5 Ways to Grow your Female Purpose-led Small Business
Somebody asked us the other day whether it was a good time to start a small business in the current climate and our answer to this was…
“Purpose-led small businesses will always have a place in the world.”
Despite the challenges of 2021, we have seen incredible growth from the small businesses we work with. It seems conscious brands are growing more than ever. This is because they have built incredible purpose-led brands, integrity is at the forefront of everything they do and they use their business as a catalyst to make a positive change, and in such a scary, unpredictable world, we humans need that now more than ever.
And, although purpose is at the forefront of successful brands, your business’s growth relies on so many other contributors. Here are the 5 key things that have helped to grow not only our conscious small business but our clients too.
Show Your Face
Being a persona-driven brand is incredible for your business's growth. In times like these, consumers turn to brands they know, love, and trust, and having your beautiful face, story, and journey at the forefront of your business plays a major part.
Although your community might love the product or service you’re selling, they will never relate to it as much as they relate to human connection and personal stories.
You are what makes your business stand apart from the competition, you are your brand's USP, there’s no one like you. It might feel awkward and icky, but you need to leverage this and take advantage of what makes you unique.
Example: Photos of James and I are some of the highest performing content on our Instagram (even more so than our small business marketing tips!) and when we share something personal on stories or in captions, it always drives the most engagement.
2. Take Advantage of Social Media
Without Pinterest & Instagram, our business wouldn’t have taken off as effectively or quickly if we’d just had a website. Getting found on search engines is more difficult than ever, not to mention it requires a lot of investment, which is often hilariously out of reach for small businesses.
“If a platform comes along that is completely free to use, drives traffic to your website without any ad-spend, and grows your brand awareness… grab it!”
Example: In 5 years of business, we have only had a handful of clients find us through google, when asked, 90% of them found us through Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook Ads.
The great thing about clients finding you through social media is that when they approach you, they (usually) have been following you for some time. They know, like, and trust you to do the job and are always the nicest people to work with because they are already loyal members of your community.
3. Hire Some Help!
Holy moly, this has been a big lesson for us this past couple of months. There have been times recently when we have been completely burnt out, for the past three years we have done everything ourselves, but after a lot of late nights, sleepless nights, and bottles of wines, we know that it’s not sustainable for us to carry on the way we are, which is why we are in the very early stages of growing a team. (spoiler alert).
There comes a point where you can’t grow anymore as a business without the help of a team to maintain your workload so that you can manage and market your baby. Not only is it good for business, but it’s also good for your own mental health and happiness.
4. Get Well Known in your Community
Communities are the best when it comes to growing your brand awareness locally. We did everything we could to squish ourselves into the Byron Bay community when we first arrived. We went to everything, and I mean everything!
We threw ourselves into the deep end before we barely had a chance to unpack our bags because we knew there is an unbelievable power from being a part of the community - everyone supports one another and most people prefer to work with or buy from someone local so that they’re giving back to the local economy.
“Communities are also great for referrals, inspiration, and skill swaps.”
Over the past year, we have skill swapped with local small business owners to help us with certain aspects of our business that we didn’t have the budget for at the time, this gave us the skills and expertise to continue to grow our brand.
5. Improve Your Customer’s Journey
Your customer won’t always remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel. Our clients have done an incredible job of doing this, especially during such a strange time. Whether it’s a handwritten note in their delivery parcel thanking them, checking in with their community over social, or giving them an extra thoughtful and personalised experience when working together.
“Not only will you delight your customer, but you will also find that they send lots of dream customers your way.”
Referrals are the creme de la creme of customers, the know, like and trust factor is already there and because they are friends with your past clients, they usually hold the same values and can nestle nicely into your dream clients category.
“Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealised, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture and no character.”
- RICHARD BRANSON
let’s round it up
Despite the challenges of 2021, use 2022 to grow your resilient and purposeful brand through the use of social media, networking, community, and digital marketing.
NOTES TO TAKEAWAY
Being a persona-driven brand is incredible for your business's growth. 📈
Without Pinterest & Instagram, our business wouldn’t have taken off as effectively or quickly if we’d just had a website. 🎉
Most of the time, you can’t grow anymore as a business without asking for help.
Communities are the best when it comes to growing your brand awareness, getting inspired, creating connections. 🧡
Referrals are the creme de la creme of customers/clients. 🤗
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Founders of Betsy & Francis, Nicole & James are creating a conscious small business movement by teaching purpose-led small business owners in the conscious, ethical, or sustainable industry how to stand out in a crowded marketplace, increase their sales and grow a profitable small business using Conscious Marketing, Instagram Marketing, Pinterest Marketing, Email Marketing, and Facebook ads.
