‘You don’t need five-star reviews’: A marketing expert’s savvy advice to help you reach the right audience

There’s more to clever marketing than catchy hashtags and special-offer emails. Sometimes, simple customer engagement tactics are all it takes to get your product or service into the hands of the right customers…

Tom Willis is one of the brightest minds in digital marketing. He’s taught more than 50 digital marketing workshops and courses with General Assembly, sharing everything he knows about SEO, advertising and marketing trends. If that didn’t keep him busy enough, he’s also the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Lawpath, Australia’s largest online legal platform.

Transforming the playing field for small businesses everywhere, Tom has helped hundreds of new and existing businesses cut through competitive noise and be seen. Passionate about helping new and established businesses master their marketing and customer engagement, Tom has applied his expertise across a number of startups, small businesses, and microbusinesses.

Tom joins Cec Busby, editor of Flying Solo, to break down how to market your new business to reach the right customers, all on your own.

Rethink, reallocate and rejuvenate your marketing strategy

As we get into the thick of the year, it’s a good time to reevaluate your marketing strategy. According to Tom, you’ll want to start by making sure you understand your target audience’s habits and expectations.

“It’s really going to come down to what your audience is and also what stage of business you are in,” says Tom.

It’s no secret that a lot of businesses are under the pump right now. Facing economic pressures and market challenges, many small and micro business owners are finding themselves with a smaller budget for marketing activities.

“There’s a lot more investment that’s being put into revenue generation as opposed to wider brand awareness pieces,” Tom says.

Across the board, Tom has seen a shift back into marketing strategies that give business owners visibility on their return on investment, like Google Ads.

“What’s great about a lead generation ad is that you actually get the contact information of the person who is coming through to your business,” Tom says. “It’s a fantastic source of marketing and lead generation particularly for the service businesses”.

Listen to Tom Willis on the Flying Solo podcast:

Master a single platform first

While it can be tempting to attack the world of social media from all sides, Tom suggests starting small and mastering a single platform.

“Pick one channel and really focus on doing well on that one channel,” Tom says. “There’s always the opportunity with that one channel that you’re working with to transpose the content that you’re creating onto different channels.”

Tom says it’s important to remember effective engagement goes both ways, and requires consistent effort from the business to get the ball rolling. For example, if you’re looking to tap into local audiences on Instagram, your business’ account should be asking engaging questions in the comments section of posts, and following and messaging profiles.

“Ultimately, I think that that level of engagement is probably the part that a lot of people miss that is a really important part of the equation,” Tom says.

As Tom points out, it’s much harder for a customer to give up a product or service when they’ve connected with the business on a personal level.

“It’s very easy for me to go ahead and cancel my Amazon Prime subscription,” he says. “But it’s a lot more difficult for me to go to my local yoga studio where I know the teacher very well and say ‘I’m sorry I need to cancel’ because I can’t afford it.”

Authentic reviews matter

If the first thing you do before trying a new restaurant, hiring a new plumber or booking a hotel is scroll through their online reviews, you’ll know that genuine reviews and testimonials from the community can make or break a business’ reputation.

“When you talk about reviews I think everyone thinks that they need a thousand five-star reviews,” he says.

Tom has found the most trust is built with customers when businesses boast an average rating between 4.5 to 4.7 out of 5. While a page overflowing with five-star reviews might seem like the obvious goal for customer testimonials, your audience will probably respond far better to authenticity.

“Usually seeing a little bit of imperfection brings a little bit of trust into us as a consumer as well,” says Tom.

Consistency is key

Tom says the simplest check you can do to help your business stand out online is making sure there’s consistency across all your NAP (name, address, phone number) citations. Consistency across your social media accounts, website and local or industry-specific directories is the best way to ensure the right audience can find your business.

“That gives you a good, consistent ability for search engines to see your business,” he explains.

Above all, when it comes to marketing, long-term prosperity is a reflection of hard work.

“Just really focus on the process,” says the marketing expert. “If you’re focused too much on the outcome, you’re never going to get anywhere.”

Tom shared more marketing tips and predictions about emerging trends on the Flying Solo podcast. Listen to the full episode now!

This article is brought to you by Flying Solo and ANZ.

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