by Kerry Ferguson | Jul 29, 2020 | Social Media
Safe to say July has been a busy month in terms of helping people with social media, and also taking on new clients to run their social media.
I thought writing a post about this would be useful, because I feel like we do this very differently at Gwe Cambrian Web, and we offer a lot of value for money too.
Social media is, as we know, about being social. It isn’t about scheduling in a month of content and feeling chuffed when you send off your invoice. There really is a lot more to it!
So when I tell people they need to be posting consistently, I also tell people they need to be engaging and networking too. In essence, you need to be spending time on the platforms as well – watch the stories, explore the feed, interact with your followers. In fact, on Instagram, this is essential! It’s even a part of their algorithm!
I always include this allocation of time in my packages, I spend time chatting away (my favourite thing) and engaging with people in the sector and the audience. I see so many times businesses just posting and saying how much they will post per week per platform – but you could do so much better by making sure you network and engage.
So, if you are looking for someone to run or help you with your social media, make sure they will be social online. Also, make sure they understand your business! It’s essential!
by Kerry Ferguson | Jul 7, 2020 | General Thoughts
How often do you offer discounts on your services or products? Do you know why?
So back in 2018 we ran a few discounts, most notably we offered all new businesses 50% off website designs – and to be honest, I don’t think we had a single enquiry based OFF that. In fact, I shot myself in the foot more than once telling enquiries we did this, afraid I’d lose them.
When I won the Forward Ladies Regional Awards, part of the next stage was a live judging day. This was held in Manchester and we were basically interviewed by 3 judges about the nomination and what we do. Part of my application had been to say how we offer these great discounts…
So, cue the interview which I felt went very well – in fact, I learned loads but that’s a blog for another day. One of the questions that will always stick with me though is why do we discount our services? We had a really good chat about it (forget Apprentice style grilling, this was very much more like a group of us understanding what my business did, while I also learned too). So my reply was of course we have to compete with our competition, other companies do this as well and new businesses will appreciate the gesture. This all seemed very legit to me, and still does in some respects.
One of the judges just came out and said it – “but you’re under-valuing everything you do”. When it comes down to it, by offering 50% it showed people that we didn’t believe in our 100% prices, we were happy to do that work at half the cost, so is that a business you want to give your money to? Right it’s different if you sell items perhaps that are now going out of fashion, but in terms of service to service type businesses, it’s a very valid point.
On my long train journey home I remember mulling this over, and contacting Emlyn. We agreed that yes, we were giving the wrong message, and there are other ways to help these businesses. We remove that discount, and can honestly say we’ve never looked back.
In fact, in the 2 years since, I’ve only ever had someone ask me for a reduction in cost once – and I said no, sorry – and they came to us anyway.
So, if you area B2B business and you’re offering a huge discount – have a rethink. Not only are you completely undercutting the market, but you are playing a part in devaluing that service too. I think discounts or freebies can be offered in certain circumstances, but shouldn’t be as a general “always available” deal. Would love to know your comments below if you have any thoughts!
