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Marketing Study Lab - Actionable Marketing Knowledge

158 Episodes

53 minutes | 10 hours ago
How to Create a Great Blog Michelle Gately from The Unfinished Bookshelf - Episode 147
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest and Episode Links Michelle Gately https://theunfinishedbookshelf.com/  https://www.instagram.com/unfinishedbookshelf/  Analysing Headings: https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro It’s easy to forget how powerful a good blog can be - Even WordPress started as a bloggers best friend. But now we have more social apps than ever, it’s easy to create audio and videos and some say that many can’t even sentence a string together! That’s why we all need Michelle Gately in our corner. Michelle has been blogging since 2012, for laughs, but now takes it a little more seriously and helps businesses create engaging online content and build deep relationships with their audience. And who doesn’t want that? In this episode we cover what you need to consider to develop a successful blog; - The heading, content and layout - How to incorporate SEO - Is there a perfect number to post? - How should we be repurposing this blog content - How to get people to read it - Continual mistakes people are making Watch the episode video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxE_VlHg_0w  Takeaways Top Tip As headlines are hugely important and we use these in attracting and persuading people that our posts are worth reading, using tools such as Coschedues headline analyser can help to boost the power of your headlines. https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer  Favourite Quote ‘A sentence should be a labour to write, not to read’ attributed to Joe Moran from his book ‘First You Write a Sentence’ which typifies what writing is all about. Write for your audience. And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Is about repurposing your blog content. A great way to do this (or at least to start to understand how you can repurpose it) is to chop each blog post into sections, with each section becoming mini pieces of content that can be either elaborated on or used to entice readers to the whole article. This should provide you with enough content to fill anyone’s calendar. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
34 minutes | 7 days ago
Customer Persona Fact or Fiction Part 2 of 2 - Episode 146
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This podcast is part 2 of 2 from the recording of a workshop I was delighted to present at the end of last year around customer personas for Cambridge Social Media Day (part 1 can be listened to by downloading episode 145 of the Marketing Study Lab Podcast). In the first part we took a look at where your personas fit within your marketing strategy and where you can find the facts and figures you need to develop them. In this episode we cover; • The issues with just relying on data • Why you need to get creative with your personas • Discover what a B2B persona is all about • Take a look at a how to build a persona using a template • And finally, I’ll take some Q&A’s from the audience to answer those burning persona questions There are also some cheat sheets to go along with this workshop, which can be found on the Marketing Study Lab website: https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Fact-or-Fiction-Sheets.pdf One further note. The live video recording of this workshop will be available along with all the other amazing workshops, seminars and presentations that featured over the two Cambridge Social Media Days soon. Sign up to get a reminder of when they will be available at; www.cambridgesocial.media/csm-day-2020 Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/xhqPxIRcsgo Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
30 minutes | 14 days ago
Customer Persona Fact or Fiction Part 1 of 2 - Episode 145
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro At the end of last year I was fortunate enough to be asked to conduct a workshop into the importance of and developing customer personas for Cambridge Social Media Day. This podcast is the recording from that presentation and it comes in two parts. In this episode we cover; • Why you shouldn’t play Guess Who? with your personas • Where your persona fits in with your Marketing Strategy • Where to find all the facts and figures • Why sentiment analysis can play tricks There are also some cheat sheets to go along with this workshop, which can be found on the Marketing Study Lab website: https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Fact-or-Fiction-Sheets.pdf One further note. The live video recording of this workshop will be available along with all the other amazing workshops, seminars and presentations that featured over the two Cambridge Social Media Days soon. Sign up to get a reminder of when they will be available at; www.cambridgesocial.media/csm-day-2020 Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/xhqPxIRcsgo Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
25 minutes | 21 days ago
A Look Back at Marketing Study Lab in 2020 - Christmas Special - Episode 144
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) What Episode Snippets are in this look back of Marketing Study Lab 2020: Communicating Effectively and Saying Things Better with Lila Smith founder of Say Things Better – Episode 141 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/communicating-effectively-and-saying-things-better/  Content Planning with Andy Lambert Director at ContentCal - Episode 132 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/content-planning/  Inclusive Marketing with Martyn Sibley founder of Disability Horizons - Episode 126 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/inclusive-marketing-with-martyn-sibley/  Finding Your Content DNA with John Espirian The Relentlessly Helpful Technical Copywriter - Episode 113 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/finding-your-content-dna-with-john-espirian/  Transforming Threats into Opportunities with Joe Glover Found of The Marketing Meet-Up - Episode 112 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/transforming-threats-into-opportunities/  Financial Future with Winnie Sun of the Sun Group Wealth Partners - Episode 109 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/financial-future-with-winnie-sun-of-the-sun-group-wealth-partners-episode-109/  Reading Body Language with Mark Bowden the Body Language Expert - Episode 104 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/reading-body-language-with-mark-bowden-the-body-language-expert/  Infographics with Brian Wallace of NowSourcing – Episode 100 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/infographics-with-brian-wallace/  Understanding Marketing with Douglas Burdett from the Marketing Book Podcast - Episode 98 https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/understanding-marketing-with-douglas-burdett-from-the-marketing-book-podcast-episode-98/  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Summary Well it’s been a year of change on the podcast, as I tried to bring you even more actionable knowledge alongside all the amazing guests. As this is the last episode of the year, it’s an opportune time to take a look at some of the highlights from the podcast during 2020. I’d love to share all the episodes with you, but that feels a little excessive, so I strung together some memorable moments, some marketing genius and of course, some actional knowledge. But as always, starting with a random opener, I think my fav answer came at the start of this month when Lila Smith was on the podcast and I asked her, what her favourite line from a musical was. Enjoy and Happy New Year. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
62 minutes | a month ago
Marketing Money Wasters with Estie Rand founder of Strand Consulting – Episode 143
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest and Episode Links Estie Rand https://www.linkedin.com/in/estierand/  https://www.estierand.com/   https://www.estierand.com/freegift  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro John Wanamaker is credited with saying ‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.’ Was he a fool, was he misguided or was he actually just wasting half his money? Whether you believe this statement or not, wasting your marketing budget is a bit of criminal offense, stinking of laziness and uneducated decision making. Our guest this week can help solve all that. Her LinkedIn profile proudly states ‘I help you stop throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks!’ which I see as a much more worthwhile quote. Estie Rand, founder of Strand Consulting is helping people take the headache out of their business, through growth, scale and generating a profit, regardless of where you currently are – just starting, a few years down the road or even well-established. What better way to get you started than to chat through the top six marketing money wasters, to effectively make you a better marketer in around 40 minutes! In this episode we cover; 1 - Starting with Logos and Branding 2 - Building a Web Site Right Away 3 - Using A One-Size-Fits-All Social Media Strategy 4 - Blindly Placing Pay-Per-Click Ads 5 - Siloing Sales and Marketing 6 - Not Knowing When to Quit - What’s the biggest money waster you’re seeing in Marketing and what can we do to resolve this? Before we dive into the Marketing pit of wastefulness, I want to find out. Estie, what is giving you a headache right now? Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/OBBk67FIGY4  Takeaways Top Tip From the six money wasters Estie mentioned my number one has to be staring with logos and branding. You may buy something from the brand or the badge, but this is because these brands have been well established for some time and built up their reputation. You need that reputation before you start trying to live off a logo and even then you better make sure what you’re selling solves a problem and has value. Favourite Quote ‘they lose a lot of money because of it’ and this was Estie talking about having separate departments for sales and marketing. This doesn’t make sense to me either and I’m not surprised that companies lose money when they separate the two. Sales is the end product of good marketing, the two MUST work together. So many benefits to this…. If you don’t already, try it! And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Not knowing when to quit. Know your limits and don’t get dragged down the wrong path just because of sunk costs. It’s never too late to change and have success. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
41 minutes | a month ago
Marketing and Books – Live Episode 9
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest: Douglas Burdett Topic: Marketing Books Discussion Points • Themes and main takeaways from 2020 • The book you’ve learnt the most from • The best marketing books to read right now • What to look out for in 2021 – books • Tips on reading, consuming and learning from books • Planning for 2021 Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion) Peter Sumpton Okay, there you go. We are live. Hello, Douglas. Welcome. Douglas Burdett Hi. Good to be here. Fantastic. I've waited ages to get you on here because today, we're going to talk. Peter Sumpton We're saying sorry. Douglas Burdett I was on once before. Yes. So that's the marketing study lab podcast. So this is the live, so we stepped it up again for this one. Okay, okay. Oh, pressures on great. Peter Sumpton No pressure at all. But I've been, I've been waiting ages for this one, because I decided for you to hop on this live at the end of the year, because of what you do for your labour of love, rather than your day job. And I think it's a really good way to summarise what's been happening throughout the year, in marketing and in and around the topic of marketing. So first and foremost, could you just give the listeners a brief intro to yourself and what you do? Douglas Burdett Sure, so I live in Virginia, I have a small marketing agency, we like to work with manufacturers and industrial companies. And in my free time, that's a joke. I do this marketing book podcast, which I've been doing for almost six years now. And each, it's the marketing book Podcast, where each Friday, I publish an interview with the author of a new marketing or sales book, and I read here I crossed the 300 episode number. So 300 books on the show. And or when I started the podcast, I was about 10 episodes in because I had read those books. And that's when I realised I was actually going to need to read each book for each interview, so it was sort of like taking the wrong exit on the motorway or the realising, oh, well, okay, I guess I'm gonna read a book every week. But I do that, and it's been really good for me. And I've enjoyed it. I like learning. And I like helping people and I hear from it's in over 150 countries now. And I hear from people all around the world, pretty much every day, they they messaged me on LinkedIn, and, you know, tell me that they listen to the podcast, or find a particular book or interview helpful, or, more often than not, they asked me what, for book recommendations. So I don't want anyone not even Peter Sumpton to have to read 300 books to find the right one. So it's really only 30 seconds, I'm able to say, Oh, I know, just the book, you should read that particular challenge you're describing. So that's also for any of your viewers or listeners, please connect with me on LinkedIn. And I can provide any kind of recommendations to books or other resources that I know of, for whatever challenge folks are facing. The only thing I ask is include a message. I know that what you're up to, and you're not some spam bot. Yeah, yeah, Peter Sumpton absolutely. that's a that's a given nowadays, isn't it? And we've all got to interact a little bit better than than just subscribe, connect, follow, or whatever we're doing in the world. Just as a side note, so you realise, but before we get into a few takeaways from 2020, and what to look forward to in 2021. So you realised a few episodes in that you'd have to read a book a week. For me? I've never been a strong reader. It's something that I'm not ashamed of. But I don't like the fact that I'm a strong reader. And I just I've never managed to get into books as such, you clearly liked or enjoyed reading, unless you wouldn't have started what you did. But did you? I mean, how do you how do you do that keep up that consistency of reading a book a week? Or is it just? Well, it just I find it quite an easy task. Douglas Burdett Well, you build it into your routine, and it's only one book a week. Sometimes. It's one and so on. weekend mornings, I may spend a couple hours reading, which is not you know, it's not bad for me. And, and a couple mornings during the week, you know, before work, I will read the book, and then I just do the one interview a week and it's on Fridays. And it's a it's just, it's just kind of part of the routine. It's probably like a lot of people. A lot of your viewers might be people who exercise regularly, and I do that. But it's just something you build into your routine. And so I do that, but maybe I should explain a little bit more about what compels me from an emotional standpoint. Yeah, please. I came from this is the motivation for doing it. I don't do it for a living but I came from this advertising background, I worked at these enormous ad agencies back in the 30 years ago in New York. And then, when I started my own firm, almost 20 years ago, it was a real advertising focused firm. And advertising is a shadow of its former self, okay. And so I saw that things were starting to change, but I could see they were starting to change permanently. And I kind of felt like I was, I was too young to retire. And I was, you know, I didn't know what to do. So I, what I did was I went back to what I had done in grad school after I got out of the army, whereas I was just reading books about different career fields, and knocking around until I found something I liked. And an author of a friend of mine, recommended I go into advertising and I asked a professor in school, and she gave me a copy of Ogilvy on advertising. And this was in the 1980s. So I thought, I read that book. And it, it changed everything for me, I said, I want to do I'm excited about that. And that's how I went off in that direction. So what happened was when I still had advertising clients, but I was seeing all everything was starting to change. And I kind of went back to just throwing myself in the books hoping I would, you know, find something and I stumbled upon David meerman, Scott's book, the new rules of marketing and PR, first or second edition, it's now in its seventh edition. And, and I saw it, that's where it's going. I felt like I had another bite at the career Apple, it was in the right book at the right time can really transform things. The other issue is that I was as an ad guy, I was starting to have to bring website people to my meetings with clients. And clients were slowly starting to ask me about these. The Internet, and this this Google thing, and what was clearly a fad, social media. So I, I started to feel really irrelevant, like I was growing dinosaur scales, and I just hated that more than most people. So that's when I really threw myself into the books after, you know, picking up on David meerman Scott's. And I started to see how that could kind of fuel some hope and some, you know, new direction. And I was always listening to marketing podcasts. And I particularly enjoyed podcasts where they interviewed authors. So I guess, at some point, I said, I, I want to try this podcasting thing. And so I kind of started the podcast that I wanted to listen to, but it was this one episode of my adult, you know, my career working life, where I was really starting to feel irrelevant. And I didn't, and I really, really didn't like that. That's what kind of fuels my interest in, in reading. And like I said earlier, it's really a lot of fun to do it. When I hear from people who say, Hey, your your podcast is helped me get a new job, or it's helped me with ideas at work. And there's really nothing better than than helping, I mean, look what you do. Peter Sumpton And well, thank you for that book. I mean, I got I got onto your podcast, through john experience said, check this podcast out. And, you know, listen, listen to the first one. And because it was about books, and I'm not a very strong leader, this is just music to my ears. You mean, I can listen to this author, talk about what's in his book without reading the book and get the number one points off it. This is fantastic. Keep it coming. Keep it coming. And, you know, I've been I've been a fan ever since. So it's more Douglas Burdett now I'm gonna keep doing it. Peter Sumpton Yeah, yeah, there's no, there's no getting off this wheel. But the thing that I really liked about what you were saying then, was the fact that you, you recognise the fact that things were changing, and you didn't have that skill set to cope with what was changing in the world. And a lot of people don't have that skill to, to want to change and to feel that, well, I don't know and understand this digital stuff, or this technology stuff or this iPhone thingy. I'll just ignore it and I'll try and curve my career around it and, and play on the I don't know card. And you know, it's cued us to you to, to recognise that and do something about it. I don't think a lot of people do. Douglas Burdett Yeah, there's a lot of people out there that are still the news release experts. That's like the HubSpot founder. He referred to marketers that didn't have a lot of skills as he called them press release hires, meaning that was all you had to do was he doesn't hire these kind of people, but it's sort of a, you know, fax marketing, fax advertising, you know? So it's a little thing. Yeah, you could you could buy some it was some service where it would basically send a fax out promoting like an ad but then I think at least the United States they cracked down on that so that they weren't clogging up fax machines, you know, Mark ruin everything. Peter Sumpton Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Douglas Burdett All only takes a few, you know. Peter Sumpton I mean, I remember seeing a fax machine fax coming through the only faxes that ever came through. Were adverts trying to sell toner for the faxes? And I just thought it's quite ironic, quite ironic that you're trying to sell toner for a fax machine that has got enough ink to print the fax. And if it didn't, then you wouldn't get the ad. I just thought that I like the irony behind that. Douglas Burdett Yes, yes. I guess they're hoping that you'd be able to read some of it? Peter Sumpton Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Excellent. So that's a bit of background, which is all well and good. But what I'd like to do is focus on 2020, and your learnings from from the books that you've read, throughout this year, of which, Oh, actually, before we do that, take me through the, the gap in suppose it was a gap, the gap in the marketing book podcast where it was all with cocktails. And where did that come from? Douglas Burdett Well, it came from my muse. Peter Sumpton Everybody knows your muse, Douglas Burdett a shout out to my Scottish listeners. And actually, you know what? I know you people think I just drink all day here. I just got a bottle of wine from a past guest, Jim Stern, author of AI, but a book about marketing and artificial intelligence. But what happened was, I didn't have a gap. I continued to publish interviews with authors every Friday. But when the the lockdown started in March, I, I think I had the last operation in the United States, I had my shoulder repaired, and so that I can go back to playing for the New York Yankees. And it was a one of those rotator cuff things. Peter Sumpton I think, the giants, sorry, Douglas Burdett yes. So the, so I was at home, I had the thing, and I was at home anyway. But then we had an office and everyone left the office. Nobody wanted to come back. I think they were trying to get away from me, and I can't blame them. And then I started hearing from listeners, who were saying, gosh, I just got laid off what I need to reinvent myself I needed they were sharing with me, they were saying what can I do, and I was really happy to hear from them, despite the bad news so that I could maybe offer them some comfort or something, something to go do you know, to get back on the horse. And at the same time, my son who's a paramedic, he was out there on the front lines of all this. And I just thought, you know, there's some really brave people doing wonderful things. And I thought, what, what could I do? And I thought, you know, why don't I just have a pot of a daily episode, except on Fridays, where I would interview past guests who'd been on the show, and ask them what they thought about what was going on. Because everybody was kind of wondering trying to figure out what what the new normal is, what what they're what they're doing. So with a nod to Jerry Seinfeld, comedians in cars getting coffee, I started authors in quarantine getting cocktails. And so we would have the interview later in the day, you know, the cocktail hour, I don't want all your people thinking I drink this all day, Peter Sumpton when we know this, this nine 9am till 10am thoughts that sacred? Douglas Burdett Yeah, and it is after noon right now in the East Coast. So I guess I can glass there. But, um, so what happened was what was interesting to me is I said, Alright, I'm thinking about doing this. And I sent an email out to the over 200 authors that have been on the show in the past. And I said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this just a daily show where I can reintroduce you to the audience and the listeners, and we can talk about what you're thinking what you're working on, you know, what do you think? And within one hour, over 100 authors responded and said, I'm in I'm in I'm not, I'm at home. I'm not travelling, I'm not speaking. And a probably statistically significant number said, Doug, I'm already drinking. I'll talk to you. So I launched it, and I got through 66 episodes. So that went from like the beginning of April, through the very beginning of July, and then my, my liver needed to rest. So no, but what I did was I would then publish on every day, except for Friday, didn't want to interrupt that cadence. And then I cut it back to Monday through Thursday. And I that's how I got through 66. And it was really great. And it was really particularly good for my family, because it meant that there was only An hour where they weren't having to talk to me, or listen to me, particularly my, my kids were now in their 20s, who were here, but then they've since moved on. And so it was it was really fun. And they even got some accolades from some top blogs, you know, saying, you know, this is a good thing to be listening to right now. And so I was again, very excited to see that people found found value in it. And it was really that that that's what that was authors and quarantine getting cocktails, and, but continued on with the regular scheduled programming. Peter Sumpton Lovely. So can you can, he says maybe it's time to return to quarantine cocktails. So think you might have started a trend? Douglas Burdett Oh, really? Oh, my goodness. So are there? People make King? Can we see what people are? messaging? Yes. Yeah, yeah, Peter Sumpton we've got a couple of messages. Haven't got a huge audience. But those that do, I'll share anyway, see Douglas Burdett it, I see it. Peter Sumpton So James says he's not a strong reader also. And he's subscribed to the podcast already. So there you go. You've you've Oh, Douglas Burdett that's a that's great. James. Um, you know, we can all learn in different ways. We're all different learners different ways. And honestly, the the I continue, it's great having the podcast because I know that people are expecting an episode once a week. So it's sort of like, Okay, well read the book. So I kind of like having a workout partner, all of my audiences, my workout partner can. Ola Meyer is a friend in St. Louis, longtime listener. And once we were at a conference in Boston, he actually bought me a couple of scotches, and I still remember that. And, yeah, you know, um, and actually, he, he's also an adjunct professor at Washington University in St. Louis. And he had me Skype into his class, and I, a growing number of academics have me do that, where I'm, you know, they want me to have the students listen to the show. And then I Skype in and answer questions or, you know, do things like that. So if there's any academics out there, I just heard from one today at Hofstra, who said, Hey, you know, maybe you can come and talk to my class at the end of the semester or something like that. So I'm happy to help. And why, Peter, because I believe children are our future. And we should treat them well, and let them lead the way. Peter Sumpton This is song in essence, I just can't wait to Douglas Burdett show them all the beauty they possess inside. So there you are. I'm sorry, you have a very respectable audience. And here I am just cutting up. Sorry. Peter Sumpton He's fine. He's, you know, it's like you say it's, it's way past 10am. So I'm pretty sure. Anyway, okay, let's let's, let's get to it, then with the time that we have left, Douglas Burdett let's offer some value. Yeah, well, Peter Sumpton why the hell no, no, I'm enjoying myself. So that's all that matters. Let's, let's, let's face it. Douglas Burdett So Peter Sumpton take us through some of the the main themes that you've seen, or the main takeaways that you've got from some of the books that you've read this year, then? Douglas Burdett Well, the, what I did was once the pandemic started, I changed up some of the books or looked at for particular books, I knew they were going to be really helpful right at that time. So there have been books about virtual selling, that was Episode 300. By Jeb blunt, fantastic book. There was a book called Can you hear me communications in a communicating in a virtual world, which was actually written two years ago. But once the pandemic happened, the author was on everyone's list. And that was a very interesting book. And there was a book by Rohit Bhargava about virtual work, which was very helpful. Let me see, I'm sorry, I don't wanna do injustice to his. It was called. I've got him here. The memory goes first, Peter. Let's see it was called virtual meetings. I'm sorry. It was called virtual meetings. terrific book. And then there was another book by David meerman. Scott called standout virtual events. So there were I was just trying to adjust it. The content two things that I wanted to learn more about and read about, and I know that the audience was was wrestling with. So those were some of the things that we you know, they were, I guess you could say that was what was unique about this year's books, is that that thread Peter Sumpton and the virtual events conversation you had with David was interesting because I do a lot of a lot of workshops and a lot of online workshops and utilise a lot of tools that he was Talking about, but some of them, it's just a case of exploring whatever you're using or exploring a couple of different options. And they have loads of different things like breakout rooms, and just simple things that can enhance what you're doing. And if you're not that proficient in those types of things, it's easy to miss those. Douglas Burdett It is one of the big. One of the many things I learned from his book was this notion of live events, which we all like, and I think are better are like theatre life, live theatre, virtual events are much more like television. So the mistake is in trying to turn our paradigm of a live event into this virtual event. And sort of like when television first came out, they put a TV camera in the radio studio, and you'd see people with a microphone and an orchestra and they would be reading scripts, they didn't quite understand the medium. Well, they were just taking what they had learned in an earlier medium, and we're trying to adjust it. And that's exactly what we've been doing. And some of the best virtual presenters are. Don't be surprised a lot of them are good YouTubers, because they understand that medium. And he talked about how just because somebody is a great speaker at a live event might mean that they're horrible and have not adjusted at all, to the virtual space, very different animals. Yeah, Peter Sumpton it's definitely worth noting. And that's a really good analogy. They're taking it taking it way back. If there was if there was, I mean, you must have had a lot of different takeaways from from everything you've read. Is there anything that stands out is almost a Oh, yeah, I can do that. I can implement that, that that's that is absolutely golden. Is there anything this year that's stood out? Douglas Burdett Well, every single book, I read something in it about, oh, we should do that. We should try that, you know, tweaks we can do for clients. But I'll tell you what this is from personal standpoint, it's, as you can imagine, I have a lot of just the ones I got this week. But there was a book that was on not too many weeks ago called the revenue growth engine. And from the standpoint of an agency guy that's trying to help clients, it really put together a lot of things that I had been struggling with, and it put it together in a way that I'm going to make making some changes to the what to how we help clients. Hmm. And specifically, one of the biggest problems I have, and apparently others do, too, is trying to get companies to figure out some kind of goal. Believe it or not, maybe my clients, but it's like, no, what are we trying to accomplish? And most companies, I'm speaking with a broad brush here, and maybe it's the smaller ones that I deal with, they just don't have any goal. And then sell more good or good? Or what's the other one that drives me nuts, we just need to get our name out there. No, you did that. You don't need to get your name out there, you need to get your name out there to the right people. And you don't have to do television advertising to do it. But I, if we can go to clients and say, Look, let's just talk about revenue. And as you know, I'm always talking about that on the podcast where marketers really need to get into the revenue camp. times we're working with companies who don't have marketing people, but still, it it, he put it together in a way that talked about how another thing that I'm always talking about was and I've had other books about this is if I had $1 to spend on marketing, I wouldn't spend a nickel on trying to get new customers until I had done everything I could to make sure I'm providing a good experience to my current customers and selling as much as I can to them. They want to buy more from you. They companies like you more than a lot of companies. Yeah. Where's like you more than a lot of companies think they do. And that's, that's that's a big one. Um, yes, this talks about getting that new customers, but it also weaves in very nicely. The idea of, you've got to structure your, your experience with your customers, you know, you need to do what was funny about the book was that there must be 15 books that talk about that a bit on the show that talk about very specific elements of this, but this, put it put it together so that that's one but there there are so many books where I it's just like I've spent a bunch of time with an author and not on the interview but just I absorbed so much so that that's an example of one I just thought that's I really liked that. And I'll give you an example. One of the questions I think you were going to ask was, what what are some really good marketing books to read? Hmm. Peter Sumpton Can I can I answer that are absolutely yeah. No, you go for it. Douglas Burdett The best marketing books to read right now, I think. Yeah. And one of them is the new rules of marketing and PR, but make sure to read the seventh edition. And it is fantastic. And that's one of the two books as I mentioned, the two books that had the biggest impact on my career are both guys named David, David Ogilvy. And David meerman. Scott, and I just, I'm such a fan of his he was the very first guest on the marketing book podcast. And he's now been on six times. So he's tied for first place. And trust me, those three authors, and they're in first place, they're very competitive authors. So I'm just saying no competition going on. But that is one that I just I recommend that every week to somebody who's saying, Hey, I'm, I've suddenly been thrust. I've been an engineer. And now I'm suddenly in charge of marketing. What am I supposed to do? I'll say read that. There's another book that is one of my all time favourites. And it's they asked you answered by Marcus Sheridan. I think that is one that is one of my favourite books. It's sort of like reading Darryl, Amy's book where it, it just put together so many things so well. And it made so much sense. And a lot of the things that are in, they ask you answer by Marcus shared, and I've seen why it works so well. And so I'm a real evangelist. And actually, I interviewed him a week ago about his book published the interview, on the visual sale all about using video for sales. excellent book. So that's another one. They ask you answer, but read the second edition. I've interviewed him about both the first and the second edition has 100 extra pages and a lot of that's about your website, and, and video. And there's another book that I wanted to suggest, by Grant leboff, who is a Brit. And his book is called myths of marketing. Yes. Don't know if you heard that interview yesterday. Yeah. Ah, that was one of the best interviews I've done. And I've interviewed. So these authors are just so great to interview. But now full disclosure. Now you're a Liverpool fan as as john experion. Who was Yes, cheer. And I tell you, I was a fan of John's but now I'm even a bigger fan. Now that I've read his book and had the chance to talk to him. But the the book was myths of marketing. And it was like 26 myths. And it was a great interview. And he had about 75 of these myths. But the thing about that book is that as a marketer, I had thought I was taking crazy pills dispelling all these myths that people have about marketing, and he put 26 of them in that book. And oh, Liverpool. He's a Watford fan. And as I understand it, they've been relegated. Yeah. Are you impressed with my knowledge of English? I Peter Sumpton mean, never cease to amaze me tubeless To be fair, you just don't particularly with your your knowledge of all things English that you say they were, let's let's be at Watford here because Liverpool were unbeaten in the league. And it looked like they were going to go unbeaten until the played Watford and Watford beaten last season. So kudos to Watford for breaking that streak because yeah, he I could imagine that and we had an after the interview. We must have talked to her another hour about that. And I'm new to this EPL thing, but I just I'm fascinated. I Douglas Burdett watched that Sunderland till I died, documentary and then I we can watch it on Saturday and Sunday mornings here in the US and it's just I don't know, it's really fascinating. And then I gotta be honest with you. I have a man crush on David meerman Scott and Marcus Sheridan. I also have a man crush on your Liverpool coach. Peter Sumpton Yagan, Gagan Klopp Douglas Burdett Yeah, man, I could just watch that guy talk all day. I just he's really charismatic and he's not a bad looking guy. So I don't know. I'm sure I've alienated every other fan of every other team. But there you go. Peter Sumpton See the thing The thing is that even even our you call them rivals if like even our rivals turn around and go Yeah, fair play to Juergen Klopp is frustratingly charismatic, which is just amazing. It's just brilliant to see it. Just going back to those myths. I listened to that episode and and it was so satisfying because it almost felt like I could put my soapbox away for the day, and let someone else just stand it and go. And another thing. And another thing, it was Douglas Burdett like, it was like a support group reading that book. And it's like, I can't tell you how many of those I tried to explain to people. And it's just it makes my heart hurt. companies think some of these things about marketing, and I just thought it was a terrific book. And we should mention content DNA by john, Experian. And for variety of reasons. He's such a fantastic writer, and he's just as nice a guy is he is a great writer. I interviewed him the day after Liverpool clinched the championship. I think it was. And so of course, I had to say so john, are you tired? Have you been out all night setting cars on fire? He's not one of those fans. Peter Sumpton He's one No, no, like theatre heat? Yes. Yeah, something like that. Okay, I'm really conscious of time. And we've run over a bit. But there's just one one other thing that I'm not so Douglas Burdett just kidding. Peter Sumpton There's just one other thing that I just want to cover. And that's just looking towards 2021. Because as any decent marketer should be planning for 2021 if not have their plans sorted by now. So what is 2021? Looking like? What's it? What's in store? Do you feel what should we be looking for? What? What should be on our on our radar? Douglas Burdett Oh, I don't know, you know, it's this. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder will say, you know, a lot of things are going to change. But the reason they've been so successful is he focuses on the things that are never going to change. People want good prices, selection fast, you know, otherwise, the things change. So I would I know, this is a simple answer, but it's so difficult for companies to do. And that is to be interesting, rather than interrupt what people are interested in, because you really can't interrupt people very well anymore. And trust me as a former New York ad guy, we had a captive audience. We would buy a network television commercial, and stuff would start happening. Yeah, we start selling a lot more soap. So I think that the more that this is, the most successful companies, the most successful marketers are the ones that understand their customers best. And I know that's, I just see it in the in the in the real world, I see it with clients and all these books, it just talks about if you just understand your customers a little bit better, you're going to succeed, you have to be perfect, you have to be a little bit better than the others. And I was talking to a company this week, and they you know, they say, Yeah, we got a lot of content. I said, Well, you know, basically, it's all product information I said, and they said, Well, you know, in this virtual world, we're having trouble breaking through or running pay per click, that's not gonna do anything for us such and such. And I said, Well, you know, why don't you create content that's about your customers problems that are related to what your product will do, because they really don't, we don't really have much interest in anyone's product. In fact, David meerman Scott, he always says, No one cares about your product or service, except you talk about problems rather than products. And you'll start to start to break through. And that's, that's really simple advice. But it's, it seems to be the bane of my existence, in terms of trying to help companies be a bit more empathetic. And, you know, there's a variety of books I can suggest, and it's for the marketers out there, one of the most effective things you can do for your career is to become the expert at your company, on your customers, for more than the sales people. Go and spend time with your customers at least once a month, spend a day with your salespeople once a month, but go and understand your customers find out where the friction is in their life. What are their frustrations? What what are they What do they really want to achieve? You'll start to better understand how you and your products and services fit into the larger scheme of things in that customer's life. And it can it just helps dramatically. Peter Sumpton I'm so I'm so glad you've done because you can ask a lot of people that question or you can read more importantly, read a lot of articles about what's hot in 2021 2022, the future of marketing and all that kind of stuff and the things that they talk about and the obvious so you know more progress. Yeah, all that kind of stuff. And it's, it's just, no, because 90% of the companies will be nowhere near using that type of stuff. They just won't at all. But what you've just had Harris, just just dial that notch up to, you know, that extra percent that 1% better and better and better, and improvements, small scale improvements. So I'm so glad you didn't go on some crazy, crazy route. Douglas Burdett This is the year of mobile. AI, machine learning. Yeah, influencer marketing, all these things are really important things to know about one other little tip for marketers out there. Be careful what you say around civilians. And when I say civilians, I mean anyone at your company who doesn't work in the marketing department, I mean, your management, your sales people, any anybody else, please try to dial down the use of any marketing buzzwords. Don't go talking about buyer personas, don't talk about content, marketing, all these kinds of things. It's not helping you trust me when I tell you that talk about what they're interested in revenue growth, you know, attracting talent, keeping customers, you know, things like that. That's what they're more worried about. And the more that you talk about this marketing stuff, and I can, there's any number of books I can point you to In fact, there's a presentation I give that I update all the time about, like the five most important things. The five most important ideas, or the the five ideas that matter most from over 300 bucks or whatever those are, those are a couple of things that I that I offer up to these folks. And people seem to find it. helpful. So you know what, there was a I'm sorry, good. Peter Sumpton So um, can just be more than the poverty planet become the customer centric revenue generator? Douglas Burdett Yes. So it's so true. You know, he's he's making a joke about something always saying about, a lot of people perceive marketers as arts and crafts, party planners who work in the make it printing department. And if that upsets you, as a marketer, let it go. I mean, there are people who say bad things about Liverpool fans. But you know, that doesn't, you know, maybe maybe jonelle says someone's car and fire, but that doesn't really bother you. It's just the perception that people have out there. And if you understand that, that's what a lot of people think about you. I mean, doesn't mean they think you're a bad person as a marketer, but they're, they just don't understand what marketing does. They think it's promoting. But it's actually quite a bit more than that. So yeah, comment? Peter Sumpton Absolutely. So just to, to wrap it up. One thing I want to say is that if you don't already, please subscribe to the podcast, obviously, but also follow Douglas on LinkedIn, purely for the comments. I can't remember the comment side jokes, I like to tell myself in the books he reads, because Douglas Burdett I'm reading a book, as I'm reading a book. Because I was always the class clown, I'll sometimes see something and I'll write a joke in there. And I'll take a picture of it and put it on LinkedIn. It's called jokes. I tell myself while reading books. And if there's anyone out there that can connect with me on LinkedIn, include a message so I know you're not some spam bot. Not a femme bot, as Austin Powers would say. I'm happy to send your viewers a marketing book, podcast laptop sticker, and a couple of bookmarks anywhere in the world. I got the stamps. Peter Sumpton Mine. I can see mine. They just they just over the just next to my whiteboard. Yeah, obviously these Douglas Burdett next time you go back to a live event, please let me know. And I'll send you a stack of bookmarks. Peter Sumpton Yeah, yes. Brilliant. Douglas Burdett I will flag for the for the Peter Sumpton. peeps. Peter Sumpton Rock on. Yeah, absolutely. Really appreciate that. Douglas, I could honestly spend hours and hours talking to you about marketing and the books you've read and the knowledge you've gained. Really good. I enjoy all the time. And thank you so so much for joining me today. And any final words you'd like to say to anybody that's that's watching. Douglas Burdett 2020 will be over soon. We all have the most boring year next year. Peter Sumpton Love it. Okay. Lucas, thank you so much. Douglas Burdett My pleasure. Thank you for kind words. Transcribed by https://otter.ai  Main Intro Music Featured on this Podcast: Intro 1N15 Setuniman http://www.setuniman.com/  Creative Commons License
42 minutes | a month ago
Content Marketing Method with Lucy Mowatt Content Marketing Consultant from Method Marketing - Episode 142
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest and Episode Links Lucy Mowatt https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymowatt/  https://www.methodmarketing.org/  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro Writing has never been my strong point, although creativity and imagination are high up there which is part of my own content strategy, but how about you? Where are your strengths and weaknesses in the content genre? In a world where content really matters, be it driving awareness, gaining attention, educating or even entertaining it is always a good thing to have a process behind you, to keep you on course. Enter Lucy Mowatt and The content Marketing Method. Lucy is an experienced content marketing consultant with more than 10 years’ experience working both in-house and agency-side. Working previously as a magazine editor and now with start-ups and big brands helping them to achieve their goals through strategic content marketing activity. In this episode we cover; - The content Marketing Method: Audit – Strategy – Plan – Delivery – Performance - The best platforms / apps / software to help with developing content - What do most people do wrong when tackling their content plan But first, as Lucy comes from Norwich, there was only one question I had in mind to kick off our chat – Alan Partridge, discuss? Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/Vgf-BLAfEGg  Takeaways Top Tip Set out your objectives before you do anything in terms of producing content. I would even go one step further and add in all the elements Lucy went on to talk about here such as your audit and strategy. Favourite Quote Apart from discussing Alan Partridge was when Lucy stated ‘a lot of businesses don’t think about the audience enough’ which is so true. Organisations can become very insular and think that EVERYONE cares about them, when in reality… they don’t. Write for the few that do care. And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Is that you don’t have to be on EVERYTHING. Choose your channels and use them well. It’s good to experiment and test the waters, but don’t feel you have to be everywhere all the time. Small step. Doing one channel correctly, consistently, will help you so much more than spreading yourself far too thinly, especially if you are a small company – know your limits and the impact you can have within these. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
53 minutes | a month ago
Communicating Effectively and Saying Things Better with Lila Smith founder of Say Things Better - Episode 141
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest and Episode Links Lila Smith https://saythingsbetter.com/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilasmith/  lila@saythingsbetter.com  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro We can get so caught up in our own business, what it does, what it delivers and how great it is, we can often forget that the way and how we communicate can have a huge effect on someone’s perception of you and your organisation. They say first impressions count, but that doesn’t mean we forget about the second, third or hundredth impression! Every time we interact with our clients, prospects and employees we need to be mindful of the way we communicate, what we are saying and how we are saying it and there is no better person to take us through this topic than Lila Smith (probably the nicest person on the internet). Lila is the creator of ‘Say Things Better’, an Intentional Communication method based on her previous life in the theatre, helping people to, well, say things better. And if you think about it, this makes so much sense, who better to help us with what we are trying to say, understand an audience - what they want and learning to take note of ques and listen to what others are saying! In this episode we cover; - The Say Things Better methodology? - Making sure you resonate with others? - Tips on staying quiet and listening? - How to use different media to communicate Now this podcast episode doesn’t start with the usual question as the start of the video recording was worth sharing on the podcast. Enjoy as we take a look at effectively communicating with Lila Smith. Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/3yOhgbLrTC0  Takeaways Top Tip Lila says that you need to focus on being present, be in the moment, not in the future or the past, but to understand what is happening now. After all, it’s the only thing we can have any level of control over Favourite Quote ‘listen for intent, not content’, which is hugely powerful. It can help to make us more attentive, more engaged and of course – intentional in our actions. And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Is one of the most important things to remember whenever you’re communicating, with family, in business or to a client. Don’t forget your audience! You audience will have an impact on how we communicate and understanding things from their perspective will help us to Say Things Better. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
30 minutes | 2 months ago
Strategic Marketing Theories Explained – Balanced Scorecard (6 of 6) - Episode 140
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This is part six of six. Over the past six weeks we’ve had a slightly different feel on the podcast, It’s just been me, myself and I, as I’ve chatted through six of the most important and influential theory’s within Strategic Marketing. This is the final episode!!! (happy / sad face) This six part series is actually the second season in reviewing, explaining and demonstrating how to use these powerful Marketing tools, but it’s the first time I’ve shared it on the podcast. Why am I doing this? I’ve partnered up with Professional Academy (intro to them later) to bring all those aspiring Marketers six explainer live episodes, which you can catch on a Thursday (link in the show notes) This has been put together to make you a better All-Round Marketer, from Auditing, right through to controls and measurements. This week we take a look at the Balanced Scorecard Watch the video series: https://bit.ly/35AEWrA  Podcast Summary How can the Balanced Scorecard Help YOU as a Strategic Marketer? 1 - Gives a focus on what has to be done to improve performance 2 - Creates integration across multiple departments with a collective goal 3 - Translates strategy into performance measures and targets 4 - Provides a comprehensive view of the company 5 – Produces an openness and transparency of objectives and initiatives Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
26 minutes | 2 months ago
Strategic Marketing Theories Explained – Ansoff's Matrix (5 of 6) - Episode 139
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This is part five of six. Over the next six weeks we’ll have a slightly different feel on the podcast, It’s just going to be me, myself and I, as I chat through six of the most important and influential theory’s within Marketing This six part series is actually the second season in reviewing, explaining and demonstrating how to use these powerful Marketing tools, but it’s the first time I’ve shared it on the podcast. Why am I doing this? I’ve partnered up with Professional Academy (intro to them later) to bring all those aspiring Marketers six explainer live episodes, which you can catch on a Thursday (link in the show notes) This has been put together to make you a better All-Round Marketer, from Auditing, right through to controls and measurements. This week we take a look at Ansoff’s Matrix Watch the video series: https://bit.ly/35AEWrA  Podcast Summary How can Ansoff’s Matrix Help YOU As A Strategic Marketer? 1 - Provides a focus for a company and the strategic direction that is required to achieve buy-in 2 - Simple to use, four components to consider leading to four top level strategic directions 3 - Review a number of strategic directions using two factors and in turn analyse the risks associated with each Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
43 minutes | 2 months ago
Marketing and Bad Practices (Social Media) – Live Episode 8
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest: John Espirian Topic: Marketing and Bad Practices (Social Media) Discussion Points • Automation • Communicating • Being generic • PODS! • And a bit of footi Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion) Peter Sumpton And we're back live on a Friday. And my guest yet again, I've got another guest because no one wants to be alone on a Friday evening delay. And what better guest to have on a Friday than John Espirian. The legend that is. So, John, I'm not going to do your intro. I'm sick of introducing you to be phased in. I'm a podcast twice. I always talk about you on multiple podcasts. So I'm gonna let you do your own intro this time. But enough of me and this is my last time. Yeah, absolutely. John Espirian Yeah, I'm john, Experian. I'm a technical copywriter by trade, I also call myself a LinkedIn nerd, because I've been researching this platform for bloody forever. So I help people with their LinkedIn profiles, I write content for their websites, and try to be an all round most guy where I can. But I'm not gonna be a nice guy today, I think we're gonna have a bit of a moan we can today about social. Yeah, and why not? I think, as always just introduce what we're doing here today. So we're live on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. If you have any comments, just please post them below as we as we go along. But the reason I do these lives on a Friday is to have a bit of a general chat with somebody about marketing, and, and then whatever that might be. So today, it's social media, bad practice, but let's just call it a social media moan about things that we do what other people do, should I say No boss, obviously, because we're squeaky clean, that other people do that just either bad practice, don't work shouldn't be done. You wouldn't do that in real life. So why don't you do it on a social platform? Those types of things. But before we start, john, I've got a little quiz for you. It's just it's one one quick question. And I want you to tell me, who said this, okay. Don't ever try to sell me on anything. Give me all the information. And I'll make my own decisions. I believe that was Mr. Kardashian, wasn't it? Wait, I mean, your success rate must be so low. So I just think that sales approach just isn't for me. And I can't imagine that it works for anyone to be honest. I mean, you'd feel that there's that much around that it works for some people, but I don't know. I'd be amazed if to find somebody, I'm yet to find somebody in the listening, please speak up and say, do all the time. And it really works. Because we automate it to 60,000 people. And we get to people say, Yeah, well, this is the thing that we see back in the day, if it was, alright, you're going to be using an automation tool to spam loads of people through email, then you can even I didn't agree with that. Either, you can kind of at least see that the finances make sense, because it's not costing you any more to send a message to 500,000 people than it is to 5000 people, or many fewer so so then I can kind of see why automation will work. But on social media, unless you're going to do it through the automated route, then I don't see any any reason why you would try that because it would take me so much effort to get a single lead out of that approach, that maybe people are just automating. And that's that. That's another one of the bad practices is just the the process of doing what I would call Front of House automation is a bad thing, you know, so So I mean, I talked about this in content DNA, it's it's back of house automation is all right, you know, the stuff that you can't see, that makes the business's processes smoother, but that isn't detectable at the front end. That's cool. And that's smart. But front of house, you know, where you can see that they'll start a message with Hey there. Okay, what's automated? You know, just something that obviously looks like it's boilerplate text. I just can't imagine that that that works on the modern social media. Use it definitely doesn't work on me. And I think I know a lot of people actually a lot of people who've been put off, I mean, LinkedIn specifically, but I'm sure this happens everywhere, because they'll say, is just full of sales pitches. Uh huh. And so, you know, it's actually, you know, it's damaging, because the people who might actually have something interesting to say thinking stuff this for a game of soldiers, I'm not going to hold on where someone's just going to be bombing my inbox with all sorts of rubbish. Peter Sumpton I'd love to know if even down to the point of view of, we've got this new product out now, as a post. I'd love to know if that's ever worked for anybody. And I suppose it must, in some industries? Absolutely. But in general on LinkedIn, I'd be amazed if that is a good tactic to to utilise in, in anything on LinkedIn just seems a bit crazy to me. John Espirian Yeah, I think we need to earn the right. Mm, ourselves. And so you know, I've heard some marketers say, well, maybe one in five of your posts could be promotional, maybe one in 10 of your product could be promotional, maybe one in 20 of your posts, it depends on who you listen to. But I think you've got to make sure that you you do something that educates and informs and entertains to earn the right to pitch to people. Peter Sumpton And there's a way of doing that. Yeah. And and the thing that I like about the way you go about what what you do, from your website to social and I suppose we'll we'll cover it in in a little while in terms of being the same everywhere, is that you don't you don't sell you educate, but you do it from the point of view of very much openness and transparency, there's not a lot to hide in terms of what you offer from a business perspective. And what you tell people, you know, you're up front with your rates, you're up front, you push them promote the industry, and other people in it. And it's like, it's just all for the good, really, and why wouldn't that be a thing? John Espirian Yeah, well, I think a lot of people have got that that kind of scared competition mindset. Yeah, you know, the big realisation that most people don't have is that your biggest competitor isn't the guy down the road, who does the same thing as you, the biggest competitor is complete inaction, isn't it, your way your brain is tuned to try and conserve energy not have to make hard decisions. And easy decision for it to make is to do nothing. Mm hmm. Conscious brain is the easiest thing is to do nothing. So that's the competitor you're dealing with. So if you if you're battling that foe, you've got to make it as simple and frictionless and trustworthy to deal with someone as possible so that you can move them to that point where they actually do want to do something. And you're not going to do that by hiding stuff. You know, I think that those days are over now, you know, you can't, you can't keep secrets on the internet. It doesn't work like that. So So I think, you know, quite apart from the fact I think it's just the ethical thing is just to tell people the truth as much as possible. I just think it's the smart business thing to do. I mean, when it comes to decision, who are you going to trust the person who lays out all of the facts, and even some of the flaws? Or someone who just says, you know, shiny, shiny, everything is brilliant. Let's get into a consultation. We'll talk about prices later. Well, no, that's not going to work. You've got to, I think you've got to be more and more transparent. And we'll we'll eventually reach a point where the only successful businesses are the ones who actually do share everything up front. And people can make an informed choice. And there'll be less hoodwinking, hopefully in the future. Peter Sumpton The ones the one thing I've noticed of my career, I suppose we're going to a bit of a tangent, I'll bring it back in a moment. But the one thing that I've I've noticed over over my career is that if you do that standard, go to an event which those event things still exist somewhere in the world. If you if you go to an event and you say, how's business, and the answer is good. That means it's terrible. It's like why wouldn't you just say, Well, I'm actually struggling at the moment to be fair, you know, welcome to business so if if you know anybody that can benefit from what we've got to offer, you know, let's let's connect that I don't understand why there wouldn't be that that honestly I've never got that. John Espirian Yeah, yeah, totally. Peter Sumpton So because you can't have your standard background I feel like I should pick John Espirian my brain blue This can't be right this is not right. And this this this this whole thing is blue in front to me now. Peter Sumpton I very treatable Garrison's. For people that don't know is that well, I'm currently sat in an office in the centre of the champions of England. So in Liverpool City Centre, which is cool England as we know likes to tell people even. And this isn't rock Far from it, but fabulous book. I was talking about this book and talking about it. I'm sure it was yesterday. And yes, it was yesterday with with both our friend, Nicole Osborne. And I can, I can just nice little thing then at the bottom six times, there you go loving. And you're sorry, John Espirian I hope that's out of date soon. Peter Sumpton Yeah. But the thing that I was saying is that i've i've don't read many books, but I've read this book because it was just dead easy to read. It's not too long. It's full of valuable information. And this isn't me blowing smoke up your ass. This is me being perfectly honest. But the thing that I intended to do in life gets in the way is go back through it, and start to mark up the elements that I need to have in my business. And I haven't done that. In fact, I've got two pages in my diary of notes from it. And that is it. But that is on my to do list. So just wanted to highlight the fact that anyone that's listening, check out content DNA, because it's, it's a really good read. It's simple to read and understand what you need to do. And it's just about applying it. And like you said, it's my brain that stopped me from doing that more than anything, because time isn't. Time is never an excuse. John Espirian Yeah, I think I think I mean, your case you've got there, you've got the whole Lego thing going on. And isn't that mark, memorable kind of hook that you've got there? And you know, most people who've seen me on LinkedIn, know that, you know, I'm wearing and now I've got my bitmoji on. And it's like, it's almost like a bit of a cornerstone, isn't it? It's like, you want to occupy that space in people's mind that says, Oh, yeah, it's that guy who does whatever. And they've got really quick and easy way of remembering them. So if that if that Lego marketer is that cartoony, LinkedIn guy, I mean, I'm not saying that everyone needs an avatar in that same way. I think everyone needs a hook. Definitely. Because everyone's coming in the sea of sameness, aren't you? But Peter Sumpton yeah, yeah. And if you if you can link that to your personality, or who you actually are, which I think we both do that, then you're on to a positive thing, because regardless of what how people say it, you know, like, Oh, that's the Lego person or they, you know, they've got that cartoon character that is about them and linked to them. It's that link, it's that association. And it makes it memorable, because they've actually remembered it. They might not remember that the exact phrase or what it is, but they've remembered it because it stands out, like you say, John Espirian yeah, that's the thing. And it's what a lot of people don't do, and they end up kind of being actually they ended up doing what I used to do before, you know, short of a few years ago, where I was just too scared to be myself. And so you end up being really generic in what you do, you know, you just end up really being if you even if you're not a boring person you come across as being really boring and just be you forgettable. And what's the point? What's the point of being on social media, if you're not going to be yourself? discussion the other day and just seeing someone's writing and thinking that's not? That's not right. That's not them. Not? They're not like that. What are they writing like that? They're just, it's, it's, you know, I mean, there are many worse practices on social media. But honestly, if you're not yourself, then you're going to attract the wrong people, or you're not going to attract anyone, in which case, what's the point in any of it? You know, yeah. People you want people to when they actually get into a phone call, or a zoom call, or meeting you in person, if that's ever going to be possible again, and you want them to go, Oh, yeah, you know, you're exactly the way you were in your LinkedIn, or on your website or whatever. You don't want to give people that shock to the system. Like, oh, you're actually really funny and Peter Sumpton well expected. John Espirian Or worse, you know, you've got you've paid someone to, to make you look really polished and funny and whatever online. And actually, you can have delis teach water, but it's just probably the worst. I hate seeing those kind of disconnects. You know, where, where it doesn't all line up. Just that does my head in to be honest. So I won't get as open and honest and real as they can if if you are then then I think you know everyone has something interesting to say you can you can get on quite well with with with social media. That's that's what I found the last years. I just relaxed. I've just been myself. And hey, it's working out. Peter Sumpton Yeah, absolutely. which is which is brilliant to hear at one thing, just just leading on from there. So we both come from a corporate background or we have worked in in those industries before. How and I think you alluded to just then but how long did it take for you to wash that out? Have your system John Espirian probably I'd say about five or six years really relax into into my voice. It took a while, you know, I mean, social media when I, when I set up my own business, I did set up a website Pretty soon, but I didn't get into social media straightaway. So it's kind of a late adopter. And yeah, you know, you're so used to kind of, you've got to wear a shirt and tie mindset. It takes you a while to let go of that and think actually, does anyone care? Like, wouldn't they just rather have a real conversation with a real person? So yeah, sorry, it did take me a while. So it's all very well and good, me telling people, hey, you need to just relax and be yourself. So I can't I can't lecture anyone on this. I'm just, it works when you do. So try to find a way to do it quicker than five or six years, because it will really benefit you if you can. Peter Sumpton But it can be it can be really hard. In Iceland, I sometimes start writing something and then I look back at a sentence and think, why have you written Haha, that's just not. That's not even how you even speak, let alone right? Like, what what are you doing? And then I'll delete and rewrite it because it takes a while to to watch out, I think. John Espirian Yeah. Yeah, it's one of the things I say in the book, actually, it's just the best thing you can do is read your own writing out loud before you commit it to the digital page. And if it doesn't sound like you, you better you better edit it, because someone's gonna see the gaps. You know, someone's gonna guess that, you know, you're not saying something right there. So yeah, it's really important that three important tip to get your content writers to read out loud. Peter Sumpton So yeah, I agree. And I put myself in that bracket. I don't. I'm more of a writer and go kind of bloke and I know I need to work on that. Because sometimes, like typos are my nemesis. But I'm not the best copywriter in the world to be fair, so yeah, I try. But what I'd like to do is focus on an Oh, we've been talking around these topics, but some of those things that really get our go or grind our gears or bad practices on social and things that people can if, if anyone's watching or listening can look to avoid, because it's just like, No, just don't, you might have seen it work. And someone's ended up with 50,000 followers, and they get engagement every single time they post. But I think really like is that just all fluff and rubbish, which it probably is. But that was the first one that interests me is automation. Yeah. So let's just have a quick chat about automation on social platforms. John Espirian Well, I think, again, this is something I used to do. So hey, you know, I'm a reformed, reformed Automator. Back in sort of 2016, I thought that social media was popping on to a scheduling tool for 20 minutes on a Sunday evening, lining up a load of blog posts and other interesting stuff that I've come across during the week, and setting it to shedule throughout the following week, and then getting on with something else. And that was that was social media. And a lot of people still do that. Or they buy actual media manager who does that for them. That's not social media at all. That drip drip bought broadcasting, isn't it? It's not social media, you just putting stuff out, it gets zero likes and comments, and everyone ignores it. What's actually social media isn't about that kind of automation. When I when I came to realise that that wasn't the right way of doing things, when actually thought maybe the best way to do it is actually to be social actually engage in conversation, and, you know, engage on other people's posts, respond to people who are looking at my posts, try and have conversations with them in public and in private through direct messages. You can't automate any of that. You could, I suppose you could pay someone to do that bit for you. But that's just taking the task off your desk, and giving it to someone else who has to become a mimic for you, well, they're probably not gonna be able to do that either very well. But certainly just automating the broadcasting bit on its own isn't gonna work. If you automate the broadcasting and also are around to engage with people and go and seek out other content that you can comment on or, you know, collaborate with and have private conversations. If you're around to do those bits, then then brilliant, but without those bits, your social media ain't very social, and you're not going to get really any results from it. I I can't think of anyone that I know who does do. Just that. broadcasts broadcast broadcast and gets results, apart from the mega influences. So if you're someone who's got a million followers, you can do that. Because Enough of your followers have built up enough loyalty with you that if you just announced some product or whatever, the you know the going by it, and it's not a problem, you can just broadcast don't need to reply to anyone. It'll work. But but you know that that's a vanishingly small proportion of the, the, the social media user base, most people can't get away with that. Peter Sumpton Yeah, I think you've almost got certain certain levels as well. So you've, you've got that bottom tier where you need that interaction, you need that engagement, you need to be on the platform, it needs to be you need to start building and developing and lo and behold, being social, imagine that. But like you said, then there's almost that crossover to well, how big are you actually getting? And how, because if we're, if we're taking that from the point of view of it's a social platform, we need to be social? Well, if you've grown that follow into X amount, then you can't reply to everybody, and you can't be everywhere all the time, then how big are you going, but you're almost like a company rather than a person. And then I think you're in a, in a different realm of what people want to hear from you and how you communicate with them. Anyway. John Espirian Yeah, I mean, I've kind of I've actually wrestled with that problem myself. I haven't really solved it yet. But I'm thinking I know that, if my and, and apologies for just focusing on LinkedIn, but that really is my strong suit. But I know that if I keep growing my LinkedIn following at the same rate that I am now, then it means that in a year's time, I'll have about 60,000 followers, which is quite a lot, right. And, and it wouldn't be that long from there to go to maybe 100,000. Because of course, that kind of snowball effect isn't there, because once people can see someone with a lot of followers, they go on follow them, we actually becomes a lot easier to gain massive numbers once you get to quite big. Whereas kind of going from 1000 to 2000, might be a real slog, but going from 50, to 60,000, actually is probably a walk walk in the park, right? So there comes a point where if you do grow, to be to become really, really big, but then the only way to manage it would then to be to get help, some kind of help, but you have to make sure that your business can sustain it, you know, so, so growing your following really that means that you should be getting more and higher quality business, you know, set either selling more product or, or selling more valuable services so that you can actually support the growing following. Because otherwise, if you're if your income and your available time stays the same, then yes, you're absolutely right, you will hit a point where you're going to go, I'm trying to do all of this myself, but I actually can't service any more people, then then, you know, you'll probably hit some kind of ceiling. But I think that the thing that's given me comfort is I was looking back at something that Kevin Kelly wrote a while ago about this, this idea of 1000 true fans, you know, you need to get the really hardcore people who are in your audience, they'll do your marketing for you, they'll do for you. If you've got more followers than actually you need that that's not you know, it's not really a problem. You need to service the real hardcore fans, we're going to take your message out to the masses. Yeah. And for most businesses, unless you're a kind of stalking, high selling low kind of business. You don't need, you don't need thousands and thousands of people to turn into customers, you know, you might need 50 customers. Were the 10 customers. So does it matter? It may be it doesn't matter to think I've got to keep growing, got to keep growing. Got to keep growing. Maybe you don't. Peter Sumpton Yeah. And it's certainly something that I give a lot of consideration to, and certainly something that Yeah, I wrestle with quite a lot into I see things like and we'll come on to it in a minute. But we're really interested in chat thing, but I see things like butt pods, and let me explain where I'm going here. But I see things I like to see things like automation, and I see things like that clearly not them posting it. And I know some people on LinkedIn that don't do that posting. They do some engagement with that with them. But they don't do that posting and some part of me thinks, yeah, I get that to a certain extent because it grows in businesses. It's, it gets you more. It gets you to people, sorry, let me face that. It gets more people viewing your content, whether they're the right people, that's debatable, but then you're more exposed. People, more people see you because like you were saying it kind of snowballs. And then once you're there, then people could start to resonate. But then there's that other side. That's like, that's just completely unethical. It's like, why would you do these practices? What, what's wrong with building slow and going slow, because you're one person at the end of the day, and yet you might build a team around you. But so it's one thing that really, really, I, I wrestle with all the time. And it goes back to what you're saying it's don't focus on the number, because if you if you ever listened to Seth Godin at all, he always mentions the Grateful Dead. And I don't think they had, I think they either had one number one hit, or they had a one top 10 hit. And they were absolutely huge, because they just focused on that core funds. And, and those core funds went to went to see them live like 50 100 times. Yeah. John Espirian Yeah, I think I think is it David? David meerman, Scott's got a book about the Marketing Secrets of the Grateful Dead something like okay, Peter Sumpton right. Okay. That's cool. John Espirian Yeah, they obviously they obviously knew their fans really well and profited from it. So yeah. Oh, yeah. pods. I mean, just wow. I think they are totally unethical. And I call in my, I've got a course called how not to be a LinkedIn loser. And in there, I just say that the pods are really like an unholy alliance between people who are often in different businesses. And that that is a real problem, I think, because you imagine that you're, you know, you're a marketer. And imagine that you're in a, you're in a pod. So it's a, for those who haven't been introduced to pods. They're sometimes formal, but usually a loose agreement between a group of people that when one person posts something, everyone else in that group will go And like and comment and share in order that the post will be seen by more people. But you know, if you're a marketer, and you're in a pod with a logo designer, and landscape gardener, the foreman pool technician, right, and then you know, you're going to be boosting their content by commenting on it. Well, first of all, that's going to take you some time to go and engage. But second of all, and possibly more importantly, you're going to be referring some of that content into the feeds of the people who follow you. So people, or you say, right, pizza mark, or I need some marketing knowledge. Brilliant, I'm going to follow Pete, I'm going to connect with Pete and therefore I'm following him. Great, I'm going to get some marketing insights. And then they see you say, you know, Pete commented on so and so swimming repair post, what, what's that about? And then he did on sound, sound logo design thing. Hang on, I'm here to learn about marketing study or whatever, that's not relevant to me. It's idea of, it's this idea of the extended content footprint, right? your content footprint is the stuff that you create directly. And obviously, you're in full control of that, what you're not quite in full control of is the fuzzy outline of it, the extended content footprint, which is all of the stuff that you interact with, has a chance of being referred into the feeds the people who follow you. And if that's not super relevant to them, there's they might unfollow you, and if they do unfollow, you probably never gonna get them back. And then you're essentially dead to them. So pod means that, you know, you increase the risk of that kind of thing happening. And also, you know, LinkedIn being the way it is, it'll, it will get more intelligent over time. And if it sees the same five people, or however many people commenting on something, within a few minutes of that thing going live, it might go, maybe they were primed to do that. Maybe they didn't see that naturally, and decided to comment on it. In which case, you know, LinkedIn are very, very happy to close you down, if they think that you're breaking the rules, they're pretty hot on their user agreement. So it's just a, just a generally bad thing to do all around. So in general, just that visibility for visibility sake, you unless you know, something more about, you know, the people are likely to see the content, it's probably not gonna be very valuable to you. And it's just a sign of bad practice is trying to cheat the system, trying to get quick, early engagement. And I don't think I don't think it really works. And the people who tend to be in the pods aren't posting the quality material. You know, you can it's just not very good stuff, but it's been boosted by others and, and experienced that can see through that, and I don't think it's going to serve them in the long run. Peter Sumpton So I've just been talking about pods on like, another group and it's a group of podcasters two completely different things, by the way, but let's just do that. Maybe just as in pods, and a group of podcasters, and we've got this group, and we share when we post things, but we don't we don't say, like, push my content, push my content, if it's relevant, then comment. If it's not, then it's like, yes, that's fine. I'm just gonna leave that. But we, you know, it's not it's not a pod. It's a group of people. And we come together, and we do like, group talks and stuff like that. And I think that's absolutely fine. It, it's this bad practice of, and to the worst extent, you pay to be in here, and we will boost your content. I haven't I mean, that's just, John Espirian yeah, I know, businesses based on that. I don't know how they're still operating, to be honest. Because it can shut down. But, you know, if you do get into any kind of arrangement like that, just just watch out. Because if someone look, right, if you're in a pod, and someone posts something that you disagree with, what you gonna do, you know, someone, vote Trump, and you go, Oh, God, hang on, I've just said that I'm gonna support all this stuff, and like and share and comment on it. Am I gonna call you out publicly? Probably not. Am I gonna have to support something I don't believe in Oh, dear. What, what do I do? How on earth do you kind of work that out? So you've got to make sure that you stay on the same page and be friendly about everything that you do. And if someone's posting complete Tosh, you've got to support it anyway. I just think it's bad practice. So yeah, what you just said, if you've got like minded people all working to the same goal, you know, in the same industry, and there's no mandate that says you must share this, you know, if you want, you can if you don't want to, that's fine as well, then then you know, that, that that's just a group of friends. Peter Sumpton And that's pretty much how it feels. It's Yeah, it's an amazing thing. John Espirian And, you know, there's, there's no problem with that, but but trying to formalise it and certainly paying for it cool. Yeah. Peter Sumpton Yeah. I mean, that that goes back to bad practices, such as we'll get you number one in Google, that really just talk talk me through that, God, just talk me through that. How are you going to do that? John Espirian And also dodging tricks with search engine optimization, I guess. But I guess that button links back to people being easy to dupe. It's sad. Peter Sumpton Yeah. John Espirian That That kind of thing could happen. But yeah, Peter Sumpton that's I was listening to a podcast once and I can't remember who it was that was on there. I'm sure it was eyes, podcast off Lago workshop, or whatever he wants to call it, because she's, she's an amazing person. But the person said, they said, Google used to be stupid. It's not anymore. And it's like, Yeah, you've got a point because the used to be some dark arts that worked to a certain extent. But no, Google's a little more sophisticated than that nowadays. And if anybody thinks that, or anybody tells you that they can get you number one for something. It's unless you're in that field, unless you've got that credibility, fundamental ly plus, but doesn't take into consideration anything else. Other people search, what they've been searching their location, all that kind of stuff. It's just a nonsense. John Espirian Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I can't remember the exact the exact way he phrased it, but Andy crestodina, in his, in his writing talks about, you know, Google is is a massive, massive business, and it hires the best people, and could easily have 10,000 100,000, let's say, have the world's best computer scientists working on their product, the new thing that you and your website can fool. Because if you do in the wrong game, they're gonna beat you aren't them. They're gonna suss you out. So if you if you want to match yourself against all those nerds in those lab coats who are working on this every day to serve up the best possible results, you're on your own loser, don't bother, just do this create content that actual humans would want to read and comment on and share. And that way Google will learn that you've got something of value Peter Sumpton Absolutely. So I want to finish on a positive let's let's try and do that for Friday evening. So what what tactics are what's working well on on LinkedIn right now what could people deploy that's what I'm not talking about the you know will will join apart and ultimately content not that kind of tactic I'm talking about his will video seems to be working quite well because and or just just standard copy LinkedIn stories that seems to be getting a push at the moment. You know, what's what's working well? John Espirian Well, I mean, every time LinkedIn producing new feature that tends to get a boost. So it hasn't been that long since LinkedIn polls have been out. So at the start, when someone would post a LinkedIn poll, it would get a lot of visibility, because it's a new feature. latest new thing on the block is LinkedIn story so that I only had that for only a week in the UK. But that has got high visibility in the LinkedIn mobile app, and is a really good way of getting engagement, actually, because I've only done a couple of stories so far, but I've had a lot of direct messages off the back of mind. And so and what that means is that you get into more conversations. And that's actually where all of the business happens is, is through public comments and private conversation. So the more things that you can do to spark those conversations, the more chance you are getting better success from LinkedIn. And so so do invest in in, you know, creating some stories, if you haven't already tried them. All of my stats show that text only will still work the best on LinkedIn versus image posts, which you know, that that flies in the face of everything. The other social platforms. So text only posts work really well, document posts work really well, because there's been, there's been a change in the LinkedIn algorithm a few months ago, which means that it now benefits, you know, it, it rewards people for high dwell time on a post. So in other words, the amount of time that someone spends looking at the post, okay, could, you know, correlates this in, to some extent, with the success of that post. So if you, if you create a video, then that then people have to watch that for a while if they can actually consume it in any way. So that's good for dwell time. And if you create a document post, so that's something like a slide, you know, PDF carousel slideshow thing. That's something that takes people a while to click through. But that also means LinkedIn will go, whoo, they're spending some time on this, it's probably good. Let's show it to lots of people. So videos and document posts get really good numbers. That's what that's where it's worth. That's where it's worth investing a little bit of time in creating that kind of content. And also, you've got there's, there's now a featured section, for LinkedIn profiles of your profile, you can feature your best piece of content. So whatever it is that you're promoting, it's a good idea to put that up in the top of this featured section so that people browsing your profile can learn a bit more about you. And as much as possible, leave your salesy stuff for your profile, and leave your explanatory helpful, you know, personality stuff for your content. So you know, content tells profile sells, think of it like that, put your put your you know, your more sales focused messages in your profile for the people who are going to do the due diligence on you and say, Peter Sumpton one thing I hadn't hadn't thought of there and you raised it, and it's a bit of a genius ploy in it makes more sense why LinkedIn have got stories on there is because you, you really need to start that communication, one to one on an individual basis to build that relationship. And it's very rare that you would have that conversation on a on a post in an open platform. That is Oh, yeah, I want to buy from you. Let's Let's char, but through a DM and that's what LinkedIn stories does. It diverts everyone into into your dm which, which is a genius move John Espirian now. Yeah, no, and it's worked for me, you know, one of my stories, someone's who'd been connecting with me for a while said, you know, they were thinking about, maybe they should hire me to create some LinkedIn content for them, and maybe they wouldn't have got in touch if I just done it. So it definitely can work. You need to, you need to have got over that earlier mindset thing that we talked about, about being yourself, because you can't be you shouldn't be a fake person, if you're going to be doing stories, because that's really quite broad. Just everyday stuff, isn't it? So you need to kind of be be comfortable with that. But also remember that people aren't expecting polished perfection, especially in in, you know, in in a story format, and it goes after 24 hours anyway. So you're not going to have kind of, it's not going to be something that's going to embarrass you, you know, six years down the line. it'll it'll be gone. So yeah, just share a bit of that bit of a personal story, a bit of what's going on in your day, the behind the scenes stuff. We really useful in in getting closer to your audience, I think. Peter Sumpton And I think I think we'll wrap it up here. But one thing you just said, Ben, I think he's just absolutely bang on. You just said that that person might not get got in touch if 100 on that. And that is just an absolute 100% reason why you should be creating valuable, interesting content for the people you want to attract. Because there's a lot There's a lot of lurkers, and rightly so because we all consume content and we don't comment, like or share or whatever. And you don't know who's watching and you don't know how helpful you're potentially being to that one person. And that's what I always think I always think, okay, if I post this or I have this live with, with with you, john, or whoever, as long as I'm helping that one person as long as one person gets a little bit of value or thinks that's a good idea. I'm happy with that. Transcribed by https://otter.ai  Main Intro Music Featured on this Podcast: Intro 1N15 Setuniman http://www.setuniman.com/  Creative Commons License
35 minutes | 2 months ago
Strategic Marketing Theories Explained - STP and Personas (4 of 6) - Episode 138
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This is part four of six. Over the next six weeks we’ll have a slightly different feel on the podcast, It’s just going to be me, myself and I, as I chat through six of the most important and influential theory’s within Marketing This six part series is actually the second season in reviewing, explaining and demonstrating how to use these powerful Marketing tools, but it’s the first time I’ve shared it on the podcast. Why am I doing this? I’ve partnered up with Professional Academy (intro to them later) to bring all those aspiring Marketers six explainer live episodes, which you can catch on a Thursday (link in the show notes) This has been put together to make you a better All-Round Marketer, from Auditing, right through to controls and measurements. This week we take a look at Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) and Personas Watch the video series: https://bit.ly/35AEWrA  Podcast Summary How can STP and Personas Help YOU As A Strategic Marketer? 1 - Starts to build a picture as to who your target market is. Not just who they are, but what resonates with them and how best to communicate with them 2 – It can help you develop a competitive position with the intention of targeting a specified group more efficiently 3 – Helps the whole business gain clarity on the most profitable areas of the business and your market Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
44 minutes | 2 months ago
Marketing and Social Media Events – Live Episode 7
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest: Lenka Koppova Topic: Marketing and Social Media Events Discussion Points • What does it take in 2020 to coordinate an event? • What is different from previous years? • What is the best thing about organisation them? • And what's the hardest thing about online events? • What are your social media tips for 2021? Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion) Peter Sumpton And we're live. We're back live and I've got a guest this week or two weeks it just me. So it's great that I have got a guest again this week and what a privilege to have lenker cup of are with me today on marketing study lab live, first of all, Lenka thank you so much Samuel, do this. And joining me, of course, happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Excellent. So as the ticker at the bottom says, we're going to be talking about marketing, and social media, but social media events as well. And we'll come on to that in a little bit after you have just explained to the audience a little bit more about yourself about the wonderful world of Lincoln. Lenka Koppova Okay, so Hello, everyone. I'm Lanka, and I'm a social media consultant. And aside from running my own business, doing social media strategies, and content and trainings, I'm also the founder of Cambridge social media, which is an organisation it's a community for small business owners and freelancers where we all help each other. And we support our community with anything social media marketing related. And from there, we started with monthly meetups, which obviously, this year, is not as easy to run in person meetups. So we've turned our monthly meetups into weekly Facebook, live training sessions and zoom workshops. And I'm also the organiser of embrittled. Media Day, which again, this year going virtual. So it's a conference in November, and I'm super happy that Peter is running a session for us as well. Peter Sumpton Yes, so am I thank you so much for the opportunity to do that, really looking forward to that as well. And you'll see that over social in the coming weeks, but really super excited for that and to be part of it and to get to know a bit of your community as well, which will be really, really cool. Okay, so like I said, At the start, all we're going to do today is have a bit of a chat around social media events. So first and foremost, if people got any questions, post them in the comments, and we'll get around to them, or just say hello, or a shout out or whatever you want to do. That's fine with me. But so first Lanka, 2020 has been a bit different over the years, from from, you know, for the past 2030 years, it's been slightly different to what we used to. How have you had to Well, first of all, how did you make the decision to go ahead with your events? And secondly, what changed? You know, first, let's do one question at a time. How did you make that decision to do this? Lenka Koppova It was very interesting this year, because I run to in person events in the past two years. And it's kind of started as my side project with it just blows my idea after running a couple of meetups to be like, How hard could it be to run all day conference for about 200 people? How did you imagine? years in a row people loved it. But it was very stressful. So I was at the end of last year finished this event in November and it was kind of pondering what to do next. And I found a part partners, I found, you know, one of my business colleagues, Alex Hughes from shift T's who we've known each other for a while, and we had a couple of conversations about what I want, where he's heading, where I'm heading to be like, well actually sounds like a perfect partnerships. So then we nail down the plan, we were had a very ambitious plan for the third annual Cambridge Social Media Day, we plan to change venues go bigger and better. And we made an announcement first week of March that we're doing it, it will be bigger and better. And a week later, like what just happened? So we were back to the drawing board to be like, so what do we do? Do we postpone the oven and make do nothing? Or do we hope that it will be okay in November? Because you know, in March, it looks like it might be discovered. And everything will be okay in November? Or do we go to Safeway, we still want to do something for the audience. We still want to keep the momentum of year or the events doing we still want to celebrate. So let's do it online. And let's figure out a way to bring the best conference the best event the best virtual experience for people or communities online. Peter Sumpton Mm hmm. Excellent. So yeah, a bit of a no brainer, but still something that you really have to consider because I'm guessing the way you would lead up to that and will not necessarily lead up to it but structure it is usually different. So what are the differences that you're seeing? Because you're right in the middle of this now the differences you're seeing from trying to organise something that's that's face to face that's offline to something that is less classes virtual, I don't really like that phrase. Well, that's classes virtual. Lenka Koppova It's interesting because the feedback that we've got from the past events and the things that really matter to me during organising these events was the people vibe, the friendliness didn't come up, you're really the energy of other people, which is the hardest thing to do online. So when we thought about is, obviously I wanted to have great speakers, I wanted to have great content I wanted to make sure they were providing is relevant. It's timely, it's helpful. It's designed for our audience. But the biggest challenge was thinking about how we do we translate our values of really to community feel and positive friendly vibe online. And I consulted with a couple of facilitators, people who are like workshop hosts, and who had to turn their whole business virtual this year, to break down event to make sure did we pay attention to people's energy that we don't just overwhelm them with videos, and just staring at a screen, some time a wall or some exercises away. And it also we have a tool that supports what we do to support this feeling of online interactions. And it allows us us as much as we can to represent the real life feeling and look and atmosphere of in person event. And I think we found a solution, I think we find a pretty cool tool. And we plan the layout of the event, vertical layout to replanning virtual out for our virtual conference room and conference building. And we've planned a lineup and agenda of those two days with the mind of people's energy. And they're not only for them to learn some factual things, but to have as many opportunities as possible to interact, network meet, and build partnership, build connections, find people like them, because I always remember people coming year after year, to me from those conferences to be like this person that I've met, I sit next to, you know, we started working together, we started accountability group to get to where we started this, and I want this to translate on my event as much as we can. Peter Sumpton Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a big ask in some ways, but from a positive point of view, people have had at least half a year to get used to communicating more on on tools such as stream yard, or zoom, or teams, or you named 610 20 100 of them. At this moment in time, you know, we always got chairs and those back in during life would be slightly different right now I expect. And so with with the actual event, then I'm just interested to know, I mean, I do know, but it'd be good for people that are watching or listening to know that. So it's, it's a social media event. So the folks on social media fantastic. But that isn't just the topics that you're going to be covering. So why, first of all, if you could explain just a couple of the topics that are, you know, exciting for you, as the creator of the event. But secondly, why you covering topics that might not be specifically geared towards social media. Lenka Koppova So even though it is a Cambridge Social Media Day, and the main theme is social media marketing, I always tell my community, I always tell my clients that social media can't stay alone, not only marketing tactics can stand alone, you can't do just video marketing. You can't do just email marketing, you can't do just the SEO. It's all not only all digital tools, but all marketing tools and tactics and techniques, they need to be complemented to each other, they need to be put into a planning strategy. So that's where we do focus on social media, a lot of our content will be platform specific or social media content specific. But we then have other topics that are relevant this year is kind of overall theme is focused on customer experience, and delivering great customer feeling, customer journey, customer experience being online, which is what we most of us can do, but also thinking about how can you improve the current or foreign experience and the future of flight experience. And then we have couple sessions are looking at marketing automation and looking at building lists. Because no matter how much I left social media, I still know that built using social media purely it's building a house on a rented land algorithm can change, someone can hack your account, this can go wrong and out of nowhere where you're with nothing. So we do put a lot of emphasis on having your own website, having your own CRM, having your own mailing list and using social media to drive these other kind of communities that you have a bigger feel of ownership and if something happens, you have something that is actually own and you can then still connect with your community and customers and prospects. Peter Sumpton I'm so I'm so glad you said that. So I've got the way I explained that is. And this comes down to the old Olden upin, and the merge if you like. And, you know, everybody likes a bit of merge as long as you're not paying for it. And so I always explain it, in terms of that isn't really going to move somebody to purchase very much. But it's just 1% of what you should be doing. And if you have 99, or the 1%, that's a huge shift. So a pen alone with your logo on isn't going to shift people that much, but it's more brand awareness. And in the grand scheme of things, if you're doing other elements, including merchandise, that's a bigger proposition than just the one channel or the one piece of merchandise, which is exactly what your say, saying in terms of just having social media alone is precarious, because that changes. So you know, you have to really think of your strategy, which is, which is really cool. So this year is about customer experience, then. So let's just shift it towards social for this moment in time. And what kind of thing should we be looking at on social to generate a better customer experience them. Lenka Koppova So first things first, it's about being aware where on social media you're active, where you have accounts, if they have been used, if they not been used, then why you have them and just do a little bit of an audit to actually be aware where your customers might come across you. And if they come across you There is everything working if they learned and your Facebook page and send you a message will use it and he will be able to respond if not put processes in place to either close on account or make sure that it's very clear to people that you know, this is not your active platform to go and delete direct messages here and there email recall you never will be my first advice is just making sure that you look at all the potential windows and doors where people can kind of run away and mess on. So it's just about for me with social media, it is about not selling all the time. Even though Yes, we use social media marketing to promote the customer experience is all about them. It's about providing them with value, building relationships, connecting with them, helping them serving them, finding the pain that your customers and prospects have, and how you can use social media and content and social media to help them and providing value without actually being just buy from me selling or no one has signed up to LinkedIn or Facebook or especially places like Instagram, to be bombarded by ads and be sold to we're coming to social media to connect to get updates and get news to be entertained, to be hired. We're not coming there to see advertising. So it will see advertising, then it needs to serve us it needs to help us with whatever it is that we need to need to be interesting. It needs to be engaging. And it needs to be helpful. Peter Sumpton Yeah, absolutely. And it was interesting for me when you see maybe something that is on the surface dry and a bit dull and boring. And people think that, well, there's nothing we can say that is of interest, you know, we do whatever it might be. And I'm not I'm not picking on any industry here. But for example, we do insurance. So what the hell can we say? It's just it's boring, everybody has to have it. But you know, they don't really want it, we're just asking for their money. So they, whatever it might be, but even even that you look at, you know, compare the near car and go compare and all that kind of stuff. And it's most that's got nothing to do with insurance. So similar thing on social for small, medium, or large companies that it's not just about what you do, it's, it's about that brand and that culture and and pushing something to people that they will resonate with your audience like, like you were saying they're absolutely superb. Do you think that when people start to use different social platforms, there's that worry that they chase that new shiny thing? And are you a fan of just focusing on one platform at a time? Or would you say have a healthy mix? Or what's your what's your take on that? Lenka Koppova Yeah, I'm definitely suggesting people to be aware of trying to be everywhere and spreading themselves too thinly, especially audience in the community and working with where it's people who tend to do their own marketing. They don't have a big marketing team. They don't have too much time to do very really limited resources. So my suggestion always is pick one or two. Priority platforms, platforms where you know, did your target customers are, but also the platforms that you would enjoy. You know, using, there's no point of picking a platform that someone suggested because of demographic research, it's being said that it's more like most likely to have your target customers there. But you are just dreading and hating the user interface the way it works. We're on board ahead, you love being on Instagram, and you love doing stories and you love talking to people. And even though maybe Instagram is not the number one platform that you would expect your customers to be, still can work perfectly. And you still have these days, all the platforms have pretty balanced, you know, demographics, you know, all sorts of people on all sorts of bathrooms, I don't think it's like, very demanding to say like, only Instagram will work for your own Twitter will refer. But I would say pick one platform or two that you enjoy, and that you really can see yourself spending time on creating content for and in engaging with people on Peter Sumpton is probably something that you can resonate with. And that's that's FOMO. What would you say to somebody that that is, and again, is probably reiterating what you said, but what would you say to somebody that is say, focus on Instagram, and they're getting engagement there, and I was worried I'm missing out on Facebook, or I'm worried I'm missing out on LinkedIn, you know, what would you What do you advise them, like test the water or stay stay true to what you know, Lenka Koppova I would always say if you want to experiment, you can dedicate like 10% of your time to experiment and keep an eye on other platforms. I'm not saying that you should not be on all channels, you can have profiles and keep them kind of maintain on all the channels and really on deep dive on one platform. But I would say yeah, try to really appreciate the platform that you're using. Because especially like now, but it's been a trend in social media, social media networks are changing so fast. Even I can't keep up with all the new tools, new updates, new features, new days on all the channels. And this is my business, I can't imagine how you know, anyone who has a business whose focus is fotografie, flowers, consultants, anything else and doing marketing and social media marketing is just 10 20% of their time and how they can stay on top of all the new Instagram stories, reels, guides, HGTV live all the stickers, all the algorithm changes all the things and really be able to use and leverage the platform properly. Like today, I discovered in LinkedIn has a newsletter feature. Never heard of it before. All this is pretty cool. But again, LinkedIn is not my number one platform. That's why I don't know these things. But if I was, I would hope that I know about it. And I've considered it for my strategy. Peter Sumpton Doing I mean, LinkedIn is probably my main platform, and that I love it. But it can be as frustrating as hell because like exactly what you said they release things. And they only release it to a certain amount of people. And then that gets around the world. And it's like, why the hell Haven't we got this and it's only select month people and all that kind of stuff, which is hugely frustrating. But I don't get that feel from all the platforms that they really do that. You know, I feel that they're much more we've tested it and pretty much everyone can have it or am I missing something there? Is that the case on all of them? Lenka Koppova There's still box I think other platforms do it less today, once they decide to launch something they tested in couple countries and India launches globally. But like for example, I have five client Instagram accounts. On three of them. I have a new app layout on the rest of them. I have rails on my personal like create a business account I don't have rails feels the same with Facebook. Like I didn't have a new Facebook layout. It's never been switched to me I don't have the option to switch I'm like you don't like me Why? Why me? Why my personal account why my business like a why all my clients do have it and I can use it for them, but I cannot use it for myself. So I think LinkedIn is a worst. Twitter is also really bad in announcing new features. There tend to hide lots of the features to be like we've released something, but only if you know then you will know what otherwise you will not know like media studio is one of the best hidden features of Twitter and pretty much no one knows that it exists. It's like the best way for you to sharing videos and any kind of media on Twitter. Peter Sumpton Okay, I've never heard of that. Lenka Koppova Exactly. There's still not enough video content on which is one of the reasons Muito is still under utilised and there's a lot more opportunities for people to do more video content. But because Twitter has certain restrictions, and then you can't have this and that out of nowhere, people don't use it. But if you notice, there is a media studio where you can upload Oreo media, your videos, you can actually add a description and a clickable call to action to videos, you can shoot over there within Twitter, out of nowhere Mind blown, you get so much more with this platform. But as he said, No one knows this. Peter Sumpton That's, that's crazy. I've just I've just noticed I'm fairly new to stream yard. But if I click that, it's a bit better. We've got we've got more room. And I must admit, I'm obviously not at home. I'm in an office. And I've just realised it almost looks like I've just put this big, bright light all the way behind me. It's just a white wall over it just looks a bit startling. So I need to learn from that. Really. Sorry. Anyway, just a couple of shoutouts. Really so Phil's joined us. He just says hello. And then this thing. It's streaming, I got salty, but I think you need to GDPR stuff with stream yard. And that was it was that that was Tony. That sound that Hello. So hello. Hello. Anyone that's watching just out of interest. What's your what platform Do you enjoy using them the most. Lenka Koppova I enjoy Instagram the most I enjoy stories. I enjoy Rios, I really enjoyed it. It's very personal. It's very in the moment. It's really kind of real and authentic. And it's still you can still do great business there. But it feels very friendly. I do like LinkedIn. And they're like this year, LinkedIn has been fantastic in the amount of really quality engagement and support. It's been happening on LinkedIn. But I prefer like I do my own social media kind of interruptions mainly on mobile. And I just find Instagram is the most mobile friendly, and the most fun. Peter Sumpton Okay, but let's see, I don't use Instagram at all. I just don't I don't know, I think it's just that one too many for me. And just I've never really got around to utilising it in any way shape or form. But there you go. It's just your preferences. And there Lenka Koppova it is. And you know, I love it. Because part of it part of my lifestyle and my business brand. It is all about travel. And it is all about a lifestyle. And I love travelling, I love eating out. I love taking photos of these things. And you know, just the perfect and second place. And that's how I built my brand. People know that not only I do social media, but people know me for me, they know me for my hiking, or my dog. They know me for my you know, latte art and all the food I go to. And it's a thing that people will remember, as well as the date I do social media, so it's more likely for them to remember me really build the connection with me. And if they ever need me, they know they can find me. Peter Sumpton Yeah, and because I'm not on Instagram, I just got a glimpse of that. So So I've seen some of your photos. And yeah, you go to some amazing places, and it's really cool. Maybe not that many. Lenka Koppova I managed. I managed a little bit this year, and I managed to move where I am right now. Back home and the countryside in my family. So I managed to Peter Sumpton I'm just getting some feedback. It's like that's, I think that's my end. That's weird. Lenka Koppova Like, I hear people talking to someone else. Peter Sumpton I don't know, there's no one in this office. That's a bit freaky. Anyway, it seems Lenka Koppova like there's no one in this house right now. So it's got to be coming from me. Peter Sumpton That's a bit scary. Yeah, there's literally nobody in this office. Anyway, okay. Let's move on. Let's just blame that on Instagram. And then this, this is a really, really big question for me. Okay. So and I hear this a lot and I've got my own answer to this, but you deal with a lot, lot more smaller businesses than I do. People must one of the questions you must get asked a lot is I just don't have the time to do it. So what I say to people that that say I haven't got the time. Lenka Koppova Um, I would say to people who don't have the time, you know, consider what it can do for you consider what benefits why would you use it, it's not using social media for the sake of using social media. If you want to use social media just to be on social media, then it's not ill advice. But social media should be a reason for using it or should be a reason to repurpose, you should be using strategically. So it's always an excuse, I don't have time to go to gym, I don't have time to eat healthy, I don't have properties. Like if I know the goal, if I know why am I doing it not just because everyone telling me and I see on Instagram, you should be going to gym. But if I want to feel better, I want to be healthier, if I want to be more capable, then I will exercise I will eat. And the same goes for social media. If you want social media marketing to work for you, if you see it as a helpful beneficial tool that can help your business to grow can help you to get the lifestyle that you want, that can give you this time and space and freedom and revenue that you want. And you will make it a priority to put a plan in place, pick a metaphor, and invest the time into it. And I would say to social media, especially at the beginning feels like a big time commitment and a big investment. And it definitely is something that you will have to do forever and ever. But at the same time, if you build it in this time, then over time eight will be much easier to keep it ticking over if you keep it activated, to keep deletes coming through there. So it will become your second nature, you will figure out the processes. And actually, if you put an investment in then it will really help you. It has the potential to help you to have the business and the life that you want. Hmm, Peter Sumpton yeah, I agree. And I might take work, particularly when I'm teaching. And people all have busy lives. And you know that they're working, they're studying, they want some sort of social life. And so I've got no time. And the first thing I say to them, is because sometimes you need that commitment. Particularly if you're going to add something extra to your life, either Something has to move and shift, or you need to find that time somewhere. So I always say, Okay, so what did you do last weekend? And usually the answer is either Netflix or chilled out or did something. And I'm just like, Well, there you go. Just take just and I'm not advocating working over weekends, everyone's got a different preference. Or it's almost like, okay, we'll take half an hour out of your evening or half an hour out of a Saturday and Sunday. You've clawed back. What that's that's like three to four hours a week, just for half an hour each evening, or in the morning, get an extra half hour. And it doesn't have to be that all because like you said, socials, huge, it's daunting, how do I cover everything, just start small, just just don't cover everything, just start small, there's always ways to find time. Lenka Koppova Yeah, I would say if it really is such a big thing, and you don't have really don't have the opportunity to put the time aside to really build a strong plan and strategy. And you really want to do something, the best thing you can do on social media, it's be present. So even if it's that you don't have the time to really create content and put all the effort in to do videos, do training, do blog posts, do this because yes, it can be time consuming. Even if all you can do is spend five minutes with your coffee in the morning or after your lunch break. Instead of watching Tic Tock and YouTube videos, spend the time go to whichever platform and look what other people have posted. Find the people who are your ideal customers, follow them, connect with them comment on their stuff here, just dm them and start building the relationship seed as you're building friendships like the same way to check in on your family. And you would check it in your friends. build this habit of checking in on your social media community. And even this just very passively without pushing content out there. But kind of proactively reaching out to people connecting with them. Even if you just comment on their stuff. We share their content, you know, give them a thumbs up and give them a lift up. That's an amazing time investment that will pay off for your business. Peter Sumpton Yeah, I completely agree. It's, I always try to explain it to people as you need to see these platforms. If you're a business owner or you're in business or you want to use it from that respect. You need to see them very differently to what you have been seeing them because they're not like you said it's not you're not going on there to aid say socialised. You're not going on there to use it for what it was built for. You're going on there to engage in a very, very different way. And you need to it's a complete different mind shift for some people. And as soon as you see that mind shift As soon as you see that difference, the platform's become very different places. Like I've met some amazing people, you know, I mean, you purely through LinkedIn, and probably through through somebody else, LinkedIn. And it's just it's that craziness. And and if I was on there just for watching videos or consuming the content, I've simply, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. And that's that's that will be a sad world. Lenka Koppova Exactly. It's really unlock so much opportunities business wise, like, obviously most of my business comes from social comes from being on social media, but it is less about the content that I put out there even though yes, I do put books and I have ebooks and no, I do video training. But it then comes to me just showing up to when people post something when I see the day do something that they cried, and I'm just like commenting and sharing and liking. They remember that they remember how that made them feel that someone gave and comes up with someone supported them. And if they then need your help, they're more likely to come to you. So is really helpful if you just build relationships and help others genuinely. Peter Sumpton And like you said, Just you don't even have to push yourself just just get involved, just common. And that that is that is just taken, tap away. And that's what that's all it is just start with that. And it might not be for you. That's the thing, and but you just learn as you go along. But I think that was the thing for me with Instagram, I probably didn't use it to the best of my ability, but it just didn't work for me in the way that I I work. Lenka Koppova And that's absolutely fine. Again, you just do you and you'd be where you want to be. But I think that every platform these days gives you all the accessibility options. So I know that some people are not the ones who which type. And other people are not the ones who do video, and other people are not the ones who would like to talk. So you have two options. You can type, you can record audio, you can record videos, you can communicate with people in the way that feels the most natural to you. Peter Sumpton And I suppose one thing to note there, and I'm just talking from a LinkedIn basis, it's, it's doing those different things that make you stand out, you might feel a little uncomfortable, and I'm not advocating, I personally feel if you're in that little uncomfortable zone. That's when you start to grow and develop. But for some people, they're just not there. And that's absolutely fine. But it's things like messaging. And I don't do it enough. But like yesterday, I was I was messaging somebody. And they instead of trying to type out a long winded message back, they did an audio and it stands out like a sore thumb. And if you did a video when everyone else is doing audio, it just stands out like a sore thumb. And that's on a personal level. You know, so there's so many opportunities. And just one quick question. I'm just conscious of time. But I thought I'd put this up because James is pretty much what we've been talking about just there. So talk to people is a great strategy to grow your business. And social allows us to talk to people at scale. And he loves the chat, which is absolutely super, but it's only great because rank is on with me today, which is fantastic in itself. So just on that point that James says, talking to people at scale, I suppose you can do both, can't you? You know, I've just been talking about peak speaking to people on on VM. And that's a one to one basis. But I noticed you just posted something. It was weird. Because before we got on this chart, I was looking at LinkedIn and lose a video view and then you popped up on the screen and I'm like, okay, like doubling, amazing day. But yeah, it's like you're speaking to speak people at scale on video. And that's a huge benefit. Lenka Koppova Well, I think that's where the benefit and the beauty of social media lies because social media allows you to reach out to anyone and everyone it is an open democratic platform where there is no gatekeeper, you can send a message out there and millions of people can see it the same time. It allows every single individual to be able to interact with you. There is no one you know, it's not like you, you can't interact with TV, you can shout at it. But it's probably the only thing you will do. Like something if you like something you can interact with it. And if you keep majority of your conversations on the public domain where someone tweets you someone messages us on the comments in a conversation going to a certain point publicly, Yes, exactly. It is public, everyone else can see it. No, you are investing in a conversation one on one potentially under comments on LinkedIn under someone's post that you you know, you reply to a reply but I can have a conversation. it for you. It might be I'm having a conversation with one person, but there might be hundreds of other people who will read the conversation. And who will align who might comment or might not comment will might follow you because of the who might like to because of that. And then yes, it's just then taking it to the next level of no picking from the scale the people who will resonate with you, and then taking those relationships to the next level by going to the DMS or one personalised chat. Peter Sumpton And that's why it's so important to be important to be yourself, isn't it? You know, because you want to resonate with people that you want to work with eventually. And if you're you, and people see you for you, and they are still willing, well, in my case, they're still willing to chat to me, then that that means that they can put up with me in my ramblings on on marketing, important strategy and everything else's, I'm really conscious of things I want to cover and then on to social media. And then this year, first thing is, people get hung up on on the likes, the comments and all that kind of stuff. How do you stop people from worrying if they're putting out content, and there's not that much engagement on the face of it from what they've seen stat wise. Lenka Koppova So there are statistics and numbers that are meaningful, and there are stats that are meaningless, like watching the numbers of followers doesn't really matter, like on Twitter, and Instagram, on other platforms, if you use the right hashtags, if your content is interesting and valuable, then it will be spread widely, and it can go way beyond your number of followers. So it's important to understand the meaningful metrics, the metrics that really show you the indication of the quality and the interest in your content in your business in your offering, which could be, you know, comments could be shares, it could be DMS, obviously, it is web traffic, it is email science, it is video views, repeat views. But I would say, especially at the early stages, it takes a long while it is very interesting to see that social media works kind of exponential in a way that there is a long lead up to them quite quick growth and take off too, sometimes, you know, 12, to 18 months of day to day activity of surgery, podcasters can see the new example of podcast after podcast that the first nine months just nothing happened. And then out of nowhere, it goes like this, it goes fast. But without putting the work in, in the first stage, it wouldn't, you wouldn't get there it is there is something about your resilience and consistency and persevere. And understanding that even though social media will give you results immediately, you can measure anything and everything from three second views to you know, likes here and there. It's important to know that the meaningful metrics and the meaningful results, take time and be patient. Peter Sumpton And yeah, it's a marathon, not a sprint, at the end of the day. So just moving back to your event. Just I suppose two quick questions. Really, before we wrap up? what's what's the worst thing about organising an event online? Lenka Koppova I think the worst thing is kind of not knowing if the technology will work. Because in person, you know, yes, there are some tech aspects that you need to pay attention to, like a microphone and stuff like that. But also then you you actually have real people in real life in you in in the room with you to help you this way, where, you know, we are all in our rooms, we're all in different parts of the world if something goes wrong before our team before myself that for one of the attendees, how will I be able to help them and fix it? I was always the fixed and running around, told him for blanks doing this and isn't knowing that everything is under control. And who is the person? Where do I go? And right now I feel like very early on, if something goes wrong, yes, I know the person but I can't do anything. And if some something's not working on someone's laptop, how will I help them to fix it? Because I don't know. Peter Sumpton Yeah, I mean that that that would be a main worry, because that's the whole event, isn't it? So So On the flip side, what's the best thing about organising this event or any event that you've done? Lenka Koppova I think organising online events really allows you not to be bounded by location because we've always been involved in the Cambridge event. We had people from UK coming, but there was always commuting as always to drive and park. And this way we can welcome audiences from all around the world. And we had people coming to our workshops and Facebook events, people from not only Europe, we managed to get people from all around the world coming to Cambridge Social Media Group, to connect with others, and work with others and learn windows, which is the most wonderful feeling. Because I love connecting people, I love being connected to different people from different places, learn about how social media works there, what it can learn from them. So I think this is the best thing that we can take everyone globally. Transcribed by https://otter.ai  Main Intro Music Featured on this Podcast: Intro 1N15 Setuniman http://www.setuniman.com/  Creative Commons License
31 minutes | 2 months ago
Strategic Marketing Theories Explained – TOWS Analysis (3 of 6) - Episode 137
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This is part three of six. Over the next six weeks we’ll have a slightly different feel on the podcast, It’s just going to be me, myself and I, as I chat through six of the most important and influential theory’s within Marketing This six part series is actually the second season in reviewing, explaining and demonstrating how to use these powerful Marketing tools, but it’s the first time I’ve shared it on the podcast. Why am I doing this? I’ve partnered up with Professional Academy (intro to them later) to bring all those aspiring Marketers six explainer live episodes, which you can catch on a Thursday (link in the show notes) This has been put together to make you a better All-Round Marketer, from Auditing, right through to controls and measurements. This week we take a look at TOWS ANALYSIS Watch the video series: https://bit.ly/35AEWrA  Podcast Summary How can the TOWS Analysis Help YOU As A Strategic Marketer? 1 - Bridges the gap between a situation analysis or research (where are we now)? 2 - Develop forward thinking strategic directions (where do we want to go)? 3 - It is based on research and sound knowledge which can be explained to important stakeholders within the organisation to gain buy-in 4 - You can use this along with a SWOT to very quickly create strategic focal points 5 - Following this step by step process creates a link between the present and the future. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
24 minutes | 2 months ago
Marketing and Strategy - Live Episode 6
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Topic: Marketing and Strategy Discussion Points • The difference between strategy and tactics • Why strategy is so important? • How to develop and Marketing Strategy Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion) Peter Sumpton Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of marketing. And with me Peter Sumpton, the Lego master of marketing, hence the little wavy Lego man as we started. I'm marketing consultant first and foremost. But I cover everything within the marketing genre. My mission in life is to help as many companies as many organisations as possible, see the value known understand the value of marketing, and then implement it so they can become a marketing focused and orientated company. If they don't, they will disappear in the long run, usually, because this gives them a short term view of the world and not a long term view of the world. And specifically, not a long term view of the world from a customer's point of view. So what are we talking about today? So what we're talking about today is marketing and strategy. That old strategy thing? What is it? Why is it different from tactics? What should we know about strategy that we don't? How can we formulate a strategy quite easy. Those are the things that we need to know. And we need to understand to become a better marketer, I always always talk about good marketer, bad marketer. And there's certain elements, certain components, or certain things that good marketers do, that bad marketers don't do. And this is one of them, understand the importance of a strategy and understand the difference from a strategy to a tactic. And that's hugely important in marketing, hugely important in any walk of life, but marketing more than any. So on that, if you've got any questions about marketing strategy failand, to me, put them in the comments. And I'll do my best to answer them throughout this live or after it if you're watching post live, or indeed, if you're listening to the podcast, of which this will formulate into part of the marketing study lab podcast series. So let's get on with this strategy thing. What is a strategy? And why should we utilise one? So a strategy is quite difficult to quantify. Everyone talks about being strategic, everyone talks about having a strategy a strategic direction. The way I like to define a strategy is it's how we're going to get somewhere how we're going to achieve something which is usually an objective, but it gives us an overall view as to how we are going to achieve a particular something. Now in marketing, that is usually to increase a competitive advantage, or improve some kind of return on investment, usually through sales or something monetary. Now, it doesn't have to be monetary. It doesn't have to be monetary, as long as there is some kind of objective that we can then work out the ROI and we can quantify it. So from that point of view, this could be signups downloads, event signups attendance, it doesn't have to necessarily be monetary. But at the end of the day, companies are really there to make money. So it's probably going to be some kind of financial element that is the end ROI. So that is kind of what a strategy is, it's how we are going to get to a designated place. How are we are going to provide a competitive advantage within our marketplace. And that is the strategic direction. Those are our strategic elements that we want to focus on. That all sounds really difficult and really tough and really hard to kind of work out and work out what we should be doing in terms of strategy. So what I want to do today is go through something we call toes, okay, loads of jokes, loads of gags, and I'm not going to go into the dad jokes of toes and pinkies and big toes and all that I'm pretty sure you can fill in the blanks on that one. But what I want to do is look at the toes analysis model, t, o w. s. Now, for those of you in marketing, you've probably heard of it before, you might have even used it. But if you swap the letters round and you look it up backwards, it's swapped. Now I think everybody in marketing knows what a SWOT analysis is. Everybody in business knows what a SWOT analysis is. Peter Sumpton toes makes what important. So let's start. I'm going to share my screen in a minute. But let's start by looking at a SWOT and what a SWOT actually does. Because this is important, because this we can't get to the toes analysis without doing the SWOT first. So if I've got this right, here we go look at that, how magic is that? On the screen superb. Like I say, we need to start with a SWOT to get to our toes and get to our strategic direction. So this Peter Sumpton a caveat here. To do Peter Sumpton a good SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a business. We need to do our research, we need to use models and deep research and data and information to a certain extent. So that then we can understand internally, what our main strengths and weaknesses are, and externally, where our opportunities and where our threats going to come from. And I'm not here to talk about the different models and how we collect this data and understand it and what it all means. I'm here today to talk about the SWOT onwards, because the SWOT comes at the end of your marketing audit. It's a thing that compiles all your research and data and information, and shows you your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities, and threats, and says these are the most fundamental parts of your business of what's happening. Right Peter Sumpton now. Peter Sumpton What the toes does, Peter Sumpton is take that on a step further and bridges the gap between your audit and your objectives and your strategic direction. In between that, we look to set objectives. But what I'm focusing on today is that part where you've got your audit nailed, you know, where your company stands, what it needs to do, and everything that's going on around it. So these what I'm going to show you today, I'll take you through the SWOT and then we're going to dive into the toes. So we'll do the swap that quickly. So say we've done our analysis, we've done our research, we understand where our company is right now. And what we've discovered is that these four elements, our makeup, our strengths are come to the letter and the number in a moment. So I'm not going to talk through all of them, let's just call them our strengths, Peter Sumpton then we've got our weaknesses. Peter Sumpton Again, I'm not going to talk through all of these, I want to dive into the SWOT more at the toes more sorry. We've got opportunities are external opportunities within the marketplace. And then also our threats, what's threatening threatening our business externally. So we're looking opportunities and threats to the external environment. Remember, strengths and weaknesses are internal. So great, we've done a little bit of a SWOT analysis, they're super fantastic. These are the main fundamentals that we need to know and understand about our business. Great. Now we know where we are. That doesn't help us move forward, though, as it is, this just gives us markers as to what is happening right now in our business. The reason that there is a letter and then a number attributed to each one is where the toes comes into it. If we don't let your number then we get slightly confused later on. So it's quite an easy letter, a numbering system. The strengths start with that. The weaknesses start with w the the opportunity start with Oh, and the threat start with T. And then all we do is we add a number 123456789, and so on and so forth until we run out of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats that we can talk about. There's no definitive number, it's best to keep it quite short. I'd say no more than 10 probably six, seven is your sweet spot. Peter Sumpton But these are the Peter Sumpton most important elements to our business right now. So we've done this, we've done our analysis, we've got our SWOT. Now what? Well, now what is the magic part? If the toes part and being the marketing geek that I am I this my favourite model? I absolutely love this model could talk about it all day long. Because I think it is that important, because to create a strategy. It really, really focuses you in on what you're good at or better, and what's happening in your marketplace. Peter Sumpton Positive or negatively. So if Peter Sumpton we just take a step back, Peter Sumpton we've done our strengths and weaknesses. We've done our opportunities and threats in the marketplace. We know our current status. So I'm going to take these now. And we're going to look to formulate some kind of strategy. So don't see this as a cheat or a hack. I hate that word, or hack to creating a strategy because there's loads of research that goes into it. On a top level, you could probably create a simple SWOT and understand what strategic direction you need to go in personally, or a business needs to go and personally, but I think that data or information that research prior to that gives it more substance, and also more buy in if you're trying to get a board of directors, for example, on board with your strategic direction. So we've done our due diligence, we know what's going on now. Peter Sumpton So what does Peter Sumpton the toes allow us to do? Peter Sumpton It allows us to take the internal aspects, and marry them up with the external aspects. And look at where we can create competitive advantages within our marketplace, a lot of fluffy words there. So let's dive into it. So what we do is we look at our strengths to maximise our opportunities. And we look at our strengths to minimise threats. So let's take the example we had and look at how the hell this might be done. So if we look at our strengths, we might go we got good distribution network that and we were looking to increase the others the opportunity to increase market share, Peter Sumpton we could potentially use our distribution network to do that. Peter Sumpton Also, we're great involved in the customer, we're great at co creating. And we understand that there's an untapped high end market, there's a huge opportunity to produce high end products, could be something that on the strengths and threat side. Again, we know we're good at co creating with our consumers. But there's a huge threat within our business because there's a skills gap within the market. So we're not getting the skills we require coming through in our business could be something Peter Sumpton that Peter Sumpton before we look at any strategic directions, let's do the same for that for the weaknesses against opportunities and threats. So what we do weaknesses seen as a negative, but if we can reduce these weaknesses, through looking at opportunities, they're no longer weaknesses, and then a double negative, the weaknesses to avoid threats, if we can reduce a weakness that avoids a threat, that is a really good strategy to have. That reduces that weakness within our business. It avoids a threat within the marketplace, which probably gives us a competitive advantage in some way, shape, or form. But let's talk me through. So weakness could be we've got no products that we upsell are currently Peter Sumpton cross sell. Peter Sumpton But we still understand that there's an opportunity to increase our market share, I'm pretty sure you could fill in the blanks there in terms of a strategic direction. Also, we've got a poorly implemented CRM. And as we know, in our marketplace, there's a huge opportunity for automation and a digital first approach. And then finally, if we flip it, and look at our weaknesses and our threats, we've got a poorly implemented CRM system, as we know. And the brand awareness is usually limited. So there could be something there to increase our brand awareness using our CRM, which we'll come on to in a minute. So this is how we start to compile or think about this Peter Sumpton what Peter Sumpton strategically to make it worth our while. So we're not just looking at what a strength what a weakness, what an opportunity or what a threat is. Peter Sumpton And this is where we start to look Peter Sumpton at strategies. So let's move on. So this is what we've just been talking about. those last two short slides that I showed you that had the arrows going to opportunities and threats from our strengths and weaknesses. On the screen that you can see now, if we get this right there are there apologies. On the screen. Now you can see, I've just put them together, the ones we spoke about. And that's all we've done here. It's important to note Now, if you've got any questions, drop them in the comments. And once I've shown you how to take these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and turn them into strategies, I'll happily answer those questions. I just can't see them at the moment. I'm going through this slide deck. Unfortunately, again, if you're listening to the podcast, you've got any questions about this episode, drop me an email, Peter at marketing study lab code at UK, hit me up on LinkedIn or any other social site that you can find me on back to the toes analysis. So this is where the actual magic happens. We showed the back end, this is where the magic happens. So we've got five we've got six links between what's going on internally in our company, and what's happening in the external wider environment. And what I'm going to show you is how you At the importance of first lettering and numbering them, and then how you change these into strategic directions. So remember, we're not looking for the tactics. We're not looking for actually how we're going to achieve this, how we're going to do this. We're just looking for our strategic direction, how we're going to do it, not the details. A good strategy should tell people how you're going to do it, but not exactly what is needed to do it. The best example I can give there is if you're going to take a car journey, you said, I'm going to arrive at certain destination at 6pm. For example, my strategy is I'm going to take my car Peter Sumpton to get to to reach that objective. Peter Sumpton So everybody knows you're going to be driving. That is your strategy. They don't know if there's any passengers. What roads you'll take the need to refuel. Are you going to take any snaps with you? Are you going to stop at any service stations? Are you going to take motorways? What speed you go going to be at? All those things? Those are the tactics. Peter Sumpton Back to the SWOT analysis, Peter Sumpton right. Okay, so we've got our strengths and opportunities. One strength was good distribution network network, and an opportunity was to increase market share. So what does that look like as a tactic? What does that look like as a strategy, what we could do is utilise existing distribution channels to increase the visibility of our products, ie next day delivery, great strategy, not quite sure what the tactics are going to be. Yeah, it's borderline because you could say a tactic is next day delivery. But we don't know who we're going to use for that. What the caveats in terms of time constraints are, what products and services we're talking about will be delivered next day, Peter Sumpton those types of things, your tactics. Peter Sumpton So let's just look at the other five very quickly. Peter Sumpton We're excellent at co creating with customers. And we've got an untapped high end market. Why don't as a strategy, we focus on producing high quality products, or developing high quality products with a consumer or customer knowledge and information. Peter Sumpton Because we're really good at co creating, Peter Sumpton we know high end products are in demand. Peter Sumpton So let's do that as a strategy. Peter Sumpton What about Peter Sumpton strengths are threats, though, so again, excellent at co creating with consumers, but there's a skill gap within the marketplace? Well, let's integrate co creation deeper into the company, invite our customers in, make them allow them to help us develop better products. In turn, we're reducing that skill gap that our competitors may still have. Because we're inviting our Peter Sumpton customers to help us co create Peter Sumpton weaknesses and opportunities. Peter Sumpton Well, we know we've got no products, we can upsell or cross sell. And we're looking to increase our market share. So wouldn't the strategy make sense to focus on compatible products and services to complement the existing range, that's probably a product development strategy. Again, it could link with some other strategies that we've got going on on the board at the moment. Okay, last two. So we've got a poorly implemented CRM. And we know that automation or digital first approaches, becoming more prevalent as a huge opportunity to take advantage of them. So what's the strategic direction here or potential strategic direction, we could look to improve, improve our internal services, and create efficiencies and therefore improve our service. So if you take a step back, we've used digital, we've used it to help us improve our CRM system, and in turn, improve our services. Peter Sumpton And finally, my favourite, the double negative, Peter Sumpton the weaknesses and the threats. So we're saying we've got a poorly implemented CRM system here. We're also saying that our brand awareness is limited, it's looking pretty crummy out there. It's looking not good for us if we look at these two elements that our research has shown, so what can we do here? So what we can do is we can focus on reliable data, gaining reliable data, and then use that reliable data because we've improved our CRM using that reliable data to enhance the awareness of our brand within our existing marketplace. So don't let down a little bit. We're going to go through our CRM, CRM, clean it up. use that information on people that want to hear from us to generate more awareness in our brand. Now, how we do that the comms channels we utilise what we say in those comms channels, timings, all that kind of stuff. Peter Sumpton Those are our tactics. Peter Sumpton This is the strategy Peter Sumpton and that is how you utilise the toes model to generate a strategic direction for your business. Peter Sumpton Start with your SWOT. Peter Sumpton If you want to go further back, start with your research. And then incorporate that into a SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses internally, opportunities and threats externally. Then you look at what's internal and what's external. And start to see where the combinations lie when you've seen those combinations, and it should be starting to become apparent to you, when you see those combinations, then you can start this toes analysis and start to think of, Okay, so we've got a pull CRM, and our brand awareness is poor. But if we date this data, we could probably communicate with the people that want to hear from us and increase our brand awareness as a strategic direction looking to increase brand awareness within our current marketplace. Peter Sumpton And that is a strategic direction market penetration. Peter Sumpton Okay, so that is how you utilise a SWOT but more importantly Atos to do your strategic thinking. Now, I know that's a lot to take in in 20 minutes. But listen back, if you need to rewind it, pause it. It's important we get this right, because there's a massive difference between strategy and tactics. And fundamentally, marketing is lacking strategic thinking. We're all focused on the tactics. We're all focused on the cons. We're all focused on the content creation. If we don't know our strategy, we don't know our objectives. How can we achieve good tactics to achieve those things? We don't? How can we get people on board? If we haven't got strategic direction? a bigger picture? A long term vision. Okay, so I think I can get off my soapbox. Now. I'm not quite sure. But maybe I can, maybe I can't. But seriously, if you're struggling with this, please reach out to me. I'd love Love, love to help you a little bit more, create these valuable strategies within our marketplace, make us all better marketers, and make marketing as an industry more aligned to our company's needs. And once that was a short one from me. I'm going to leave it there. And if you want to have a look at this presentation, drop me a comment. I'll happily send it to you. On my website, marketing study lab at the top, you'll see there's a link to a customer journey planning and also a market marketing plan. Step by step process of which this is part of. So utilise that, go on the website, download it, utilise it and let's make marketing I nearly said great again, I'm not going to go down that route. Let's allow ourselves to focus strategically when we think about marketing first and foremost. Anyway, that's enough for me, who provided some value into your lives. Happy marketing. Transcribed by https://otter.ai  Main Intro Music Featured on this Podcast: Intro 1N15 Setuniman http://www.setuniman.com/  Creative Commons License
32 minutes | 3 months ago
Strategic Marketing Theories Explained – Stakeholder Mapping (2 of 6) - Episode 136
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This is part two of six. Over the next six weeks we’ll have a slightly different feel on the podcast, It’s just going to be me, myself and I, as I chat through six of the most important and influential theory’s within Marketing. This six part series is actually the second season in reviewing, explaining and demonstrating how to use these powerful Marketing tools, but it’s the first time I’ve shared it on the podcast. Why am I doing this? I’ve partnered up with Professional Academy (intro to them later) to bring all those aspiring Marketers six explainer live episodes, which you can catch on a Thursday (link in the show notes) This has been put together to make you a better All-Round Marketer, from Auditing, right through to controls and measurements. This week we take a look at STAKEHOLDER MAPPING Watch the video series: https://bit.ly/35AEWrA Podcast Summary Stakeholder mapping allows you to identify key players that will influence your project and its success; 1. Find out who has the most influence 2. Focus on those who will benefit most. Probably who serve 3. See where resources are needed and what they are 4. Have a game plan to manage, monitor and control If you don’t understand your stakeholders, you are placing an insular view on your world and those that can influence what you are doing. This will become a hindrance and cause major issues in the long-term. Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
39 minutes | 3 months ago
Strategic Marketing Theories Explained – Marketing Audit (1 of 6) - Episode 135
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di  Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81  Intro This is part one of six. Over the next six weeks we’ll have a slightly different feel on the podcast, It’s just going to be me, myself and I, as I chat through six of the most important and influential theory’s within Marketing today. This six part series is actually the second season in reviewing, explaining and demonstrating how to use these powerful Marketing tools, but it’s the first time I’ve shared it on the podcast. Why am I doing this? I’ve partnered up with Professional Academy (intro to them later) to bring all those aspiring Marketers six explainer live episodes, which you can catch on a Thursday (link in the show notes) This has been put together to make you a better All-Round Marketer, from Auditing, right through to controls and measurements. This week we take a look at THE MARKETING AUDIT Watch the video series: https://bit.ly/35AEWrA  Podcast Summary The best audits don’t assume anything, it is a fact-finding mission form which analysis can be drawn To do this correctly you need to understand the various models that are available and their place with the audit Data overload is a thing. You can analysis to much without any action. Get what you need to draw conclusions and implement. Don’t be scared to use models in part, mix and match or develop them yourself, it’s all about getting the best data in a manageable format for you to draw conclusions, do worry about getting the models wrong or using them in a way that is slightly different to the norm. It’s all about gaining the best insight and learning from what is available to you in order to develop strategic decisions to move forward Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License
54 minutes | 3 months ago
Marketing and History - Live Episode 4
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962 (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest: Em Wilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emwilson36274/) Topic: Marketing and History Discussion Points • Tractor magazines • Toothpaste changing a nations habits • Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? • Is smoking healthy? • Sample cards • Historical brands and logos Link to the live video:https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6715289765270315009/ Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81 Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion) Peter Sumpton  Hello and welcome. My name is Peter Sumpton, marketing consultant and Lego master of marketing and you're listening to the marketing study lab podcast live. Well, this bit isn't live, but the rest of it is. You'll hear a bit about that later. I mean, now, let's crack on. These episodes are taken from my live show marketing, where we look at the relationship between marketing and a specific topic. Subject or specialism. Sometimes there'll be guests, other times, it will just be me. So let's get cracking. Right, apparently we are live. Fantastic. Great thing. First first time and Wilson Welcome to LinkedIn live. It's wonderful in here, isn't it? Absolutely marvellous. So glad you'd say you do this. I'm really looking forward to it. Because I know you've put a lot of time and effort into the research into this and every time you post something, in terms of the history of marketing and all that kind of stuff. It's really engaging, really exciting. And I just can't wait to see what you've got for us today. But I'm going to chip in with a few things as well if you don't mind. But before we do that, first of all, introduce yourself to the lovely audience who are you?   Em Wilson  Well we take screenshots Everyone knows that we're live wire on my station.   Peter Sumpton  I was looking at the camera there. It's not gonna look good.   Em Wilson  I don't look great either to be better excited.   Yeah, introduce yourself. So I'm m Wilson. I run an international marketing agency called Mari Mari located at UK and and yeah, bit of a bit of a weird and wonderful squiggly career into marketing. So and started in the commercial team at BP and trading so as a buyer, and then went into strategy for Europe for Castro then I did some global social media for BP, their tech startup through a successful investment round. And then I did six months with a as a marketing director and business development manager and then yeah, walked out and started Omari   Peter Sumpton  as you do, where does the name of Mari come from?   Em Wilson  And so, in honesty, it's a bit of a smush of my my name and my husband's name. So we save you money. And and yeah, we were just always always married. So that was because we were proper from day one. So   Peter Sumpton  great, great little story that absolutely fantastic. And how is life in general? And   Em Wilson  yeah, really good actually. I mean, I think I'm, you know, I'm in a bit of a COVID bubble because I don't really I don't really know anyone that's been affected touch word. And and and in honesty, although we've had you know, some struggles I think everyone's had some struggles during COVID. And you know, lots of our clients have have you know, we've had to stop projects and do payment plans and things like that, but overall, I think Yeah, not it's not the bit I've missed most is actually my Latin dance classes, which is out of everything you know, it's not a lot to complain about, is it?   Peter Sumpton  Anyone who's ever gonna come in here and say I'm missing my dance class?   Em Wilson  That's that's all like that thing really and hug people as well. person and I'm really struggling with not being able to sort of cut off people because you know that you might think they made it into the best man speech at my wedding was like the you know, the legendary avocados. Yeah.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for asking. Yeah, all good. Bit of a cold which is a bit of a downer. But apart from that all is all is good with life To be fair, busy, busy, busy, which is always fun and always exciting. But yeah, things are things are going pretty damn good. Again, similar to you can't complain touchwood, my own little bubble, that kind of stuff. But have been infiltrated by a call. But apart from that, all is really good. Right? Okay, we should really talk about some serious stuff shouldn't we'll give people watching at least something to keep rather than our life stories. So what I wanted to talk to you today about so the way I'm doing these lives is that it's kind of like a marketing and series. So this this is classed as marketing and history, but it doesn't really do it justice. So I think the great thing and anyone that doesn't follow, please follow and go back through some of the videos and some of the posts about some historic elements in marketing and how it's been used through history and time and stuff like that. It's amazing. And plus, take a look at the videos where she just picks something random that a client has asked glean a lot of information from them. It's pretty much how I do all my strategies to be fair. Watch your videos, and then pick You know, the bowl and go? Yeah, that's about right. Let's do anyone that's watching. I don't do that. Okay, but so what I want to do is dive into kind of the history of marketing or certain elements of the history or certain things you've found that's really interesting, fascinating that we might even learn from. So first and foremost, take it away, what, what would you say is like, let's start on a high the most exciting thing or the most interesting thing that you that you've seen recently in terms of marketing and history.   Em Wilson  And so I'm, I'm a really big fan of the custom magazine, so that I've got a I've got a lot of time for that. And basically, it's different companies creating magazines for their particular target audience. Because it's really interesting. There is a brilliant book by Joe bootsy, that talks about how do you make marketing a profit centre? And one of the ways you do that is through a magazine that you get people to pay for. And so that got me like, hooked, like, when did it start from, you know, obviously, we had the Gutenberg press in 1450, or whatever it was so and then everyone always talks about the Pharaoh, which started in I think it was 1895, which was a tractor magazine. And so I've learned about tractors. But actually, the first, the first magazine I can find was in 1730. And there was a race between Ben Franklin and this other guy to who could get the first published magazine in America, which I found really fascinating. So he started that off, that was quite nice. And then, with the magazines that what I found quite interesting about that was just how, like, if you think about the 1730s, like, the only way that people could really mark it was like word of mouth. It was, and, you know, posters on the side of building, which actually got, it got so bad, because people are doing it so often, that actually got banned in London and France.   And France.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, no one else had posted.   Em Wilson  But that I found really interesting. And then, and you know, the adverts from like the 1800s, as well. And so there was I found out about this whole thing about the baking powder was, and which is really exciting. Yeah, so baking powder in like the, you know, late 17 1700s, early 1800s was this, like the adverts and nuts? Like they're just so because what you don't realise is that no, baking powder was like, female liberation at the time, like a woman's worth is defined by the quality of her bread. So like baking powder was incredible. And it's so it was so competitive. And like, you look at all the adverts, and they're just, they're just insane. They're just really fun. And in terms of the different things that they did, and I think, you know, it's kind of, then you move on, and you kind of have, and obviously the posters and everything, all the adverts from that magazine went out into the posters, and then the posters got banned. So then we had the billboard, and billboards came out in like 1860s. And I think that the first one was rented in 1867. And what I find amazing about these things is that, you know, like, if you think, however many years later, so 2010 Mini, like the car company, look pretty glued and actual mini to the top of the Billboard, as sort of, you know, shout out marketing think outside the box. And I just, you know, you see all these things that happened in sort of, yeah, the 1718 1900s and how that kind of came through, like telemarketing. So I'm under the like telemarketing. Everyone thinks that's like 1970s 1980s Wolf of Wall Street. started in the early 1900s by a bunch of housewives who wanted to sell more cookies. Yeah. So not even joking. And he then had, and they basically sold the original lead list of, you know, local directories, and these ladies would just ring each other up and say, you know, my recipe is better than yours. Do you want to buy my piece?   Peter Sumpton  I just I find it fascinating how? Here we overcomplicate marketing, like we just do massively. And I always find it interesting to go back to its roots and original, where it all came from, and all that kind of stuff. And from from what I know, and what I found, is that there's no no one can give you a definitive, this is where marketing started. This is how this grew. Yeah, there's like tally marks in our posters and stuff like that. But it's usually someone's doing it in one country, or someone's doing it over here at the same time, roughly the same time, or whatever it is, and they derive something slightly different. And I just think typifies what marketing is all about, you know, trying new things, testing new things trying to stand out, but to a particular audience, and I think it's really interesting that if you read the history and go try to go back as far as you can, there isn't a Well, this person said this, and that led to, there are certain elements, but there's almost it's almost hearsay if you like.   Em Wilson  Yeah. And that I think that's the bit I find I find fascinating about it. And the bit I really enjoy about like, the history of marketing particularly is just its effect on society. Like, I don't think you know, so like, and I always go back to the toothpaste analogy, so, and advertising actually save the teeth of a nation.   And so   my favourite, one of my favourites,   that and you know, so back in the early 1900s, again, and only like 7% of Americans brush their teeth every day, which just seems insane. Yeah. And then this guy, called, I think his name's Claude Hopkins or something. But he, he basically got asked to advertise some toothpaste. But obviously, nobody really got it, they didn't really understand why they needed it. So he went and wrote read a load of dentistry books, which was really boring. And he found out about plaque and how it leaves like the film on your teeth. And he is actually one of the earliest examples of the cue and reward and advertising and marketing that we can find or I found today. And so the cue is if you feel the film on your teeth, then the reward is brushwood, Pepcid and get like the tingling feeling. Okay. Yeah.   And yeah, and so by the end, so it was all sort of do the tongue test, I think was his tagline. And, and he is like, within a decade, 65% of Americans were then brushing their teeth every day. And he also you had like the beginnings of influencer marketing, because Clark Gable was known for his Pepsi dense smile, Shirley Temple, you know, all of these people are so yeah, it's just I think that's, it's sort of the Mad Men era that I really enjoy.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah. And we, we need, and things are slightly changed from when I was, was being educated in marketing, if you want to call it that. But it's, I'd say, a lot of people get into the industry, because of that madman era, which is, I think it's slightly changed now. But and it's more, I suppose I have a Zuckerberg error if you like. And that's why people get into it, whether they fall into it by accident, or they want to, but I was hugely influenced by the fact that the psychology behind marketing and how it can have a massive influence on Well, actually a nation, like you just said, to the point of view that it changes culture. And I feel like did it change culture, people like cleaning the teeth.   That's, that's my,   Em Wilson  that was the bit in their social dilemma. I don't know if you've seen it on Netflix yet. But that's, I mean, that just makes you want to throw your phone out the window, and start talking about all the data that people get from, from your social media channels and stuff. But I thought was really interesting about that was it wasn't that the consumer was the was the main thing, like getting more customers wasn't actually the main thing. It was behavioural change. Or it was all kind of focused on and I thought that was Yeah, just really interesting. But I look to the the old, the old marketing, so mad men is usually associated with the 1950s, isn't it? I was talking about sort of the Victorian Mad Men, I sort of see them,   Peter Sumpton  okay.   Em Wilson  But, and also, like, think about Michelin, so like, and the tires, they started their publication in 1904. And because they wanted people to go explore, so they wear the tie that more often so that they, you know, so much higher. And now it's like the industry standard or gold standard for restaurants and things.   of 100 years.   Peter Sumpton  And that's it makes it makes me laugh. Like today when you hear people come up with some crazy ideas or crazy concepts within within marketing or everyone thinks that that's what we do. We draw stuff we call stuff in we come up with stupid ideas. Okay, we kind of do, but there's a lot of there's a lot of theory and methodology behind it. Imagine going into a boardroom. And, like, just on the face of it saying, right, we're at a company, what do you want to do? I know what we're gonna do. We're gonna give restaurants rewards. What how, how does that work? I but the theory behind it is absolutely bang, when you tell people that story, but that's how the stars came about and all that kind of stuff. It's like, Oh, yeah. And that's what really fascinates me about like, the history of marketing is the fact that you look at various things. And most people like the toothpaste, for example, they probably thought he was crazy. Like he never got to get people to clean the teeth. But doing his research, and bringing it forward to what people gather data for is behavioural change. That's pretty much what he did. He went back and read books and said, right, okay, this is a thing that I feel can influence people to change the way they think about their teeth.   Em Wilson  But what I love about that one particularly is like the dentist history books he read, he said in his autobiography that they were like, so dry because it was just all about what newsone plaque and like, just sounds and making it, you know, by calling it the film, like anybody can understand that anybody knows when you wrap your your tongue across your teeth, exactly how that feels, you know, if you've had a glass of red wine or something, you can feel it. It was that it was making, I think sometimes it marketing is just about making the complex, simple. And certainly like that the you know, that's the the challenge that keeps me in interested in in what I do is a lot of my work is actually how do you take this really sort of techie complicated thing and make it ama friendly, I call it   sort of anybody could understand   And I think that's, that's the important bit of a bit of marketing. And I think also, like, the other thing that we learn from the history is to play to your strengths. So, you know, think about, you know, post World War, you had the the VW, the Volkswagen, and you sell, you know, a German car, that's pretty rubbish in comparison with its western counterparts. And, and you know, and it's got horrible name on it. And what you do is you call it a VW, and all of the copy around those adverts were about the fact Yes, it was very small. And no, it wasn't going to go very fast. But it was reliable, and it wasn't going to need a lot of upkeep. So for people in post war, you know, post war Britain, post war America, it was actually as long as you call it VW Volkswagen actually not, it was a lot easier to get that that message across and actually became, it became a bit of a personality symbol a bit like the Mini is now. You know, for people, it's a bit quirky. And you know, many really, I think they actually took the lessons from VW from the 50s. And sort of brought that sort of into its own in the sort of the 2010. And because they were they were, you know, really playing on the on the mini sort of quirky personality. Yeah, yeah, that's really, I really enjoy it.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, I mean, I, again, I mean, there's so many lessons we learn through looking at history and what's gone before us and all that kind of stuff. And we should always be looking forward. Don't get me wrong. But looking back to that. And and, again, the simplicity of marketing is, you know, you've got something that solves a problem. How do you get it into the hands of the people that have that problem? That's it, you know, that's all we're here to do? Through various methods or whatever. And pretty much, that's what VW did. They're like, Okay, we've got this car. So I'm going to suit everyone. It just isn't it fundamentally isn't. And we don't say Volkswagen, because that is far too German. So how do we get into this UK in this US market, right? We're going to need a name change, fine tick. But it's too small for most. So we're not targeting big families. We're not targeting people that want to do long journeys. Let's just be really focused and targeted on the people that that may want this. And let's make our comms about them. And how this car isn't made for everyone. And straight away, you're, you're in a select club isn't made for everyone.   Em Wilson  Yeah, you have to opt in. Yeah. And what I, what I love about those adverts as well is they really understood the power of whitespace. So like, if you look at their adverts, it's literally like a full page. And it's this tiny little car in the top right hand corner. And then there's a little bit of text at the bottom, I mean, talk about minimalism. It was you know, it was cutting edge really, in terms of like in terms of the messaging in terms of the coffee, I bowed down to those guys, they were they you know, absolutely incredible with what they did. But also, you know, sometimes you can solve a problem too easily. So, you know, tell me what you just said on its head a little bit.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, no, go for it.   Em Wilson  Think another foodie one. But if you think Betty Crocker, so when she started, because obviously, you know, after, after the telephone, we had the radio, and then you obviously went to TV. And And what was interesting about that was that when she started with her cooking mixes in the early 50s, and you know, all the all women had to do was add water. And I thought, well, this is you know, they thought this is going to fly off the shelves, it's going to be amazing. And you know, it's going to make life so much easier for women and they can just, you know, sit back have a have couple of gems or however they want to do. And actually it was too easy. And, and their their sales didn't didn't do anything at all. So they had to actually add an egg that became the thing was add an egg. And then because then it was something about adding two ingredients that made women feel like they'd been important, because what they were suffering from was a form of guilt. Like it's too easy. I'm getting great feedback on my amazing cake that I didn't make this better. But by adding an egg, I don't know why there's some psychology in there. So that made it that made it they felt more invested and therefore it flew off the shelf after that,   Peter Sumpton  even that that's understanding your audience, isn't it going back to what we say and it's just understanding the market that you're serving and learning from your mistakes. I suppose You've taken it too far. But you're   Em Wilson  taking on feedback because they could have just carried on flogging it with the Add water. They could have just you know, you could have just seen more and more adverts coming out about that, but it was actually going to the customer base and going, why don't you like this? And, you know, actually making the making the effort and the point to not assume that they knew the answer. I think that's the really key point to take away from that example actually is, and like in today's society, I think because we're just so data driven, you know, you've got robots pretending to be humans and humans pretending to be robots. And we get so stressed about the data, we actually just forget to talk to one another. And that's, you know, such a such an incredible and you know, the feedback you can get from your clients and prospective clients. You know, every conversation you can learn something quite interesting.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah.   Absolutely. So just just a quick hello to James, he was on last last Friday, and we had a good Well, I'm gonna have to say we had good crack because he's Irish nickel me If I don't take a crack, at least once on the show. That was the contract that to sign. So he asked the question, and I've got no idea. The answer this, but this will be interesting. So what in history was the first most recognisable brand?   That's a bit of a big one, isn't it?   So, I mean, that's a Wikipedia question. And to be perfectly honest, I'd be amazed if there wasn't, if there wasn't actual answer to that. And from by that, what I mean, is that this probably recognisable brands going back way, way way. I mean, it's probably going to be something like Coca Cola or something. My first   Em Wilson  thought, but then when they first started, they only sold like, they didn't sell many bottles at all.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. So I'm just trying to think of like, I think Coca Cola took the brand and made a thing, like in terms of what brand can do, because that is bigger than the actual rubbish that we sell, isn't it? Sorry.   It's not all   Em Wilson  green. And then now he's now he's red, because that was Coca Cola, wasn't it? That's always the I don't know if that's actually true. That might be myth and legend rather than actual true fact.   Peter Sumpton  Nothing is true.   It Well, they seem to claim it's true, but you just follow it up with that. So I don't know whether he's on Wikipedia or not. But yeah, yeah, we thought it was Coca Cola as well. But I think that massively depends on the country as well, because there was probably recognisable brands in the, in the in the UK, that weren't necessarily in us or whatever. But having said that, well, we've got some great participation now. So we'll just should just keep clicking char. So he comes up with this one, which is probably right   Em Wilson  about it. It was probably alcohol, it was probably a vise Yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, something that's not good for you. Because   Peter Sumpton  I'm thinking cigarettes, maybe?   Em Wilson  Well, they were they when they first came out. They were not that's what   Peter Sumpton  I mean. But it's still a race, which I was going to come on to in a minute, we'll come back to smoking. It's not actual smoking. But ama says that it could be Ford. Yeah. Which quite interesting. Although she has it's   too late. Probably. I'm not quite sure about   if she means for not her answer.   For I think for took the from my point of view Anyway, I'm not sure what you think about Sam but I think from for took the fact that brands probably know consumers better than they know themselves. And well, they're   Em Wilson  thinking about it. And you probably see if you think like in terms of brand, something like tea. I've just had a look at em on. I'm just on the time. Time website at the moment. And what closure? Absolutely. Yeah, like Google is your friend. And so stellar artwork was apparently that their logo was first used in 1366. So their oldest brand that times found anyway. And but what they said was actually yeah, Twinings tea that was 1887 if you think about sort of the trade routes and stuff, yeah, that kind of makes sense to me. So   no, like if someone asks a question, I don't know the answer, right.   Peter Sumpton  Chrissy says, loughs gone, Sarah, that's got that's got to be down. That's somewhere that has got to be. I think it's not going back as far as stellar or Twinings, but that's got to be somewhere. Definitely, so Okay, thanks, James. for that question. We've kind of ruined the whole show that but you know, we'll let you off. No, no, no, I have any further questions. Like please please dive in. Because some of those were, if anyone does actually know if anyone's got anything different From stellar or Twinings, that'd be interesting to know. I mean, fact we only deal with fun. Absolutely. So just going back to smoking gun, I'm not, I'm gonna never have never will. But I find it really interesting. And I'm gonna bring this to the modern day. But I find it really interesting that smoking was always seen as a positive thing to do, and a health thing. And the fact that menthol cigarettes were, so you could have fresh breath and stuff like that. And I find it really interesting that some things we take today. And I get your take on the smoking thing in a minute, but some things we take today. So things that were fundamentally made up like, I think I mentioned this in a previous show, but breakfast most important meal of the day. Well, I wonder where that came from? Would it be research that was conducted and sponsored by cereal manufacturer is   Em Wilson  by any chance? Yeah,   Peter Sumpton  absolutely. So no wonder it's the most important deal meal of the day. But it's the fact that going back to smoking, that the trust and belief that we have in what people tell us. And that's why brands are so important. And that's why brands have a place in society, but they can have a huge impact on how we feel about certain things. So what's your take on the whole smoking thing, then? going way back?   Em Wilson  Well, in terms of   Peter Sumpton  in terms of in terms of, of the how they used it as a positive?   Em Wilson  Yeah, I mean, they they use the oldest trick in the book, didn't they? They just, they just used it as sex. It was, you know, only cool people it was, you know, there wasn't any sort of, you know, boring person in the outfits, it was all to do with them. You know, it was it was a lifestyle choice. It was you, you you bought into that into that look into that into that vote if you like, you know, same way I buy an Apple Computer, because it says something about me, I think, you know, when you explain to me It said something about you and, and brand loyalty that mean, having been a buyer. And I actually did quite a lot on the sort of analysis of tobacco, and the brand loyalty is insane. Yeah, yes. So, you know, and tobacco is, you know, one of the biggest categories in you know, one of the, one of the certainly most profitable, and because, you know, it's addictive, isn't it? So? But yeah, we had to keep certain ranges and you'd like but we sell four of these a year. But you'd like your but Mike in that particular? No, Petra, he can't get his brand. He will start you know, shopping in Shell. Yeah. So yeah, I think the brand loyalty was it was was mad. And I think they have, they have done quite a lot in terms of, I think the the going dark was a, you know, quite stressful and but really good idea. And I'm not entirely sure how, how you be interesting, I haven't done the research on it and the need to on the, you know, having the adverts on the front of the packets, something if you if you're going to smoke, you're going to smoke to be interesting to see, I think what was I always had this idea of, you know, rather than having any advertising on it, almost have it like brown paper, and then in the cigarette packet have like a crayon, so you can draw on it. And but obviously, that's got charged presentation, suppose possibly not, but yeah, the I think it What amazes me is how long it took actually, for smoking, you know, the dangers of smoking and, and the realities of sort of, you know, the consequences of it, to actually filter into, into consciousness. And into, you know, because people would just for so long and accepted it, you know, in the war, so just smoke to keep going, you know, it was it was, it was something that they needed. And in a way, you know, great stress. It was a stress relief. But that's how it was noted, I think and say, yeah, just just the fact that it became so pervasive in such a, you know, reasonably short amount of time, actually, if you think World War 119 40. And today or to, you know, the sort of when it started becoming, you know,   bad idea.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, I think right. And I think train trends change, and what we learn about certain things has, has a huge, huge impact on what we know, like and trust in our particular brands. Interesting. I was told this, so this this is going off on somebody told me rather than fact, but I think it's fact. So when when Steve Jobs, wanted to push and promote Apple computers, he didn't just go he didn't go down the address. He didn't just do that. He didn't just think right, okay, I need to be everywhere all the time. He gave them away to very influential people at the time. And it's just like, I don't know whether that was quite unique in what you did at the time. But knowing and understanding that culture and knowing and understanding that if you gives it to influential people that is far more influential than putting something in print in a certain magazine. I mean, that's huge.   Em Wilson  Think about 1984. I mean, that was a moment in time that Superbowl advert and that cost him, you know, I think nearly a million to create, but that wasn't that wasn't an advert. That was it. That was a Mini Movie. Yeah, that was that wasn't you know, even now, when I watched that I get sort of, you know, skin freckles, it's just it was so he was so ahead of his time in terms of understanding that that's what people wanted. I mean, now you get it all the time, you know, Lego movies, you know, that was just a full feature.   ventilated, really, really well for that,   um, you know, and again, that's a marketing department becoming, you know, almost profitable in saying, right.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, absolutely. And   Em Wilson  as opposed to selling Lego. Yeah.   Peter Sumpton  Because that's what marketing needs to be seen as it does. It's not a it's not a cost to a business. It should be either a value or profit creator. And there's so many ways and it's interesting that the most the most innovative innovative one I've seen over the past like few days is the the Burger King and Stevenage linkup. I don't know if you've seen that. Well, that So what they did was, and I don't know hundred percent but basically, Burger King sponsored Stevenage. So when Stevenage were on a computer game in football, a football computer game sorry. All their players at Burger King on the top. So what Burger King did was say they did a whole campaign around play Stevenage and see how far you can get them saying the best players for Stevenage, you can buy the best players to see and everywhere you when it had Burger King on the top. So it was just unreal, just   Em Wilson  brilliant. I loved what they did in Germany when COVID started because they had the big six foot some bow around   it make it to the UK, I definitely would have bought one.   And one thing I liked about their communities, they they were always so and they've done some very interesting LGBT pieces recently. And so there's a piece between Burger King and Ronald McDonald, which I thought was very clever, and quite strong, quite powerful stuff. And but the other thing I liked about Burger King was they do you remember in I don't know. 20? Was it 2009 2010? They did the Delete 10 Facebook friends and get a free Whopper.   Peter Sumpton  All right, no, no.   Em Wilson  So and they say Facebook closed down eventually, because they they actually gave away 200,000   burgers.   But I think what they really clicked into was actually you know, how social media has fundamentally changed our understanding of friendships. In life, you know, if you I do an awful lot of work and speaking on social capital, and the power of social capital, and how that you know, the intrinsic value that you get from your relationships, and how that relates to the psychology of marketing, all that sort of stuff. But what's really interesting that is, you know, if you look at the data, people only really have 150 relationships, you know, those that you know, if you think about your, your wedding list, that's kind of your close circle, whereas on Facebook you can have you know, thousands LinkedIn same again, and and what they really kicked into and and also like, Who are you going to call for your free burger? Do you tell them? You know, you will my boss, but what for sacrifice? I think it was great. It was such a good, but I just thought that they was very bold, you know, to go, you know, even in 2009 2010 because, you know, Facebook wasn't, wasn't what it is now. And I just Yeah, I thought that was very clever. And the way that they'd sort of kicked into that cycle because it was very simple call to action. Anybody could do it. All you had to do was prove you deleted 10 friends and you get a free Whopper and hit me you know, who knows? Maybe on a behavioural level it made people think like, actually, you know, yeah, you're worth eating for a burger.   Peter Sumpton  I think I'd put my hand up and go, yeah, that's fine. I know. We're still mates. Just delete me. Like if you want that Whopper that we're just, I'm comfortable with that level of friendship. In fact, if you're going to tell someone, you're going to delete them for the burger, and they're happy with it, then you've got that level of relationship that's worth keeping offline really. To be fair. One thing first of all, Emma's not crafty. She's from Steven is just you know what the hell's going on. So I'll send you the link camera afterwards to see what's going on. But it's putting Stevenage on the map that most seller in Stevenage top for grey say you're winning on every level. But what's what's interesting to me is the fact that you said like what Burger King do is out there and it isn't and it you see a lot of innovative things that they do in terms of how they promote themselves and how they get in front of mass market. And but yet McDonald's is the market leader and they can't Get close to McDonald's. So like what's with that? Surely, in our marketing brain, it says that we have the most innovative, the most clever, the most backlog showed the best piece of comms, which is based on research, and it's a bit risky. And it's out there because no one's doing what we do. yet. We can't close this market leader.   Em Wilson  But I don't I think they they differentiate like, you know, they're very different. And, you know, you It's a bit like, you know, cat or dog, isn't it McDonald's or Burger King? You're either one or the other. And, you know, for me if I could have a Burger King burger with a McDonald's fries, and a KFC gravy like that? To be honest, because I'm from Birmingham, so chips and gravy is a standard. Hey, look,   Peter Sumpton  I'm more northern than you are. So don't come with your chips and gravy here. Like literally, we live on chips and gravy. It's like the sea is the river mercy? Yes. And   Em Wilson  it's really rubbish   that I found if anyone finds on that, because   my waistline doesn't, it'd be quite nice every now   and then. And but yeah, so I think I think, but they're also doing a lot of, you know, again, and they're sort of building those partnerships, aren't they? I mean, again, I don't know much about banking and McDonald's, where they're going with a marketing strategy, I have to have a look at that. But like, you are seeing more, so they did that whole thing where I can't one of them did a thing. Like, if you buy a burger, we'll give a load of money to charity.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, I think that's Burger King again.   Em Wilson  And then McDonald's will like go to Burger King, want them to give all the money. So that was quite nice, you know, friendly, sort of competitive collaboration in a way. And but I think I think, you know, they are they are very different. They stand for very different things. I think the products are quite, you know, although they're still burgers, whatever, they are different. And so I think, yeah, it's again, it's sort of standing in that sort of in, you know, being what you are, and being okay with it and not trying to be a me to type thing I like I've got, you know, I think a lot of brands are now moving into this sort of social responsibility space. And you said about how brands have no, they've got an awful lot of power and influence and liking at the moment is seeing more and more brands actually moving into that, and sort of space quite confidently. And so, you know, we talked about Superbowl earlier. So Pepsi was one that I was thinking about at the time, because they sponsored Superbowl, like 23 years. And then one year they did it and of course more fast by the fact they didn't. They did they got more press for it. And But what was interesting was actually decided that year to spend that money on that. It was like a grant effectively, the projects, you know, if you had some good project, you could you could go to them and ask for money. Problem was it then died to death about 10 months later, because of that it was covered in fraud allegation? So actually did the more harm because at the end of it, but that's because it wasn't done properly. Yeah, you know, and all due diligence, should we say? Yeah, but, but yeah, I thought, you know, it was quite a bold move to put that money behind a behind the statement. And but you see a lot of companies now now doing that, and what we've seen this year, I think, more than than than other years, potentially, or certainly, perhaps I've just become more aware of it more in my, you know, like when you're buying a car and then all you see is car adverts. Maybe that's why. And, you know, there's a lot of companies brands are now putting their foot down and saying, you know, this is what we this is what we stand for, this is what we and this is what we're doing, to sort of actually show that it's more than worse.   Peter Sumpton  And that that for me is is the the pivot point. For me. It's the, this is what we're doing to show that that's our that's what we believe because and this, you know, you might have different feelings on this. But when you see logos change to have rainbows in the background, or you see them change to support something fantastic. I'm not saying any of that isn't fantastic. What I'm saying is that this month, absolutely, yeah, but what happens when you move that rainbow? Is that not important anymore, or not important enough to be in your logo, it just opens a whole connotation that you don't you don't need and you can support things without being all ballsy about it. People will get to know about it. And the people that you want to know about it will because they're the same type of people and the people that you want to draw in   Em Wilson  Yeah, no, totally. I I think for me, you know a lot of people get caught out on this in terms of you know, a logo change so well it's not you know, that's not that's not action. I think going back you know what I'm finding is we're now in the digital you know, we're absolutely in the digital age and we you know, our marketing and since you know early noughties or whatever, and really is when it when it took off, but I think what we're seeing Now it's because everything is digitised. We're losing trust. And so it is that that, you know, everyone's talking about value and integrity and authenticity, we can use all the buzzwords, but fundamentally, you know, the results speak for themselves. So I'd much rather, you know, be working with a company that has, you know, proven their culture and can prove in their case study, and all of that sort of stuff, that they're actually doing tangible things, rather than just, you know, sprinkling some gifts on a logo once in a blue moon, Transcribed by https://otter.ai Main Intro Music Featured on this Podcast: Intro 1N15 Setuniman http://www.setuniman.com/ Creative Commons License
50 minutes | 3 months ago
Marketing Strategy with Dr. Krista Fabrick - Episode 134
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962  (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest and Episode Links Dr. Krista Fabrick https://www.kristafabrick.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/krista-fabrick/ Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81 Intro Something a little different this week as I want a share a recording of the first live a attempted to do way back in March of 2020. Yep, way back when we were young and mask free. Why am I sharing this now? As I think it is such a topical time to dive deep into all things Marketing Strategy. When your industry and buyers behaviour may be changing at a rapid rate, you should always focus on your strategic direction, whether this needs reassessing or nailed to the mast. A robust Marketing Strategy will weather most stormy seas… I really don’t know where these turgid sayings are coming from so let’s stop at now and get chatting to Marketing Study Lab second timer Krista Fabrick, now Dr. Krista Fabrick (but not at the time of recording which is why it isn’t really mentioned) – congrats by the way. In this episode we cover; - How to formulate a strategy - The difference between Strategy and Tactics - Pricing and perception - And of course, where do podcasts fit in with all this Without a random opener today, let’s dive straight in with a tentative ‘are we live yet?’ Watch the episode video:https://youtu.be/qfToaD-ZSlk  Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License
47 minutes | 3 months ago
Marketing and Finance - Live Episode 3
Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA  Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962 (from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes) Guest: James Perry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesperryaccountingsuccesscoach/) Topic: Marketing and Finance Discussion Points Guinness!! Irish history Personal branding Financial education Professional marketing qualifications Importance of practical experience Link to the live video:https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6712752394180075520/ Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81 Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion)   Peter Sumpton  Hello and welcome. My name is Peter Sumpton, marketing consultant and Lego master of marketing and you're listening to the marketing study lab podcast live. Well, this bit isn't live, but the rest of it is. You'll hear a bit about that later. I mean, now, let's crack on. These episodes are taken from my live show marketing and where we look at the relationship between marketing and a specific topic. Subject or specialism, sometimes there'll be guests other times it'll just be me. So let's get cracking Okay, fantastic. Live live live love it. And I am so delighted to be joined today for this little chat with Mr. James Perry. James How are you doing?   James Perry  I'm good Peter. What about yourself? Thank you for having me.   Peter Sumpton  No problem. I'm doing pretty damn well to be fair. Yeah, all is good big workshop today. Hang on one second. Yeah, just a bit of technical difficulty there Yeah, I did a workshop today that had loads of people in it which is absolutely fantastic all engaged all interested in in marketing and the theory and about how you build a marketing plan and stuff like that so I can't complain sunshine and I think it's a bit cold outside but who cares? This isn't a weather forecast. So we don't really care Believe it or not, the weather is lovely here. It's not cooled   James Perry  and we're in the north of Ireland here which is all we get out.   Get out that's not Peter like I say to people the London for Ireland this Hibernia which meant which means the land of water so I   Peter Sumpton  see now you're gonna have to come back on because I don't know enough about islands and I don't know how I'm going to link it to marketing but there's bound to be some way and your knowledge of marketing and marketing your knowledge of Island and the history is on real so yeah, we're gonna have to link that in some way shape or form I'm not sure how but like well   James Perry  here we go. One of the biggest brands in the world is Irish.   Guinness   Peter Sumpton  well see that's why I invite you on you just keep me in check and make me look fun cuz I'm   James Perry  brought on brand Ireland and I brand Ireland. For a country is incredibly strong. hoka high kind of country an island of 6 million people get every person in the water to celebrate Irishness on one particular day. Or Patrick's Day.   Peter Sumpton  Thoughts marketing at its finest. That is that is brilliant. That isn't how I thought we'd start today. But yeah, let's let's carry on down that route. Yeah, absolutely. Bang, right. Like, like what what Guinness Do you know, they are the antithesis of a heritage historic brand, which keeps transforming what they do from a Marxian perspective yet keeping that history. And those those brand qualities of the the, the white top, the black Guinness, that the iconic glass, that the only company I know that can create an advert about water, and not even mention what they actually sell what they actually do and that you should drink something else other than Guinness and then publicise it, I mean, just amazing stuff.   James Perry  The way that the company was find it, so there's finally over 300 years ago by Arthur chemists who signed this is true, a 9999 year lease on some chambers get   free, because that's one of the sources of Dublin mountain water.   Peter Sumpton  But that's not   James Perry  how they get the symbology as well, Peter, which odd stir brown the heart, the heart is the Brian baru ARP, okay, Brian brew was was an ancient Thai king of Ireland. And even that is symbolic. So you know exactly   what they're doing in terms of their branding.   Peter Sumpton  Well, but that's again, Irish knowledge come into the front. They're not only Irish, but marketing knowledge. Marvellous. And that's what that's what we're all about. I absolutely love it. We'll probably come back to that if we get a little bit bored later on.   James Perry  But we never get bored by Fred. We never get bored.   Peter Sumpton  Well, that is that is very true. That is very, very true. But let's try and stick to half an hour slash four or five hours. I think the mcse live you can go is four hours or something I can't remember. Anyway. That's Mike's it. Right? Okay. Let's go on to a few more serious elements. And then we'll come back to the Guinness stuff and all that kind of stuff. So let's start with your background, a little bit of information about yourself what you do and what you're all about right now. So everybody knows that, what we're what we're going to chat about and how amazing you are.   James Perry  Well, I'm a chartered accountant by profession, accountancy has always been been in the blood Peter so degree in accounting master's degree in accounting and worked for a firm called Grant Thornton for 10 years sort of bigger global firms was an associate director with them, then I moved in tend to stray from not even quarter of wkd, another another alcoholic drink Kima Francia controller with them. Then I left and went to the government, I was the government for government rule for four years, again, as a financial controller on then things happen in life where I had to take a career break, which then pushed me and to starting a company or a business called the cutting success coach, which is my main thrust in terms of LinkedIn and in terms of my, my own business with without, which is to coach accounting students on their exams, and also up and coming accountants and seasoned finance professionals through career development. So that's the main business, I am also a part time teacher, a teaching fellow with the University of Ulster as well. And teaching accounting. So that's my background is all pure accounting.   Peter Sumpton  Cool, excellent. And in a bizarre way, that's kind of how we met with your pure accounting background, my pure marketing background, we're both in the educational field, we both teach marketing, and finance professionally. So it was just really good connections. And the more we spoke about both, the more we realised, from an educational point of view, and just purely departmental, that the links and the synergies between both of them were, were unreal. And then we got chatting about that, and a whole host of other things we've got in common, but let's not mention that Liverpool, the champions of the world, and pretty much champions of everything, shall we? We'll just stick to the marketing and finance on   James Perry  our head is the greatest company ever.   Peter Sumpton  forgot about that? Yeah. God. Yeah, absolutely. Fantastic.   James Perry  You're You're definitely like in the synergies in both marketing on the coating, stroke finance, especially when it comes to getting a professional qualification, look, and examine assignment as an examine assignment, albeit a different topic. And the approaches, in my opinion, are very, very similar. So opposite. That's where we had thought that definitely the professional thing in common as well. Yeah. And we've both been there and Donna disposers, which the thing?   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, that's very true. And I remember speaking to somebody it was on it was on a, another podcast. And they were saying that I can't remember what field they went into. But they went to a university, and sat down in a bid business lecture. And the professor started talking. And he said, Can you give us an example of this, like, that you've been part of? And the professor said that will No, I've never been in business. I only know it academically. And the guy actually walked out. Because he's like, Well, you can't, I want to be successful in business. And there's only so far that I can go with you teaching me from an academic standpoint, if you haven't got any historical, practical application that I can learn from them. This isn't for me. And same with yourself and me. We've we've lived it with breathed it. And I think a lot of people don't give enough credit for the fact that it's all about storytelling. Marketing is all about storytelling, and we gauge with stories and people don't give enough credit for. Okay, this is the theory. But this is what happened to me, or this is a prime example of where it went wrong, or this is what we shouldn't do. Because we've I don't think people give enough credit for that.   James Perry  Absolutely not. If you can live and breathe, what you're teaching someone or what you're coaching someone that really adds a lot to it. I don't think I would have as much gravitas or could help as much if I was a part qualified accountant. I couldn't do that. Because I have sort of I qualified first time with everything. backgrounds always been in the profession. In terms of career, I got to see it very piscean monitored quite early. On no coming the other way with yourself. You know, we're taking the entrepreneurial and started starting on business and doing everything that comes along with that. And I think we're both in the right areas to help others. And I think that's a mean thing to Peter. You know, my endgame is I'm not enough to create the next generation because I'm not. Okay. What I am about, though, is to help people live the life that they want, by getting a world class professional qualification. And by doing things that I learned to, to sort of prepare yourself career forward and live your life you want. That's what I'm all about. And I mean, I'm in this to have a lifestyle business. So that's why I want to teach people how to do that.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree from a slightly different standpoint, I think the thing that's missing academically, both marketing and on finance, from what I understand from what you've told me, is the fact that we see it as this, I get this qualification, then then I can do finance, I can do marketing, people will employ me I become employable. Yes, it helps, yes, you get a foot in the door. But what happens when things go wrong? You can't necessarily rely on what you've you've kind of learned, you need that practical experience. And what you said there was really interesting about end game, then why do you want this qualification and some people just want qualifications, because it shows them they can do what they can do, which is fantastic and great. not denying that at all. But others just want it for to progress in their career as well. And, yes, it might help to a certain level, but then I feel there's a lot missing that people don't talk about. For example, when I when I talk, there's the academic marketing, and then there's the real life marketing, the very, very similar, they both need to fit. But sometimes to get that qualification, you need to talk in a certain way. Whereas in real life, you would do things slightly different. It's not the same in in finance.   James Perry  In terms of theoretical versus practical, huh?   Yeah, yes.   Give me a quick example of that. One of the top one of the topics that people find very difficult than a coding is if you're doing an auditing exam, especially if you've never worked in auditing. So if you work and you're doing someone's a concert, if you're working in a tax department, you will find it incredibly hard to relate to auditing. But because I worked in auditing, I could relate to it. And that's something I can help people with a lot. Okay, but there's a massive difference between what it says in the books or what actually happens in real life. You know, what I mean? So there is a very, very different practical element to it. And I suppose, and my coaching, Peter, I very rarely talk accounting. What I what I do talk as though was with the practical applications of that accounting, because people can go and get all the material and learn from a learning provider, but I helped to apply that amount to different thing. Different things all together. And then especially with career development, you can read all the books in the world about career development, unless you unless you've done something, or you can talk to someone who's made all the mistakes like me, you know, shock when you learn about respect as well. So did a massive difference sometimes between theory and practice? Absolutely. But sometimes you have to know your theory before you do the practice.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, yeah. And and, and that, that is the crux of the matter, there were the first live that I did with with Dr. I, we were talking about education and all that kind of stuff, and saying that it's hugely important to know that this theory, but theory alone, wouldn't necessarily get you through life, depending on what you wanted to do. And it is that that application, whereas if you flip it, and you've got no theory, then you're very, very fortunate if you can craft a career of any substance within a certain field, if you don't have that foundational level. And I'm presuming, like to my, my thoughts on on on finance, and that kind of area is that I wouldn't trust anyone that hadn't got a financial qualification to do my finances. I you know, just just wouldn't be in the same respect. If I went to a chartered accountant, then I probably want them to have X amount years of experience, rather than being that that fresh out is out of qualification. Do you think do you think once you've got a qualification, you are ready to take on the world? Or what? Let me rephrase that. What are the things that aren't taught? So you just pass the exam? What are the things that aren't taught that might hit you in the face when it comes to reality?   James Perry  One thing one point will make actually believe it or not, and it's it is a point for debate within the profession, is that you can call yourself an accountant or not be qualified. Okay. Right. You can actually believe it or not, and some of the best accountants that I know aren't qualified, and then not times that I tell them to get on the horse. get qualified is crazy, because it's adds so much credibility. credibility. So that's the first point in terms of the next bit. If someone has just qualified and they've got the accounting qualification, what I would tend to suggest is that they get that they stay with it where they are for perhaps a year or so or two. I don't know if it's the same in the marketing profession, but it's one or two years of what we call post qualification experience and accounting. And that normally is where you learn a lot of things. So there are a lot of people who perhaps qualify, say, in a coding practice, or within industry, perhaps, and I would say, stay where you are on and learn. Because that's, especially if you're going to go into senior management. And one thing that happened to me, Peter, was that I went that this was quite an extreme route. I went from being just newly qualified, straight into a senior management role. And I wasn't, I wasn't the manager, I wasn't manager, I was mid senior manager, I was promoted incredibly quick. Okay. And I was basically said, durscher portfolio of clients, go and figure it all out. Right. That's what I was taught. So I had to sink or swim. And I learned the hard way. No, that was when I was 10 or 12 years ago, and you'd like to think there's a bit more of a change, and I with proper coaching and things like that. So what I say to someone who is newly qualified, is this one to two years post qualification experience, and get a mentor or a coach. Absolutely, yeah. Because I've said, I've made all the mistakes. I was the one who didn't Dalit didn't know how to delegate. I was the only had this trinkets Knights. I was the one who was made stuff monitor at 20 it with all my mates, I was then their boss, I made every single mistake in the book. So get a mentor who's been there?   Because I tell you what not to do, you know?   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, that is very true. And although we learn from our mistakes, there's some mistakes you just don't want other people to make and others, you almost feel like they've they've got to learn from those mistakes. And that's not to say that, okay, well, well, you can come in work for me or I can be your mentor. But I'm going to let you screw up. It's not that at all most will. This is my experience, but you probably better experience in it for yourself.   James Perry  Absolutely. You have to you have to walk work and run.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, yeah. So just to go back to the question, is it the same in in marketing, so what I would say, for anybody that's looking for a career in marketing, slightly different, the approach that I would take is that I would say, Don't jump to any particular position. Don't go for any particular job, look at look at the company, look at how they operate, look to see if they're marketing orientated, or whether they're sales focused, or production focused, because you will have a very, very different working life. If you work for a company that's marketing orientated, you will learn a shedload more than you will if they are sales focused, because what will probably happen is that you will be more comms based, and you will be more admin based at the very start. Whereas if it's marketing focus, yes, you'll have the admin functionality, because you're at the bottom of the ladder, but it will be marketing, it will be focused. So you'll get involved in product, you'll get involved in price place, you're getting definitely involved in the communications, because that's kind of what anyone sees nowadays is just the comms in marketing. And I think that's an issue we've got to face. But yes, slightly different to what you would say in finance. My advice would be more about think about the company, and what they can offer in terms of your education in marketing.   James Perry  It's funny, even as you say that,   whenever I was in the industry, and then in the business, once I left the ground floor, marketing was always seen as the sexy thing. Whereas finances, that's the boring thing, okay. But one thing I would say about accounting, if you are an accountant, is to go and talk to everyone else. Go on talk to the marketing department and sales department because what tends to happen or something that people have to realise is that accounting or the finance department is the eyes and ears of the entire business. Therefore, you have to pop relationships with marketing, CS, operations, Treasury, whatever that means. Be. So that's one thing that any marketing students are out there and you're with an industry, go and talk to your accountant Scott, talk to finance. Go and because remember, you're one organisation, it's not, am I that sometimes happens, where departments in a certain in one business think that they're competing they're competing or not? Yeah, that's one thing I learned massively. And accounting, I believe the term of content will be no longer and five years, we will be called business partners. That's what I believe will be called. Okay. That's because the numbers will take care of themselves through AI and blockchain. So we have to actually get off our seats and go talk to people. That's, that's what's happening. So that's where marketing and finance will really coexist.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, it was a topic that I wanted to raise with you Really? What What can what can marketing ask finance and what can finance learn or understand how that relationship with marketing but completely agree like, across their whole business, similarly, within marketing, that the fact that you need to be involved in pricing, so you kind of want to talk to the finance department to see if you're profitable or not, you need to be involved in in the product. So technical, technical, and r&d and stuff like that. And the same for finance, you know, r&d, you could spend an absolute fortune on r&d and not get anywhere. But if you've got that financial backing to say, well, these are our pinch points, you can take it that far before we need to do this, we can rely on this product for that income, then, you know, the world is a better place. And I love the fact that you just said we're one company and we work in silos some some times and that is a really, really sad thing. Just Quick, quick comment. Will to actually from from Connor, he says, Yeah, the company can teach you so much. But love this one. loving this first time are tuned in. So I'm guessing that's because it's the first time you've tuned in and you just looked out with James Perry being my guest. So   James Perry  I would have a guest Connor. Okay, if you hop off the hop and Irish connection, there   Peter Sumpton  is balance. We can't connect, let us know. Yeah, absolutely. And if you if you've got any Irish history related questions, now's the time. Now's the time to ask them. Just Just on that, just to say, if anyone has got any questions about marketing, and finance, marketing, or finance and how they coexist, or how they work together, you know, please, please do speak up happy to take them on board. So just going back to that question, from your point of view, from a finance perspective, what would you want to know from from marketing to so we can coexist?   James Perry  The first point, if anything, with marketing or than any other department, the first, the first thing that always happens at the start of the year budgeting? Yeah, okay. This is with a bottle of normally. But again, it's having conversation. So if you are a head of marketing, if you're a head of thought sort of department, again, is not to try not to sit on your laurels and going, oh, we're going to get 5% on top of last year's budget, that does not work anymore. First thing is you need to go and talk to each other. And on the terms of finance, Peter, our terms of marketing, especially, it's gonna be very topical night because my farts bring in business with with the the recession and the depression living. What's the first thing to go? marketing budget is cost. Yep. Okay, so that's all the conversations that may need to be hard. Because the other school of thought is that whenever markets are low, or whenever the economy is low, that's the time you need to promote. That is the time you need to invest. So there's so it's actually really topical the conversations that should be compared to marketing finance right now. Hmm.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, I agree. So if if anybody and I'll put a link in the comments after this because after find out my phone, but Mark Ritson at marketing professor, and consultant, he wrote an article that was published today, and it was talking about sales funnels and stuff like that. But one of the examples he gave was, and I can't remember the company, but an insurance company in Australia, and basically, the final, not the financial officer, sorry, the marketing officer. He doubled down on his advertising within this period, but he did it from from a branding perspective, as well as a sales perspective. So what he did, he went to finance and said, Look, I need more money because of this. And he explained it and what they did was they had this this when no one was advertising. They put all their money into advertising. So they got huge search. Advice. And then what they did, they had these small mini campaigns, where it was a case of we know times are tough. So here's 10 Australian dollars a month to insure you for fire, theft and damage. And that was the short term tactic. And it just worked on believably well, and he gives some stats in that article. And it was just a perfect example of knowing the marketing, but also knowing to talk to finance and saying, look, this is the state that we're in. But through what I know and what I understand we need to invest in you can't really do that without your finance department being on board.   James Perry  Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's really interesting you say out too, because even from a personal marketing standpoint, bronze, Peter Brown, James. And I was actually on a course today and the question that I put out there was in the world of all this personal branding and personal marketing, I dare How can you make yourself stand out? And it's similar business and similar, similar personal, the same personal was your grant because of your Lego? Right? That makes you stand out? I probably stopped it because I'm the most on stereotypical thing. Right? I am. I like to think I'm not boring at all. I've got a personality. But I thought that was a really great question that was posed today. So I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna be somebody who fires a question back to the host. What can people do? Or what can businesses do to make themselves stand out from the crowd in today's climate?   Peter Sumpton  I mean, I think you've hit the nail on the head with with Lego. Here I am, just for anybody that hasn't seen rowing. There we go. That was the fella. So yeah, I think it's being being memorable or being known for one thing, who you are, and being true to that over a consistent period of time. So unfortunately, nowadays, we live in an economy and that now economy, like I ordered something from Amazon ATM yesterday morning, and it was supposed to arrive before 10pm, the same day it didn't. But I've done that previously. And it has it's arrived the same day. And that is just not it was an extension lead. And it's like, how are you making money off that? So anyway, so be known for one thing, if you want a really good book to read, and a big shout out to john esperion. It's called content DNA. And what he says in that, he says that, you should have kind of three things that everything you do gears around. So that could be and I haven't nailed mine down. So I'm giving advice, and I'm trying to follow it. But I'm not 100% there yet. I'm still playing around with a few things. So so mine, my non negotiables are Lego, helpful, and witty. So everything you see from me should be either all those three things, or one of those things. If it's not, it's not me. And so to build a personal brand, it needs to be individually, you and there's only one of you. Now, the problem you've got James, you're in a great position, because like you say, if if you said, Peter, what do I do? And I hadn't met you. There's no way I would guess what you do. So you being you stands out in your marketplace. Now, if you didn't, I would say become known for a particular thing. So whether that's you wear a bow tie, whether you are a flat cup, whether you have a catchy strapline, whether you do all those things, it's about being consistent. And I don't care how dry or boring or on entertaining somebody thinks they are. They will appeal to a certain demographic, and don't focus on everyone. Even Harry Potter doesn't appeal to everybody. So if you if you're looking for 1000 likes and to please 1000 people forget it. If you're looking to please 1015 people out of the thousands, you're on the right lines. So that's what I would say be known for the right things but make it you because the one thing you don't want is to build up this personal brand of I'm James I'm always I'm always funny, always witty, I know loads of Irish history, and then I meet you, and you know nothing about Ireland, and you're just dull and boring. And I'm like, well, you're not the person I thought you were and and the one thing I would say it's actually in this book, a quote from me, although I didn't originate the quote, but a brand is a promise. And that's the same For individuals, so when I'm talking to you, James, you've promised me that you will be engaging, you will bring your your financial knowledge, you will bring your Irish knowledge, you will be true and honest and open. And if you weren't that, I just be like, well, something's wrong here. And that's who you are. So stay true to your brand and be known. Yeah, so don't break that promise, either. And if you've been false, you'll end up breaking that promise.   James Perry  The there are two things, and one I have actively worked on. On the two things that are your superpowers. One is sleep, right? Sleeping that the part I tell my students that I'm not joking that folks, if you don't have your sleep sorted, get it sorted. Hmm. Second one is consistency. And that is the super part that I neglected for a lot for a long time. So why would have been especially on LinkedIn for my own business, I would have been up here, massive peak post and stuff stopped doing well. And then you go into that truck, and you go into that trough of God, I'm not getting too many likes or follows around. But that's a self fulfilling prophecy, because he don't post you're not going to get them anyway. To be perfectly honest, Peter likes and all that sort of stuff of comments isn't necessarily my metric anymore. Because of to try and get clients and to get eyeballs on my posts. So few use engagement, DNS in the background, having really good conversations with people. What I want to get from this, but I have solved the problem. Now I've got a VA. So I have got over the last couple of years, and the intermittent posting, I'm creating content, I maybe have two or three years with content on my laptop, and I went to my VA and I went just you go nuts. which gives me that platform of consistency. Mm hmm. It's an education piece swept to educate her, where I want her to go with it. Now she's, I could say, just slightly more creative than me, in some ways, now quite creative in other ways. But it also gives me the scope to engage, it gives me the scope to have those conversations with people in the background. And that's something so another tip I would give anybody out there is that given consistency is your shipper part of whichever discipline, if you're not going to be so good at a time source that because it's really, really important. And that's something I've learned massively, you know, I have probably over the last six months been more successful than I have last financial year on it probably factors are probably about it. It is because I've been much, much more consistent over the last six months.   Peter Sumpton  So and I suppose that that's one thing that a lot of people take for granted. So a lot of people that class themselves have influences or whatever you want to call them. You see them a lot, you see them over a consistent period of time. And that is because they're consistently posting, they're consistently on a particular platform, and you get to know them. And that's exactly what you were just saying there. It's it's all about the consistency and using a VA i think is a great idea. And I'm toying with the idea right now. And I just think that I'm so glad you went to say that, you know, it's a bit of a learning curve, because the one thing you don't want to do is outsource and then you lose you. So I'm guessing in terms of the engagement and the conversations you have that is still you it's just the consistency is being helped with having this other person do the ad mini side of being consistent. And I was very lucky who I got from my VA so I have tried and busted   James Perry  our trading task division say a number. But what I do personally is nothing business related as myself on a friend on another young lady. I've got a podcast on we have just we thought we talk rubbish   Peter Sumpton  grin and bear it   James Perry  up grunenberg with Rebecca right so Rebecca is nine my VA on that's where I've been quite lucky. Okay, so Rebecca knows me personally, she knows that I'm like she is she creates movies. She has written a novel. She's not even 25 yet. She adds fantastic in the way she thinks she's very creative. And I went okay, Rebecca, you can kill two birds with one stone here. I am creative. But I'm quite logical in the way that I think. Can you help me paint more of a story about me, but also takes the burden off me to actually have it done on my business at the same time? And I said, Look, I'll pay X amount a month. Yeah, no problem. And that has been one of the best moves either For me, I have I have paid people who don't know me, I have paid. And I just been quite lucky that that has happened for me. But it still is an education process and I will be a continual process. You know, I've noticed that the quality, my deliverable to my posts and my graphics, on even the blurb and the wording of stuff in LinkedIn is infinitely better than what it was a year ago. So again, it has evolved through maybe as help as well. So definitely get people on site that will help you because we're not going to be great at everything we can't be.   Peter Sumpton  Yeah, that that is one fable, if that's the right word it within marketing, it's that. And I'm pretty sure anyone in lighting will will agree that that you have to be excellent at everything. And people expect you to be excellent at everything. So not only do you have to know the ins and outs of LinkedIn, but then you also have to know how to set up and design a brochure or a trade publication. And then you know, you need to know the printing process and the difference between CNY K and RGB and the different types of paper and because you're in marketing, and it's just, it's not true, because you cannot you cannot understand everything. It's It's nuts. Is that kind of similar in a way to to finance or it.   James Perry  Yeah, okay. Peter, people come to me and ask about tax all the time I have in my life, not a tax return.   Peter Sumpton  I asked you as well, like,   James Perry  I don't know, I don't even do my own. MIT does it for me. The reason why that was is because I can draw up my own company kind of not a problem. But my specialism in a bright trend was audit. So I used to go into other companies and audit their books to verify that were recalled true and fair. And basically reasonable. And I was I was a damn good auditor. And then whenever I went into industry, I drew up the books off Wk to either drink or I stabilised the finance team. And then I write and talk to the rest of the business. So I, for example, will not look at pensions or tax or anything like that. People come to me because I'm an accountant, automatically thinking that I know but that might though.   Peter Sumpton  Right? So many synergies there.   James Perry  Absolutely. Is the probably the same in marketing. There's so many but you're specialised that. And there's some areas that are not. And that's the reason why in some of these big organisations, like it's so many different departments. So for example, Grant Thornton are known as chartered accountants, but you've got departments for everything. You know, so I'm not the reason why, you know, you can be, you can be what jack of all trades and Master of None. Yeah.   Peter Sumpton  And there's loads of things to pull from that and discuss really, and I'm just conscious of time, but that's all. But there's no way we could we could break the timer. But they talk about that the T shaped marketer, so you've got a good grounding in all disciplines. And then you focus a speciality on one or maybe two. And that's fine. But the one thing I would say to that is that everyone's different, and everyone's unique. And don't be pigeonholed into one thing or another, unless you want to be a specialist in that area. If you want to be a specialist on PPC, on SEO, fantastic, brilliant, and then maybe branch out into other areas on no other areas of marketing. But if you want to be an all round marketer, I think you need to know and understand a lot. But think more strategically, because that's the bit that's missing the strategy element within marketing we all go for the tactic, we all go for the cons, we all go for the video, and the editing behind that and content creation and stuff like that. But it's the strategic element because all that content creation is great. But like you said with consistency, not only do you have to show up consistently, but you have to have a consistent message which again goes back to your personal brand and be known for particular things. So for example for you James, I know that if I see a post that is that is black, and I don't know what political it at turquoisey blue, it's   James Perry  it's the colour of the colour and the ripples on the shirt.   Peter Sumpton  That's where they got the colour from. I wondered that brilliant, I love it. But yeah, it's those two colours, then I know it's going to be James Perry, and it's going to be talking about accountancy. And because that is you've been consistent over a period of time with those colours. One if you want to check out anybody that does that unbelievably well. There's a lady on LinkedIn. She's very prominent LinkedIn called Mary Henderson. Her colours are pink, black and grey on real Everything you see is pink, black and grey every time I see something that's pink, I just think Mary Henderson's post. Transcribed by https://otter.ai Main Intro Music Featured on this Podcast:Intro 1N15 Setuniman http://www.setuniman.com/ Creative Commons License
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