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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

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LeadGen and Customer Acquisition in 2025

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LocaliQ, a digital marketing platform that specializes in lead generation and multichannel marketing campaign management, and is a subsidiary of Gannett Publishing, surveyed more than 730 small business owners and marketers worldwide to get boots-on-the-ground perspectives on leadgen and customer acquisition marketing tactics SMB owners are using now and uncensored feedback on what’s producing the best results. The survey is a rich source of benchmarking and actionable insights that have the potential to inform your approach to leadgen and customer acquisition strategies and tactics this year.

In its first Small Business Marketing Trends Report, LocaliQ shares the results of a deep data dive that’s intended to help Freelance consultants and SMB owners successfully navigate the business landscape they can expect to encounter in 2025 by learning how their peers energize sales revenue by identifying leadgen tactics that promote customer acquisition.

The relevance of LocaliQ data is for many of you validated by the survey demographics—15% of respondents are soloprenuers; 31% have 2-10 full-time employees; 24% have a marketing budget that’s less than $500/ year (5% have no marketing budget); and 74% are based in Canada and the U.S. (all six inhabited continents plus New Zealand are represented). The survey was published in October 2024. How does the average Freelancer or SMB owner attract prospects?

Survey respondents do what you’d expect and it’s safe to assume that they use more than one leadgen tactic to implement their marketing /sales strategy. Social media marketing (free) is used by 52% of respondents; 47% of respondents use (paid) social media advertising; and 40% of respondents use search advertising, i.e., pay-per-click sponsored ads that appear in search engine inquiries. Other popular leadgen tactics are email marketing, used by 39% of respondents and content marketing, used by 33% of respondents. Online listings and directories (28%), display ads (24%) and traditional media (23%) are 20th century tactics and that gives them a similarity (IMHO); when combined, 75% of survey respondents use one or more of these older leadgen tactics.

As for the social media platforms used, it’s no surprise that Facebook dominates—76% of respondents use the platform for leadgen, promoting products and services and otherwise engaging with current customers and prospects. Instagram is used by 63% of survey respondents and LinkedIn, tailored as it is to B2B customers, is used by 43% of respondents. The data also showed that 29% of respondents use video marketing, a feature that is available on the above three platforms and also YouTube, which is used by 38% of respondents and recently rescued TikTok, which is used by 34% of respondents. Surprisingly X, a platform intended for Instant Messaging and other text communications, is used by 41% of respondents for social media marketing (X also hosts video sharing).

Now let’s talk turkey—when asked about their satisfaction (or disappointment) with the results of leadgen tactics, social media marketing and online listings/business directory users are satisfied with results—66% of social media marketing users and 61% of online listings/business directory users are pleased with their leadgen marketing results—still, each group also has a dissatisfaction rate of 15%. Furthermore, there is a rather large group of “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” —meaning lukewarm?—users associated with those leadgen marketing tactics and 24% of online listing/ business directory users and 19% of social media marketing users joined the lukewarm group. Maybe it’s too difficult to measure leadgen results directly from social media marketing activity, whose conversation threads remain visible for years and likewise for presence on a business listing site or directory that a prospect might see many months after publication?

More clarity is derived from search advertising and it topped the list as the leadgen tactic most respondents are happy with, as evidenced by its 76% satisfaction rate (with 12% dissatisfied and 12% neither satisfied nor dissatisfied). A close second in popularity is video marketing, a leadgen tactic that has a growing user rate on every platform; in this survey, 74% of users are pleased with their video marketing outcomes and just 8% are unhappy (and 17% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied). Short-form videos, like those on TikTok and Instagram Reels, continue to surge and 58% of respondents have either recently tried or would like to try the format.

Search advertising succeeds because it kicks in precisely when the purchasing motive is strongest and prospects are actively looking to buy a product or service that’s similar to yours. Readily available alternative options are waiting for them, as shown in search ads you’ve seen. Survey respondents also indicate satisfaction with results they’re finding with content marketing (75%) and advertising on social media platforms (73%).

The best source of leadgen is (drum roll) customer referrals! Almost 65% of survey respondents reported that customer referrals are the best leadgen sources. The influence of customer referrals is greatest (75%) for SMBs that have 10 or fewer full-time employees and have less influence in larger organizations—just 46% of businesses with 50 or more employees report that customer referrals are the best source of new customer leads.

Major challenges anticipated in 2025

Freelance consultants and SMB owners know that in order to survive and thrive, a clear-eyed view of their economic landscape is necessary. Economic uncertainty, leadgen tactics that stimulate new customer acquisition and optimizing an (often modest) marketing budget are by necessity at top-of-mind. The ability to predict which marketing tactics can be relied on to produce the strongest return on investment is viewed as somewhat or very challenging for nearly half of survey respondents—44% are somewhat or very concerned about the capability of their chosen leadgen tactics to drive results. Adapting to new technology is a concern for 40% of respondents, who indicate they are somewhat or very concerned about keeping up. Furthermore, 45% of respondents are somewhat or very concerned about their leadgen tactics bringing in enough new customers and 48% are somewhat or very worried about economic conditions and uncertainty.

So, what are the recommendations for driving Freelancer and SMB success in 2025? There are no definitive answers and the suggestions offered below are not new and not rocket science. Your goal is to make money, but you could meet with headwinds for any number of reasons. Outcomes produced by your business strategies and tactics cannot be predicted but appropriate design, execution and performance monitoring on your part can be expected to yield at least modest success. Marketing and sales have a direct effect on customer acquisition and generating revenue, making these two closely related functions the money-making engine of a business venture and deserving of your intense focus. Just do it.

It’s helpful to monitor the performance metrics of marketing tactics and for that process, Google Analytics generates relevant and insightful data that enables you to evaluate your campaigns—at no charge. Sign up now! Along with leadgen/customer acquisition, make a point to promote customer referrals by asking your current customers if any of their colleagues or customers have the potential to become one of your customers. Also, create customer experience protocols that at every touchpoint anticipate and respond to customer needs end-to-end, from new or returning customer onboarding to after-sale training or other services. Finally, invite customer feedback by directly speaking with those who do business with you when possible. It’s good business to send out an email survey (maybe once a year), or chat with customers by way of social media; it’s important to learn what customers would like to see you do (or not do), so that you can optimize the experience of doing business with your company.

  • Be prepared to manage both the opportunities and challenges you encounter by being aware, being agile, being resourceful and being resilient.
  • Develop comprehensive marketing/sales strategies and implement with tactics you can expect to be effective. Regularly consult your website (and social media) performance metrics and make adjustments where necessary, to maximize performance.
  • Identify one or two local business associations and aim to attend one program per quarter as a way to obtain professional development and/or enhance your business acumen skills as you meet colleagues and engage in face2face networking that builds mutually beneficial relationships.
  • As soon as your budget allows hire an (outsourced) business accountant or bookkeeper to not only maintain the integrity and timeliness of your business financials and tax filings, but also to discuss and guide the potential business growth and expansion of your venture.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © kali9/ iStock

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TikTok Countdown: Proceed to Pivot

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The Supreme Court announced on Friday January 17 that it voted 9-0 to uphold the Senate-approved “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”, a ruling that defined TikTok and other apps owned by Chinese corporations that operate in the U.S. and have more than a million U.S. users as a national security risk for America and compelled ByteDance, owner of the popular TikTok social media platform, to either sell out to a U.S. company or cease operating in this country as of Sunday January 19, 2025. On Saturday night January 18, ByteDance shut down TikTok in the U.S., per the SCOTUS ruling. Site visitors were greeted with the message: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

Furthermore, the SCOTUS ruling prevents American companies from hosting or delivering content for the Beijing-based social media platform unless parent company ByteDance sells the platform to a U.S. buyer, or a U.S ally. A source close to TikTok reportedly said that “multiple critical service providers” indicated to TikTok that they would no longer carry the app or its data, which forced the app offline. Service providers cited fears that the ban would be applied starting Sunday January 19, despite Biden administration signals to the contrary. The app went dark on Saturday January 18 about two hours before the shutdown deadline and as of Sunday January 19, the TikTok app was not available at the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.

But in true soap opera cliff-hanger style, TikTok did not remain offline in the U.S. for any length of time and leave 170 million U.S.-based TikTok users in the lurch. In fact, it was evident that TikTok would quickly resume operating in the U.S., perhaps inspired by a growing awareness by lawmakers of both parties that the decision to force a TikTok closure is quite unpopular. Some congressional leaders who originally championed the TikTok law are now considering delaying enforcement. So, Washington is setting up to pass the buck—surprise!

  • A U.S. official has confirmed that the outgoing Biden administration would not force TikTok to cease operations in the U.S. on January 19 and will allow the incoming Trump administration to implement the law.
  • In a TikTok video, platform CEO Shou Zi Chew asked President-elect Donald Trump to find a solution that keeps the site available in the U.S. Trump said he would “be making the decision” about TikTok and confirmed that he discussed the platform with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a phone interview with NBC News on January 18, the President-elect confirmed that he would “most likely” delay the TikTok ban for 90 days after he takes office on January 20 but added that he had not yet made a final decision. Incidentally, Mr. Shou expects to be in attendance for Trump’s inauguration.

What would a TikTok ban look like?

OK, so what might the world look like for TikTok users if the unthinkable happens and the site really is banned in America for a significant length of time? Before going any further, let’s confirm that it will not be illegal to have TikTok on your phone. TikTok has been banned in the U.S. as of January 19, but it’s not illegal to keep the app on your phone or other devices.

  • No new downloads: TikTok was removed from app stores on January 19 and aspiring new users were unable to download the app. Current user accounts were blocked and shown the message detailed above.
  • No updates: Those who are somehow able to access the site would no longer receive updates and the site would eventually stop working properly. Functionality would diminish.

If you are one of the approximately 7 million U.S. residents who use TikTok one minute videos to promote a business, you are advised to act now to protect your entity. President Trump‘s vow to keep the app available notwithstanding, the clock really is ticking and this drama is your wake-up call. It’s imperative that you be proactive and prepare to pivot into Plan B and develop actionable strategies that enable the transfer of your business marketing functions out of an exclusively TikTok arrangement and into a safe, multichannel harbor. Whether or not there is a prolonged TikTok shutdown, keeping all your eggs in one basket has always been risky and is nearly always inadvisable. There is strength in diversity and that’s our mission today. Let’s discuss Plan B—your pivot and survival strategy.

“We have to save it”

As you’ve heard, the TikTok shutdown was in effect for just 14 hours and President Donald Trump pledged to issue an executive order following his inauguration and give TikTok a 75-day reprieve before the SCOTUS law goes into effect, saying that “We have to save it.” President Trump suggested that a 50% American ownership of TikTok is his preference at this time. If TikTok plays a vital role in your marketing campaigns, you can breathe again—-but this soap opera isn’t over yet and you would be wise to use the 75-days to get your house in order.

1. Build and optimize your own website

You relied on TikTok and don’t have a business website, you say? You should protect yourself and take control now, by way of a DIY site-building (and tutorial assisted) project or by outsourcing to a Freelance web developer colleague whose references you’ve checked, so that you can create a website solution that’s customized to fit the needs of your business venture. The only online platform that you completely control is your website. Social media platforms belong to the company that owns them, meaning that your TikTok content actually belongs to ByteDance and your Facebook posts belong to Zuckerberg. If that thought doesn’t motivate you to create a functional website for yourself, I don’t know what will.

On your website, you own and control your marketing content and can also sell your products and services, post customer surveys and calls-to-action and, maintain a sales/marketing funnel for inbound customer appeals and, best of all, you’ll own and control all customer data that you collect and maintain because the site is yours. Keep in mind that your website can and should be designed to function as the primary hub for all activities that drive customer engagement and transactions of any kind. Furthermore, be certain to enable site cybersecurity and configure https in your website address, which is the secure version of http, the primary protocol used to send data between a web browser and a website. The principal motivations for https are authentication of the accessed website and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data while it is in transit.

2. Develop a robust email list

Congratulations to you if your TikTok following is significant—but during the site shutdown, all of your customer contact info was Missing In Action, beyond your reach. Because email marketing remains a powerful resource, act now to find an alternative platform that gives you control of your most important piece of customer (and follower) data—email addresses. Investigate and compare email marketing platforms and get started ASAP. Once you’ve selected a provider, create opt-in forms to grow your list as you continue contacting and nurturing your relationship with your loyal base of customers. Your email list is how you own your audience and you must be able to support mutual communication between your audience and your company.

3. Diversify your online channels

Don’t be complacent and let yourself remain a one-trick pony. The TikTok drama reminds us all that social media platforms you rely on today might be gone tomorrow. A good defensive strategy is to spread the wealth and consider multiple channels for your content and customer outreach, guided by the platforms your target market follows. TikTok followers are obviously visual and gravitate to videos, so think Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Facebook for your Plan B pivot into multiple channels—plus your website, which will be the gatekeeper of everything. Pinterest, a visual imagery search engine, could be another useful marketing channel that your customers and prospects like. Diversifying will give you better control over customer engagement and monetization, so instead of betting the house on a single platform, spread your bets.

4. Create a viable sales/marketing funnel

Why not launch your pivot by creating landing pages that lead prospects and other followers to sales/marketing funnels you’ve established on different platforms and advertise your powerful new online presence? It will also be good for brand building to give prospects (followers) and customers a reason to connect with you outside of social media — whether it’s a free e-book, a special offer, or a chance to join a community of customers and followers. You could do well to check out Constant Contact to automate those funnels and turn prospects and followers into active customers.

5. Use SMS marketing to connect instantly

SMS marketing (text messages) can give a jolt to customer outreach. You can invite your email list members to opt-in for real-time updates (always request permission, even if you send the first message without asking first) and exclusive offers via text. This tool can be one of your most powerful ways to stay connected with your target market and reach them instantly. For example, a strong SMS list can boost sales conversion rates of limited time special offers and also lift attendance at your webinars and podcasts where you are a guest or the host.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Shopee Mobile Malaysia Sdn.Bhd.

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Rip Off the Band-Aid: Why Prospects Refuse to Be Customers

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You’ll never preside over a thriving business enterprise, be it large, small, or somewhere in-between, unless you consistently recruit new customers—as you simultaneously encourage repeat business, that is! Maintaining a healthy customer list is a balancing act that requires constant attention. When creating marketing strategies and campaigns for your entity, I think it’s safe to say you create content expected to interest current and prospective customers who have at least a back-burner need for your service or product categories.

But as you brainstorm potential marketing messages to fuel your next inbound or outbound marketing campaign, your thoughts could eventually land on a cohort of elusive and reluctant prospects—- noncustomers, who buy little or nothing from either you or your competitors. Who are those outliers lurking at the fringes of your marketplace, you may wonder? Admittedly, Freelancers and owners of small or medium size businesses will (correctly) assume that it’s a smarter bet to direct your time and money to prospects who’ve shown a need for products and services offered in your marketplace. Nevertheless, you may not be able to ignore the silent awareness of noncustomers who may have a latent, unacknowledged need for what you sell. Could they exist in sufficient numbers and hold revenue potential to constitute a niche market for you? Maybe.

The answers you seek can most efficiently be revealed with comprehensive market research, data-driven and available in software like Qualtrics and other SaaS companies to get trustworthy customer intel that helps you make informed decisions. Once you’ve discovered the identities of your noncustomers, guided by the industries they occupy, you can then verify the business case for how your services and/or products could be worthwhile for them.

As you research your noncustomers, you may quickly see that they’re not all alike and that each subgroup has idiosyncratic biases, doubts, concerns, even misperceptions that explain why they’re noncustomers. Research may reveal that for some of them, the decision to decline to buy from either you or your competitors could make sense. That said, your noncustomers, while perhaps operating in different industries and maintaining different perspectives, might share certain similarities—goals, challenges, or concerns, for example, that could give them something to talk about if they all show up at the same holiday party. Subject to an analysis of relevant data that’s interpreted well, you may be able to build on what your noncustomers have in common and discover a potential niche market that you might convert into a few good customers.

Noncustomers categories

The challenge of noncustomers was researched by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, who sought to help companies more effectively understand and, where possible, convert the untapped demand of these inaccessible prospects and in so doing create the genuine demand for a company’s products and services that they named blue ocean. Kim and Mauborgne are professors of business strategy at INSEAD (Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires) and coauthors of Blue Ocean Strategy (2005), the book and the marketing theory. The developed an analytic framework used to study the phenomenon of noncustomers and they sorted the cohort into three tiers.

  • First Tier: Soon-to-be

First Tier noncustomers are on the fringe of your market and waiting for an opportunity to leave your industry. They’re not precisely noncustomers; when they must, they’ll buy certain products or services offered by companies in your category but know that they have no love for any company operating in your industry.

What drives First Tier noncustomers? They may be dissatisfied with the available products or services in your industry and hoping for a solution that better satisfies their needs.

  • Second Tier: Refuseniks

Second Tier noncustomers make a conscious choice against your market and deliberately decline to buy your industry’s product or service offerings. These noncustomers have seen the available solutions that might fulfill their needs but have decided against them.

What drives Second Tier Noncustomers? They may find the available products or services unaffordable or somehow inappropriate for their needs.

  • Third Tier: Unexplored

Third Tier noncustomers are psychologically farthest away from your marketplace. These noncustomers have never considered products or services sold in your industry to be an option and so they’ve made no purchases. It’s assumed that the needs of third tier noncustomers are addressed by another industry.

What drives Third Tier Noncustomers? They never viewed your industry’s products or services as a viable option and therefore never considered exploring what you sell.

Marketing messages for noncustomers

Prospects who erect barriers and refuse to be considered are not easy to overcome, as you know. Kim and Mauburgne recommend that those looking to appeal to noncustomers to first, search for similarities that link your various noncustomer subgroups and second, focus on low hanging fruit. In other words, figure out which noncustomer groups you can expect to most easily, quickly and inexpensively communicate with and then create strategies and campaigns to win them over, if that is possible. Spotlighting benefits they stand to receive when using your products or services may be persuasive.

Identifying those similarities shared by your different noncustomers will be a good job for your data analytics software. Once you’ve figured out the landscape, you can then decide which problem or priority to address. After that, you create a marketing message you expect will resonate with your chosen cohort and distribute through channels they can be expected to trust and follow.

  • Neuromarketing: emotional appeal

Some behavioral experts believe that 95% of customers’ buying decisions are made subconsciously and this strategy seems to me like a potentially successful one for reeling in noncustomers. It’s entirely possible that even your toughest B2B customers aren’t using as much logic as they’d like you to believe when they evaluate (or ignore) the possibility of buying your product or service. Moreover, the biggest urge that’s attached to unconscious decision making is emotion. What all this means is if you effectively appeal to your noncustomers’ feelings, you’ll have a better chance of influencing their buying decisions.

Research also shows that marketing campaigns that have purely emotional content perform twice as well when compared to content that only uses logic. Furthermore, for some unexplainable reason, content that includes both emotion and logic doesn’t connect as well as exclusively emotional marketing content, whether the content features positive or negative emotions. Emphasize emotions in your marketing content when reaching out to customers or noncustomers by including storytelling, humor, music, or other behaviors that resonate with their emotions. Instead of focusing solely on product features or benefits, create emotional content that strives to encourage a personal connection with your viewers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty Images/Ingram Publishing (2014)

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How to Scale Your B2B Services Company

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Independent and ambitious Freelancers, like other business owners, are inclined to brainstorm strategies and tactics that may have the potential to increase their company’s revenue and profit. Central to the entrepreneurial dream is building an entity that attains success as you define it and that often entails making money. But as with all business decisions, it’s necessary to determine which strategy and tactics have the greatest likelihood to reach the pot of gold. As always, the most reliable way to answer that question is to conduct comprehensive marketplace research and examine your company’s key performance indicators.

Grow, scale, or expand?

It is imperative that you recognize which KPIs point to a particular revenue and profit boosting strategy and give you the confidence to follow that solution. To earn more revenue and become more profitable, there are three options—expand, grow, or scale. Each strategy requires certain marketplace conditions and financial and other resources and carries its own kind of risk.

Expansion is a much bigger investment, especially for Freelance professionals, who typically operate a service business, work alone and deliver the service yourself. Launching your operation in a new location typically places a significant demand on financial and logistical capabilities, making growth or scaling, which both entail relatively fewer demands on resources, more accessible to Freelancers.

OK, so how can you recognize which option makes more sense for you? First, let’s know what we’re talking about. Many business owners and Freelancers misunderstand the meanings of growth and scale, so let’s take a sidebar and examine their definitions. Growth means adding more projects, new services and/or signing additional clients as the engine of your strategy to boost revenue and profit—activities that mostly entail more expenses. Scale focuses on increasing revenue and profit without significantly increasing the associated production costs. Essentially, scaling means working smarter, not just harder, and aligns well with the financial and logistical capabilities of the typical Freelance professional.

Nevertheless, scaling a business, particularly a small, service-based company, will require extensive preparation and a well-designed strategy to make it work. To evaluate the possibility of scaling your operation, you’ll dive into company KPIs and conduct an extensive financial analysis, marketplace research and strategic planning. Data-driven decision-making will yield the most trustworthy information and outcomes.

Furthermore, when contemplating your scale, or any other significant business investment, as you study the data, contact your business accountant, who is familiar with your financial situation and is positioned to be your Sherpa and guide you as you climb (scale!) the mountain. There are a couple of obvious questions that you should address before calling the accountant.

  • So, how’s business? Are clients lining up to do business with you? Are you meeting, if not exceeding, your revenue targets? How many clients are on your roster? If business is off the chain, then get your accountant on the phone and share the good news. However, if you’re merely pleased with your performance metrics, set higher goals and observe what happens during the next two or three quarters. if you surpass those metrics by an impressive margin, it may be time to call the accountant and discuss next steps.
  • Client feedback Listening to what clients observe or experience can steer your business toward success and it’s good business to invite them to give their perspective. Invite clients to share their thoughts and suggestions regarding your services. Client insights may open your eyes to add-ons, upgrades and/or new services you can provide and what they tell you could contribute substantially to your scale. Make giving feedback convenient by occasionally including surveys in marketing emails, soliciting online reviews, maintaining an active presence on social media, or making yourself available for in-person conversations. Your objective is to hear and assess what clients say about your services, company and the customer experience you provide. You can use their feedback to better understand what clients like, what you can do better and get early warnings of emerging trends and how your clients feel about what’s on the horizon. With this knowledge, you can tailor your services to meet this demand and strengthen your positioning as a go-to provider in the industry, whether or not you decide to scale.

Use data to evaluate a potential scale

Analyzing and interpreting company performance data will do more than answer the expand, grow, or scale question. KPIs will also spotlight company strengths and weaknesses, help you recognize competitive advantages and call your attention to gaps that limit progress and need fixing. With the help of your accountant, your KPI data analysis will also indicate the overhead expenses, staffing and other resources, so that a realistic budget can be developed.

Moreover, your analytics tools can build reliable data-driven sales forecasts for the proposed scale that will include the number of new clients needed, average billable hours/ hourly rate and sales revenue you must generate within a particular time frame. BTW, if you were wondering when and how to incorporate AI into business operations, evaluating a potential scale could be your motivation.

Find your money-making niche

Turn to marketplace and industry data to point you to a niche you might enter. You might also consider how you to diversify your current service line? In either scenario, consult your data projections to suggest whether client price tolerance will allow you to achieve a profit margin that covers the expense of delivering at scale. Competitive intel is also likely to be useful; for example, there may be few competitors in certain market segments because there’s no money to be made. Once you’ve learned where the opportunities are, you can start making changes to scale successfully.

Upgrade marketing and branding

Build up company visibility and reputation with robust marketing and branding. Sharpen your marketing messages and establish a presence on inbound and outbound marketing channels that are a fit for your services. Search Engine Optimization, social media and content marketing should be especially useful. Nearly half of all clicks on search engines come from organic searches, which suggests that prospects are more likely to trust the results they find naturally.

Your marketing and branding strategies will also be more impactful when guided by data. By analyzing metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates and client engagement, you’ll be likely to discover actionable insights that may shape marketing strategies and campaigns that produce the results you need.

Standardize service delivery, invest in automation

Scaling a service-based business requires being able to deliver those services in the same way, every time. A strategy that will both save time and ensure that your profit margin is sufficient to cover the expense of delivering at scale is to package your services as a menu of products and eliminate the need for you to customize every order. Next, create standard operating procedures to ensure quality, efficiency and consistency in how your services are delivered. Map the step-by-step workflow, provide written or video instructions for clients and if applicable, ensure that your team is trained on best practices, so that clients will receive the same excellent results every time.

With a service-based business it is you, Freelancer friend, perhaps assisted by a team member, who will provide your services. In order to scale, you must develop and perfect turn-key, streamlined processes that allow you to work with the number of clients necessary to realize the scale. From your client onboarding procedure to billing and invoicing, automation will make your organization more efficient, appear more professional, inspire trust and build your brand at every touch point. Not only that, you’ll have more time to focus on improving your business and optimizing the scale.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Jack’s First Beanstalk, illustration from Jack and the Beanstalk, a circa 1734 English fairy tale. Author and illustrator unknown.

Technology / Office , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Artificial Intelligence–Where Do You Begin?

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I haven’t used AI much, other than inviting this platform to do a free AI review of the posts I write for you, to make sure that the information is reasonably complete, for example, and my vocabulary choices clearly communicate what I want to share. Sometime soon, though, incorporating AI tools into my modest Freelance operation will be inevitable and as a Freelancer who fares best when operating expenses are reined in, thinking strategically about the business functions that will inaugurate my AI roll-out is a must. So as I work through this decision, I’ve decided to take you with me, because you’ll also need to figure out AI for your business needs in the near future. An AI tool is not an impulse buy. To obtain the results you want, big-picture thinking is needed.

  • Assess your current operations: Before spending money and implementing AI technology, review your business processes and identify where an upgrade would make a difference. For example, how might your productivity benefit if you could generate more extensive and specific data insights, or improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, or expedite content generation —blog, newsletter, marketing emails? Where might AI create the most value for your organization?
  • Start small: Choose one or two areas to implement AI tools and learn how to produce the results you want. A website chatbot programmed to answer inbound marketing FAQs might be a good place to start.
  • Let AI provide inspiration: In particular when using AI for content creation, remember that AI gives you a draft, such as suggesting good topics, or personalizing marketing messages for diverse audiences. Avoid directly posting AI-generated content on your website or social media accounts as your final version. Check AI suggested sources for accuracy.

Which AI tools are suitable for Freelancers and SMB?

As we head into 2025, it is understood that AI will become an essential resource to promote business growth, identify how to improve competitive positioning and overall move an organization forward. Whether you use AI to generate data analyses, conduct market research, create a revenue forecasting model, or manage customer relationships, these tools are designed to support companies of every size. Whether you’re a Freelance writer, wedding planner, or bookkeeper, there are AI tools that will improve your business operations in many ways, from project management to image creation, search engine optimization to financial projections. One or more of the four AI tools below may get you off to a good start.

Canva

Canva Magic Design makes it easier to design graphics that reflect your brand when you must create presentations, proposals, marketing emails, or other documents. Magic Design (with a complementary feature called Magic Write) is part of all Canva plans, including the free version. Jumpstart your design with either a text query or photo and Magic Design will auto-generate relevant templates that fit your description. With plain text commands and just a few clicks, you can create customized graphic designs. Just describe your preferred image or upload your media and Magic Design will create social media posts, presentations and even videos. No coding and advance design skills required. Subscription is either free, or from $9.99/month for Magic Design Pro.

  • Ask Canva to produce social media graphics for your marketing campaigns.
  • Update webpage template colors and fonts to match your brand color scheme.
  • Turn AI-generated content into a presentation slide deck.
  • Transform Instagram posts into a series of swipeable images known as a LinkedIn carousel post.
  • Upgrade your Canva plan with Magic Design for Presentations or Magic Design for Video.

Asana Intelligence

Asana Intelligence is an add-on to the Asana project management platform and is especially well-suited for IT, marketing and operations needs. Website developers and others who work with multiple clients might use Asana Intelligence to track client projects and write status updates that keep clients informed. Teams may use Asana Intelligence to aid in making shared project management faster and easier. Customer service virtual assistants can speed up client workflows when the Intelligence feature is activated. Users can also ask questions on any work in Asana to receive insights, identify challenges and set up next steps.‍, keeping the client in the loop. This versatility makes Asana Intelligence a nice choice for those responsible for both creative and administrative work. Premium and Business tier Asana plans include the Intelligence feature at no additional cost. Plans start at $10.99 per user, per month.

  • Create automated workflows that activate when someone new joins your Asana team or project.
  • Sort and label projects with auto-generated fields.
  • Generate summaries and action items for projects.
  • Edit project summaries and team messages for voice, tone and clarity.
  • Find data points and information in a project within an Asana workspace.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a generative AI chatbot that users can interact with through conversation threads, making it an excellent tool for projects that require lots of Q & A to drill down into specific market challenges, customer pain points, or competitor strengths, for example. Its conversational interface makes ChatGPT great for narrowing down discussions that help you discover the nuances—that might mean an exploration of your customer journey or understanding your customer’s end-user workflows. ChatGPT can also help build a more powerful go-to-market strategy for new product launches by identifying influential players in your target market and revealing relationships and interactions between those influential players that can influence both product or service sales and the customer experience. This step is very helpful to find people to interview and build relationships with to improve your go-to-market strategy. Buy a Plus subscription is $20/month to access what you’ll probably need.

  • Data collection for market research.
  • Discover and explore untapped market opportunities.
  • Write drafts for project proposals.
  •  Identify growth strategies, find ways to reach new audiences and discover insights that position you as an industry thought leader.
  • Create a revenue forecasting model to assist in predicting future financial performance based on historical data and assumptions. Conduct scenario analysis, a financial model that allows users to test different possibilities and assess their impact on financial outcomes.

Lumen5

Lumen5 is an AI video generation platform for marketers. The platform enables those without training or experience to easily create video content by simplifying the process of converting text into engaging visual content. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and automatic text transformation capabilities make video creation much easier, saving time and effort. Storyboarding and video editing are two key advantages. You can use the service to create two kinds of videos:

  • Auto-captioned talking head videos using footage that you upload.
  • Marketing videos based on written presentations, documents, or blog posts.

When creating marketing videos based on a document, the text is all you need. You don’t have to film any footage yourself—Lumen5 will generate visual content that pairs with your words. Lumen5 plans start at $19 per month and allow you to create both videos and AI-generated voice-overs for your clients.

  • Marketers can use the tool to create content for client marketing campaigns.
  • Sales managers can turn presentations into personalized videos for prospects.
  • Freelancers can turn to Lumen5 for help creating their own social media content.

Disadvantages of AI

While AI has numerous highly valuable benefits, the technology also carries potential downsides. Being circumspect about the big picture consequences of implementing AI is important for you, your customers and your community. Think corporate social responsibility.

  • Job displacement–AI’s abilities to automate processes, generate rapid content and work for long periods of time can mean job displacement for human workers.
  • Data quality–AI models are only as good as the data they are trained with. The model will produce unreliable results if the data is incomplete or inaccurate. If you’ve previously used SAAS tools, always double-check the result of AI generated info.
  • Hallucinations–AI systems may inadvertently “hallucinate” or produce inaccurate outputs when trained on insufficient or biased data, leading to the generation of false information. 
  • Ethical concerns–AI systems may be developed in a manner that isn’t transparent, inclusive or sustainable, resulting in a lack of explanation for potentially harmful AI decisions as well as a negative impact on users and businesses.
  • Privacy concerns–The data collected and stored by AI systems may be done so without user consent or knowledge and may even be accessed by unauthorized individuals in the case of a data breach.
  • Environmental costs–Large-scale AI systems can require a substantial amount of energy to operate and process data, which increases carbon emissions and water consumption.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Marciobnws for Shutterstock. The Creation of Artificial Intelligence by Man, an image inspired by The Creation of Adam (1508-1512) by Michelangelo.

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Reinvent and Rescue Your Failing Business

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Those of you who follow astrology know that the planet Mercury is currently in retrograde meaning, as a result of an optical illusion, the planet appears to be moving backward in its orbit. Mercury began to retrograde on August 5 and the phase ends on August 28. The third and final Mercury retrograde of the year will occur November 25-December 15 (the first retrograde Mercury of 2024 was April 1- 25). All nine planets can appear to retrograde and it is said that when they do, the effect can scramble our best laid plans. For example, signing contracts is said to be ill-advised during retrograde Mercury (and also during retrograde Venus, Mars, or Jupiter). However, there is an upside associated with the downside of retrograde Mercury—you may be able to rectify what went off the rails.

Astrologers claim that Mercury is the planet most closely associated with business activities. You would never launch a business during retrograde Mercury (or retrograde Venus, Mars, or Jupiter), when the planet seems to be orbiting backward, because the venture would almost certainly fail—you want forward movement to get things rolling. Instead, astrologers advise you to use retrograde Mercury to figure out whether a failing enterprise can (or should) be rescued and is worth the effort and money needed for the resurrection.

The prefix re– conveys the spirit of retrograde and signals that it’s time to pause and reflect on what has transpired and anticipate how the outcomes might influence next steps. The ancient practice of astrology recommends using retrograde Mercury to revisit, reconsider, repair, recuperate, or reimagine what appears to be broken but, with careful reassessment and cost-effective reengineering, can be successfully rebuilt.

Oh, why not? Do not allow the heartbreak and frustration you feel as your dream of entrepreneurship crumbles convince you to abandon ship too soon. You owe it to yourself to discover what might respond to a well-executed pivot and put the remedy in motion.

Review what went wrong

Conduct a thorough post-mortem to reveal which factors caused the failure. Was it the product or service offered, or were you too far ahead of a developing trend? Did you overestimate the size of your target market, or become too optimistic about demand for your offering? Were there operational problems that, e.g., interfered with product manufacturing or delivery, or was cash-flow the problem?

A comprehensive review of financial statements, sales data and customer feedback will help you recognize the glitches. With an accurate diagnosis of what has not been working, you can redirect your focus and develop a reinvention strategy.

Rethink the business model

A business model describes how the venture will make money—methods the company will use to sell the product or service to customers and how the business will drive sales, for instance. A business model also determines the type of products and/or services that make sense for the company to sell and how to effectively market and brand those products or services. The will identify the ideal customers the company should aim to capture, the depth of customer demand and anticipated operational and selling expenses. Miscalculations in the business model planning are almost certain to eventually result in unmet revenue expectations. Appropriate market research is the remedy for an ineffective business model. Study direct competitors and industry trends.

Reconfirm customer demand

Understanding your target customer’s needs and priorities is integral to start-up success, so obtaining psychographic data will help you clarify what is essential to them when they shop in your product category. Whether or not your business failure was a lapse of product-market fit, identifying and then learning how to communicate your offering’s value proposition is a key component of brand-building and achieving sales revenue goals. An insufficient product-market fit results in the product or service failing to resonate with prospective customers and results in weak demand.

Revisiting the buyer persona of your ideal target customer will also be instructive. Let your market research lead you to identify the right customer, the right product-market fit and just maybe, reveal a niche target audience with a readjusted offering, that differentiates you from competitors and paves the way to a loyal customer base that is your springboard to sustainable growth.

Reassess pricing

Pricing problems limit sales revenue, whether you’ve priced too high or too low. Incorrect pricing is often implicated in cash-flow and revenue difficulties. Get your bearings by researching three or four competitors to verify the price tolerance range for your product or service category and get an idea of how you might readjust your pricing—and maybe customer payment options, too. Being flexible and creative with how customers can purchase and pay for products and services—on your website, on social media, on consignment, with free delivery—can boost sales and build your customer base. But first, do your price comparisons to ensure any new pricing is competitive and fits your market tier and brand, whether luxury, midlevel, or economy.

Reexamine the sales strategy

Again, make it easy for customers to do business with you, whether you are a bricks & mortar shop, sell on line, or offer your wares through a subscription service. Also, shipping and delivery should be easy and priced at a level that customers accept.

Furthermore, inefficient or cumbersome business procedures can drain time and resources away from serving customers and growing the business. Investigate technology—marketing, financial, operational— to simplify workflows, delegate tasks, improve organization, speed up processes and reduce expenses associated with day-to-day operations.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © iStock for TheSchoolRun. The solar system.