Herbworld….a blog for herb businesses

It’s hard promoting your herb business when you keep getting calls and emails from every direction that if you just sign up (and spend money) you can make millions online. I have one blind friend who calls me every couple days with another offer she’s received. And I have to talk her out of it because they’re all expensive and they can’t promise anything.

Google used to be the one thing you wanted to be tops on, but times have dramatically changed. In literally a few months. Yes, I still want to rank high, but I’d rather have a commanding presence on Facebook which has just surpassed Google with traffic. I’m sure that will change, but for the time being it’s the place to be.

Haven’t got a business page on Facebook yet? Where have you been? If you’re only exposure to Facebook is sending pictures to your mother, you haven’t even begun to tap into the potential. Get yourself a Facebook for Dummies if you need something to study. Or do as the real gurus do and read all the Help areas on the site. And create a Company Page.

Don’t wait until it’s perfect. It will never be exactly what you want. And that’s a way to put off doing it. It’s a real woman issue, unfortunately. And I surely was a member of that group for far too long. You’re not married to your page. You can constantly make changes and tweak it. Each day, spend a few minutes each day promoting yourself. Get a list of followers. And remember, emails on facebook always get answered. No spam filters yet.

It’s spring and just the time to think about increasing sales. And the time to make that herb garden more presentable. And you’ve got to make new products for that upcoming show. And let’s not forget you haven’t posted to your blog since…..?

It’s what you didn’t think about when you started this herb business that matters most….marketing. The days of opening a shop, farm or online store and having people show up are a thing of dreams. Pleasant dreams but dreams none the less. And they might come in (or quickly browse), but you never really register on their radar.

I subscribe to Google Alerts so that I hear about anything herbal that happens immediately. You’d think the alerts would be long with all the people that have an herbal business. But nope, there’s usually one or two about The Herb Farm out near Seattle (Ron Zimmerman is a marketing pro). There’s a few that are usually from sites set up to sell and loaded with e-articles. And the occasional newspaper article on an upcoming herb festival. But alerts that feature herb businesses are few and far between. Their sites are static. They got that web site done and, one less thing to worry about. So it’s not updated for 1 year, 2 years, I have some clients that haven’t changed anything on their site for 5 years or more. 

And I can be guilty of those sins too. Some days you really have to make the effort and do something more to get those eyeballs on your site.

So make this promise to yourself. You will do one thing 3 days a week to market your business. That might mean putting your business of Facebook. And tweeting about it once or twice a week. It means creating a blog and posting at least twice a week to it. And to make it easier, write a long blog and then break it up into three segments so you’ll have something new to post.

Marketing your herb business isn’t hard if you break it into little pieces. Keep that saying in mind…”The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Lau-tzu)