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Opting out: Mindful ways to spend Black Friday as a business owner
If you’re overwhelmed at the prospect of crafting a Black Friday offer for your business or are feeling pressure to make unnecessary purchases, I’m here to invite you to step back, reflect on your intentions, say no, and prioritize what feels right for you.
Let’s take some time to review (and de-bunk) some of the misconceptions around Black Friday so you can reclaim your time, energy, and bank account.
What’s the business case for Black Friday?
It’s that time of year when retailers and consumers alike brace themselves for the onslaught of discounts, deals, and sales that come at the end of November. With Black Friday closing in, of course, small businesses are forced to think about their own sales and offerings too.
Questions like: do I need to create a new offer? Should I be promoting my product or service? Do I need new sales funnels?, might be flooding your mind.
So, what are my thoughts as a marketing consultant, and someone who has been on both sides of Black Friday chaos?
Passive income is a myth and we need to accept it as such
Passive income is the holy grail of business. Or so we're told by business and marketing experts alike. Except – it's not realistic and likely won't happen for you. If it worked, those sunny beaches would be full of passive income earners living it up.
Here’s the bottom line: it takes a lot of work to make money off of courses, books, or guides of any kind, even if you have a large and engaged audience.
Let’s review the bare minimum requirements for creating “passive income,” and what I’d suggest you prioritize instead.
How to create effective calls to action (CTAs) in your content
Your call to action directs your audience as to what you want them to do in each piece of content. It provides consumers with clear next steps and direction, which can reduce friction for customers, prevent decision fatigue or overwhelm, and generate more conversions.
Unfortunately, these calls to action are also often misunderstood, which can make them frustrating.
Here are some examples of the common issues I see with CTAs and how to fix them.
3 important questions your content needs to answer
You need to approach all of your content, particularly your sales pages, thinking about how what you’re writing is going to serve the reader, and plant the seed that working with you or purchasing your product is potentially their next step.
Good content is about more than simply being well-written. It’s about providing your readers with the answers to the questions they’re searching for.
Here are 3 critical questions your content needs to answer.
When was the last time you asked your audience to buy?
It pains me whenever I hear, "I haven't had any sales,” from a business owner, because I have to follow it up by asking how much promotion they’ve done. All too often, the answer is "not much" or "I haven't." Every piece of content you share should have some sort of action associated with it based on the goals you have for your business.
If your current content plan doesn't include regular reminders that they can buy from you, it's time to add those in! Because you don’t want to be spending time on marketing that doesn't lead to sales.
How to nurture interest instead of pushing a hard sell
When it comes to nurturing leads, you want to balance getting your point across and not pushing your prospect into a corner (or to your competitor). To do this successfully, you need to nurture your customer relationships through marketing tailored to what your customers want and need to know.
What should a brand post during bad news cycles?
Tragedies happen. Deaths are inevitable and high profile people get a lot of attention - and there have been a lot of high profile deaths this year. If you listen to people like me telling you how to manage social media for your business, you're posting regularly - yes, even using tools for automation - and you might end up posting during a time when people are upset about one event or another. There are two common questions: The first is whether you should pause your business feed. The second is whether or not you should comment on said event.
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