Marketing assets work for you even while you are not present. Marketing for a solopreneur can feel overwhelming as you are already carrying out so many roles in your business. It can feel as though there isn’t time to do everything.
Once you have decided on your strategy and are clear on your ideal client and had conversations with them it is time to get to work building assets. They will provide a firm foundation among the choppy waters.
Assets are pieces of content which will do much of your marketing for you and help to draw your ideal clients to you. They help to prequalify the right people and let them know you can help them. Just as importantly they save you time from working with the wrong people. As time is one of your most valuable assets – and can never be reclaimed – it makes sense to make the time you do spend really count. Delivering value to potential clients is time better spent than working with the wrong clients.
What are the kind of marketing assets can you build?
A blog post or article which speaks directly to what you can do.
If you meet people online or face to face and have an interesting conversation you would like to follow up with them. A low risk way of following up with them is to offer to send them an article which covers aspects of what you have talked about. It represents you well and lets them know what the next step is. This may also be on your website, but you send it to them personally.
It includes a follow up step, and in order to be GDPR compliant invites them to sign up online so you can follow up in the future. This can build your reputation in their eyes and demonstrates your authority.
Some people may want to book a conversation straight away, but it is useful to remember that clients may need to hear from you 12 times before buying.
Call to Action
This is usually a link which invites the reader to take the next step with you. Whether it is receiving written information, watching a video, entering a competition or just looking at something entertaining it is good practice to request your readers or viewers to do something. Let them know what else they can do or get! It is surprising how often as business owners we forget that our clients are not mind readers. Make it easy for them.
Website – a definite marketing asset
Your own website can bring clients to you. It may change as your business grows and develops. Often this is the last thing on your list and can be horrendously out of date… in which case it is no longer an asset at all. In fact you may be embarrassed about it! Regularly keeping it up to date by adding praise or new offers and looking at the words you use for SEO can bring huge benefit.
Blog Posts
Each blog post gives the search engines new words to feed on. Search engines love new stuff! As blogs can be written in a more personal and lively way than say your service or product pages on your website, they can help readers get to know you. If they like you and trust you because of the things you say, you are far more likely to attract them as buyers.
Bios on social media and elsewhere
Your bio is a brief paragraph about you covering the main points or angle. There should be consistency across the different platforms and photographs where you can easily be recognised. It is a chance for people to get to know the person behind the company name.
Freebie
A valuable piece of content given away in exchange for a sign up to a newsletter
This can take any form you like depending on your creativity and the need of your ideal client. Something that is easy to understand and saves time and money is often seen as the most valuable. You can then follow up and develop the relationship.
A package around your products or services
A package or course which can be easily sold can be easily defined, and perceived as a more valuable asset. Depending on the price point it can be a useful entry, or form the basis for high end purchases to which you add your personal expertise.
Email list and newsletters
You can send email newsletters regularly and immediately. But most email providers also allow for sending newsletters via automation which turns your words and your list into more of an asset. You stay in your customers’ mind and minimise your involvement once you have set it up.
Conversations with your customers and potential customers
All the items in this list are important, but your biggest asset is the access you have to your ideal clients’ hearts and minds. What they think, the language they use, what they struggle with are the essential ingredients which infuse your business. Real life conversations, surveys, social media posts .. these are the factors that will lead to success. We can be afraid to ask for feedback in case it is negative, but whatever you get back is always so useful. And often it is a compliment for something that had not even occurred to you and which could become a future asset!