having a strong Customer Life Journey in place is a must. 

A Customer Life Journey consists of 8 stages. We completed an overview on the customer life journey in a past Podcast.

In this Customer Life Journey Series we will be tracking all 8 stages in detail. In the last podcast, we covered Stages 1-3 in detail, in our last podcast.  

1.    Make them aware2.    Engage with them to create a relationship3.    Get them to Subscribe and join your community

Now we're going to go through stages four and five of the Customer Life Journey.

At this point, we will assume they're on your list. You have their contact information, whether you do online marketing and you have collected their contact info via a form or you're a brick and mortar and have their business card you have added them to your community.

You want to avoid jumping in and offering your TOP cost program/product/service too soon because that can be a turn off and toxic to this budding relationship. You don’t want to turn off a potential customer because you pushed too fast.

Once you've made them a customer, stage five is probably one of the biggest stages.

So if they bought your low level program/product or service, maybe it's between $7 and $20. You want to capture the moment they are excited about getting something “new” and provide exceptional support and engage with them. You want to work with those feelings and over-deliver. Maybe what you sold is about a gardening tool so in your first email you gift them a bonus download that wasn't even in the offer.

Hey, now that you bought this gardening set, here's the top three tips to have the best tomatoes in the world! Something like that can be an easy gift that will be over delivered to them and appreciated.  As for this “report download” you just gave them, it does not need to be a newly written report, it can be an optin offer you have out for lead capture somewhere else or maybe it is a chapter out of an eBook or physical book you have written.  The point is you can reuse content you have other places and still give a valued gift to your new customer.

Once your gift message is received your new customer will be saying, wow, look at this thing I got, I didn't even know about it. They now get to not only use your product but experience your expertise even more.

Let’s keep the excitement going and do a little bit of follow-up with your new customer. You should have a check-in email maybe 3 to 5 days after their purchase just checking in asking a few questions:

Your goal is to get feedback from them and to make it easy for them to provide that!

Your next email in your follow-up can be a quick check in and a small offer for the next logical purchase from what you have to offer that fits the direction they were heading in their initial purchase. You can say something like, Hey, you purchased ABC and I wanted to see how's it going with you? Did you know we also have this that is a complementary product/program or service that goes with what you already purchased. (Here you are going to want to list the benefits to this new program offer and what it will do for them and the discounted price for being a loyal customer)  This is your first upsell email based on them becoming a customer of yours.

If you only use email or text message marketing it is OK just get your Customer Journeys built out.  Have the minimal in place and start! There will be time for editing, adjusting once you start seeing what is working and what might not be.

Sorry. I'm going to go on a tangent for a moment… I am going to insist on not using no-reply emails in your marketing platform. Be sure that you're sending it from an email address that is being monitored and can be followed up on, because if they take the time to ask you a question or reply back to you your exceptional customer experience needs to continue. You also want to make sure you are sending marketing emails out from YOU not Support@ or ClientCare@ email addresses – those are spam traps and will hamper your emails from being delivered.  I usually suggest for clients to use a version of email address that is not their main personal email address so they can have the ability for a team member to check it and reply back or send it to you to get your actual response.  So if your name is Susan Kay (just making this up), and your email is Susan@(company name) and that is the main email address you use to personally do business – go in and create SusanKay@(company name) email address that can be used for your marketing and eventually be checked by your support staff.  This will help you identify Customer Emails first and foremost to get back to them asap.

In conclusion, your goals are to Engage and Excite in these stages of the customer journey.

Customer Life Journey First Three Stages

 A Customer Life Journey consists of 8 stages. We completed an overview on the customer life journey in the last Podcast.

In this episode, I'd like to go into more detail on the first three stages of this journey with you and how you engage with your ideal customers and clients and bring them into this journey with you.

Your first stage in the Customer Life Journey is making them aware of who you are, what you do, where you're located, and how to engage with you. This can be done through advertising, blog posts, events that you might speak at or host, and of course, social media.

Stage Two: Engagement

Once you have set up your Awareness stage and you begin to drive traffic to your site or business, you want to engage with those you have attracted. Engaging with them creates an emotional tie and the best way to do this is communicating with them.

You want them to jump on this journey with you, and they will once you start to engage with them.

This could be accomplished through your blog posts, social media posting, or it could be through an event. You can combine these two stages together.

I recommend that you sit build the awareness stage, and never stop because you're constantly going to be filtering people in and out of your community.

These first three stages are your foundation and first floor! You'll continue to bring awareness to your business and engaging through the life of your business.

Clients will often struggle with the “engagement” stage. They don’t know what to say or feel like they will be bothering their customers and clients with conversation. Remember, the engagement stage is not for nonsense conversation but true engagement; continue to share valued information, take time to ask a question or two for you or your team to get to know THEM!

Work on the top three foundational pieces of your customer life journey and stick with it. If you need any help, let us know.

If you've already have these elements in place, remember to revisit those “messages” at a minimum annually to make sure they are still relevant to your business at that time and that your offers are still relevant. If you'd like someone to review and evaluate what you have, we are here to support you reach out to us!

If you have any questions or need any feedback on what you've been doing, I'm happy to speak with you. Give me a call or contact me. All the information is on this page.