Another great way to generate awareness of your brand is to create a caption contest. Ask for the funniest caption, perhaps offering some kind of prize.

​These contests tend to bring out the wittiest of your followers and are often a really good laugh. We are more likely to share things we find amusing. 

Keeping the ideas flowing ...
​
Jo x

Joining in with regular weekly hashtag themes is a great way to get your business out to a wider audience.

​Try some of the following: 
#MondayMotivation
#MondayBlues
#MarketingMonday
#TransformationTuesday 
#TipTuesday #TuesdayTip
#HumpDay
#ThrowBackThursday or #tbt
#FollowFriday
#FactFriday
#TGIF
#SaturdayShoutOut or #SS
#SundayFunday 
​#SundayRead
#PhotoOfTheDay
#Like4Like
#FollowMe
#PicOfTheDay
#Follow
#Style
#Fun
#Follow4Follow
#Happy
#Love

#UppingYourGame
Jo

Here are 3 reasons why you should add your photograph to your email signature ...
​

• It helps with rapport building.
• It helps build trust.
• It makes you a real person, not just someone on the end of an email. 

 
The more people see your picture, the more comfortable they will feel with you. The more comfortable they are with you, the more likely they are to buy from you. Simples :-)

Giving you the edge ...
Jo x 

Guest post from Sarah at Sarah Barter Proofreading.

Whether you're setting up a website, writing a blog post, putting together a client proposal or designing a poster, don't underestimate how unprofessional and off-putting little spelling mistakes and grammatical errors can be to both potential and returning customers. 

​Proofreading is basically quality control—it’s the final polish of your words before you release them to the world! 

I think it's very easy to hide behind email, and while I don't think it's the always the best option for generating sales (unless you are running a specific add-value drip campaign / funnel), it does have its uses.

Here are my 14 top tips for using email to generate business and keep in touch with prospects.

Keep it simple.
Write in a way that a teenager will understand. No jargon or fancy words!

Keep it friendly.
Write as if you were writing to a friend. Be authentic.
​
Keep your subject line to less than 6 or 7 words.
That's the number you can see on most mobile phones. ​

While this seems like common sense, I've come to realise that sense is not always that common :-) (Members of The Bristol Small Business Network excepted of course!)
​
One of the first rules of marketing is knowing your customers. Inside-out and back-to-front. When I ask most people who their target market is, they usually say something along the lines of "anyone with a pulse?". No, no, no!

The more specific you are about your avatars (just a posh word for perfect customers!), the better. Yes, you can have more than one avatar, but you will need to do this exercise for each of them. The more you know, the more you’ll understand how best to market to them.

When was the last time you actively collected feedback from your current and past clients? For many of you, the answer to that is probably ‘never’.

It's one of those things we know we should do but never get around to doing. Often, the main reason for this is because we are scared of the answers we will get. And then we will need to act on them! 

It can be hugely beneficial and definitely worth doing though, and here's why...

​If you don't ask them, your customers may tell you they’re not happy with their feet. They’ll walk away and move to another business that offers what you do. 68% of clients leave you because of a ‘perceived indifference’. In other words, they think you don't care about them. 

Setting up your Business Profile on Google is pretty simple, but I'm amazed at how many people don't bother. It's free and it can help you show up in more searches, you can link to your website, add offers and photos, and – most importantly – build your reviews. Why wouldn't you?

If you are not very tech-savvy, ask a teenager to do it for you, find someone in the Bristol Small Business Network FB group to help, or get someone from Fiverr or PPH to do it for you.

I have to admit, Instagram sort of passed me by until quite recently, and while I definitely would not class myself as an expert on Instagram, I have learned quite a few things over the last few months so I thought I would share them. If you are more experienced than me, feel free to add your comments in the comments below!

​So, here goes ...

• Post regularly. Some say daily, and some say three times a day. I would say aim for a minimum of three times a week.
• Make use of hashtags. ​# is how people find you. For example, if I add #businesstips to my posts, anyone who searches on that hashtag will see my stuff. You can add up to 30 hashtags to each post, so use them all.