How a membership community can raise the profile of your pet business

Working on your own is tough and running a business can feel lonely.So being part of a community such as a group coaching programme or membership can help as you have other people to support you.They understand what it’s like to be your own boss (like never switching off) and if they’re in the same industry, they get what you do too.And this can be really important when it comes to promoting ourselves and our businesses. Putting ourselves out there can be daunting, but when you have other people around you who understand those feelings of awkwardness and who are there to support you, it can make it a lot less painful.For the last year, I’ve been running a membership programme for pet business owners helping them ‘put themselves out there’ and get publicity.At first, it was all about traditional media, but it’s grown to cover all kinds of topics around raising the profile of your business.I'm opening it again for new members to join this week and if you'd like to learn more you can do so on this link.This episode is about how community of like minded people can help you become more visible.Key timings and topics in this episode:1.30 - How business memberships have helped me in my business and what it was like being on my own beforehand.3.19 - How the publicity for pet businesses membership came about.4.22 - What the ethos is inside the membership and how it helps when it comes to putting yourself out there.5.30 - The three elements of the membership, the live classes, the membership portal and the Facebook community.7.55 - The publicity foundations sessions and how they help you set yourself up for PR success.8.54 - Why you need to have the foundations in place if you want to build authority as an expert.10.00 - The publicity spotlight programme and how that works by helping pet businesses get featured in newspapers, magazine, TV, radio and websites.12.02 - The publicity roadmap and how they fit together.12.46 - Monthly Q and A sessions and how they work.13.05 - Why I teach the sessions live - only 15 per cent of online courses get finished.14.05 - What the programme sets out to achieve - to take people from feeling unsure about whether they could get publicity to confidently approaching journalists and having pitches accepted.15.40 - How Karen Rhodes made her investment in the membership back ten fold - she featured in GQ.16.40 - How business is passed around in the membership (not like BNI) but where people buy each other's products, or use their services, for example Rikki Sullivan as a Canine Copywriter, photographers Kerry Jordan, Nigel Ord Smith and Rowan Williams, and Kate Taylor's dog friendly directory Dotty4Paws.18.24 - How a session inspired the Twitter chat hour Petworking Hour which has connected founders Kerry Jordan and Jeni Morris with people all over the world.18.52 - How the community has raised the profile of DoggyLottery for Lisette Van Riel and K9Nation for Becky Baker and members have invested in her app. 20.34 - Results from the founder member's survey.20.40 - Why people join - 62 per cent joined because they wanted to learn about media coverage, 47 per cent said they weren't visible enough, 43 per cent didn’t feel comfortable promoting their business and 38 per cent said they joined because they wanted to know more about content.21.09 - Has it raised your profile? 42 per cent of respondents said that being in the membership had raise their profile and that this had impacted on sales. 43 per cent said it had raised their profile. Only nine per cent responded with ‘maybe’ 21.42 - Most helpful element. Live calls were top at 67 per cent. 52 per cent said support and contacts in the Facebook group, a third said the membership portal.22.24 - Most helpful module.‘Writing pitches and press releases’ was 81 per cent, followed ‘finding stories in your pet business’ at 52 per cent, ‘creating a press kit’ at 48 per cent and ‘What makes a story’ and ‘your pet business message’ were both 43 per cent.23.10 - Pace of course. 66 per cent said just right, 33 per cent said it was good to be able to revisit sessions.23.36 - How they felt about publicity before. A fifth said they found the idea of approaching journalists daunting, 28 per cent ‘didn’t think it was possible’ and 43 per cent said they knew a little and wanted to understand more. One in ten said they ‘felt confident approaching the media but wanted support and accountability.’23.55 - How they feel now. Over three quarters - 76 per cent - said they felt confident and said it was good to have feedback on pitches and ideas. Ten per cent said they felt very confident and had lots of pitches accepted and ten per cent said they didn’t feel ready to pitch an idea yet. Only four per cent were still unsure.25.55 - Rating out of five - 90 per cent gave five out of five and ten per cent four out of five.27.00 - How to take part in the next round - see link below. Links mentioned in this episode:Find out more about the membership here. Publicity for Pet Businesses coaching programme.Book in for a 15 minute call to see if the programme is right for you: 15 min discovery call.Lisette Van Riel from DoggyLottery - listen to Lisette on the podcast here)Becky Baker, founder of K9Nation - listen to Becky on the podcast here