PRO TIP: Join your local chamber of commerce

It might sound antiquated but don’t be mistaken. CoC’s can be incredible resources for knowledge gathering, marketing, partnership and comraderie + they will bring you closer to your community. Mine is and does.

If you are a startup founder or entrepreneur, look into joining your local Chamber of Commerce!

Small Business Tip: How to Create Effective Digital Ads

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Digital Advertising can help you boost your business. But, as a local advertiser and/or small business owner, you may have limited resources to create effective digital ad units. Here are some tips on how to do it yourself.

Size matters:

If you can only create one unit, make a 300x250. This is the most common IAB standard size which means it's more likely to work on more websites than other sizes you could try to make. It can also work as a graphic for a social post.

Keep it simple:

Simplicity is key when it comes to designing effective digital units. Keep the design clean and your message clear and focused. Avoid cluttering your unit with too much information or distracting graphics. You can use free graphic design software like Canva to create your ad.

Be visual:

Visuals are crucial to catching the audience's attention. Try to include an image that is relevant to your brand or message. It's important to choose high-quality images that are visually appealing. You can find free stock images on websites like Unsplash or Pexels.

Use bold colors:

Colors can also influence an audience's response to your ad. Use bold and bright colors that align with your brand identity. You can use color schemes and combinations tools like Color Hunt or Adobe Color to help you choose the right colors. Avoid using too many colors.

Use easy to read fonts:

Both the font choice and the size of the font matter. Fonts should be no smaller than 10 to 12 pixels, but 16 is better. Some free, easy to read fonts include Helvetica, Ariel, Garamond. Lato, Montserrat,Verdana, Georgia, Roboto, Gill Sans, Bodoni and Baskerville, Calibri, Times New Roman.

Keep it short, sweet and relevant:

Ensure that your message is relevant to your target audience. Use language that resonates with your audience and clearly communicates your message. Focus your message on ways you can offer value to your customers. Avoid being long winded, you don’t have a lot of space. 

WFH Tips for Busy People: Creating Focus

The pace and sheer variety of ways communication happens these days can make staying focused and on task a challenge.  I have found a few solutions along the way.  Whether you WFH, work at least occasionally in a shared work space or open floor plan or even if you just have a lot of people trying to talk to you all the time, here are two of my favorite focus tips.

Canceling Noise. 

I absolutely cannot survive without noise canceling headphones. I work from my kitchen and there are times that the other humans who live here need snacks. My headphones allow us all to ignore each other appropriately! They are also useful when I hunker down at my local coffee shop.  They were standard issue for the two “open floor plan” start-ups I worked for. I still don’t know if handing out 'cancellers' to new employees was a classy, self-aware move or a red flag but either way they were critical to productivity in those noisy offices!

Creating Prompts. 

I rely heavily on my phone to keep me on track. I use the phone alarm to make sure I don’t miss meetings or go over a time block. Sometimes it's because I’m really in a flow working on a document or other times I’m folding tiny socks but either way those alarms have kept me from being late to client meetings more times than I should probably admit. It's loosely in the spirit of The Pomodoro Method which seems to be popular again. I also religiously set Do Not Disturb Mode— well, when I don’t want to be disturbed.

Photo by Rafay Ansari on Unsplash

WFH Tips for Busy People: Paper Trail

Because I am an ancient Gen X’er, I am still very attached to paper. I know. I am killing all the trees and it brings me pain to do so.

And yes, I write about digital things which makes my paper attachment a little ironic. 

But I know that I need to write to retain so here we are.

My most favorite paper products are the following: Weekly Planner pages from Ink and Volt, A5 Kraft Notebooks (I get mine from Amazon) and old school erasable pens (also Amazon).

On Sunday night or first thing Monday morning, I write out my intentions and goals on a fresh planner page and then refer to/update it throughout the week to make sure I’m on track.

I use a different A5 notebook for each client to take notes or jot down ideas. And the erasable pens? Well, I just like them!

Do you still write everything down? What other products do you love?

Photo by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash

Everybody Needs Content Guidelines

Photo by Brady Bellini on Unsplash

Seriously, Everybody. Let me explain.

Whether you are a platform, a destination, a product or a service, you are in the content & communication business.

That means you and your people need a clear philosophy and a set of guidelines to keep the content being created on-brand AND safe. I don’t just mean brand safe for advertisers– which is critical if you sell advertising– I mean safe for your audience, too.

Good content guidelines make it clear to your audience what you stand for, they provide foundational support for any community you build or cultivate and they support your brand guidelines giving your employees a complete playbook to make great, consistent content and messaging decisions. This is especially important if you are new to content creation– starting to create for a blog, for social accounts, etc.

WFH Tips for Busy People: Aggressive Calendaring

Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but I perform best when I use systems to stay organized. Here's how I've optimized my Calendar to also be my time sheet and my to do list:

Passive Scheduling I use Calendly to schedule meetings. Its a massive time saver! Rather than go back and forth with a client or prospect with times that work, only for them to be outdated by the time the other party responds, I can send a link to my schedule once and the other person can pick whatever time suits them. The link is always up to date so whenever that person looks, they have my latest availability.

Tasks I keep track of my to do list by making them Tasks in my calendar. I set most of them all day so they sit at the top of the calendar where I can see them easily. If I know they will need a block of time to complete I edit them to fill a time block. I move them ahead to the next day if I don't complete them.

Time Blocking I love time blocking. I stay organized by blocking 20, 30, 45 or 60 min increments of time to focus on specific tasks or projects.

Color Coding I keep time for each client a consistent but different color. This allows me to go back at the end of a day or every few days and account for how much time I spent on certain tasks and clients.

Are you getting what you need from your social feeds?

I’m not asking about the social accounts for your company. I’m asking about your own personal social accounts. Are you seeing content in your feeds, whether its TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X or Linkedin, that enrich your life in some way? Or, is there stuff in there that is distracting, depleting or otherwise unhelpful?

You can do something about that! I mean yes you can just delete the app, but I have another idea for you. CURATE YOUR FEED.

*Think about what you want to learn and how you want to grow in 2024.
*Write it down.
*Now pick one social account. Maybe pick the one that’s bothering you most.
*Set aside 20 minutes.
*Look at who and what you’re are following.
*Unfollow everything that doesn’t match what you wrote down.
*Find new sources that do match and add those.

Do it. Go curate that feed. You’re going to feel so much better.

Hi! Welcome!

I’m Sarah. This is my business blog.

From time to time I will use this space to share insights and advice for the business community.

I will probably write about social media and digital revenue and partnerships and marketing because those are the areas I know alot about. I might also write about digital parenting because I’m passionate about that too.

I hope you find my posts useful!