Are you itching to grow your business but not sure how to get people to start talking about you? There are so many things you can do to grow your brand awareness. I had a chat with one of my favorite people, Heather Dixon Adams, owner of Choice Publicity, where she shares her tips and tricks on how to get people to talk about your business. 

 

 

If you haven’t heard of Heather Dixon Adams or Choice Publicity, let me give you a little background. I reached out to Heather via Instagram back in the thick of the pandemic because I was looking for some biz sisters to help support me and vice versa. I had been following Heather for a little while now and I just thought she was the coolest person. When I sent her the dm I thought there was no way she’d say yes. But she did! And here we are. 

A couple of months later she invited me and a few others from our biz sister group to speak at her Choice Summit for women entrepreneurs. So I was able to meet her in person and we’ve become such good friends. We’ve even helped each other with several projects in our businesses since, and it’s been an amazing experience! 

Heather’s company, Choice Publicity, is all about making you known. They coach you in strategies for your partnerships, social media presence, media relations, and more. Heather is a PR genius and has helped launch over 100 New York Times best-selling books. And her team will deliver the same great results. You can learn more about Choice’s services on their website here. 

 

 

5 Tips on How to Get People to Talk About Your Business

If you aren’t sold by Heather yet, you will be by the end of this post! She has some amazing tips on how to get people to talk about your business that I know will bring you incredible results! And I can honestly say that because I know Heather personally and have worked with her on several different occasions. She’s really the best. OK, let’s get started.

 

Brand Awareness Tip #1: Create a Culture You & Your Team Will Thrive In

If you work with a team or lead a team, it’s important to be intentional about the type of culture you’re creating. If you haven’t hired any team members yet, think about the type of culture you want for yourself and the culture you want to have in the future once you do have people working for you. No matter what stage of your business you’re in, these tips will help set you up for success:

 

• Make it a priority to make sure your team members are doing OK outside of work.

One of Heather’s mottos is, “If you care about them as humans outside of the office then they will care about your business inside the office.” She has learned that time and time again and that’s what she claims to be her success in the thriving culture she has at Choice.

 

• When hiring, look for 3 things: chemistry, competency, and culture.

Heather received this advice from a talent manager who worked for Chick-fil-a for more than 30 years. She is someone who has mastered a formula for hiring and retaining high-quality employees who work hard and want to be there. 

Chemistry is probably the most important out of the three. It’s worth spending time on the front end and investing in finding people with talents that will improve your business. Along with setting them up for success once you hire them by giving them the vision, tools, and support they need to do their job at the level you are expecting.

 

• Start your team meetings with gratitude and end them with celebration.

Heather and her team have a weekly meeting where they always start it by everyone sharing one thing they are grateful for and then ending it with some of the wins they’ve had in their work. This helps create a community of positivity and energy that is exuberated throughout the team and even to the clients.

 

 

Brand Awareness Tip #2: Take Advantage of Starting Small

We all know that in order to get big you have to start small. When you’re a smaller brand, it’s easy to get caught up in the fame and fortune you’ll one day have. However, there are so many advantages of starting small. 

Heather and I both agree that we are so glad for how small we were when we did our first video, TV appearance, or podcast episode. We have grown so much and are way more skilled than we used to be. Now, we have the skills to perform in a professional way and we are confident knowing thousands of people will see it. So, instead of wishing you were like other brands with more followers, focus on where you’re at right now and what you can do to practice and improve. 

 

Brand Awareness Tip #3: Celebrate the Audience You Already Have

This tip goes along with tip #2 of taking advantage of starting small. Celebrate the audience you already have! It’s a huge deal of the people who are already believers in your message. Celebrating them will help you stay focused on why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place. You are there to serve the ones who are already sold out to you! 

And please remember this one thing: It does not matter how big your audience is–engagement will always matter more. Any influencer will tell you they’d rather have a smaller group who is messaging, commenting, and sharing content than have millions who never interact with anything they post. Your audience’s interaction is the proof you need to know you’re making a difference. 

Heather shared how so often they will get clients who want to immediately skip to national fame. They are so eager to hit that national level that they skip over the chance to bond with the people in their backyard. So, before you want to show up on Good Morning America, consider showing up on your local news station, radio station, etc. This leads us to tip #4. 

 

 

Brand Awareness Tip #4: Consume the Media Platforms You Want to Show Up On

If you have a goal to be a guest on a certain media platform, you should be a consumer of that said media platform. I’ve gotten several emails from people asking if they could be a guest on my podcast. But from the way they’ve written their email, I can tell they’ve never listened to a single episode. 

If you are interested in collaborating with someone, before ever reaching out you should follow them and engage with their content. This will help make sure you are the right fit for their audience and brand. If you take the time to get to know brands you are interested in before sending a collab pitch, you will have a better chance to create that business partnership. 

 

Brand Awareness Tip #5: Create a Clear, Concise, and Compelling Pitch 

Heather said often times she will have clients who do really amazing things, but they don’t know how to explain it. Let alone in a clear, concise, and compelling way. If you ever want to pitch your services to potential clients or partnerships, this is key. You want your pitch to be short and sweet and straight to the point. 

To get this clear, concise, and compelling pitch, write down a bulleted list of everything your business offers. Then, edit things out until you are down to one to two sentences of what you do. Once you have that pitch, practice saying it over and over again. 

Also, it’s a good idea to create a couple of different custom pitches to use on different media platforms. I.e. the pitch you share on a radio station should sound different than one on a podcast episode you are guesting on. 

 

 

How to Get People to Talk About Your Business

Alright, biz sister, what did you think of these tips on how to get people to talk about your business? Remember, you can start BEFORE you know everything. You know enough for what you need to do today and you will keep growing and pivoting along the way.

If you have any questions or thoughts on this blog post, you can send me a dm over on Instagram @iammichellgifford or to Heather @heatherdixonadams. If you loved this post, you will LOVE my podcast. You can check it out here. I share all the tips and tricks you need to know as a small biz owner. You can also join my text list by texting “money maker” to 951.309.7885.

I’m so happy you’re here! Have you heard of my Money Makers Coaching Group? Check it out HERE!

Luvs, 

Michelle