Tag Archives: digital-marketing

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What Do You Spend to Get a New Customer?

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Do you know how much you spend, on average, to convert a prospect into a paying customer—attracting the prospect’s attention, educating the prospect about your brand, your services and your products, instilling confidence and building trust—and making a sale? Have you tallied up the combined cost per customer of your marketing campaigns, selling expenses, referral programs, customer onboarding and the like and calculated the average amount of the marketing spend that supports the growth of your customer list—and your revenue, as a result? What kind of a return on investment are you getting from your marketing campaigns and sales strategy?

You may not know in the moment your company’s average customer acquisition cost, but it would be a good idea to update it (or figure it out) and keep that number in mind, because your CAC is a metric that reveals an important story about how your business functions. Customer Acquisition Cost is a key performance indicator, although not necessarily in the way many business owners and leaders think. CAC shines a bright light on the performance of company operations and outcomes, including the business model, which is the essential plan for making money. The metric also reveals the effectiveness of your overall marketing strategy, which reflects your marketing acumen and, in the end, can make a credible prediction of your organization’s potential for profitability and expectations for growth and scalability.

CAC is a metric that can be benchmarked against an industry standard and it’s a smart idea to research your industry’s average CAC and use the benchmark number as a guideline. Learning the CAC benchmark for your industry will enable you to identify a reasonable dollar amount for your marketing and sales budgets and help you avoid either overspending or underinvesting on marketing activities—which you rely on to bring paying customers into the business.

Familiarity with the CAC benchmark in your industry also enables you to evaluate your performance as a marketer. For example, if your company’s CAC is significantly higher than industry average, it could indicate problems with your marketing strategies or sales strategies and practices—-you’re spending money but not bringing in enough customers, or not the right customers, to generate a healthy marketing ROI. On the other hand, if your CAC is rather low as compared to the industry benchmark, it suggests that you may be under-funding marketing. If that’s the case, then theoretically you could assume that spending more on marketing would bring in more customers that fit your definition of ideal. In other words, CAC reflects the effectiveness of your marketing practices and can help you set realistic goals, as well as identify where you need to do better.

Calculate CAC by dividing total marketing and sales expenses by the number of new customers you’ve brought to the business within a given period—annually or quarterly, for example. Because many businesses serve more than one customer segment, it will make sense to separately calculate CAC according to customer segments, which could be based on demographic factors and might also involve differences in sales cycle length or competitive landscape. Incidentally, B2B entities typically have a longer sales cycle and tend to have a higher average CAC than B2C companies.

You’ll also want to segment your spend on the marketing channels you use—e.g., email marketing, social media advertising, customer relations management software subscriptions, and/or attending trade shows—and calculate the corresponding CAC figures. But what does understanding CAC really do for you? CAC is about documenting, analyzing and tracking over time the amount you spend on various customer segments, plus your marketing channels and sales strategies, that are used to convert prospects into paying customers.

There is also the matter of a customer’s average lifetime (revenue) value. You already know that a campaign to bring in a new customer costs at least 5x more than what you must do to retain an existing customer. Nevertheless, you may want to calculate the average amount of revenue that will flow to your business over the length of time that a customer does business with your organization. The question is addressed by calculating Customer Lifetime Value, a metric that is foundational to long-term revenue growth. Additionally, CLV factors into CAC, because it determines the return on investment (ROI) of the customers you acquire.

Calculate CLV by multiplying the Average Purchase Value x Purchase Frequency x Average Customer Lifespan. For instance, if you provide subscription services or have customers on a retainer agreement, you can calculate customer lifetime value by multiplying the amount of the subscription or retainer fee by the length of the subscription or retainer contract (purchase frequency) to arrive at CLV for one customer for one year (CLV is typically calculated on a one-year time frame).

Another useful metric is the CLV: CAC ratio, which compares Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). The ratio documents the revenue an average customer brings to your business, as compared to what was spent to acquire that customer. A desirable CLV: CAC ratio should be at least 3:1, meaning that every dollar of marketing spend will result in three dollars of revenue generated by a customer. A ratio less than 3:1 indicates your company’s marketing efforts are producing less than stellar returns, while a ratio far in excess of 3:1 suggests that you could produce more revenue growth with an increased marketing spend.

Make a point to benchmark your CAC against industry averages and to understand what good marketing and sales performance looks like. Here’s how to get started on figuring out your company’s CAC:

  • Define customer acquisition process and goals.

Make a comprehensive assessment of you acquire customers—paid social media ads, organic social media outreach, thought leadership, e.g. public speaking, hosting a podcast, and/or publishing a newsletter, word-of-mouth and referrals? Have you developed an inbound marketing/ sales funnel to capture prospects who search online to find a B2B Freelance professional services provider in your category? Next, decide what represents a realistic customer acquisition goal for your organization—how many active customers can you reasonably expect to have on your roster in a typical year?

  • Segment your CAC by different variables

Consider how to segment your customers, keeping in mind customer demographics and accounting for the marketing channels and options you employ. Get comfortable with the fact that your CAC for certain channels might be higher than your benchmarked industry average, which means that you’re spending more to acquire customers through those channels. By segmenting your CAC, you can identify the best and weakest performers in your marketing and sales strategy and optimize your resource allocation accordingly by dropping certain options and increasing your investment in better performing channels.

  • Document your marketing and sales budget

Once you’ve chosen your CAC segments, you can look at what each of them costs—identify and quantify all costs directly related to acquiring new customers. These may include advertising, content creation, SEO, social media, email marketing, webinars, CRM software and/or buying your way into business association events that allow you to network effectively. You can use tools such as Google analytics, Facebook Pixel, or HubSpot to track and measure the performance of your different channels and campaigns.

  • Select your time period

Decide on the time period for which you will calculate your CAC—quarterly or annually should make sense for your business. You need to match your marketing and sales expenses and your new customers to the same time period for your CAC calculation.

  • Calculate your CAC

To calculate your CAC, divide the total amount of money spent to finance your marketing and sales activities by the number of customers you acquired in a given period, and apply customer segments that reflect demographic groups and the primary marketing channels you use.

  • Research your industry CAC average

To benchmark your CAC, compare your number with the industry averages for your niche, product or service and target market. Because  CAC can vary widely depending on the industry, the business model, the product, the target market, and the marketing channels used. Therefore, it is essential to benchmark your CAC against relevant and reliable sources of data, such as industry averages and competitors.

  • Compare CAC: CLV ratio

CAC alone does not necessarily indicate a revealing story about the health of your business, but the story will be more telling when you look to CLV and learn the average amount of revenue that you generate from a customer over the span of the business relationship. Be sure to follow-up with an examination of the CAC: CLV ratio, which tells you the amount of revenue generated per money spent on marketing and sales functions. A common rule of thumb is that your LTV should be at least three times your CAC. This would indicate that you have a positive ROI from your marketing and sales efforts.

Finally, keep in mind that CAC is not a static metric and remember that it can and will vary when impacted by various factors, such as certain fluctuations in your industry, organic changes in your product or service lifecycle, marketplace changes, especially changes in the competitive landscape or pricing. You will be wise to monitor and analyze your CAC regularly and adjust your marketing and sales strategies accordingly. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA

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Summer Reading 2025

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Professional development is like getting regular exercise and maintaining a balanced diet—a gift you give to yourself as you strive to become a successful business owner. When thinking of professional development, conferences sponsored by professional associations or skills building courses held at a college may come to mind but think again—professional development is available in a variety formats. Among the most accessible and affordable methods to obtain professional development can be found in books.

Reading has traditionally played an important role in the development of successful business owners and leaders. When you open a book, a world of ideas, information and insights will be there to enlighten you. You’ll find lessons and experiences that can be critical to your growth as a business owner and leader, shared by authors who give first-person accounts of how they overcame challenges and found success. The books you read can teach you how to sharpen your business acumen and use your newfound proficiency to propel your business forward. The practical knowledge contained in a typical business-themed book can result in your discovery of actionable insights that can become competitive advantages, from refining your decision-making prowess to bolstering your effectiveness when working with teams.

In today’s fast-paced and endlessly-evolving business landscape, continuous education is not only beneficial, it’s essential; but in the age of information overload, it may be difficult to find time to read when you devote the majority of your time to operating your business. Furthermore, you may feel too overwhelmed by the process of researching and identifying topics that will be most useful or interesting to you—the business books genre is a wide field. With those realities in mind, I am happy to share with you a selection of books curated to appeal to Freelance consulting professionals and also business owners or leaders. I hope that one or more titles will interest you. First, here are suggestions that may help you find time to read this summer (and beyond!).

  • Schedule. Like scheduling time for any important task, specifying your reading time will help you choose a convenient time and make it easier to honor your commitment to professional development. Consider reading after dinner, to lend a “relax and unwind” vibe to your reading. You may find the 8:00 – 11:00 PM time slot, three or four nights a week, a great way to wrap up your day.
  • Formats. Especially if your commute is 45 minutes or longer, or your fitness routine is self-directed and not in a class format, consider listening to audio books and/or podcasts as your method to obtain professional development. When in transit or working out, insert your headphones and tune in to an interesting book or program that expands your knowledge, builds skills and enhances your performance as a business owner or leader.
  • Topics. There are many business-themed titles published each year, but it is inevitable that only a select few will appeal to you. Reading book reviews of titles that grab your attention—in the business section of your local newspaper, in the Wall Street Journal or other nationally known newspaper, in Kirkus Reviews , or Goodreads—to winnow potential reading choices as you discover and evaluate titles and authors that may appeal to you and maintain your motivation to read and learn. Below are 10 books to cue up on your Summer 2025 reading playlist.

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business (2019) Paul Jarvis

Online-tech veteran Paul Jarvis, whose A-list clients include Microsoft and Mercedes Benz, describes the advantages of running a “company of one,” whether as an independent Freelance professional or as an autonomous, corporate employee. Jarvis has most emphatically not bought into the “grow or die” ethos and prefers instead to operate as a “lean and agile” entity. Jarvis explains how running your one-person shop enables you to both achieve a work-life balance that works for you and, just as importantly, enables you to avoid the need to navigate a potentially suffocating corporate hierarchy and sometimes poisonous office politics. In your little empire, you can work efficiently. Jarvis has learned that smart entrepreneurship isn’t about size—it’s about building a better business that works for you.

 Company of One details a refreshingly original business strategy that’s focused on a commitment to being better instead of bigger. Jarvis has discovered that staying small results in maintaining the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life as you avoid the headaches and complications that are inherent in traditional growth-oriented business. With this groundbreaking guide, you’ll learn how to set up your shop, determine your desired revenues, manage unexpected crises, keep your key clients happy and find self-fulfillment as you do.

Competing in the Age of AI (2020) Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Here’s a book that is an excellent resource for business owners and leaders whose organizations currently use, or are considering, Artificial Intelligence powered tools in their operations. The authors have produced a useful guide to the realities of doing business in today’s digital landscape and present actionable insights into how introducing AI-driven operating models can enable businesses to achieve scale and scope at an unprecedented rate.

Iansiti and Lakhani show how reinventing a business entity around data, analytics and AI removes centuries-old constraints on scale, scope and machine learning advantages that have traditionally restricted business growth. Recent examples of companies such as Amazon and Google demonstrate how AI-driven processes vastly improve the ability to scale, when compared to traditional data analytical processes, and allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries and create powerful opportunities for machine learning—to drive ever more accurate, complex and sophisticated predictions that make business strategy becomes a new game.

The authors also outline the inherent risks associated with AI and offer recommendations for rethinking current operating models; they also examine the responsibilities that the introduction of AI requires of its users. Finally, Iansiti and Lakhani are transparent about the potential societal impact of AI and point out the potential for algorithmic bias, privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats, along with the need for responsible AI development and governance.

How To Talk To Anyone About Anything (2021) James W. Williams

James W. Williams has written a refreshingly honest, easy-to-follow guide to meeting and greeting and initiating conversations that’s tailor-made for an era when many meetings and even networking opportunities are regularly held in virtual format. As a result, the only avenue to connect with colleagues and attempt to parlay fleeting interactions into deeper connections is hobbled by a computer monitor. Engaging communication skills are increasingly recognized as a powerful and influential competency. 

While some are born with a silver-tongued gift of gab for many, communication aptitude must be developed and nurtured. Williams’ advice is likely to bolster the social acumen of even the most shy and introverted among us, the wallflowers who feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when attempting to navigate business-slash-social gatherings. If you’ve ever felt awkward in the midst of a meet & greet, or unsure of what to say after an introduction has taken place, this book will show you how to access your communication potential and learn to become a confident conversationalist.

How to Talk to Anyone About Anything provides a user-friendly roadmap that will enable you to practice, grow and eventually shine in social and professional situations. Active listening, small talk and storytelling are situations that the author discusses, as is how to develop the fine art of appearing approachable to your fellow guests when you’re standing alone and wondering if you’ll talk with anyone. Readers will appreciate the many good examples that provide teachable moments and make this book ideal for professionals and social learners alike. Williams’ book is a great soft-skills business resource, that will be a great help to those who struggle with small talk, pitching to clients, or relationship-building within your team. The insights are perfect for occasions where first impressions and informal conversations can open the door to business-enhancing or career-building opportunities.

10X Is Easier Than 2X (2023) Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Call this book a must-read for ambitious business leaders. When the mission is to level up business growth, here are insights that give an eye-opening perspective on how to achieve exponential, rather than incremental, growth. This no-nonsense read can give business leaders and owners actionable insights into scaling their businesses rapidly, leveraging technology and resources more effectively and positioning their entity to stay ahead—of the competition and customer tastes—in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Businesses leaders often aim to achieve progress, for example, and may focus on doubling their results year over year. However, Sullivan and Hardy argue convincingly that aiming for tenfold growth is not only feasible but also more practical and rewarding. As they see it, going for 10x requires letting go of 80% of your current life and going all-in on the crucial 20% that’s relevant and high-impact.

Readers will find practical strategies and mindset shifts that inspire you to break through limitations and achieve exponential growth. The authors emphasize the power of thinking bigger, setting audacious goals and taking massive action. For business owners and leaders, this approach is invaluable as it encourages innovation, pushes boundaries and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom (2019) Janice Bryant Howroyd

“Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally” is the core message offered by author Janice Bryant Howroyd, who grew up in a family of 11 children. Here she discusses the principles and techniques that she used to build a multinational staffing agency. The author guides readers through questions of leadership, risk-taking, developing confidence and networking, among other topics.

Howroyd also emphasizes the significance of data-driven and strategic business decisions as she simultaneously encourages readers to take a holistic approach to making the most of both their professional and personal lives. The author addresses as well the topic of diversity from the perspective of a black female entrepreneur and urges readers not to define her by demographics. In sum, Howroyd shares in her book the values she lives by and continues to represent: that of a leader who works for good, for growth and for innovation, for her family values and for the same ideals upon which she founded her company—that success is transferrable.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan (2018) by Allan Dib

“The most common way small business owners decide on this (marketing and advertising) is by looking at large, successful competitors in their industry and mimicking what they’re doing. In reality, this is the fastest way to fail and I’m certain it’s responsible for the bulk of small business failures.” Now you know why this book is included in the reading list!

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation revolution that makes creating a marketing plan uncomplicated and fast—it’s literally just a single page! By creating and implementing that one-page wonder, you’ll have an effective marketing plan that you can put into motion. Dib understands that small business owners (and Freelance professionals as well) trying to jumpstart their marketing often don’t have adequate resources—money, time, or expertise—provided by employees or Freelance consultants—that big businesses do. The author has devised a credible alternate path that shows how you can create a basic marketing plan to help steer your business in the right direction and, as Dib himself says, puts you on “the fastest path to money”.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working (2025) Dan Heath

Reset offers a guide to fixing what’s not working in your business operations—in systems and processes, organizations and companies and even in our daily lives. Author Dan Heath provides real-world stories and actionable insights that can empower you to create lasting change in your organization—and maybe in your life, as well.

What if you could somehow learn to unlock forward movement and achieve the progress that matters most to you, without the need for more resources—like money and connections? Heath shows how, with the same relationships you have and the same financial resources you can access, it is possible to reconfigure the circumstances and bring dramatically better outcomes to your life. Yesterday, you were stuck. Today, you can reset.

The author explores a framework for getting unstuck and making beneficial changes that matter. Heath says that the secret of success is to find the leverage points—places where a bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Do that and you can rearrange your resources and activate those pivotal points. Heath also points out that to even experience the feeling of progress can be a leverage point that can accelerate the arrival of the positive change you desire.

The 48 Hour Start-Up: From Idea to Launch in One Weekend (2016) Fraser Doherty

This can’t be done, you say? Well, author and serial entrepreneur and Scottish citizen Fraser Doherty MBE (who was awarded the honorific title Member of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements) begs to differ. In his book, Doherty provides actionable advice on how to identify and shape a viable business idea that is ready to launch in only two days. Doherty’s reasoning behind the 48-hour deadline is simple—he argues that prospective entrepreneurs (aka wantrepreneurs) spend too much time and energy obsessing over the “perfect idea”. The time they waste waiting for the “perfect idea” to appear is time that could be used refining and adapting that business idea for customers who could actually use it.

The book is helpful with the initial decisions that aspiring entrepreneurs must consider when starting a business. In his considerable experience, Doherty has found that launching a business does not have to involve complicated financial projections, elaborate presentations, or extraordinary innovation. A simple, well-executed idea is what it takes to launch and sustain a successful enterprise and Doherty has done it more than once—the first time while still in his teens. 

Doherty also emphasizes that before you invest significant time and resources, quickly reality-test your idea with potential customers and conduct basic market research. The process will help you gauge market demand for your product or service, assess your main competitors, identify and address potential problems early on and, in general, refine your product or service based on the uncensored feedback received from potential customers.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy (2011) Richard Rumelt

It is a given that developing and implementing strategy is the primary task of a leader—whether military leader, business leader, baseball manager, or tennis coach. The definition of a good strategy could be expressed as a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, author Richard Rumelt asserts that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy buzzwords, motivational slogans and financial goals with “strategy.”

Rumelt displays an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology and history to expose and clarify the often-muddled thinking that is the foundation of too many so-called strategies and his book details a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategies that will be effective in the real world.

The book helps readers to recognize and avoid the trap of bad strategy and guides them to adopt good, credible, action-oriented strategy that honestly acknowledges and responds to the challenges that businesses encounter. Rumelt cautions readers that strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision, or planning; rather, strategy is a coherent, action-backed plan supported by a rational argument.

Rumelt emphasizes that strategies are often confused with goals and visions and points out that a plan is what sets strategies apart from goals and gives you a clear idea of what is necessary to succeed. To evaluate and decide which strategies are suitable for your organization, the author says it is necessary to confirm whether you have the resources to implement your strategy and, in addition, ensure that your strategy fits with your current situation. The actions need to fit with your present circumstances and work together to give you the best possible advantage. After this, you’re well on your way to a faultless strategy implementation.

The Courage To Be Disliked (2018) Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Strictly speaking, this book is not a business book. One might consider it as an accelerator that gives the determination to push forward with a desire to launch a business entity or achieve other important goals. Kishimi and Koga present their book as a dialogue between an older philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five enlightening and thought-provoking conversations the philosopher, who happens to draw from the theories of Alfred Adler, a late 19th- and early 20th- century psychologist and thought leader in that discipline (along with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and B. Fred Skinner), explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. The wisdom that the philosopher reveals is deeply liberating and enables his pupil to develop the courage to change and to ignore the limitations that others, or even the pupil himself, may use to control him.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance, yet it is not without controversy; certain of authors’ premises you may find shocking or, at least, unrealistic. Still, the book is, at its core, about reclaiming your power and using it to shape the life that is meaningful to you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Beli_photos

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Client Onboarding Best Practices

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It’s official—the contract is signed and you have a new client! You’re super-excited about commencing work on an interesting project. It’s game on and time to put your best foot forward. As you stand at the threshold of this new opportunity, are you thinking about how you might create a 5-star first impression of yourself and your company? Consider this—you can devise a unique protocol for new (or returning) clients that when implemented will showcase the professionalism of your organization and also officially welcome clients and make them feel confident and even more pleased with the decision to hire you.

Developing a standard procedure that welcomes new clients to your company and inaugurates the working relationship is a practice tailor-made to cast your company in a favorable light. You are already familiar with the ritual of clients asking you to provide certain information when a working relationship begins, in particular your Social Security or Employer Identification Number, mailing address or bank account and routing numbers. Launching your new client protocol will enable you to reciprocate with a process that communicates the competence and sophistication of your business practices. Implementing your new client welcoming strategy will distinguish your organization from competitors and also create conditions for a working relationship that will likely to meet or exceed client expectations.

Right out of the gate, you’ll show clients that they are in good hands, that you’ve got this. It is imperative that Freelancers who operate in the B2B sector present to clients an environment of pleasant and welcoming efficiency that validates the decision to do business with your organization as it walks both parties toward the launch of project work. Demonstrating that dependability and attention to detail are inherent in your organization (i.e., your brand) as you prepare to start project work makes a powerful statement. Clients will recognize that you are capable of managing all aspects of the project and the working relationship, from successful completion of the assignment, to providing excellent customer service assistance, such as making adjustments to address individual client needs or after-sale support and training.

This welcoming process that forward-thinking organization leaders present to clients is called onboarding. Onboarding can be described as a road map that guides new clients through a standardized mutual introduction that’s conducted in advance of starting the project work. Onboarding may also include an after-sale product or service walk-through to ensure clients understand how to optimally use the product or service purchased and review how to bring about the expected solutions. The primary purpose of onboarding is to anticipate and address the most frequent client questions and eliminate miscommunication that may lead to frustration or disappointment with the purchase. A personalized and seamlessly executed onboarding process makes clients feel supported, confident and ready to derive value from the fulfillment of the project work or use of the product or service purchased. Good onboarding makes good business.

Onboarding is credited with increasing client lifetime revenue value—the total revenue you can expect to generate from doing business with a customer during the business relationship. A well-designed and implemented onboarding process enhances client satisfaction and is thought to increase client loyalty, stimulate repeat business and referrals and minimize client churn. Effective onboarding is recognized as a competitive advantage that accesses significant benefits (see below). See also suggestions of potentially useful elements of a B2B onboarding process.

  • Establish a positive and productive working relationship with clients
  • Step One for building the foundation of a successful customer retention strategy
  • Showcase your competence, professionalism and efficiency
  • Enhance your company brand

Schedule a videoconference call or face2face meeting

Within one business day of signing the project contract, schedule a videoconference or face2face meeting with the client’s project leader. This will be your first onboarding gesture, a standard business etiquette courtesy that enables you to meet the client’s project contact (who may not be the person who signed the contract on behalf of the client’s company) and express how pleased and excited you are to work with him/her. Once the pleasantries have taken place, you and the client contact can discuss how to initiate the project work or, if the client purchased a product, e.g., a software service, you will facilitate a tutorial (after-sale support) to ensure that the client will be comfortable using the product.

Because onboarding exists to give the working relationship a smooth and efficient start that is inclined to culminate in favorable results, you’ll want to immediately confirm your access to whatever resources will be integral to efficiently and successfully performing the work. As well, make certain that you clarify the role and responsibilities and availability of your client contact. Confirmation of the project timeline, project milestones and payments linked to achieving the milestones is also best done during the initial meeting with your client contact. Another agenda item is to ask the client contact to describe what a successfully completed project will look like. The answer will confirm what you must deliver to meet or exceed client expectations. Take notes to ensure that you fully understand all metrics the client will use to define success.

After reviewing the important points made, send an email to your client contact to memorialize everyone’s understanding and complete the onboarding process. Your client will be certain to appreciate your attention to his/her needs. Make it obvious that your goal is to produce excellent work that positions the client to look good to the higher-ups at his/ her company. As a final client onboarding gesture, assemble a few branded swag items if you have any, e.g., pens, note pads, tote bags, water bottles and the like, and ship them to your client’s office.

B2B Onboarding Software

To make your onboarding process smoother, there are effective and affordable digital tools that you might want to research. The tools can function as a Freelancer’s onboarding assistants that save you time, keep things organized and achieve the important goal of making clients feel supported every step of the working relationship. Here are B2B onboarding software options to research.

  • Sending welcome emails, scheduling meetings and assigning tasks can be done automatically.
  • You’ll always know where the client is during the onboarding journey and if they need extra help.
  • Receive feedback data on how clients are engaging with your onboarding process, so you can identify sticking points and improve your process over time.

Happy 4th of July and thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: © International Churchill Society. Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary made her maiden ocean voyage in May 1936, sailing from Southampton, England and docking in New York City.

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Create Content That Delivers

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You will agree that the internet is the leading source of information and entertainment for everyone on Earth who has connectivity. The global data and business intelligence platform Statista reports that in 2025 5.56 billion, approximately 65% of the world’s population, has internet access. To nearly every business entity on the planet, that means about 5.34 billion potential customers—many of whom are too young to launch a buyer’s journey, but some of whom might influence purchases their parents make—are available to receive online marketing information.

While the vast majority of the world’s internet users will become the customers of only a select few brands, the wide acceptance of digital communications gives marketers everywhere the green light to create and post a vast amount of marketing information and the digital space is now awash in content of every type—audio, video, images and text. Audience appetite for content, whether information or entertainment, shows no signs of abating. The number of digital content websites and platforms continues to proliferate and invite contributors to produce still more content, all of which beckons viewers, listeners and readers to show some love and click here, please!

Content saturation of the internet is an inevitable phenomenon. According to the nationally known content marketing expert Neil Patel, nearly 40 % of enterprise companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year. Freelance solopreneurs and smaller business entities will likewise continue, or perhaps increase, their content marketing activity as well, but the dominance of content presented by the multinationals can easily cause the comparatively modest content produced by small entities to be overwhelmed as if by a riptide. Freelancers are understandably frustrated with this occurrence. How can you become more visible when your content must swim with the whales—and sharks?

It’s a vexing problem for sure but there is a commonsense strategy, one that plays to your strengths and demonstrates resourcefulness and creativity. The best response to content saturation is to activate your problem-solving ability and devise a strategy that guides you to create content that not only resonates with your audience, but also positions you to gain and maintain the attention and loyalty of your target audience. Whether your information is intended for social media posts, or focuses on developing and promoting content featured in your webinars, weekly blogs, or monthly newsletters, be reassured that content perceived as valuable will be acknowledged and followed by your target audience. It’s just about guaranteed that content featuring information that is specific, practical and actionable will result in a loyal and thriving audience who will regard you as a trusted expert. So, your mission as a content producer is to learn what is meaningful to your readers, listeners and/or viewers and let their priorities guide your content development and distribution strategies.

Educate yourself by reading articles that discuss from local and national perspectives developing trends, pending legislation, competition, opportunities and other updates in your field. Producers of relevant content must also be consumers of relevant content! If producing content figures prominently in your marketing strategies (and I know that it does), you may find one or more of the following five suggestions able to enhance the value of your marketing content and also position your content to bring in a healthy ROI—which might include establishing you as a thought leader.

Relevant, realistic and relatable information

Content that your audience considers to be relevant and practical is more likely to be valued, implemented and shared. Gaining a reputation as a reliable and respected source of content by your audience will incline them to become your followers or subscribers. Content that your viewers, listeners, or readers consider potentially actionable and known to be trustworthy can also encourage loyalty to you, your content and your organization and may persuade some to become your customers. To create content that’s considered useful and trustworthy, and resonates with your audience, you must stay ahead of emerging trends in your industry and be aware of and responsive to the evolving preferences, priorities and concerns of your customers.

Actions are easy to implement and afford

Your audience should be able to envision the usefulness of the actions or strategies your content recommends, even if only a minority of them is prepared to implement your ideas now or in the near future. Individual circumstances will dictate what audience members decide to do, but any advice put forth in your content must inspire confidence.

Furthermore, your content should not recommend actions or strategies that involve implementation costs that many would consider expensive. I’ll go so far as to say that the average B2B content viewer is looking for ideas that can, with a minimum of time and fuss, be used to grow their customer list, streamline business operations and either save or make money—practical advice that can be implemented at no cost or low cost. While business expenses are inescapable, content creators win more fans by recommending actions that demonstrate recognizable value and are accessible and affordable to the majority of the audience.

Your content is your own creation

Rather than doing a copy/paste of another’s work, content creators should value their lived experience—victories won and battles lost, resilience found, the worries of sleepless nights and sudden inspirations—and share those stories with your audience in ways that will be interesting and useful to them. Producing content is usually time-consuming, but that is the price of authenticity and it is worth it. To give yourself a starting point for your creative process, search for trending topics in your field, or comment on an aspect of the most frequent internet search questions related to your marketplace sector that were made over the past week.

Links to expert 3rd party support

In this post I’ve referenced marketing expert Neil Patel and the global business information platform Statista. Demonstrating to your readers/listeners/viewers that key points of your content are supported by recognized nationally or globally respected thought leaders gives them reasons to trust and value the recommendations and insights offered in your content.

Avoid confirmation bias

Content that is valued and popular is shaped not by the creator’s preferences, but by the readers/viewers/listeners in the audience. A common tactic used to help creators avoid confirmation bias is to simply ask audience members what they want to see and hear now, so that you can ensure the relevance of your content. Every few months, you might create a short survey that encourages content viewers to express what matters to them. In a four or five question survey, you can also slip in one or two audience demographic questions—Are you self-employed or an employee? What is your main area of expertise?—and begin to build an audience persona, which will enable you to heighten your responsiveness to your audience.

  • Social media polls Your preferred platforms provide a convenient means to create and send a survey that will help you learn more about your audience. Social media platforms make it easy for you to engage and more effectively communicate with audience members by providing fully customizable forms that help you expand your reach and even grow your base of followers. Polls are equipped with analytical tools that will give you information on your audience’s age group, location, profession and more.
  • Online and email surveys. The most important part of conducting online surveys is knowing what you want to learn from each question, and to keep questions short and easy to answer. You can also create email campaigns to survey your existing client base and gain valuable insight about them. For a very basic customer survey, ClickInsights sets up a one-question, one-click email survey; create a more extensive survey at Survey Monkey.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © A Tokyo soba noodle delivery in 1956. Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images

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Business Rescue Strategy—Push Through, Pull Out, or Pivot?

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If the fluctuating and unpredictable economic conditions that have impacted the U.S. economy since well before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic have taken a toll on your Freelance enterprise, know that your struggle is not an isolated incident. The persistence of those fluctuating and unpredictable economic conditions have been so prevalent that they’ve given rise to a group of defensive business practices collectively known as agile. Agile business practices equip organizations to respond quickly and effectively to adapt to unstable economic circumstances and position the organization to survive and perhaps even thrive when encountering a challenging business landscape.

Business owners and leaders, including Freelance professionals, who typically operate as a single-person entity must, as they navigate unexpected shifts in marketplace conditions, identify viable trends and other potential opportunities that will cushion their organization from destabilizing economic conditions. In some circumstances, the business owner or leader may eventually realize that the best way to access more favorable marketplace conditions is to institute substantive change within the organization’s business model and/or its product or service line. it may become apparent that in order to guide the company toward sustainable profitability, it will be necessary to pivot.

What is a pivot?

You’ve no doubt heard the term dozens of times in the last 10 – 15 years, but do you understand what a pivot entails? A pivot means to change direction and often refers to dance, sports, or business. Referring to the business realm, a pivot requires the company owners and/or leaders to implement a course correction, a change of direction intended to alter the organization’s business model strategy and, in many cases, alter the product or service line and target customer segments. The pivot confirms that an organization’s owners and leaders recognize that its products and/or services are not, and may never become, viable performers in the marketplace. The pivot is intended to jump-start revenue and grow market share; the pivot is a relaunch into what is expected to be a more favorable competitive environment that will enable the company to grow and thrive.

A pivot that performs and produces the outcomes you need requires considerable preparation, skillful execution and good timing. Preparing to pivot begins with moving beyond merely entertaining the possibility of launching a pivot to rolling up your sleeves and doing the necessary work that will tell you whether or not a pivot will be a good choice for your company and which components of your business that should pivot. You’ll use relevant data to guide the strategies you’ll develop to implement a pivot that’s capable of saving your company.

Will the Key Performance Indicators you choose for the pivot recommend that you stay the course and push through—or pull out and close the company? Or, do your KPIs support your plan to pivot and take the company in a new direction? What elements of your business will it be beneficial to change—products or services, sales or distribution strategy, or the target customers? Whatever your data and organizational capabilities indicate as the best format and execution for your pivot, agility, flexibility, collaboration and communication will be central to achieving long-term success.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, pivoting is a risk and only you can define what represents acceptable risk. Define your capacity to create and manage change by measuring the cost of implementing your pivot and then weighing that cost against the potential rewards. Knowledge is key—a data-driven decision has the best capacity to bring about the best outcomes and it is therefore essential that you access trustworthy sources of relevant data. You may also want to engage the services of an experienced business coach to advise you with the pivot. The Small Business Association SCORE program can be an excellent resource; it is free and available in all 50 states.

When should you consider a pivot?

From technological advancements to the evolving preferences of target customers, from economic upheavals in your local, regional, or national location to cratering company performance metrics or the appearance of an aggressive new competitor, either internal or external factors can force a company to consider pivoting in response to difficult changes. Business owners and leaders are advised to continually observe the environment in which they operate and that includes recognizing signs that indicate it’s time to respond to powerful changes in your marketplace that may indicate the need for radical response—that is, a pivot.

In contrast, not every pivot is a response to negative factors. Sometimes, an attractive opportunity presents itself, providing motivation to hop on board, perhaps by entering a new and potentially lucrative market niche. be advised that pivoting isn’t a magical solution for all business problems; a decision of this magnitude requires due diligence. You might consider a pivot when:

  • Substantial investments of focus and capital have not produced adequate progress
  • The ability to find new customers reaches a plateau and ceases to show a significant upward trajectory
  • Customer response to your products falls short of expectations
  • Intense competition in the market blocks growth

Decision process

1. Understand the business’s strengths (and weaknesses) If you recognize that there must be a pivot, then confirm which areas of your business will change and why. It is imperative to recognize the value of those elements of your strategy and operations that are still relevant. Have the wisdom to play to your strengths and maintain what works.

2. Check in with customers Talk to customers through surveys, feedback forms, or social media to confirm their needs and pain points. This exercise will either tell you that the core offering is not the problem, or it will tell you where, within the offering, change must occur. Additionally, consult the customer data produced by tools like Google Analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. Analyze all of your customer behavior, such as how they used the product or service, what pages they visited, and how long they spent there. Customer preferences will emerge. You can also monitor social sites to see what customers are saying about your brand. Figure out where the market is, what customers actually want, and go from there. Conducting extensive market research, data analysis and forecasting is essential before deciding whether or not to pivot.

It is well known that the cost of acquiring a new customer costs significantly more than that of retaining an existing one. During the pivot, do your best to keep existing customers. Whether you are a B2B or B2C business, a change in your operating model could mean significant disruption for customers; show customers that they matter by developing and communicating a transition plan as a way to make continuing to do business with you seamless and pleasant. It is in your interest to maintain customer trust and prevent an expensive post-pivot acquisition campaign. However, understand that the pivot will not appeal to everyone. As long as you have consulted customers beforehand and know how the majority feels, you can be confident that those expressing discontentment with new prices or useability, for example, do not represent your base. If you have done your homework, you will already know who these customers are, just as you will have identified those likely to benefit most from the pivot.

Timing

Recognizing the need to pivot and deciding to execute are two different things. Conducting extensive market research, data analysis and forecasting is essential before deciding next steps. Listening to what the market tells you to decide in regard to the pivot is most likely the right move. It is often said that too many people fall victim to over-analysis and miss market opportunity.

Realize that every business encounters change and owners must react if they want to stay current with their audiences and be competitive within their industry. The worst thing for a business is to become stagnant and irrelevant. The success of a new business model depends on the ability to adapt to fast-changing marketplace conditions. The window of opportunity opens only briefly, so the confidence in your team, resources and ability to execute are key measurements in evaluating a decision to pivot. Adapting to new market developments is the only way to ensure success, especially and timing is always a consideration.

Successful implementation

The next phase of the pivot is setting everything in motion. Implementation can be one of the most challenging aspects because your business will be vulnerable to push-back from customers and, if you have any, your employees. Change is often perceived as threatening.

This is the phase where clear, effective communication becomes critical. You will feel resistance from your employees who are uncomfortable with change. Stakeholders who weren’t involved in the decision will feel slighted. Your company’s messaging and resolve must be unwavering regardless of who says what. Communicating this shift from the point of empathy and care while respectfully sharing the need for a pivot and how it will work is essential to keeping the process steady. Pivoting your business is never easy, but planning and implementing the process effectively can be successful.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Bebe Neuwirth models a dancer’s pivot in the musical Chicago (written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, choreography by Bob Fosse, 1975). Photo by Dan Chavkin (1996), courtesy of Dance Magazine Archives.

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Crisis Communications: Monitor and Defend Your Online Presence

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Managing the online presence and reputation of a brand, whether personal or company, is no longer considered mere vanity or over-reaching micromanagement. Regular tracking and review of all content that pertains to your organization and shows up in searches—its services and products, the company itself and its leaders—including AI-powered searches, is now recognized as a necessity. Vigilant and consistent monitoring of information that appears online about your company and you, as the principal of your Freelance consulting practice or fractional executive, owner/leader of a traditional business, small or large, or not-for-profit organization executive, can be viewed as an aspect of risk management strategy.

It is imperative for all business owners and leaders to carefully shape and defend their brand’s online image and ensure that all information presented is accurate and leaves viewers of your content with a positive impression, meaning, a portrayal that encourages credibility and trust.

Unflattering or outright negative content associated with your brand, as well as inaccurate info, has the potential to undermine or damage your organization’s credibility. It is therefore highly recommended that Freelancers and other business owners and leaders regularly assess all AI-generated and online mentions of their company and personal brand and verify the accuracy of the information found.

Take control of your online presence

Integral to a comprehensive marketing campaign is building a digital presence that illustrates the competence and credibility of the organization. Online reputation management is essential to defending that carefully curated image, whether you maintain a solopreneur consulting practice, operate a small company, or lead a national or multi–national conglomerate. Failing to take defensive action and waiting until negative content has become an embarrassing crisis may cause an unfortunate outcome that stains your own or your company’s reputation.

Inspection tours are the how you’ll discover inaccurate information and/or negative content. Inspecting the search engines is Step One of your mission to defend and, if necessary, correct online information pertaining to you and your organization. Learning where and how to locate, edit, or suppress content that is untrue or unflattering is the most important step of restorative crisis communications activity. Proactive monitoring and strategic content creation will be central to maintaining control of your online image. The presence of negative content, which may include customer reviews and other user-generated content, can have a direct effect on company reputation and sales revenue: Approximately 94% of customers report that a negative merchant review on a review site persuaded them to avoid doing business with that merchant.

Step Two of your brand defense is the actual defensive action, where you may simply update information to correct what appears sites like Yelp or Google. More thought and time will be necessary if you discover content that is inaccurate and perhaps also misleading; in these cases, you may decide that a substantive reset of your brand narrative is in order. Your best defensive action will be to create and publish relevant, high-quality content that is capable of enhancing your online authority and burying the harmful content by pushing it further down in search rankings.

Google search operators

Re: your search engine inspection tours in most cases, a Google or Bing search of the brand will surface a comprehensive list of brand mentions. However, a more thorough search might locate additional content that you can review and if you discover incorrect information or harmful material on less popular search engines or on online communities, you can explore how to make corrections and/or counteract negative content with a post or two that displays your authority and integrity.

To take a deeper dive and search for potentially harmful content that might otherwise go unnoticed., you’ll be pleased to find that Google’s search capabilities extend far beyond entering a name into the search bar to see what appears. Dipping into advanced search operators will broaden your scope and, if it exists, may help you to locate negative content that does not appear in a traditional search.

To find what may be hiding in the shadows, launch an exact match search by placing your name in quotation marks (e.g., “John Smith” or “The Best Company”) to specify search results to that unique name and eliminate unwanted mentions. To further refine search results, you can exclude irrelevant pages using the minus sign. for example, searching for “The Best Company” -Instagram removes Instagram results and help your mission to dig up potentially damaging content pertaining to your brand that may be posted on less visible sites.

Furthermore, a site-specific search can help when you suspect that a particular domain features negative information about your brand. Typing the site domain address, followed by a colon and your company name will produce only results from that chosen site. It is also useful to search variations of your name, for example, “J. Smith” or “Best Company;” — subtle changes could possibly bring up mentions that do not appear in the traditional searches.

Set-up Google Alerts for ongoing monitoring

It is wise to be vigilant and regularly monitor your name online, to prevent damage before it spreads. Google Alerts is a free tool that notifies you whenever new content is indexed and includes your name. To get started, visit Google Alerts and enter your full name and company name along with relevant variations (e.g. “Jane Smith” or “Jane K. Smith”). Use quotation marks to ensure your alert captures the exact phrase. Then click “show options” to select how frequently you’d like to receive alerts —the “as-it-happens” option is best for reputation management. Set alerts to receive notification of name mentions and be sure to correct inaccuracies and gratuitously negative content. Counteract what is negative with relevant and compelling content that can potentially suppress unflattering narratives.

You can also filter alerts by geographic location and type of content, such as blogs, news articles, or discussions. Finally, enter your email address to start receiving updates. These alerts act as a digital early warning system. You’ll know immediately if a new piece of content starts gaining traction — giving you time to prepare a response or counter-strategy. Staying visible online requires more than awareness — it demands consistency and strategy.

  • Monitoring social mentions and online discussions

Negative content is known to more frequently begin on nontraditional search engines. Social media platforms, forums and blog comments can amplify by way of the metaverse effect and damage to your brand image can spread quickly—even as it never appears in traditional search results.

To really scrutinize your online presence, investing in the services of a social listening site such as EmbedSocial or AgoraPulse will detect online conversations that mention your name and your company name across blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, media outlets and more. Social listening platforms also provide sentiment analysis, an excellent feature that distinguishes between harmless chatter and attacks on your brand reputation. Most social listening platforms are a paid service but if a free solution will be more appropriate for you at this time, consider Talkwalker Alerts (by HootSuite). Incidentally, Talkwalker provides more extensive web and social listening coverage than Google Alerts and is easy to integrate into your workflow.

Finally, make a point to investigate online communities like Reddit and Quora. These platforms typically feature informal discussions and some have been known to quickly go viral. Get your investigation started with a targeted search— reddit.com:The Best Company to uncover mentions that might not appear on Bing or Google. Knowing what’s being said about you when you’re not in the room lets you know who your friends are and also gives you the opportunity to respond with a brand image defensive strategy.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Behnaz Farahi. Gaze to the Stars, an installation created by Behnaz Farahi, Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Gaze to the Stars was displayed on the MIT Great Dome December 2024-March 2025.

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Be A One-Person Powerhouse

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Freelancers continue to refine our business practices as we observe and respond to the mega-trends that impact the global and national economies and, to some degree, affect the way nearly everyone on the planet lives and works. As we move through the mid-point of the 2020s, Freelance professionals are redefining success. We never intended to be builders of corporate empires that employee thousands, but we do intend to build and sustain a profitable business entity.

We believe that we can thrive as leader of a single-person business entity, a one-person empire, where we demonstrate our appeal to a discrete segment of the marketplace. We demonstrate also our grasp of customer needs within that market segment and we deliver services and/or products that our customers value. While aware of the time and cost saving advantages of turnkey processes and operational efficiencies, we reject the notion that one size fits all and we’re happy to build in a degree of flexibility that makes available personalized solutions tailored to address customer needs and concerns.

Niche is the new big box

The Freelance solopreneurs whom I’ve come to know over the years are too smart to try to be all things to all people. Instead, smart, successful Freelancers like you rely on market research to discover customer segments that are most interested in your category of services or products and then learn how to position your company to win business within those marketplace segments. Freelance solopreneurs will be interested to know that leading U.S. market researchers have validated this strategy and now forecast that in 2025 and beyond, start-up entrepreneurs who focus on a niche market will prosper while those who attempt the “all things to all people” big box approach will be on the wrong path.

Globalization is driving this emerging trend, as are AI-powered marketing communications tactics. Together, these powerful forces have made it both uncomplicated and cost-effective for even a business entity headed by a Freelance solopreneur to attract prospective customers in any geo-location that has internet access and invite them into your company’s buyer’s journey and community of followers. The possibility of developing a thriving niche market for your services or products that consists of people from around the world is real and is expected to become the norm for one-person shops as it is for multi-national conglomerates.

While the multi-nationals, however, pursue millions of prospective customers and compete in markets that are often saturated. Standing out in those marketplaces is a challenge that only big fish can afford, sometimes by advertising during the Super Bowl, for example. In stark contrast, those who dwell in micro-niche markets will devote most of their marketing resources to creating trust and legitimacy, demonstrating expertise and authority and building relationships and loyalty. Establishing a presence in a micro niche market, as would a Freelance solopreneur, isn’t just about selling products or services—it’s nearly as much about creating a community where customers feel a sense of belonging.

Because Freelance solopreneurs occupy a unique, personalized, space, customers are inclined to perceive you as an expert who understands their needs on a granular level and capable of solving their unique goals and challenges. In 2025 and beyond, Freelance solopreneur entities will use niche targeting combined with AI-powered analytics, marketing and customer service tools to fuel smart and sustained growth that supports a personalized boutique approach to their B2B or B2C venture. You can promote a brand-enhancing perception by showcasing the following:

  • Communicate capability, quality and consistency

Big business has the financial wherewithal to invest millions in branding, while Freelancers and other small business owners can effectively build and promote their brand, goods and services by adopting a niche market focus to achieve a similar effect by being consistent and integrating personalization and polish across all forms of communication and at every customer or prospect touchpoint. Get the ball rolling with a comprehensively cohesive brand visual identity that begins with an intuitively designed, fast-downloading, sleek, professional-looking website; you can carry that ethos into high-quality marketing materials that create an image that reflects capability, trust and legitimacy.

  • Be a thought leader

A solopreneur Freelance consultant can appear to be a nationally recognized authority if s/he is featured in respected industry media outlets. Establishing yourself as a thought leader confers respect and credibility that makes your business entity appear substantial and established. People tend to assume that everyone who is presented in the media as an “expert” of some sort who presides over a large business that generates an annual income that’s well into six figures and maybe more.

You can use that perception to your advantage: it is well worth your while to seek opportunities to publish your own insightful articles in reputable magazines or journals. Furthermore, you will do well by searching for opportunities to take on speaking roles at conferences, even if that means moderating a panel and appearing on podcasts and webinars whose reputation, while perhaps not blue chip, are nevertheless positioned to create for you the impression of authority and influence.

  • Show social proof at every opportunity

Incorporate social proof into your branding strategy by inviting happy customers to give online or print testimonials that describe how your service or product has solved their business challenge or helped them to achieve an important goal. Alternatively, you can ask customers if s/he would mind if you wrote up a case study that details how your product or service enabled that customer’s goal to be achieved or challenge to be overcome.

Customer success stories, which are brought to life by testimonials and case studies, are highly effective marketing tools and they deserve to be spotlighted on your website and social media platforms. You will provide still more examples of customer success stories when you encourage happy customers to post user-generated content (which includes testimonials), and also reviews on platforms such as Yelp, Google and LinkedIn. You might also request permission from certain customers (more prestigious, that is) to display their company logo on your website.

Another highly effective demonstration of the social proof of your brand reputation among your business community peers and colleagues is to display on your website the business and/or community awards that you’ve either won or for which you’ve been nominated. Seeing the names of recognizable authorities associated with your brand makes you look well-respected and trustworthy—because we are judged by the company we keep.

Inform local media outlets when you’ve got something great to crow about by sending a press release to announce your newsworthy achievements (e.g., a nomination for a business award) or your participation in a well-known charity or community event, such as helping to sell Girl Scout Cookies, supporting the Little League team, or sponsoring a marathon runner who is raising funds for a local hospital or other charity.

  • Expand your online presence

A business that is favorably mentioned in multiple media outlets more than once a year looks much more influential than a business that is mentioned on a single platform—infrequently. Maintaining an active presence on LinkedIn and other social media sites, contributing your insights to industry forums and getting your articles included in relevant publications reinforces the credibility of both you and your business entity.  Occasional press coverage in online or print media outlets, guest blog posts and other articles and social media activity, especially when taken together, can readily give your Freelance solopreneur consulting entity the impression of a capable and respected, if not locally powerful, enterprise. Being cited by industry sources, contributing to discussions and publishing original insights give the impression that you’re a major player, even if you’re running a small operation.

  • Deliver white-glove service

Freelance consultants and SMBs would be wise to develop exceptional customer experiences, including after-sales support services where necessary. B2B customers will greatly appreciate a seamless onboarding process, as well as automated follow-ups and structured client communications—all of which create the impression of a well-oiled machine, whether your company is a team of 20 or a solopreneur entity. Modern tools allow small businesses to operate with the efficiency of much larger organizations. A website and social media chatbot, AI-powered customer service and cloud-based collaboration tools make it possible to efficiently serve customers on every continent. When you create a strong digital infrastructure for your business entity, regardless of the number of workers on your team, you can operate at a level that is as capable and trustworthy as any enterprise-level competitor. You can become a one-person powerhouse!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Keerthana Kunnath. In Kerala, India female bodybuilder Chitra Purushotham shows that she is a powerhouse.

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Is Your Social Media Strategy Delivering?

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“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Possibly apocryphal quote often credited to 19th century Philadelphia department store magnate John Wanamaker.

Accurately measuring the impact of the marketing activities you create to promote your company’s services and/or products and, furthermore, analyzing the impact of your marketing to verify that the activities were worth the time and money invested in them can be somewhat of a puzzle for a marketing manager. In particular, the return on investment of social media activity can be nebulous, given that much of its focus is often devoted to relationship-building that stimulates one or more aspects of brand-building, for example, brand loyalty and brand reputation. Determining which of your go-to social media platforms is your top performer might be difficult to confirm, there is not always an obvious path to follow as you track and document your customer’s behavior or buyer’s journey from first contact through purchase; and then there are those who jump ship somewhere between those points and the debrief on that scenario is yet another drama to unravel.

Social media remains a hugely popular marketing tactic that for the most part has earned its accolades in both free and paid options. So, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that recent marketing research shows that at a representative group of enterprise companies, the social media marketing spend is softening. According to the Spring 2024 edition of the CMO Survey, which surveyed 292 marketers employed by leading U.S. companies, social media investments declined from 17% in Spring 2023 to 11% in Spring 2024, reaching its lowest level in seven years.

The CMO Survey found further confirmation of this occurrence in participant responses to the question “Which best describes how you show the impact of social media on your business?” and one-third, all of whom are marketing leaders, reported “we haven’t been able to show the impact yet.” The remaining participants were evenly split on whether they’ve “proven the impact quantitatively,” with some stating that they have a “good qualitative sense of the impact, but not a quantitative impact.”

Maybe you’ll soon decide to pull back on social media paid ads, too, and rely more heavily on the “free” option (free except for the time spent to choose and post content that interests followers, that is) since it remains an effective method of customer outreach and enables you to build and sustain relationships with customers, convert prospects into customers and boost brand visibility. Your social media spend may decrease, but that adjustment could motivate you to make the most of a reconfigured, but still valuable, marketing investment.

Multi-channel is most effective

According to an analysis of performance data associated with social media marketing campaigns, the format produces greater results when used in combination with other marketing tactics, e.g. monthly newsletters and/or case studies, e-books, podcasts, or webinars. Furthermore, when researchers examined 10 years of CMO Survey retrospective data, below-average performance of social media marketing campaigns was reported by participants whose answer to “How effectively does your company integrate customer information across purchasing, communication and social media channels?” revealed weak scores describing the use of that data during the period 2011 – 2023. The performance ranking scale measuring customer data sharing ranged from “not at all” to “very highly.”

In light of the findings of the 10-year retrospective, survey researchers recommend that marketers consult with a Customer Relations Management (CRM) company, e.g., Sprout Social, HubSpot, BuzzSumo, or SalesForce, to ensure accurate interpretations and beneficial integration of their social media marketing performance data to enhance the success of future marketing campaigns. Correctly interpreting and utilizing social media marketing performance data ensures that you’ll have a holistic understanding of customer behavior that’ ‘s inclined to positively impact the buyer’s journey your company provides.

Use social media to grow your customer list

The CMO Survey also found that nearly half of companies use social media platforms to sell their services and products. However, survey data reveals that fewer than 20% of those companies leverage their social media engagement to invite customer feedback that might improve aspects of the customer experience or even suggest new product or service opportunities that the company could explore and possibly launch. Companies that exploit this easily accessible customer feedback opportunity are able to develop a customer experience that responds to and retains customers, encourages referrals and increases sales revenues and profitability.

Improvise to stay timely and relevant

Finally, enhancing your ability to provide a timely response to breaking news that matters to your customers and prospects right now is just about guaranteed to enhance both the relevance and visibility of your brand—and using social media makes this possible. Still, marketing managers often neglect opportunities that are easy to address, as evidenced by the self-reported survey participant score of “average” when describing behavior associated with the statement “Responding quickly to opportunities and challenges when managing your most engaged customers.”

CMO Survey findings convincingly show that adopting a flexible, even improvised, approach to your social media engagement is the most effective aspect of your strategy and that your awareness of breaking news and developing events is most urgent and beneficial when providing a timely response is desirable. Communicating with your customers and prospects by acknowledging the unfolding event or unexpected (surprise) development, with a humorous or witty remark demonstrates your authenticity. In short, building in processes designed to make you ready for and prepared to quickly respond to various types of communication opportunities is able to improve the ROI of your company’s social media marketing and engagement.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Simon Smith. Bunhill for Getty Images

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Trend Tracker Is Free Help from Yelp

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Launched in 2014 at the platform’s 10th anniversary, Yelp’s Trend Tracker is receiving so much flattering business press of late that it feels like a relaunch (and I’m sure it is)! If you operate a small business and maintain an active Yelp account, whether or not you subscribe to Trend Tracker, Yelp is talking to you. If you’re a Freelance solopreneur who’s claimed your free Yelp listing and then dropped the subject, Yelp is talking to you, too. Or maybe you’re a self-employed professional, a Freelancer or SMB owner, who does not have an active Yelp account? Whatever the case, Yelp and Yelp’s Trend Tracker beckon with insightful and potentially actionable data that pertains to your industry and can support your mission to build a profitable and sustainable business entity.

What is Yelp’s Trend Tracker?

Trend Tracker is an AI-powered, cloud-based tool that monitors customer searches, reviews and interactions to identify trending topics in real time. Trend Tracker reveals and reports customer search patterns, behavior and emerging customer preferences across a broad array of industries. Trend Tracker harvests data from unique searches the Yelp platform receives each month (178 million in January 2025) and measures the frequency of specific phrases and topics used in those searches. This data sheds light on what you want to know, from customer purchasing trends to popular B2B and B2C services. Furthermore, Trend Tracker goes beyond search terms and also analyzes the text of customer reviews, to further clarify the picture.

It can literally pay to know this stuff because from time to time it may be worthwhile to respond to certain information. You may decide, for example, to update the key words in your content marketing material if Trend Tracker data indicates that target customers have begun to use certain terms when searching your product or service category.

Free market research for Freelancers and SMBs

Trend Tracker analytic insights are available free of charge—join the mailing list and you’ll receive data that is relevant and updated monthly and enables those who pay attention to access boots-on-the-ground marketing insights that can potentially help to promote your products and services more effectively. Supported by Trend Tracker, you’ll be positioned to detect and quickly respond to customer preferences, adjust marketing strategies and/or tactics to better align with shifting customer priorities and maybe even tweak your service or product line to reflect a significant shift in customer tastes.

When business decisions are guided by relevant, reliable data, decision-makers are more likely to achieve their intended outcomes. Decisions and actions that are guided by what matters to prospects and customers IRT will be immensely helpful to business owners. One of the biggest advantages of Trend Tracker is its ability to give you the heads-up on developing trends before they go mainstream and giving you time to update your position and be among the first providers to capitalize on emerging customer demand. Trend Tracker enables you to:

  • Identify emerging customer interests before they become mainstream
  • Adjust marketing strategies and tactics to respond to customer interests in a timely fashion
  • Create events and promotions that reflect developing trends
  • Improve your brand’s online visibility and search engine optimization with trending keywords
  • Stay ahead of competitors (who may not have access to reliable data-driven insights)

What else can Trend Tracker do for you?

So what’s trending that applies to you? Trustworthy intel is what’s trending and it applies to your entity in many ways. Trend Tracker data can even be a resource when you must conduct market research to evaluate your business planning, from the feasibility of scaling or expanding your venture to clarifying your decision-making as you verify, or rethink, a side hustle you hope to launch. News flash! Re: business planning, can we acknowledge that Freelancing does not exclusively pertain to B2B services such as marketing, website development, graphic arts and shooting and editing videos? Can we recognize that Freelance expertise can also be applied to a B2C service entity? In other words, could it be that upgrading home interiors is a more satisfying expression of your entrepreneurial talent than cybersecurity? That seems to be the case for the Property Brothers.

You may be interested to know that the Trend Tracker September 2024 issue reported that in 2024, home services produced record growth for business owners in that industry across the U.S. and drove an all-time revenue bonanza for the category. Trend Tracker data indicated that in 2024, home services were the fastest-growing segment of B2C services in every U.S. state plus Washington D.C. and was the top category for new business launches among all industry categories on Yelp as well. This still trending growth cycle is fueled by renter-friendly home upgrade projects. As many citizens come to recognize that attaining home ownership or trading up from starter house to a more spacious (and grand) residence is unaffordable, remaining in the current home for a longer period of time has become yet another New Normal reality.

As a way to make home feel more comfortable or look more stylish, people are investing in improvements that upgrade living spaces without upsetting the landlord. Another home services industry hot spot, this one pertaining to homeowners, is weatherproofing services that make homes more resilient to what seems like increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Trend Tracker data shows that Yelp users have increased searches for both renter-friendly and homeowner services—could responding to the growing demand become your side hustle or even your full-time Freelance or SMB enterprise? Aspiring business owners have set up shop as Freelance solopreneurs and SMBs to address those priorities, which resulted in big increases in Yelp searches in 2024 vs. 2023:

  • home organization (+362%),
  • peel and stick tile (+73%),
  • wallpapering (+41%),
  • snow removal (+36%)
  • home automation (+27%),
  • drapery installation (+11%)
  • waterproofing (+23%)

In sum, Trend Tracker can be a game-changer that might potentially have a direct impact on your ability to gain or maintain competitive advantage and monitor customer priorities—and maybe even launch a successful business or side hustle. Tara Lewis, who spent 15 years at Yelp helping businesses connect with their target customers and also served as its trend expert, advises that the best way to get started with Yelp’s Trend Tracker is to check out the latest trends noted in the monthly newsletter and pick one insight to test in your business this month. Lewis says that even a small adjustment can lead to noticeable improvements in brand visibility and sales revenue generated. She recommends the following:

  • Practice authenticity in trend-chasing. Don’t just follow trends; make them your own to help your business stand out.
  • Connect with valued customers through shared trending interests. Form meaningful connections with your community by creating events and social spaces that appeal to those who matter most.
  • Use Yelp Trend Tracker data to highlight what you already offer. Your business may be in tune with rising trends — adapt your marketing strategy to make these products or services more visible to customers.
  • Position your business for long-term trends, not just momentary fads. Some trends are fleeting; others reflect larger shifts in consumer behavior. Identify trends with staying power and incorporate them into your business vision.
  • Your brand’s unique personality is your trendiest asset. Lean into what makes your business distinctive to set yourself apart and keep customers coming back.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Freepik