Working in marketing it’s obvious that I’d preach the benefits of being visible
If people aren’t aware of you, then they simply can’t buy from you
Awareness is the 1st part of marketing and conversion is the 2nd part of marketing
As I write this blog on 27th October, some 7 months after the lockdown started, I’m reflecting back on what being visible has brought our business over the past 7 months
1. Big Name Training Clients
At Altrincham HQ we’ve always worked with a mixture of small businesses through to large corporates
When lockdown 1st started in March some of our hospitality clients had gone on pause. It was a huge chunk of our income that disappeared overnight
After a week of stress, I did what I’d always done. Get back to being active and visible and providing as much value as possible
I published 10 blogs from mid March to the end of April. Blogging has been a stable of marketing since we started
I was more active then ever before on social media. Gyms, pubs and restaurants were closed. Gigs weren’t happening. You couldn’t visit friends homes. What else was there to do?
What I found in a few weeks was lots of businesses were contacting me looking for Social Media Training for their staff
2 of those clients were Costa Coffee and United Utilities and we did lots of corporate training for businesses who wanted 40-50 members of staff training
None of that would have happened without being visible
2. Clients From Across The UK
Zoom has made the world smaller
I will still try and shop local where possible. Most people do. But often when it comes to services providers there might not be local options or sometimes better options are available further afield
Literally within weeks of full lockdown I was working with clients across London, Merseyside and Scotland because there simply wasn’t comparable service providers on their doorstep
They’d googled us, checked our reviews out and done due diligence by checking out our social media before buying from us
I remember clearly one training session in particular which was with Cheshire Cleaning Company based in Widnes who said “I kept googling social media companies and every company I saw before yours had no engagement on their own pages. It was the fact you actually did great social media that made us buy from you”. That company has got nearly triple the amount of Instagram followers they had on Good Friday when we trained them and they’ve won business from the gram
None of our UK wide work would happen without being visible
3. Networking Group Growth
To celebrate 10 years of Altrincham HQ we launched a number of face 2 face networking events
Brands like Alex & His Sisters, The Big Altrincham Social and Balti HQ are all successful networking events attracting between 50-150 people per event
Once we realised that Face 2 Face events weren’t happening any time soon, we resumed the events as online networking events
Importantly what we saw was with a little extra promo we were able to grow the event to new audiences reaching people of whom location was previously a key barrier
As well as our own events we’ve supported events like MPostcode, SUBS Altrincham, Altrincham Chamber Of Commerce and many others
But we’ve always been selective of how many events we attend as for us it’s quality over quantity at events – we’d rather than attend 3 great events a month than 3 average events a week
Don’t confuse being visible with having to be every. Be visible where it makes impact
4. New Retained Clients
80% of what kept us going through full lockdown was social media training
When you consider that our mix of social media training / social media management was normally 50/50 it was a big change
As soon as businesses really started to open again July it was ourselves that got the phonecalls to really help businesses market themselves
Behind every successful business is a successful marketer and businesses realised they needed to market or die
We’ve never been one to send press releases out to the local press shouting about our client wins, but we took on 4 new retained social media management clients during the pandemic and still have capacity for a couple more – info here
5. 70+ Testimonials
Reviews for most people hold weight
If you go onto Amazon and you see a product has 2 stars and another has 5 – you’re going for the 5 star product
If you’re booking a holiday and you’re looking for a hotel – you choose the hotel with the good reviews
If somebody at a networking meeting (or on LinkedIn) mentions you need to chat to XXX about XXX – you look online for their reviews
It’s not the only part of the buying process – but it’s a part of the buying process
During the pandemic we increase our number of reviews from just over 400 to 479
This in turn has enabled us to win more business
RECAP – WHAT BEING VISIBLE DURING THE PANDEMIC HAS BROUGHT US
All of this didn’t happen by accident
During the pandemic we’ve gained
– New Clients
– More Reviews
– More Sales
– More Profit
– A brighter future
It’s hard work and has been because we’ve been visible in 6 places including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Networking Events
We experimented and tried things that didn’t really work like TikTok
I read less business books than normal, but actioned all the things I knew worked
I talked more and did more
Being visible is the only thing that helped my business
How visible are you?
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
We offer Social Media Training on
* LinkedIn
* Instagram
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Blogging
We can do this
* 121
* Corporate Workshops
* Group Workshops
* Face to Face or Via Zoom / Skype
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
