What is one way a small business owner can find more opportunities to share their story?
To help you connect with potential customers and clients, we asked business leaders and CEOs this question for their best advice. From leveraging knowledge platforms to staying away from using business jargon, there are several suggestions that may help you spread the word about your business.
Here are 14 ways you can share your story:
- Take Advantage of Boosted Posts
- Maintain an Online Presence
- Make It Attractive
- Be Genuine
- Offer True Value
- Keep Clear of Business Jargon
- Highlight Client Success Stories
- Tell Your Employees for Better Engagement
- Leverage a Knowledge Platform Like Terkel
- Start by Sharing Insights With Your Network
- Become a Member of an Online Community
- Invite Customers Into the Conversation
- Spread Your Story on Facebook
- Be a Guest on Podcasts
Take Advantage of Boosted Posts
I would say use boosted posts on social media to help you tell your story. You’re able to reach the audience you want to reach with a minimum of fuss, with compelling content you’ve already shared.
Boosted posts appear in people’s news feeds in a way that feels organic, so they are minimally invasive. If you don’t have a large marketing budget, boosted posts can help you share your story and build brand awareness without breaking the bank.
Kenna Hamm, Texas Adoption Center
Maintain an Online Presence
Social media is king, and as a result of COVID-19, so is ecommerce. That’s why it’s imperative that brands actively manage their online presence and use it to their benefit.
Fortunately, this can be an affordable undertaking initially. When getting started in building a social media presence, simply post regularly and often, use relevant hashtags, and respond to direct message inquiries, and watch your following grow.
If you’re on Instagram, you can then make use of their Stories feature to keep your followers engaged and checking back every day.
Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell
Make It Attractive
When you provide individuals with valuable knowledge in innovative ways, your content will succeed. Create a business voice and tone that customers can relate to so they become your brand’s biggest supporters and promoters.
Don’t be afraid to inject personality into your brand so that it doesn’t sound like it was written by a robot. Instead, humanize your business by introducing the founders, highlighting the people behind it, and avoiding professional jargon when presenting your product or service. Make it seem friendly while remaining error-free, and prevent blunders that could derail your content’s conversion.
Alisha Taylor, Alisha Taylor Interiors
Be Genuine
When sharing your story on your website, be genuine! I have a clear brand voice on my bio page and throughout my website because I want my “boss babe” mentality to shine through and help inspire my audience.
My company narrative is really a narrative of my life. I talk about my entrepreneurial journey and lessons I’ve learned in life that have brought me to where I am today. You attract readers when you’re genuine and have your audience nailed down.
Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional
Offer True Value
When you provide value to potential customers, you can get your story in front of them. We are a life insurance agency specializing in helping marijuana users get approved for life insurance at competitive rates.
While marijuana use is still illegal at the federal level, we have the knowledge and expertise to help our clients. We have several articles, such as a life insurance guide for marijuana users, on our website that help educate our target audience on what services they can receive. When potential customers search for helpful articles like ours, they find us organically.
Chris Abrams, Marcan Insurance
Keep Clear of Business Jargon
Your “About Us” page is for people, not academics or your professional community, so there’s no need to use long words or industry jargon. People want to connect with you and your business.
Our “About Us” page is short and sweet. We tell our potential customers what to expect from our jewelry designs and us as business owners, giving them a peek into our company culture.
Nataly Vanunu, Boho Magic
Highlight Client Success Stories
Share your story by highlighting client success stories. Potential clients can find case studies on your website and learn more about what your company does. Talking about specific services and remarkable results you have achieved in a client story is a great opportunity to dive into deeper detail about the service or solution you offer. This strategy can also help bring in more revenue and can act as a sales funnel on your website.
Giota Gavala, Comidor
Tell Your Employees for Better Engagement
Sharing your business story online to develop connections with your target audience is important to developing brand loyalty, but it’s important to share it with your employees and teams.
Employees who better appreciate the company’s mission, vision, and values can engage and collaborate more effectively as a team. They will also develop trust in the company’s leadership and overall direction for the long term.
Ed Stevens, Preciate
Leverage a Knowledge Platform Like Terkel
Small business owners have some of the best stories and expertise to share. But, they tend to lack the knowledge, resources, and relationships to have the opportunity to share those stories and expertise. Terkel (https://terkel.io) is a Q&A platform that allows small business leaders to answer relevant questions and get their insights published in articles like this. By answering questions, business leaders can share their stories in a bite-sized, low-lift way to gain visibility and grow their business.
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
Start by Sharing Insights With Your Network
Every small business owner should constantly be building a network of colleagues, connections, and possible mutual collaborators. This should be at the top of their agenda during the early days, making it possible to revert to this network whenever needed.
To begin sharing more of your company’s story, start with your network and then begin to branch out. By networking with others, you’ll eventually connect with members of their networks, meaning that your story will be heard by a whole new audience!
Lindsay McCormick, Bite
Become a Member of an Online Community
Join an online community whose members are in your target market and have an engaging presence. Actively contribute to discussions to build a relationship with them but avoid self-promotion. Casually mention your business when appropriate. Once you gain their trust, they are more likely to show interest in your business.
Payel Gupta, Cleared
Invite Customers Into the Conversation
There are many, consistently evolving opportunities to share your story in the modern climate as a small business owner. Amongst these are social media, blogs, videos, and other interactive content platforms.
The best piece of advice within this is to find areas where you can invite your customer into the conversation. This will allow your brand to build a self-sustaining following.
Boye Fajinmi, TheFutureParty
Spread Your Story on Facebook
Currently, my main way to share my story is on my private Facebook group, Shamelessly Sexy Sirens. It’s a place where I can share my whos, whys, hows, whats, and wheres of my business as parts of my story, my self-love journey.
And I do this all while offering a platform for other women to find support and encourage others on similar journeys. As a small business owner, you can’t beat the cost. It’s free and costs me nothing but a portion of the time that I set aside for my workdays.
Rya Michele Eisma, Shamelessly Sexy
Be a Guest on Podcasts
One way you can find more opportunities to share your story as a small business owner is to offer to be a guest on podcasts. Find podcasts that are relevant to your business or your target audience and reach out to the hosts and producers.
Let them know you want to offer your expertise and why you think it would be valuable to their audience. Avoid being overly promotional. You should focus on how you can help their listeners learn something new or gain something else of value.
Courtney Buhler, Sugarlash PRO
Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.
