Wisdom in the Tangents Photography Podcast 125. Top 3 Ways to Grow Your Business Outside of Social Media with Bernel Westbrook
My guest on the show today is Bernel Westbrook.
She is the owner and lead designer at Branded by Bernel, a full service branding and web design company. She's also the host of the Branded by Bernel Podcast where she shares branding tips and obsesses over the details so you don't have to.
And Today Bernel is sharing her top 3 ways you can grow your business outside of social media.
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Look for ways to grow your business but also ways that you can balance your life too.
Find areas that you can automate, and schedule some self care. You can't take care of your business well if you aren't taking care of yourself well.
One of the main reasons you should be looking for ways to grow your business outside of social media is because social media can be very mentally exhausting.
You can spend a lot of time on social media on your captions, on recording your reels, planning out content and you don't always see a reward for all your hard work.
One area you can focus on is referrals. If you are wondering how to get referrals from your clients, just ask for them. You'd be surprised what people want to do if you just ask.
Give your clients incentives or referral links for perks when they send people your way. You can even send them a questionnaire to help them formulate a review that would help lead more potential clients to you.
You can talk yourself up all day, but when potential clients hear about your services from a trusted friend, they will act on that referral much more often and with more trust in your experience.
A lead magnet is a freebie or highly discounted item that you use to to draw people in like a magnet.
You can use these to attract potential clients, provide them with value, and get them on your email list.
Provide your email list with valuable tips that speak to their pain points.
You can place your lead magnets in many different pages. A couple locations that get the most interaction are on your services page, and your resources page.
On your services page it tells them that you see they are at least interested in working with you, and then you can hit them extra value with your freebie.
If you have your lead magnet as a pop-up, place that pop-up on your about page or services page, not on your home page. You will get a much higher click rate being on a secondary page.
Another great way to grow outside of social media is to network. Meet other professionals at events, ask to be a guest on a podcast, attend your local Rising Tide Society (come join mine if you're in the area), and go to conferences to network nationally and internationally too.
Make a list of 3 clients you enjoyed working with, reach out to them and let them know that you loved working with them and you are currently adding some referrals and reviews on your website and you'd love if they could provide you one.
Find Bernel at
What Are We Loving?
What Bernel is loving:
Food - Trying new restaurants like Velvet Taco in Charlotte, NC
What John is loving:
Scheduling time for selfcare - Evenings off, weekends without photoshoots, going on actual vacations
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