Why Articles Help Boost Your Business

You’ve heard us say it loads of times; “You can add articles as part of your membership and it will help make your business more visible”, but does it really make a difference!?

I’ve got an example for you from one of our members who has recently renewed. We were looking at their stats you see and we found that in their first year with us they received around 300 views of their business listing (and we’ll go into how you can make sure those views turn into clients in another article!) – not world shattering perhaps, but good visibility non-the-less.

But here is where it gets interesting…

You see, they didn’t just have a business listing, they also have been proactive in adding articles to the website too and this is the difference it’s made:

 During the 12 months of being with us, they posted 15 articles, just over one a month, and those articles have been seen just under 6,000 times!! Now, i’m sure you’ll agree, that is quite a big jump in the level of visibility for the business and well worth the effort getting them written and shared.

As you’ll know, at the base of every article is a link to the authors business listing and also their website so not only do you help people with your informative writing, you also enable them to build trust with you and your business and then they are easily able to contact you to find out more (again another article about writing an effective bio to follow!).

So, if you’re not already posting articles on The Holistic Directory then I urge you to consider doing so.

As you can see, even sharing one a month can have a dramatic effect on how much exposure your business gets, not only on the Directory website but also online in general. And we’ve not even mentioned the extra exposure you can get by adding offers and events!

If you’d like help with ideas on what to write or you’ve got the articles but either struggle to or don’t have time to get them added to the website then please send them to us and we will be happy to help!

You can contact us at support@theholisticdirectory.co.uk Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing lots of lovely articles from you soon 🙂

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 Written by Sophie Jewry of The Holistic Directory

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 P.S. If you’re not a member yet and you’d like to get in on the action then check out our great value memberships online here: https://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk/advertise/elite-membership

Last Minute Promotions For Christmas

This is a busy time of year for most people getting ready for Christmas, with shopping, on their feet all day, feeling tired and stressed.

So hopefully you are looking after them to manage with this time of year but also help them when they are buying gifts for everyone!  Do not miss out on this marketing opportunity.

There is still plenty of time for marketing opportunities and promoting offers.

Did you know that Monday 2nd December is the busiest day for spending on the internet?  Do you have anything available on your website for people to buy – products, gift vouchers etc?  In your marketing offer that availability.

Promote your gift vouchers on social media sites, in your clinic/salon/treatment room and in your emails to your clients.  Also offer them in gift packages with products or to gift wrap them free of charge – you can make them into a scroll or Christmas cracker with Christmas confetti inside!, provide them in a Christmas Card.

If you have a salon/clinic/treatment room, have some ready made up for clients to buy straight away and also they are able to see what they look like.  Remember to have pictures of them available on your website and social media.

You can have Countdown To Christmas Offer.  These can be a different offers every day or every week towards Christmas like an advent calendar  (subject to what you are able to offer in products and therapies)  such as beauty therapies – eye brow shape, manicure, file and polish, massage, reflexology, onsite massage, eyelash perm/tint,  products, ready blended oils, candles, cd’s,  books, etc.

Provide a raffle for a luxury prize – maybe a head to toe therapy package – with raffle tickets at £1 and money raised towards your favourite charity.

You still have time to organise a open day/evening event at your salon/clinic or if you provide treatments at your home you could run one there.  I have in the past organised open evenings as a thank you to my clients and if they bring somebody new they get free raffle tickets.  At these evenings they can have taster treatments and drinks and nibbles are supplied with products etc available to buy.  Even in my own home I have had around 30 people attend! And all sent home after a lovely evening with a goodie bag filled with sweets, samples of products, a candle, marketing materials such as a bookmark, key ring and fridge magnet and a CD of calming music.

Have a think and research what others are doing.  This could be your busiest time of year!  Look after your clients and make them feel special and they will keep coming back for more.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year

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By Alison Brown
of Ali’s Therapy Academy

Direct Mail – Think Outside The Box

You do not have to be sending out 1000’s of leaflets to do this.

In fact you’re far better to work out how much money you can spend per customer (see marketing post about calculating cost) and then spend as much as you can on an idea that will really jump out when the recipient opens it. If you can be memorable (for the right reasons!) you’re halfway there.

If your spend allowance for a new client is £15, what can you send for £10 each to say 100 potentials on your list?

Use your imagination and create something that is really personal, that will have a real impact and get you a new client!

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By Sophie Jewry
of www.sophiejewry.com
and The Holistic Directory and The Brand Kitchen

Use Awards To Your Advantage

You may have heard that we’re currently running our first ‘Holistic Business of the Year Award‘ and it’s already working really well for our nominees.

Some businesses are taking full advantage of the PR possibilities of this opportunity and others haven’t quite got there yet.

A great example of a super proactive business woman is Liz Badger of Face The World (FTW). FTW is a reasonably new business offering both training and products for combined holistic massage and beauty treatments (and wonderful they are too!).

Liz was straight on our resources page downloading banners and reading through the ideas for promotion and within hours had added a banner to her website and another to her email signature, directing people to vote for them.

Not only this but she was also straight on social media Tweeting and posting on Facebook to encourage interest. Then today I hear that there’s even more great stuff happening with a full page editorial piece running in the local paper today too! (see pic)

This is a lady that has seen the potential benefits of grabbing this opportunity and running with it to get as much PR and promotion for her business out of it as she can. We’re hoping some of our other members follow suit.

We decided to run this award for a number of reasons, the main one of course being to recognise businesses for taking action and being proactive in their businesses and looking after their clients. What also ties in brilliantly is the fact that being a finalist for an award is a superb promotional opportunity for any business.

By getting your clients, friends and colleagues to vote, not only do you get in their consciousness (and this is the place where referrals are born), you also get seen in a different light in many cases as an award gives a more professional edge to a business.

There are times in business (and indeed in life) where you need to act fast to make the most of an opportunity and an award is definitely one of those times.

Perhaps you’ve been nominated for an award or you’ve even won one already but haven’t used it to it’s full potential yet.

I urge you to do something about it today. Take action and use it to get your business seen, after all you’re in business to do business right?

If you’ve not yet cast your vote for our Holistic Business of the Year Award yet then please do so here: https://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk/about/holistic-business-of-the-year-award-2013

Voting closes on September 1st 2013 so be sure to get your vote in while you can!

To close I’d like to ask you a question…

What can you do to take action in your business today that will give you the tomorrow that you dream of?

We love to hear your comments so please do join in the conversation below…

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Author: Sophie Jewry
Find out more about Sophie Jewry
Find out more about The Holistic Directory

Writing Effective Business Listings

Are you making your business listing work for you?

Here are some top tips for making sure that your business listing is working effectively for your business:

Add Your Listing!

You’d be amazed how many business join up to membership/directory websites and don’t ever get their listing online. If you don’t have your listing on the website you will never get any benefit from it – make sure the first thing you do is add your listing.

Shout About Your Qualifications

In most cases there are literally hundreds, possibly thousands and more, offering the same thing as you, so why would you not do all you can to let people know how good you are and why they should choose you over the next person?

When completing your business listing be sure to include as much information as you can about your experience and your qualifications.

If you have a degree/certificate/NVQ/Insert relevant qualification here, write about it.

If you have X number of years in the industry, write about it.

If you have any great things that help set you above the competition, why would you not include it on your listing and help show that you are an expert in your field and a credible person to do business with?

Include A ‘Call To Action’

“Isn’t that just sales and marketing speak?” I hear you ask. In a word, no. We, as people, are amazingly well trained in doing what we’re told. Try it on Facebook if you like – there have been studies done that show that if you include a ‘call to action’ on a Facebook post to like or comment on a post, the number of likes and comments noticeably increases.

So why would you not do this for your business? Tell people what you want them to do next and increase the likelihood of actually getting them to do what you want. And this leads very nicely into…

Know What You Want, Know What They Want and Sell The Benefits

Marketing is best approached with a clear focus for what you want to achieve. We know that a scattergun approach may work, but it takes SO much longer. When you are focused on exactly what you want then the customer will know and you’ll achieve better results.

Some marketing is just about increasing visibility. Some about getting a potential client to click a link. Perhaps you want to drive people to download an eBook and get on your mailing list. Or maybe you just want them to pick up the phone and call you.

If you don’t know A) who your customer is and B) what you want them to do when they see your listing/advert how are they supposed to know either?

Know your target client, show how you can solve their problem/fulfil their need (i.e. the benefits of using you) and direct them what to do next. Simples.

Check Your Contact Details

This seems like a really silly suggestion on the surface but many people, usually accidentally, have links that don’t work or typos in their contact details.

Make sure, when adding your details, that you check they are all correct and the web links take you where you want to go.

The most common problem is not putting an http:// at the beginning of your website when you type it in the box. Most forms require you to type the full web address for the link to work so avoid unclickable links (and missed opportunities) by get into the habit of typing it in full, for example: http://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk

Utilise The Extra Features

Most business listings these days have an array of extra tabs and areas to add content including; event listings, articles/blog posts, special offers, videos, testimonials etc. Remember that when a potential client visits your page they want to be able to see as much information about you as they can, in one place. By making sure you utilise the extra features on a website you not only increase the credibility of your business in the eyes of the visitor but you also increase your visibility.

As an example: If you have a business listing on http://www.theholisticdirectoryco.uk and you also add 4 articles, 4 events and 2 special offers, you actually show up on our website 11 times – that’s 11 separate pages linking to each other on the site, 11 separate pages being promoted on our social media, 11 separate pages being indexed by Google for your business and 11 times more likelihood of you being found on the website, online via our many proactive social media accounts and in search engines like Google.

So make time, or even better build the time into your working week (or outsource!), to take advantage of extra features and give your business the best chance of being credible and visible online!

Avoid Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is not the be all and end all but it is definitely good practice to make sure that anything you post online is at least 20% different to where you have posted it elsewhere. Now I have actually written a blog post about this which explains the reasoning in more detail here: http://www.sophiejewry.com/duplicate-content/

This also applies to business listings. As a rule, try to ensure that every where you post your business listing, that you make it a little different each time. This is actually equally important, if not more so, with articles/blog posts. If you’re writing posts be sure to tweak the content before posting elsewhere to ensure that it shows up as different text rather than a duplicate. By posting different and relevant text in a variety of places you increase your credibility in the eyes of Google and similar search engines. If it’s all the same you will not get the same positive results.

Seek Professional Help

If this all seems a bit much to take in, let along instigate, seriously look at getting help with this. Ultimately a listing is a shop window for your business and if you’re paying for it you might as well make sure it’s the best it can be for you.

I can’t speak for every online directory but I can say that The Holistic Directory offer a copywriting service specifically for this and for as little as £150 you can have a piece of text that is written to be search engine friendly, aimed at your target market and bespoke for you (Want to know more? Email: support@theholisticdirectory.co.uk to discuss how we can help you). There are also a whole host of great copywriters out there that will offer a similar service for you. Well worth considering if you are not confident with writing or would just like to focus on what you do best and let someone else take the hassle away from you and provide you with a finished piece.

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Author: Sophie Jewry
Need help with your business branding and/or online marketing? Find out more here:
http://www.sophiejewry.com
http://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk