10 Tips We Learned From BizCom Summit

Last Thursday, we opened our studio doors to the amazing Construction2Style & Alta Events for the first ever BizCom Summit event, and we left with bundles of inspiration and excitement for future collaborations. We learned so much from the influencers, bloggers, and other creatives at the event about marketing strategies and creating a consistent online presence. Being a small business comes with many hurdles, but with the sense of community we received from everyone at the event that night, those hurdles are a little more bearable!

Here are 10 things we learned at BizCom Summit:

1. Collaboration over Competition

Collaboration over competition always wins in the end. Our colleagues at this event have many reasons to compete with one another, however, we learned that the most successful creatives are finding ways to collaborate and work with others in their field. And because of this, at the end of the evening, everyone was shining. When we all rise – we all win!

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

2. A "Secret Short-Cut" Does Not Exist

 There is no “secret shortcut” for success in this industry. Trial and error paired with intelligent metrics to measure your businesses performance is how you will get ahead. Check out more in depth details about the concept of business dashboards in my guest blog post here with Sharpheels.

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

3. Networking is Key

We got to meet some of our favorite local businesses and tell them in person why we admire them so much! Here are just a few of the lovely people we had the pleasure of talking with:

Projects in Person - Jill is such a sweetheart & an incredibly-savvy business woman.

B.A. Women - Emma organizes events that elevate, celebrate, & connect like-minded badass women!

Spoke612 Productions - a crew that translates your passion for your craft into a story-telling piece of video eye candy.

Misfit Coffee Co. - the best mocktail I’ve ever tasted. Their mixologists are constantly crafting unique coffees and have recently taken over a spot in Uptown on Lyndale!

Paisley + Sparrow - finally meeting this style maker, enthusiastic human being, and advocate of persistence. She an amazing example of staying true to her message, despite being rejected repeatedly, and eventually being featured on Apartment Therapy.

Josh Haroldson - such a kind and personable human with an amazing eye for capturing beautiful moments.

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

4. Website Content > Social Content

Creating content on your website is superior to solely focusing on social. In fact, it’s to your benefit to create the content on your website and push it onto your social channels. Play with how you push it to your channels. For example, when you blog, make a few pins on Pinterest and test out which of those pins are most effective and add the most value to for your audience.

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

5. Trademark your Business Name

The importance of trademarking your business name. Thank you Reese Law! If you own your name digitally – the world is your oyster.

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

6. Be Intentional

When pitching to potential clients, beating around the bush is not the way to go. Keep your pitch sweet, simple, and to the point. Remember that they are more than likely receiving thousands of pitches daily, so tell them specifically why you want to work with them and what you want to work on with them. Something that Jen from Paisley + Sparrow said that stuck with us, "if you're scared to push send, just ask yourself this - what's the worst that can happen?" 

Read more about this from Paisley + Sparrow - "How To Create a Successful Influencer Blog Strategy"

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

7. Create Content Regularly

Something to help you post content regularly is to create an organized social calendar. That way you can plan the percentage of posts dedicated to client photos, personal photos, tutorials, etc. Morgan from Construction2Style swears by the 50/30/20 rule - 50% client photos, 30% tutorials, and 20% family photos. She creates this calendar digitally while Jen from Paisley + Sparrow creates hers manually on a hard copy. Figure out a consistent strategy that works best for you and stick to it! 

Get more tips on this from Construction2Style  - "How To Create a Successful Influencer Blog Strategy"

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

8. Keep up with the Trends 

One thing that all of the speakers had in common, other than being totally inspiring people, was their knowledge of different social media tools and software. Here are just a few to help you get started:

BuzzSumo - The amazing Lindsey Bomgren of Nourish, Move, Love brought this tool to our attention. It is essentially a search engine that analyzes top performing content on the internet and gives you ideas for how to phrase your content.

Tasty Pins - Another site that may sound like it is only geared towards food related content but Lindsey assured us that it is great for all content! It allows you to optimize the images of your blog for Pinterest consumers and SEO.

Instagram Planner - Jen from Paisley + Sparrow gave us the inside scoop on this Instagram tool. It allows you to organize and arrange all of your Instagram photos to exactly where you want them in your feed.

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

9. Learn from Past Posts

Another helpful tip from Construction2Style & Paisley + Sparrow is to learn from your top performing posts. This tip is so simple and yet so helpful! Utilize your free Google Analytics and 'in platform analytics' to the fullest and see which posts are getting the most engagement - then post more of that! 

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

10. Reach out!

Having so many creative and inspiring people in our space left us yearning for more. If you are an influencer, blogger, or designer looking for a connection, or if you are interested in hosting an event at our factory, our doors are open! A big thank you to everyone who attended and participated at the first Bizcom Summit. We can't wait for the next one!

Photography: Josh Haroldson 

Videography by the amazing Chelsie Lopez Production and Marketing

Be sure to check out the other posts from the BizCom Summit event located below!  

Order tile samples to see, touch, and fall in love with our handmade tiles in person. We would also love to hear what inspires you! Tell us more about your future project and get the ball rolling. 

The post 10 Tips We Learned from BizCom Summit appeared first on Artisan Tile Company: Handmade Ceramic Tiles by Mercury Mosaics.