Marketing Study Lab - Actionable Marketing Knowledge

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Guest and Episode Links Doug Marshall Website: https://www.achieveb2bmarketing.com/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/dougsmarshall  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmarshalllinkedin/ 

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 For the majority of Marketers, they will find themselves within the B2B (Business to Business) Marketing space rather than B2C (Business to Consumer), but as we all know there are many blurred lines here in terms of the strategies and tactics we should be using.

Enter Doug Marshall the MD of Achieve B2B Marketing a company well within the B2B space when it comes to strategic planning and marketing communications. Doug has a wealth of Marketing experience, with a background in the publishing industry rising to Group Head of Marketing before becoming a Marketing Consultant.

In this episode we cover; - The difference between B2C and B2B Marketing - What you should focus on first - The details behind a Marketing plan - The biggest frustrations within B2B Marketing

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/xjJSsJa8eyM 

Takeaways Top Tip It sounds crazy that some companies don’t consider this, but when you are entrenched in something sometimes it’s hard to see above it. When Doug stated that you need to ask the customers what they want!, it made perfect sense. Our businesses are there to solve a problem and we need to know what problem needs solving the most!

Favourite Quote ‘Think of the emotions someone in the B2B space is going through’ and it’s so easily missed as we often see B2B as transactional, but there are still people involved here, real, physical people and we can’t forget that. Get to know them as well as you know the business as you’re selling to them, not to the business.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode We’ve got to remember that measuring and monitoring our activities is fundamental for future improvements and success. Using the NPS (Net Promotor Score) and review sites provides a really good overview of how well a company is doing from both the qualitative and quantitative. Do this over a period of time to see trends and patterns to help you in the future.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License

This is a recap episode with one of my first ever guests, but an important one - PR Smith, creator of the SOSTAC Marketing Planning System.

Why so important?

SOSTAC is one of the most important and fundamental models that I promote and actively use. Basically, if you are in Marketing and don't know or use this model.... are you REALLY in Marketing?

No. The answer to this is NO.

For further information on this episode, check out the show notes:

https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/episode-10-sostac-pr-smith-paul-smith/

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 

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Guest and Episode Links Richard Moore https://therichardmoore.com/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardjamesmoore/  richard@therichardmoore.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

Part 2 of 2 Just a quick reminder that this is part 2 of a 2 part chat with Richard Moore and how to Master the Sales Process. If you haven’t already, check out the first episode from last week.

Last week we ended by talking about how using video is a much better way of communicating than using the standard telephone (they still exist I’ve been told). Now let’s get back to Richard and all things sales.

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/9YTc1TY6YuA 

Takeaways Top Tip Richard discussed thinking about the objectives and outcomes and making them realistic to your position. For example, if it’s your first day in a sales role and you are inexperienced, then the objective is to make those calls rather than be a closer. You’re one step closer to moving to the next level and a successful sales process.

It’s exactly the same in Marketing, you’re not going to revolutionise the world or even a company on day one. Take it one step at a time.

Favourite Quote If your rejection rate is high due to the price point, then it’s best to pre-qualify that the pricing you offer isn’t an issue before moving forward. ‘You need to deliver a little nugget of information in the first 30 seconds of the conversion as to why you’re premium, and then that doesn’t come up so much’.

Pre-qualification thought the customer journey is imperative as to not waste your time or your potential clients.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Take note. Content forms gravity. Powerful words indeed. You need to build you bank of content that is helpful to the people you are looking to serve. The more you push out into the world, the more your ideal clients will start to notice you and gravitate towards you.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License

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 Richard Moore https://therichardmoore.com/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardjamesmoore/  richard@therichardmoore.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 

Part 1 of 2 Just a quick note that this is part one of two of this interview with Richard Moore. He provided so much value that I decided to chop him in half and serve him up over two weeks for you. And now that odd and a little scary intro. Here’s Pete with the official intro and remember to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss part two next week.

Intro Sales and Marketing, two opposites. But opposites often attract and in this case they should and do. I always like to think about sales as the end result of good Marketing and I stand by that.

That said, understanding the sale process, how it can work in tandem with Marketing can be the difference between closing a sale and getting the door closed on you.

It’s about time we put some clarity around this and who better than Richard Moore, or The Richard Moore as his domain names states.

Richard has gone from 60-hour work weeks in the City of London to setting up his own business to help others gain momentum as they launched their own.

Richard also runs a weekly live Q&A and creates courses such as Basics of Sales and his flagship product: the LinkedIn Client Accelerator programme and has been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Inc, Thrive, Influencive as well as on podcasts just like this.

In these episodes we cover: - Getting into the right mindset - Gaining the attention of the RIGHT clients - Warming-up leads - Dealing with objections - Closing the sale - What to do next?

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/9YTc1TY6YuA

Takeaways Top Tip Richard discussed thinking about the objectives and outcomes and making them realistic to your position. For example, if its your first day in a sales role and you are inexperienced, then the objective is to make those calls rather than be a closer. You’re one step closer to moving to the next level and a successful sales process.

It’s exactly the same in Marketing, you’re not going to revolutionise the world or even a company on day one. Take it one step at a time.

Favourite Quote If your rejection rate is high due to the price point, then it’s best to pre-qualify that the pricing you offer isn’t an issue before moving forward. ‘You need to deliver a little nugget of information in the first 30 seconds of the conversion as to why you’re premium, and then that doesn’t come up so much’.

Pre-qualification thought the customer journey is imperative as to not waste your time or your potential clients.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Take note. Content forms gravity. Powerful words indeed. You need to build your bank of content that is helpful to the people you are looking to serve. The more you push out into the world, the more your ideal clients will start to notice you and gravitate towards you.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License

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 Stacey Brown Randall  https://www.staceybrownrandall.com/  Take the Ninja Quiz: https://www.staceybrownrandall.com/quiz 

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 Referrals, no matter how much we like to think that our own communications tactics alone is what will drive our success, this type of Marketing can be very successful. We all know how much word of mouth and the opinions of others can influence our decision-making process, so if we can have some sort of control over this, some way of building a referral system, then surely this would be a long-term tactic that will pay off.

Enter Stacey Brown-Randall. Stacey teaches small business owners and sales professionals how to generate referrals without asking, without the dark arts of manipulation and even through being your authentic-self. Why should we believe her? Because this is how Stacey built her own business up and now she’s here to walk us through the Referral Ninja Master Framework™.

In this episode we cover; - Old school referral tactics and why they don’t work Go through the 6 integral elements to a great referral strategy: 1 - Laying the ground work 2 – Referral source identification 3 – Building a referral experience 4 – Planting those referral seeds 5 – Planning and implementation 6 – Tracking results and improvements - And explore the mentality of play the long game

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/RnKsqNb_1aQ 

Takeaways Top Tip Stacey mentioned ‘referral seeds’ which are the touch-points where consumers come into contact with your business. I’m a huge fan of knowing and understanding your touch-points and improving these to improve your overall referral success rate.

Favourite Quote When Stacey looked back at the old school tactics getting referrals which were ‘you have to ask for them…. You have to pay for them… You have to be overly promotional or gimmicky’ which can lead to the falsehood of viewing these as the only tactics that work. Don’t let that happen!

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode If you want to improve your referral rate, think of the quality not the quantity. If you do this, you’ll see your closing ratio improve. So, let’s start to put some thought behind our referral tactics.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License

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 

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Guest and Episode Links Marc Champagne Website: https://www.behindthehuman.com 

Book: https://www.baronfig.com/personal-socrates  Behind The Human Podcast: Apple: https://apple.co/2qX2YfS)  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6H3VNU8UiKPxzyM82KXKiT?si=4zwYZxEiRV64KDb2gIcj5Q  Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8zX2RDUnE2Yg%3D%3D 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/behindthehuman/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-champagne-14767b17  Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcchampagne 

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 take our mental state for granted, until we realise how much this might be affecting us in terms of reaching peak performance or being at our best.

This episode isn’t a ‘mental health’ concern conversation, it’s about those elements we need to be aware of and how to tackle them daily to get you performing at your best. So you can Make things better, by making better things as Seth Godin would say.

And who better to talk us through this than Marc Champagne, Mental Fitness Advocate and host of the podcast Behind the Human. Marc was responsible for co-founding the journaling app KYO, reaching over 86 million people without any paid advertising. But that’s now in the past.

And after studying mental fitness practices for over a decade, Marc now works with motivated humans, implementing personalised rituals, practices and mental fitness while also leading the mental fitness program for THRIVE Performance & Regenerative Medicine.

In this episode we cover; - Why is our health so important - Why many don’t see it as a top priority - Top tips for better mental fitness including - Morning routine - Dealing with micro and macro stresses - What to do before you go to bed

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/3Q2BQfiUKII 

Takeaways Top Tip I loved the nightly ritual that Marc told us about, writing down a question you can’t answer just before you go to bed and in the morning seeing it in a whole new light. I’m definitely trying that one.

Favourite Quote This was actually a failure that Marc discussed, to some extent, and that was when he mentioned the app KYO ‘the app itself, we reached 86 million people…but we didn’t have a flow to the content and to the experience… to build a successful financial model’ which goes to show how important getting all the tactical elements correct in your Marketing Plan. I’m talking of course about the Marketing Mix.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode We accept a lot when it comes to our health and it’s easy to let things slip, especially with our mental fitness. Pause, take stock and use techniques to better you mind and judgement. Your perception is your reality.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License

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 

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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

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

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

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

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

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...

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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

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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

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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

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(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

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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...

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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

Marketing and BRICK Theory - Live Episode 5

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 BRICK Framework

Discussion Points • What is the BRICK Framework? • How does it work? • A dive into each stage: o Values o Problems o Solutions o Learn o Plan o Develop o Connect o Action

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, that was a brief intro. Hello, and welcome. I'm on my own today. It's a bit of a shame. But the show must go on and all that jazz. Welcome. If you're just joining me, my name is Peter Sumpton, Lego master of marketing. And what I like to do on a Friday afternoon, because it's the afternoon here in the UK, is dive into some marketing and and what do we mean by that? Well, what we mean is that we take marketing as a profession that we should all know and love. And we combine that with a particular

other element.

So that could be in the past, we've done finance, we've done education, we've done Media Relations, we've done history, and those types of things, today is going to be slightly different. It's a slightly different marketing, and because like I say, I'm on my own. And what we're going to do today is we're going to look at something called the brick model. It's a model that I've created that helps me get across what I am trying to do, when I speak to clients, it helps me create a formula for them, a marketing plan for them, that is clear and obvious. And also, it makes sure that I don't really miss anything out in that step process. So what I want to do today is take you through that formula. And lo and behold,

we use this,

we use Lego to do it, which is quite cool, really big fan of Lego as you might know. And it's in the you can see it here. This is your brick formula. So we've got a fair few points to get through. That includes values, problems, solutions, learn, plan, develop, connect, and obviously action, always about the action. But first, I just want to break down this model. So I can explain it to you a little bit better as we go through today. If you do have any comments, if you do have any questions, please put them in the

comments,

or post them or wherever you're watching this because we're live on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Well, modern one does a See ya. So what we're doing today, it's marketing and brick theory, which we really cool. Again, just as people start to join us, I just want to highlight the fact that this is, again, my methodology that I take to clients, to highlight how I can help them from a marketing point of view, and marketing consultancy point of view, and help them achieve their goals through marketing. So I'm a strong believer in my passion in life. And my main goal in life is to help as many companies and as many people understand what marketing can do for their business. So if you do have any questions about marketing, planning, my brick model as we go through it, or anything else, for that matter, just dive in the comments, and I'll happily talk you through what my answers to your questions were I can, right. Okay, so let's dive into this brick model, shall we? Right, okay, so the first part is values. So what do we mean by value, so this is the bottom, this is the base, these are your values, it's the it's the part of the brick model that will hold it all together. And that essentially, is what we mean by values, they are your non negotiables. They are the ones that Sorry, excuse me, I'm just going to post a link in to where we are live, so that people can join us one second. Let me just do this admin on air. I know completely breaking that wall. But hey, who cares? It's my life, we can do what we want to okay. And let's do that. So, let me

post a link.

Man, we'll get back to it.

Brilliant. Let's get back to it. Right okay. As I was saying, This is the brick model. And what we start with within the brick model in marketing planning, when I go and see clients is their values.

What do we mean by values?

What do we mean their non negotiables?

What are the non negotiables What are the elements of their company? What are their values, their beliefs, their culture, that they are not willing to negate in any way, shape or form, every company should have values, every company should have ethics and beliefs that they hold near and dear to who they are. And the idea behind this is that if we know these values, we know the non negotiables, we can then build on them, because they're non negotiable. We can't do anything until we know and understand those. And that could be anything from creating a better future from providing 100%, customer service excellence, loads of different things that could be on non negotiables. So they are your values. And we discuss them, we talk about them, so that as a marketer, helping companies, what we can do, then is build on what they believe in, straightaway, there's massive benefits to doing that, because you get them on board straightaway, you understand what their beliefs are. And they realise, or hopefully, they come to the realisation that you are on their side, and you are not going to try and change their values or beliefs in any way, shape, or form. So that's the first part of the brick model the values.

Once you understand their values,

we can move on to number two. And that's the problems that customers have, what problems do their customers have? And this massively depends on a whole host of different things, the industry, they work in the size of the company. But first and foremost, let's ignore all that, and focus on the customer. So

they must have a particular

industry they work in and multiple customers in that industry. So what problems does that industry have? What are the main issues within that market? We need to know and understand them first, before we can build on anything, because if we're

not

solving problems, then we're really not doing our job as marketers, or indeed as a business. So that's the next part. We've got our values, our non negotiables, and then our problems, what problems need fixing

within our market? So that's what we need to find out. Fantastic, right? We're getting there. We'll get some marketing soon. Once we've got problems, what do we do them? Well, we look for solutions, don't we? We've got our problems, what solutions? Do you as a person, as a company, offer and provide other people, we need to know and understand those, we need to make sure that as an individual as a company, we are providing solutions that people actually want

to their problems.

Now, it's not for us as marketers to run this down their throat and say we have a best solution. All we can do is provide all the evidence and the information about what's the problem. And to our solution, it's up to the end user, it's up to the consumer, it's up to the business to decide if you aren't the right solution to that problem. The reason being is that there's so much information out there, there's so much guidance out there that it's it's almost impossible to control the narrative today, because everyone has got data at their fingertips whenever they want.

So we're not there

to

guide people to our solution. If you're like, what would their to do is go, hey, you've got this problem. These are our solutions. And this is why we feel we are the best fit for solving your problem. And if we do that, then we're not saying what we're not ramming it down their throat. We're not pushing all the information onto them. The information is there. It's readily available available to help people and if we're helping people solve their problems, then will naturally get that pull. It's being helpful. It's it's showing everything we have and saying look, we are here to solve your problems. These are our solutions are the fit for you, yes or no. If they are, please come and talk to us. We can help you. But if we try to create falsehoods if we try to create a narrative that is coming completely and utterly misjudged, consumers will see right through that.

So we need to make sure

that we are open and transparent about the solutions we provide to people's problems. Okay, So to summarise the basis, we've got values, which are non negotiables, got the problems which we solve, and the solutions to those problems. So what do we do next, we learn. That's the next stage, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn research, research research. And there's various ways we can do this, we can do this learning. And what I like to do is kind of steal basically, from certain models and theories that are out there to really help understand three fundamentals. So when it comes to learning about an organisation, when it comes to understanding the areas, and and what that company is all about. There's three fundamental areas, you've got the internal, you've got the external, and then you've got their customer, or that potential customer. And those three areas are the ones that we're going to focus on right now. So what do we mean by learn? What is within the internal, the external, and the customer? So let's focus on the external first, because there are external factors that we have no control over, but may have a massive impact on our business. So how can we look to analyse and view and judge those elements that might impact what we are doing as a business or as an individual. And there's two areas that I would focus on in this external audit. And that is your competitor analysis. And what we mean by competitor analysis, is, there's no particular right or wrong, it's choosing areas that you want to be strong in, that you want to compete in, and looking at how your competitors compete in those areas. For example, do they have a social presence? If your ecommerce, what is the user experience like on your competitor's website, as opposed to your own? If you're b2b? What are the main caveats that they put in place to do business with them? Is it easy, or the non negotiables? What is their culture, like? Those types of things will make a huge difference within your market for your competitors. And as you're analysing your competitors, you can make that comparison against you as a company. If you're making that comparison, that's not to say there's any right or wrong in anything they do. It could be that one of your competitors serves a completely different person to you. And that's absolutely fine. There's no harm in that. But in understanding how your competitors serve, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, that exposes opportunities and threats to you as a business, it shows where your weaknesses lie against your competitors, shows where you're strong. And it shows where you're weak as well. If we know where we're weak, we can do things to combat against that. If we know where we're strong, we can do things to leverage that position. So that's the first thing we do we look

externally.

Excellent external. Remember, these are areas that have a massive impact on what we do as a business. But we have very, very little, if any control over. So the second thing and external that I would look at is something we call pest delay. So the pest lane model, it started off as passed a few E's, an owl, those types of things as we do as marketers, and you end up with pester like. And what pessoais allows you to do is look at the market as a whole look at the market and the wider the wide areas within the world to have an impact on user business in your market. So just briefly, if we go over what paslay stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal,

and ethical.

And if you do good analysis within all those areas, it will fundamentally highlight where potential opportunities are, where potential threats are gonna come from, and all those types of things. So what we do externally Remember, we're still in the learning phase external. We look at past the leg, we look at competitor analysis. Now we can turn our attention to the internal so what do we look at internally, was a few models we can look up we can look at the seven p the seven Sorry McKinsey's, seven S's,

and we can look at the five M's,

we can look at a whole host of other elements, the six eyes of digital loads of different models there. But what I feel is I've narrowed it down to six or seven areas that are fundamental that we need to understand as marketers, from an internal perspective that will real really help us going forward. First of all, that is what strategies are currently in place,

or strategies are

currently in place that your organisation has.

Secondly, what are the skills you've got? So you've got strategic directions? And there's there's things that we can say about those? Are they the right direction? Are they a good fit? And are they still fit for purpose. But then as we move on to skills have we got the skills internally to match the strategies to actually achieve the strategies. So when we're talking about skills, they can be hugely subjective. But we're talking about the skills internally, because what we need to look at there is Have we got the skills going forward that we require to solve people's problems. And as you can see, we start to build on these, this groundwork here. And then we look at things like structure, processes, materials that we've got in place, interactivity. So interactivity, what what online, if we were to draw everything we have digitally online? What does that look like? What are we playing with? Is it good, bad, indifferent? Are we doing things that aren't getting the engagement that we need to or should do? How do we change those loads of different things we can consider when we think of interactivity. And the final thing we need to look at internally, is objectives, what current objectives are set by the business? Now, these could be wide business objectives. These could be marketing objectives, or there could be comms objectives really, really, really down and really, really specific. So to summarise what we do, we look at the external pestel, a competitor analysis, we look at the internal, which includes strategies, skills, structures, processes, materials, interactivity, and objectives. Which brings us to the final learning element, the final learning element in this brief model, what's that final learning element? customers, customer profiling, avatars, personas, ideal clients, whatever it might be, whatever you call them, what we want to do, along with our internal and our external analysis, is look at our customers. Who's that person you want walking through your door? What does he or she look like? What are they look like? Is it a family unit, you want to get really detailed, and there's a few ways we can do this, we can do it from an ideal client perspective, who we want walking through the door to say, I want you to solve my problems, please. Or we can do it from a theory and database approach. So we don't necessarily look at who our ideal client is more who our current client base consists of.

Who offers the most customer lifetime

value?

Who are our

advocates, and do it from a data driven approach. Personally, I like to mix the two. So I don't think you can go through customer profiling without being a bit out there without being a bit. We want clients that are this or that we want people in this age bracket. We want people are passionate about such a topic. I don't think you can actually do that

on data.

So I go for a mixture, I go for a bit of ideal client coming through the door, what do I want to see? Who are they? Where do they live? What car do they drive? Do they like holidays in the sun, or in cities, that type of thing. Also, then go through the data. Look at your Google Analytics, look at Facebook's insight platform. Look at areas internally like a CRM system and gain as much information or data as you possibly can about your customers. Build that persona build that perception of who your customers are. And once we've got the internal the external and the customer profiling, we've learned enough to take us on to the next stage which is plan. I say learned enough because in my research, and what I've learned listening from people, such as Seth Godin and Mike Ritson is that after a certain while you can only plan and research so much so you can only research so much for it to be impactful. We can have reams and reams and pages and pages of data and information.

But

are we going to understand be able to analyse and data Every single part of that, yes or no, it depends on your team and the size of the company. But at some point, we're going to get information overload and data paralysis. And we do not want that. What we want is enough information to make valid judgments from, so then we can move on to plan. That's what we're gonna do right now. So moving on to the planning stage here.

So what do we mean when we talk about

plan?

So for me, plan is looking to the future we're planning ahead. And how do that? Well, there's a couple of models that I'm really, really passionate about, and I really care about, and care about a bit strong, but I'm sure let's rephrase that, that I'm really, really passionate about. And that is the SWOT and the toes. So how do we combine the learning phase with a plan or the planning phase. So what we do here is we take all our Learn learnings and our knowledge, and we move it into this planning phase. And by learning by moving into the planning phase, what we do we take this SWOT strengths or weaknesses, internally, opportunities and our threats externally, from what we learned in our planning phase. And we create the most critical, the most crucial, the most important elements in our SWOT strengths and weaknesses internally, opportunities and threats externally. So we take that from our internal and our external audit, and also our customer profiling. So we've got us what we've created a good SWOT analysis on say, five or six different elements, it could be more, it could be less for each s, w, o and T, doesn't really matter. It's the most critical elements, the ones you feel are most crucial from the analysis you've done. And this is the planning stage. So we've taken that, and we've put it in our SWOT. And this is the key bit and this is the part I'm wholly in wholeheartedly behind from any marketing planning. at all, it's the toes element to w.

s.

It's the toes element. So what do we mean by toes? Okay, right. It's not is what backwards, but it's not swap backwards, you don't just do a swap backwards. So what toes does, and I've got other learnings that explain this a lot better. So if you want those hit me up in the comments. But what toes does, it combines all those...

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Marketing Theories Explained Series Link: https://bit.ly/3mi35di 

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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

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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,

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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

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

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...

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 Kate Christie www.timestylers.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-christie/ https://amzn.to/2GwGniA

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 Everyone has been late for something in their lives. And everyone knows someone who is ‘always late’ (this isn’t a good thing, it’s just a thing).

But in a time-sensitive world, how can we claw some of this back and start to take control of time? The same time that everyone else has in the world. 24 hours a day.

Let’s chat to Kate Christie, Founder & CEO of Time Stylers. Kate is a time management specialist; global Speaker; consultant and the best-selling author of four books, the most recent of which is ‘Me First: The Guilt-free Guide to Prioritising You’ (links are in the show notes).

Kate consults on maximising time, with a reputation for helping clients find 30 hours of lost time a month.

In this episode we cover; - The main time stealers - Time investment tips - Making sure your day is productive - What teams need to focus on to become more productive - Can we rely on technology for time management?

Takeaways Top Tip Don’t think of time as management, it’s an investment. If you do the math’s, your time investment really adds up as Kate so eloquently put it with her numbers and figures. Let’s make sure we invest it in something worthwhile.

Favourite Quote ‘Each time we’re interrupted, it takes us about 23 minutes to return to the task we were interrupted from’ which is such a powerful statement. That means, we could literally spend a week not doing the task in hand!!!! Wow1

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Set a weekly to do list (on a Sunday), this way you can see which activities should be non-negotiable. If you don’t do this then, as Parkinson’s Law shows, we will end up filling our time appropriately with other tasks, missing out those that could really shift things along.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: Justin Goldstein (https://www.linkedin.com/in/goldsteinjustin/) Topic: Marketing and Media Relations

Discussion Points • Mentioning the C word or Politics • Being an asset to the media • What the media want from you • Becoming an expert / spokesperson • The value of podcasts

Link to the live video:https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6710246143399358464/

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. Right, we are back. We're alive. And it gives me great pleasure to introduce Justin Goldstein, who's from press regarding communications, a strategic Media Relations agency. I didn't want to get that wrong. I was reading off the screen. It just didn't work. Welcome.

Justin Goldstein 

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.

Peter Sumpton 

On So today, what I want to cover is marketing and media relations. So before we dive into that topic, can you just give us a bit of a brat background to who you are and what you currently do for your clients?

Justin Goldstein 

Sure. So, um, well, first, thank you again for having me. Um, so I've been in public relations for close to 10 years now. And I work on a very specific part of public relations called Media Relations, which essentially means building relationships with the press to get publicity for different types of clients. So I've worked with, you know, clients and travel, real estate, consumer b2b kind of runs the gamut. But the end goal being to get them coverage and then also working on developing podcasts much like one the one that you have, for different clients, whether it be individuals or organisations. Okay, that's cool. I think we'll come on to podcasts a little bit later on, because it'd be it'd be a bit crazy. Not to

Peter Sumpton 

So that's that's what you do for people. It fascinates me the whole Media Relations thing. And it's certainly a topic that, that I'm not fully immersed in, by any way, shape or form. So looking to claim a lot of insight from this, this little chat we're going to have here. So first of all, like to start on a big opener. What's the hot topics within media relations? What, you know, what are you focusing on right now for some of your clients?

Justin Goldstein 

Yeah, I mean, I think it really depends on each individual client, in terms of hot topics, because there's going to be hot topics for each specific space at the end, right. So there's going to be trending stories and retail real estate, whatever the case may be. It's not generically, trends, but I would say that, you know, the rule of thumb right now for anything you're pitching is that most of it should have some kind of tie into Coronavirus or the election of some kind. It's not a hard and fast rule, especially if you're dealing with more what are called trade publications or outlets that deal with issues primarily in a specific industry, but if you're looking to pitch you know, the today show or you know, the New York Times whatever the case may be, depending on the topic, you usually should have some kind of COVID ban but it doesn't necessarily have to be all about Coronavirus. You know, for example, I recently went out with a pitch and I was saying, you know, COVID is making times crazier. Here's an example of how and then kind of went on with the pitch past that. So it wasn't just about Coronavirus. But it is good to try to have that time.

Peter Sumpton 

If If you didn't have say, a tie into the election that that's going on at the moment, or COVID. Is it a case that people wouldn't be necessarily interested in in that in that hook? Or would you stand out a little bit more because it's completely different from what everybody else is saying?

Justin Goldstein 

Yeah, um, I don't think it's a requirement. I think that it's it's something that you know, reporters producers prefer but it's not necessarily required. So I wouldn't let that stop anybody from moving forward with something like that. But it is something that would help.

Peter Sumpton 

Okay, that's cool. And just staying on the the presidential election. And this is by far getting into politics because that's just a no no for me in any way, shape or form. But in terms of leading with something to do with the election, have you got to be careful when when talking to anyone within the media about a political standpoint, I know in this country, particularly the newspapers, they're either one side or the other. Yeah, I can imagine for more private organisations, it's a little bit of a touchy subject, which way they go.

Justin Goldstein 

I think it's more about just first understanding whether you actually want to be involved in that kind of conversation. You know, if you don't really especially if you work in a bigger company, if you don't want your company being involved in politics to start, which most don't, it's better not to even approach it because it can lead into a conversation that you don't really want to have. If you do I think it's just being smart about how you have that conversation to make sure that you're providing valuable insight. But they're also protecting yourself or your organisation at the same time so that they're not seeing anything that's going to be too controversial. Get them into trouble, whatever the case may be. Yeah. Okay. So suppose you've got to be picky on who is that that spokesperson for? That we, you definitely want to make sure that whoever you're putting in front of a reporter to talk about those kinds of things, they're really equipped to be able to do that.

Peter Sumpton 

Okay, that's cool. So I know this might sound like a pretty basic question, but the reason that I like doing these lies or I intend to do more of them is to is to look at marketing holistically and then look at a specific area or topic or something within within the marketing field of which media relations is one. So where does it fit in with marketing in its entirety?

Justin Goldstein 

I think it's, I think where its value is and its role is is being able to use those pieces of media coverage to meet marketing goals are, you know, to help that process so you know, if you're getting media coverage, you can use it as A tool for content development where you can pull quotes from different pieces of media coverage, do social posts or you know, create an article, LinkedIn article, for example. Or you could even use it for content for your newsletter. You know, there's different ways to weave it into marketing. You know, you're never ever going to be able to promise that media coverage is going to get you to achieve those goals, but it can certainly help. Okay, but that's cool. So I noticed that one thing that you promote is the print the online and the broadcast in terms of media relations and covering all those areas, as the different is the different strategies or tactics depending on what area you're looking at. Yeah, definitely. I mean, say that? Well, the basic that the basic rule of thumb that should go for any kind of reporter that you're pitching, no matter what medium is, you want to understand what their role is the kind of stories that they cover, right. But I would say that broadcast works a little bit differently where reporters can be thrown onto all Different types of beads, they could be working in the field, they could be working in the studio. So there's a little bit more flexibility in terms of what you can pitch them. But really understanding how they work is is the difference because you know prints online Typically they're going to be working on stories that are a bit more longer lead or down the road where broadcasts often is looking to fill a 24 seven beast every single day.

Peter Sumpton 

Okay, so is broadcast more immediate you know that they want it now kick is somebody available now? Definitely. So does it work both ways then in terms of clients wanting that exposure obviously, but then obviously the the broadcast house and whoever you're talking to come in to you and saying Have you got X that can help us with that?

Justin Goldstein 

Um, yes, definitely. I mean, there's there's been a bunch of times reporters who come to me and said, Hey, I remember working with you on this last story with you know, with this client is there any way you can help me with XYZ and try to find a source has happened a lot, and that's where that's where the relationship building really is important because if you're really Building solid relationships, reporters are going to come back to you so you know, sharing with them information that might be valuable just because paying them or a survey report that might help to inform their reporting. That's an example of how you build a relationship without asking for anything in return. So little things like that, that help but yes, it's definitely very possible for reporters to come back to you and ask you for more.

Justin Goldstein 

Okay, that's, that's cool. Like it.

Justin Goldstein 

Okay, so talk us through your your process in general for achieving success within Media Relations, then what what are you doing? Yeah. So I think that it goes back to what I was just saying, which is trying to provide value to reporters. And it's not just about saying, Hey, I have this client that can talk about this. It's more providing them with assets that again, might help to inform their reporting, you know, trying to find new trends that they might not be aware of with insight from my clients, trying to diversify what I do and try to provide a little bit more of a different approach. It's not so standard

Justin Goldstein 

Okay, that's that's cool.

Justin Goldstein 

So if you're, say, approaching a client or working with with a client, how much information do you do you need because we talked about immediacy before, but how much information do you need from that client to go to a reporter? And say, yeah, this is right for you. Is it a whole bunch? Do you know? Do you do a full back catalogue? Or Or how does that work? Yeah, it really depends. So for reporters that are talking about a story in real time that's happening, I think you do need comment and more information. But if you're pitching a reporter uncovering a longer lead trend story, then I don't think you do. I think you just need to be able to tell reporters sort of an understanding of what your source or client can comment on just so they have an overview, and that usually is good enough in that situation.

Peter Sumpton 

Okay. So as the industry changed over time, that I mean, you know, you say 20 years ago, it would be hugely different to what it is now, but how we use different trends and perhaps reporting styles, all the communication channels that we now use, as opposed to say 10 years ago,

Justin Goldstein 

I think more of what you're doing is going to be the future, I think got the chin of media is always changing. I think print online, you know, radio, TV, it's not going it'll never go anywhere. You know what I think as much as people say print is dying, and maybe true that yes, people aren't buying newspapers as much. But, you know, they morphed and evolved into having more of a digital component. That's where we saw the New York Times digital revenues shoot up tremendously, especially after Trump's election. So I think it's just it's always evolving and always changing. Good example. Another good example is radio where the concept of getting a radio feed is changed where it's not just on your am FM dial in your car anymore. Now it's iheart radio in your app, for example. It's always going to be changing but I think that the fundamental media is going to be there maybe just look a little bit different but then also you're going to see New introductions of what media means over the coming years where LinkedIn live broadcasters, like yourself, I think are going to be considered more members of the media at this point.

Peter Sumpton 

Okay. But that's, that's interesting. I've worked with with numerous clients and within numerous businesses where it's always whatever the Hot Topic it is, or sorry, whatever the hot channel is at that time, or wherever our competition might be, we need to be on this channel. We need to get more exposure there. Do you get that at all from any of your clients, they see their competition doing this a lot, and they just say, we want to be the same as them.

Justin Goldstein 

Yeah. Yes. I think it's more from the perspective of not necessarily wanting to be like, Well, I think it depends. If you're a small company, and you want to be like a big company, that's very normal. But when it comes to the media, it's more so saying, we want to be involved in the kind of stories that they're involved in, you know, like this reporter just covered a story and include a quote from our competitor and that's the kind of quote that we want to provide and be featured on. So I think it's more about just Tracking where their competition is going, where they're getting coverage and trying to emulate that. Okay, but let's go and obviously, if they go through self, it's bound to be bigger and better and, and far more exposure than than the competition.

Justin Goldstein 

Right? Right. Yes.

Justin Goldstein 

Absolutely. So, although the media landscape is hugely changed,

Peter Sumpton 

I think a lot more people like you saying, like myself or anybody who has a lot more exposure or potentially has that exposure, immediacy, and the first thing that springs to my mind is Twitter. You know, it's, it's where I probably consume most of my news stories, or find things out that that I wouldn't generally find out. If somebody was looking for or to start a career within Media Relations, where would you tell them to start and I suppose the reason that I built that up That way is what people are looking at from the point of view is everybody's a media outlet now. But if they were looking to do what you do, where would you advise them to start? And what would that career path look like?

Justin Goldstein 

So I always well, I should, I should start by saying that a lot of PR professionals have two choices. Typically they can go to an agency, or they can go in house to work for a company, let's say or nonprofit, whatever the case may be. I always recommend that when you're starting a career in PR, which will inevitably include Media Relations, that you should start at a PR agency. Because I think that it really helps to give you a diverse background not only in the function of media relations, but understanding how to work with clients and explain to them why a piece of media coverage is so valuable. And there's obviously so much more that you can learn just by working across different accounts working with so many different people. You know, typically when you're in house, you're working on maybe one topic with one or two people. You don't have as much interaction with different personalities don't learn as much so I that's my story. I mean, everybody has you. But um, you know, I think going to an agency, at least at the very beginning for a few years really gives you some good fundamental expertise that you can bring to an in house position. And really do very well there. Yeah. So in your background, did you have any educational background in terms of public relations, media Media Relations or anything like that? Yeah, no, I went to school for I went to college for four years and got my PR degree at a university here in New York, Hofstra University. And um, you know, also did my internships leading into my full time position as well. So definitely had an educational experience, but I don't think there's anything to replace the actual experience you get in a job. So I would say, you know, if it were me, I personally wouldn't recommend Unless, you know, maybe don't have a job and it gives you a leg up to get a job. I will would necessarily recommend getting a grad degree in PR. But I think focusing on in college is is not the worst idea in the world.

Peter Sumpton 

Yeah. Because I had Dr. I on this live last week, and we've talked about marketing and education. And we've been around a few ideas and a few topics and saying that within marketing, that educational piece, for me personally, it's more a foundational block. And I 100% agree with you that there's nothing like that experience like that in the field and everything like that. Do you feel that within Media Relations or PR if you like? that education is more of a foundational piece than it is I'm ready for the real world?

Justin Goldstein 

Can you kind of reframe that question? Yeah,

Peter Sumpton 

sure. So I suppose what I'm, what I'm getting at is if you hadn't gone to university, do you feel you'd be as comfortable and as good at what you do? If you say, took that, those two to three years at university and replace them with just on the job learning.

Justin Goldstein 

Yeah, absolutely. Um, because I think, you know, it goes back to what I was saying before, which is that it's all about the real world experience. So I think more than getting taught in a room, it's more about doing the internships and getting that first job. So yeah, I think you I mean, you do because everybody needs a college degree these days. Um, but I but I think if like, let's say, for example, you were a business major, or a marketing major and you wanted to learn about PR, you wouldn't necessarily need to be taught in PR classes, how did you learn tremendously more going through the ranks and so that's, that's really where I learned to do it. It wasn't, you know, I was grateful for my time at Hofstra and I, I valued the experience that I got, but I don't think that...

Marketing and Education - LIVE Episode 04.09.20

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Guest: Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aiaddysonzhang/)

Topic: Marketing and Education

Discussion Points

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  0:03 

Hello and welcome. My name is Peter Sumpton, the 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'll just be me. So let's get cracking. Okay, here we are. First first guest no introduction needed so much. So I haven't even prepared an introduction. Because Because I know the doctor, I will have my own introduction cuz she appears everywhere, all the time constantly, probably falls asleep, saying her introduction whenever she's live. whenever she's on social, so, Doctor, I don't think I've ever called you that before. But,

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  1:06 

you know, I needed to show some respect.

Peter Sumpton  1:08 

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Doctor, I firstly introduce yourself and then I'll explain what the heck we're gonna be talking about for the next half an hour, 40 minutes, something like that,

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  1:19 

I'm really excited.

I'm a fan of Peter. I love everything you do, and really honour to be your very first guest on aalnc live and congratulations, you know, gaining access to LinkedIn live. So for me, I'm a professor dropout. And I taught in the classroom for 10 plus years, and really believe that current education model is broken and decided to leave the broken system to build a better system. So I left teaching, and I then started to build my own school, which is classroom without wars.

It has been

incredible. journey and I wish I started their journey earlier. But everything happens for a reason. So I'm really thankful for where I am today. I'm still a teacher, but on a much different stage.

Peter Sumpton  2:12 

I love the fact you call yourself a professor dropout. It's almost like you know, you went to that university you went to that college and you got halfway through your education. And you just stopped now this isn't to me. I just love that

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  2:24 

kolonie Yeah, it's definitely not for me I actually the last several years while I was a teacher, I cried. There's so much every single semester and just seeing how broken the educational system is. And I wanted to help my students more but I couldn't I felt very helpless and that killed me and I I don't enjoy that feeling at home but now I love it a lot more so yes, dropout

iPod.

Peter Sumpton  2:55 

So anybody that doesn't know or hasn't seen check out classroom without walls. Absolutely. mazing programme doing wonderful, wonderful things. I'll drop some links in comments after this live because I'm not as proficient in you are as you are with your lives. And so I'm kind of new to all this kind of stuff. And one thing I've learned is how you put a ticker on on stream, which sounds really stupid, but bit of admin going on in the background. So what I'm going to do is press this funky button, and there you go. So what we're going to talk about today is marketing and education. And what I mean by that is you just said your professor dropout, the system's broken in terms of education, myself, I'm fully educated right through the system, school, six, former college, university, all that kind of stuff and then postgrads through professional qualifications. So So for me, it's our many, many years of going through that system. And seeing all these things, but because of the way we're brought up, not actually seeing what could be broken and what you could be doing differently. So that was a bit of a long ramble. But what I want to get across is that I personally think there's a mixture of this lifelong learning and education to an extent dependent on your profession. But what I'd like to go through first is your take on education at this moment in time your take on the state of education at the moment.

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  4:33 

Yeah, and I see our friend Lance, oh, my God, what time is your freelance 3pm and so

Peter Sumpton  4:41 

always joins you it doesn't matter what time I think Lance is a robot, Lance. Just reply, so we know you know, a robot that would be really handy.

He doesn't sleep. So I think

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  4:53 

the current education model is so broken

especially for those people who are interested in Becoming a marketer starting a business become your creative, or social entrepreneur. And I don't think the traditional education is the best way to develop those important of soft and hardest skills. And you know, one example I always say so for example, and in the US, we call this GPA, which is great point average. So pretty much academic performance. Most of students and parents and teachers, they are really obsessed with their grades, right? And am I getting a 4.0? Like how many A's I'm going to earn a point that's actually a while important reason I left my teaching position. I got so tired of that. But do you actually know research has shown GPA or academic performance is actually inversely related to innovation orientation. So in other words, you know if we want to you and I were entrepreneurs, we know how important it is to eat No wait, how important it is to be creative, like marketing, you need some sort of creativity. And GPA is now too good to benchmark. But can you imagine a student going through the traditional educational system, the only thing they feel like they need to pay attention to is you know, I need to get that a for my marketing class, then you are really killing their innovation to be a good marketer. So here's just one example to show the kind of how broken the education model is. And speaking from my from my personal experience, you know, I used to teach social media marketing, I used to teach public relations and communication classes, but I never practice anything that I used to teach. Until I became a practitioner. I started to finally understand, oh my god, this is actually social media marketing. This is actually how you build a business. This is how you promote yourself. I didn't understand anything. Like I mentioned earlier from my, you know, master degree from my PhD degree. I learned so many theories, but it's not what I needed to know successfully run my business. I think that is a big, big missing link in today's education, you know, for marketing and business.

Peter Sumpton  7:22 

Yeah, I agree with you going through that system, myself entirely. I know nearly every single step of the way I would have benefited 100% from having that experience from having that hands on experience on a whole host of different things to know and understand how you apply theory or how it works in the real world. I think you need both Meet Me personally, I feel you do need both particularly in marketing. So let me just explain that and get get your thoughts on it. What I mean by that is that to be in I talk about an all round marketer. So to become an all round marketer, you need a whole host of things that people don't necessarily see as marketing. So if you take the traditional models like the four P's product, price, place promotion, a bit bit tacky, there are no but if you take those four P's, then you take promotion away from a marketer, they should still be able to do their jobs that leaves them with place, it leaves them with product, and it leaves them with price. But a lot of those things have been taken away from marketing. And I don't think many people could do a marketing role a marketing manager role or above without having that educational piece on, on pricing, on on distribution, and on product development, and all that kind of thing. But the calm side of it, I think is where we get hugely confused. So the communication side, I personally think you could spend six months on YouTube, on LinkedIn, and a whole host of different platforms and learning from people and under On these platforms and understand how you communicate with people, but the other parts of marketing, I think are very, very sorely missed. And that's the educational piece that I think is warranted in marketing. So what what's your thoughts on on those kind of elements?

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  9:16 

I agree. And also I read an article talking about the four PE, they also added a face p, which is people, right? So when you think about the four p they're all developed from the organisational perspective right? So what is a prize? How am I going to promote is always about me as the organisation right? But when you add the fifth p which is p PL, you are actually shifting your perspective, from only Rukia and me to look at the people that you are actually serving. So I actually write that. Yeah, and I agree, you know, I think both theory and practice are important just like when, like in my earlier interior interview, we're talking about you know, both hard skills and soft skills are really important. And I think even if you are, you are extremely good at pressing a practice and theory they are inter related, right. Yeah. So one informs the other. And in my case is when I, my, my old self was that I had way too many theories, but I never practice any of the theories. So I didn't really understand what the theory means, right? So the theory is mainly at the conceptual level, I didn't know how to apply. So on the other hand, if you are only a practitioner, if you don't have any theoretical grounding, and I think it is very hard for you to grow and scale, you know, you and I were talking about how important it is to develop a pathway of methodology, your own theory, so eventually, it's now me that run the business, right? It is this model. This theory actually does the work so I could remove myself from the business. Anyone who I understand the theory, anyone who understands how to apply this can do their job. So I'm slowly removing myself. But if you don't have that, you know, like peeler or like foundation series, I think it's just very hard to even for you to explain what exactly do you do? And how do you facilitate that transformation? So I think both are important. It's like hard skill and soft skills. You need both to succeed in life.

Peter Sumpton  11:30 

Yeah, I can completely agree with you. Like, if I the one thing that I always say about my education is if I could go back and start again, well, I do a whole lot of things differently. But if I had to rerun it, if you like, and I was at university, I would take that gap year I would take that year out in industry, I would take as many opportunities to be in a business, running a business or starting my own business while learning on the job.

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  12:01 

point I think even if you feel like uncomfortable, oh my god, I have never run a business before. I don't know how to get started by this way social media and technology, you can discover those people, you can have conversations with them by I'm an advocate of launching a podcast for you, when you launch your podcast, you can interview those people, you can actually ask them about the ins and outs of this particular a potential profession that you are going to, you know, devote four years in college, maybe a few years in graduate school to study. But before that I think you should at least know he says even for you, and why are you even interested in this? And what do people actually do on a daily basis about this particular profession? Very few students actually had a conversation like that before they declare a major right. So by the time they graduate or by the time they're in their senior year, they're like, Oh my god, this is not running for me. But they have already invested in so much time and their parents money, like to lead up to to now play the game anymore. You just have to do it. That is that's how people got stuck in their life. Time their 40s they're not happy, they're stuck.

Peter Sumpton  13:19 

So, Seth Seth Godin on his podcast akimbo many, many podcast episodes ago, he did one about sunk costs, and saying that you get to a certain stage and you've put so much money into something that the money you have invested so far, you you cannot see past. Just keep going. Because you've invested that money and if you leave it, it seemed as a waste not seeing the rest of money as a waste because you're going to be unhappy. But seeing it just as a, you have to go because you've already sunk that cost into your education into becoming a lawyer into not making you happy, basic. Huh,

Unknown Speaker  14:00 

yeah,

Peter Sumpton  14:01 

I feel great. Lance isn't a robot. And it's actually 3:36am on a Saturday for him, but lunch, he must be a robot if you're up at that time. And he also went straight into work after school in 1968, and I think he's been up ever since 1968 by the looks of it. And then, Christina, thank you for joining us. She agrees a balance is good. But she also says that there was a comment, she agreed and something in terms of a balance between business and marketing, in terms of degree and how you're learning it is hugely important, which again, thanks for joining us.

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  14:45 

I'm going to show I I'm just reading Christina's comment and she said that, you know, like having as much as I think she said that once she has that degree, she was Howard in it. I think that is definitely the case. I don't know how old you are like whilst looking for jobs. You know, I think people are looking for that piece of paper, looking for that the grey, but I think that is changing. Like weeks ago, I posted on my own social media that Google, they announced they are launching their own career certifications to replace the traditional college four year college degree. And think about why Google jumps into this. I think they are there are going to be a lot more. But you see that in social media marketing, right, a HubSpot Academy. They have so many social media certifications, powered by practitioners. So if I were student learning social media marketing, I would be investing in HubSpot Academy. Yeah, and going to a traditional college degree. I learned from a professor who has never run any social media marketing campaign before so I learned a bunch of theories as to Don't know what to do. So the reason for Google and so many other companies to be involved in higher education is because one of the reasons is how expensive it is to onboard a college grad, like my husband works in the nine to five job. He's constantly complaining about the students, you know, they don't know anything, they don't have the skills. So they still have to spend so much time and so much money to train those students. Right. So why do I have to do this, you know, to train the students to unlock or what they were taught. Why don't I directly get involved in their education? Yeah, four years ago, there's education futurist from Harvard University. He predicted in 2018, that 50% five zero 50% of American colleges and universities will go bankrupt in the next 10 years and I've seen called rate has definitely accelerated that and my friends are losing their jobs, smaller colleges, they are just being bought by bigger ones. So I think you know, the value that we put on that piece of paper to answer Christina's comment, I think is becoming less and less valuable and more companies are going to realise that and I can't wait for that day to home.

Peter Sumpton  17:24 

Yeah, completely. It's interesting how things are shifting and I think this this year 2020 has shifted things a lot and accelerated things a lot like online learning. And I was listening to a podcast that before we dived on this live and it was Mark Ritson talking about his mini MBA which is which is purely online and it lasts 12 weeks or something. And I think their their net promoter score NPS is like in the 80s or 90s or something, it's unreal, but it's because Causing value. And what he was saying on the podcast is that there's there's a lot of rubbish online that gives you bad information or bad learning or bad education. And it's the same in universities. There's a lot of bad education and bad learning. And it's, I suppose it's making sure that whatever you choose, and like you said previously, if you've got a professor that's teaching you how to do something, and they're not doing it. Well, I wouldn't want to go to a dentist or even a hairdresser. And I've had my head on. Had to get that in, was waiting for the comments, but no one said anything. So I have to say it myself. No, but I wouldn't even go to a hairdresser that hadn't been qualified to cut hair in in some way. I learned something along the way. And it was weird because I had this conversation with my hairdresser and he said, Yeah, but Pete, you could you could study for for 12 months. The Art of hairdresser dressing. If you've never caught somebody's hair practically, you're not going to know what you're going to do. You're not going to do know what to do when things go wrong. And I suppose that really hit home to me that that is a really good point because anyone can run anything, as long as it's going well, but when it goes wrong, things change. What do you do?

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang  19:20 

Amen. And Peter right,

you have been hosting my show,

how can you host my show? I don't even know for like so long. But even today,...

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Guest and Episode Links Katrina McCarter https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-mccarter/ https://www.marketingtomums.com.au/

Podcast – Marketing to Mums: https://www.marketingtomums.com.au/podcast/ Book – The Mother of All Opportunities: https://amzn.to/3itOOsH

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 Mothers, we all have one. But how well do we know them? Do we really understand their needs and wants, how to influence the decisions they make, the problems they need fixing and the best solutions to these problems?

As Marketers we often hear that niching down, understanding who makes up our target market and getting to know them a whole bunch is key and Katrina McCarter founder and CEO of Marketing to Mums helps her clients understand the Mums market in mega detail. Katrina’s is a data driven marketer and her research consists of survey reports compiling information from more than 1,800 mum’s. But it doesn’t stop there, Katrina also has a podcast of the same name and is the author of ‘The Mother of All Opportunities’ (as always, the links are in the show notes).

In this episode we discuss; - Why brands and advertisers don’t understand the mum market - What opportunities can be capitalised on - What strategies we should look to implement - Using social media - The key mistakes companies are marking

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/c7wZOF5bl3s

Takeaways Top Tip It’s actually a mistake to avoid and that’s when an organisation has the perception that ‘everyone’ is a potential customer and appeal to no one. This means targeting on mass and not understanding the needs and wants of a smaller subset of the market deeply enough to make an impact.

Do your research and get to know those that need your solutions to fix their problems.

Favourite Quote ‘Credibility and trust become big issues for brands and it greatly affects sales certainly loyalty as well’ ` and although Katrina was specifically talking about niching down here, credibility and trust are two factors that need to be addressed, especially for the topics that you want to excel in. Now can you say that about your own organisation?

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Don’t forget about your testimonials. Be it written, audio or even video if you can. They are not only a powerful tool for the mums market, but can help to add credibility, provide social proof, increase engagement with others and add stickiness to content in any market. Just make sure you use them once they are collected!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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Guest and Episode Links Heidi Medina https://www.talktoheidi.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidimedina/

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 If you work for yourself or own your own company, LinkedIn seems like a no brainer. But what if you’re an employee? Is it still the place you need to be seen? Or is it just somewhere to dump you CV?

As we’ll find out, if you’re an employee, LinkedIn is a great place to build your online presence, connect with people – customers, potential clients, friends, collogues, and those you want to learn from.

And Heidi Medina, a LinkedIn Trainer, is the perfect person to learn what you need to do AND how to do it from! Heidi runs The LinkedIn Visibility Connection, helping people to use the power of content and conversation to get visible in LinkedIn.

In this episode we cover; - How to set-up your profile - Building a network that is meaningful - Content hacks - Changing connections into clients - The ‘algorithm’ - Cardinal sins to avoid

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/U1qChB6R_Ew

Takeaways Top Tip Use your LinkedIn page as a landing page. Fill it with the content that people want and will engage with. It is about you, but for others to find and consume, so don’t forget that.

Favourite Quote Heidi stated that ‘everything we do online is a conversation’ so make it worth talking about. There is a lot of drivel online and no one wants to enter a gibberish conversation.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Remember, on LinkedIn it’s not all about you as conversations are key to the unlock! There will be more people watching your content and waiting for conversations to happen, so make them happen. Dive into interesting posts, ask questions and most importantly, communicate with people that comment on your own posts.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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

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Guest and Episode Links Justin Goldstien https://www.pressrecord.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/goldsteinjustin/

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 Building relationships is key in any business, none more so than within PR and what can be classed as developing Media Relations. This isn’t some seedy ‘you starch my back’ approach, this is about building authority and gaining trust for a mutual benefit, in the long term.

My guest this week does just this for his clients. Justin Goldstein is an award-winning public relations practitioner and President and Founder of Press Record Communications, a strategic media relations agency.

Understanding what is required to build these relationships and maintain a solid focus on what you are trying to achieve is what makes Justin stand out from the rest. It is just as much about developing your own story, as it is about getting a reporter's attention, leading to the coverage you desire.

In this episode we cover; - Is it all about who you know? - Formulating a good strategic media plan - Avoiding negative associations - Measurements quantify success

Takeaways Top Tip It’s good to know that it’s more about the story you have to tell than it is who you know. With this in mind, look at the topics you could be an expert in and own them. But do this with a long term view in mind, don’t focus on the short term gains of appearing once and never again.

Favourite Quote ‘Media relations now is using different media channels to provide value to target audiences’ And isn’t this what we should be doing all the time!!!!! Utilising not only our media relations, but through all channels. Media relations is an excellent way to improve and maximise this and can sometimes be overlooked as a tactic. But don’t as you’ll be missing out!

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode When building media relations, make it easy for the reporter, journalist or your contact to do their job. Provide a head shot, bio, a synopsis of the main talking points you are willing to cover or have covered and most importantly, don’t double book. You need to be available on their timescale, not your own.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Christoph Trappe https://authenticstorytelling.net/ https://twitter.com/CTrappe https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophtrappe/ https://www.instagram.com/christophtrappe/ https://www.facebook.com/ctrappe

Business Storytelling Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/business-storytelling-podcast/

Content Performance Culture: https://amzn.to/31R18wZ

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 are all used to hearing this word ‘culture’. A good definition of it would be ‘ the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.’ So in a working environment this means, in simple terms – what it’s like to work there.

From a consumers perspective, Seth Godin summaries it very nicely ‘people like us, do things like this’, which is more about finding where you fit in than generating a culture, but the same principals still apply.

But what if we want to build a culture that is focused on creating content. A culture that promotes storytelling and finding those stories that your audience really cares about?

Our guest today - Christoph Trappe, will help us uncover how to create such a culture. Christoph is, amongst other things, a podcaster (check out the Business Storytelling Podcast), author (check it out Content Performance Culture) and more importantly for us he is the Chief Content and Marketing Officer at The Authentic Storytelling Project. Perfectly positioned to help us understand both the strategic and the tactical elements of a content culture.

In this episode we cover; - Creating a culture where content is king - Being consistent - How to become better at creating content - The process for telling a good story

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/Db5fxfV09CY

Takeaways Top Tip Create once, publish everywhere. I’m a huge fan of this repurposing tactic. It offers a whole bunch of benefits including; continuity, efficiency, awareness, quality control and of course, engagement.

Favourite Quote ‘I think everyone can create content to some extent. The biggest hurdle is – what’s your level of letting it go?’ Meaning its more about the content you produce and the value inside this than it is a clean, polished version of the truth. People want authenticity, so let’s give them it.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Christoph got me thinking when he stated that you need to ‘find stories that your audience cares about.’ This doesn’t mean, dry, dull, obvious content. Try to expand on the topics and areas you specialise in and combine these with storytelling and engaging with your audience. Get creative and see where it takes you!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Check out Social Day (1st-3rd Sept 2020): www.socialday.co.uk Get 50% off with discount code: studylab

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 Ola Degteva https://www.linkedin.com/in/odegteva/

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 Before we introduce our guest today, just a quick heads up about Social Day, a 3 day virtual festival, including workshop sessions running from the 1st to the 3rd September 2020. If this sounds like your bag, you can join in the fun and get a 50% discount by using code ‘studylab’. Check it out at www.socialday.co.uk

Links and code are in the show notes.

We know data is important and we all have access to it. Access to a little too much data. But, is this data legitimate, usable and trustworthy enough to make business decisions from?

Ola Degteva can help us here. Ola has been knee-deep in data for over 10 years and knows a thing or two about how to get the best from the information we have and receive. Working within her own family business as well as assisting clients in a variety of industries, Ola not only generates results but helps businesses understand what data they should be analysing and even, where to get it from!

In this episode we cover; - The data we should be looking for - How to develop actional insights from data - Spotting and filling data gaps - The types of software we should be using

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/aqdGYydL-j8

Takeaways Top Tip Always look to have a centralized data approach. Pick one data stream and go with this as your source of truth. Anything more than this starts to muddy the waters in terms of finalising your results. Of course use more than one data stream, but use them to interoperate your singular primary source.

Favourite Quote ‘The first thing you need to do is know where you stand and know your benchmarks.’ If you don’t do this you won’t know what is a good result for you within a certain industry. You could think you are performing very well, only to find out that your results, compared to an industry average, is just that…. Average.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Whenever you are running a digital campaign, segment your market and use the more relevant data points to help you understand what is occurring. Like Ola stated, you could have conversions, interactions and impressions as data points for very different sub-sets of your market. Focus on these individually to move consumers closer to their end goal.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Check out Social Day (1st-3rd Sept 2020): www.socialday.co.uk Get 50% off with discount code: studylab

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 Martyn Sibley https://disabilityhorizons.com/ http://purplegoatagency.com/ http://martynsibley.com/

Book: Everything is Possible: https://amzn.to/2Ylvcyz

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 Before we introduce our guest today, just a quick heads up about Social Day, a 3 day virtual festival, including workshop sessions running from the 1st to the 3rd September 2020. If this sounds like your bag, you can join in the fun and get a 50% discount by using code ‘studylab’. Check it out at www.socialday.co.uk. Links and code are in the show notes.

We all like to think that discrimination is something we all avoid and that inclusion is the one thing that is non-negotiable. But are we really doing this or just simply paying lip service to it? Are we actually afraid of being seen as exploitative or insensitive by simply doing what we think is right? Let’s see what we need to consider when doing what is right and inclusive with Martyn Sibley.

Martyn is the founder of Disability Horizons and Purple Goat Agency, both of which focus on the needs and wants of the disabled community from both a commercial perspective and as individuals.

As Marytn describes himself, he’s ‘just a regular guy who happens to have a disability (called Spinal Muscular Atrophy – SMA)’. Being a regular guy means not only running an agency and an online disability lifestyle publication, but going skiing, scuba diving, flying a plane – but that’s the boring normal stuff isn’t it.

Let’s get back that marketing thingy. In this episode we cover; - Planning for inclusiveness with our marketing - How to say the ‘right’ thing - Getting your voice heard over all the rubbish

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/enIASKSUbK8

Takeaways Top Tip Look to make products and services that include everyone. Using a universal design approach not only means you are following the basics of Inclusion Marketing, but this usually means looking for simplicity and ease of use which in turn can reduce friction, which we all want less of. A great example of this is Siri.

Favourite Quote When Martyn was discussing getting your voice heard in a crowded market he believes that ‘everything you need is there…. it’s just the action, it’s the doing’

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode When looking to create awareness within your marketplace. Remember Martyn’s three stages to success; 1 – Tell your story 2 – Build a community 3 – Have a strong call to action

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Check out Social Day (1st-3rd Sept 2020): www.socialday.co.uk Get 50% off with discount code: studylab

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 Kristian Altuve https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristianaltuve/ https://zerodegreestory.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 Before we introduce our guest today, just a quick heads up about Social Day, a 3 day virtual festival, including workshop sessions running from the 1st to the 3rd September 2020. If this sounds like your bag, you can join in the fun and get a 50% discount by using code ‘studylab’. Check it out at www.socialday.co.uk.

We know video is important in Marketing Land today, we’ve covered it before in the podcast. And everyone seems to be a video content producer or at least is attempting to be one. So it’s time to revisit and get some actionable insights into how good video content is put together.

Kristian Altuve is the owner and Creative Director of Zero Degree Story. Kristian helps people tell their story through cinematic videos that convert strangers into super fans with the right mix of logic, emotion, and storytelling (putting method behind and in-front of the camera).

It is thought that 72% of consumers prefer video to learn about a product or service (Wyzowl), so it really is time to take this seriously and Kristain doesn’t just leave it at the video production, it’s the whole package – especially post-production, something we all forget as our carefully curated videos just sit there along with all the cats in hats doing zip all to help your business!

In this episode we run through Kristian’s process for turning strangers into super fans, including; 1 - Research & Strategy 2 - Developing a Message 3 - Launching and Scaling Plus, getting the right balance of story and meaningful content

But first, a question I ask everyone (determines if we become friends or not to be honest), Kristian, what’s your favourite Pixar movie?

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/lNcs8NCAsyo

Takeaways Top Tip Regardless of what you are doing, it all starts with your customers! So talk to them. They may become the voice you never knew you needed within your organisation. After all, they are whom we seek to serve isn’t it? And if it isn’t, why the hell are you in business?

Favourite Quote ‘I think it comes down to the psychology of emotion and logic. We rationalise with logic, but we ultimately make an emotional decision’ So when creating video content, just think about how you can make that emotional connection, yet maintain that logical communication that is easy to rationalise.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode In an era of free media, it is so important to remember that these platforms are there to make money…. From advertising, so paying to increase your reach, boost your awareness, can act as a springboard for your video content. Don’t ignore it and think that people will just find it. You need to put as much work into the distribution as you do the creation.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Check out Social Day (1st-3rd Sept 2020): www.socialday.co.uk

Get 50% off with discount code: studylab

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 Carolyn Butler-Madden https://www.thecauseeffect.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynbm/

Do Good Sh*t page: https://www.thecauseeffect.com.au/dgs Book – Path to Purpose: https://amzn.to/2DKKdTg

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’ve covered social impact and purpose before, in fact it was just over on episode 120 with Karen Porter, who provided us with an excellent run through of development, buy-in and the pitfalls that most organisations fall foul to.

This weeks guest Carolyn Butler-Madden is here to take a deeper dive into our Brand Purpose and strategic direction as we uncover her Path to Purpose program and the six stages we all need to take to deliver true brand purpose.

You can read more about one component of this overall strategy in Carolyn’s books – Path to Purpose.

Carolyn is also a speaker and Chief Purpose Activist at Purpose consultancy, The Cause Effect, believing in a world where business is a force for good and brands drive profit through purpose.

In this episode we cover; Developing your Brand Purpose using the Path to Purpose Program; 1 – Brand Positioning 2 – People and Culture 3 – Partners in Purpose 4 – Customer Experience 5 – Marketing and Comms 6 – Impact and Performance

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/W_Rzwp4Fm-4

Takeaways Top Tip When it comes to the Marketing and Communications of your cause or social purpose, don’t just talk about the actual program, talk about the impact you are having and want to create. And then invite others to do the same, get involved and subsequently spread the message. It should never be seen as an insular project as you are trying to impact the world – so let the world help you!

Favourite Quote ‘You know everyone talks about purpose. It makes such a difference, because you are just driven, obsessively, because it matters, you care. It means something’. This is so powerful and I implore you to find your purpose because like Carolyn said – it matters and it means something. And who doesn’t want that in their lives?

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode When it comes to brand positioning, be bold and brave, don’t make it passive. Safe is now risky and you shouldn’t be playing it safe when it comes to your brand. Be memorable for the right reasons.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Sign up for the Quietly Successful Summit here for FREE:http://quietlysuccessfulsummit.com/

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 Fifi Mason https://fifimason.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefifimason/

Link to the vulnerability test Fifi mentioned: https://fifimason.com/comfort-level/

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 my first recording since Liverpool won the English Football League for the first time in 30 years. Congratulations to the team, the club and more importantly the fans. You’ll never walk alone.

Are you visible in the business you work for or as part of your own personal branding? If not, it might be time you reconsidered your strategy for this.

And this doesn’t mean using fake, aggressive or exhausting tactics.

Our guest this week, Fifi Mason, helps to inspire introverts to get visible and build a personal brand that aligns with your own personality. Nothing fake, nothing underhand, just emphatically you – with sincerity and style.

Fifi believes there is a true power in being yourself in business as it’s the most effective way to build trust, raise your profile and attract more clients.

In this episode we cover; - The importance of authenticity - Approaches to being authentic - Being comfortable with our true self - Dealing with overwhelm and exhaustion

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/pmuVTtrMuHo

Takeaways Top Tip When it comes to personal branding, spend the time getting to know, you! The more time you spend on this and working out the type of person you are, the stronger your personal brand will be and the more authentic you will be to, not only yourself, but also your audience.

Favourite Quote ‘It’s finding that why and knowing it and knowing the true why for yourself and for your clients’ – This is powerful. Spend some time figuring out what gets you out of bed in the morning and gets you motivated and keeps you focused. This is probably where all your efforts should be placed.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode When faced with an issue, problem, simply overwhelm, try to reframe the scenario you see yourself in and ask these three questions;

- What’s the worst that could happen? - What’s the best that could happen? - What’s the most likely to happen?

And you’ll probably find that the thing that is most likely to happen is that happy medium, it’s never as bad as you think it will be, in fact it could be even better than you were imagining!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Mark Kingston Jones https://teambuildingwithbite.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/markkingstonjones/

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 Let’s make forced fun part of our businesses culture; - Go on go to the Xmas doo, it will be fun - Come to the family BBQ, we have burgers and a bouncy castle - What do you mean you don’t want to be part of our book club?

This is an all too familiar and disheartening sight for many people. But there are other ways to get your team working closer together with a passion and commitment most football teams would be proud of and Mark Kingston Jones (our guest this week) has just the answer, co-funding Team Building, with BITE.

Mark and his team offer other teams the chance to build items for animals in zoos and sanctuaries, which are then seen being used by the animals themselves. That sounds so satisfying. But how does this help teams improve their communication and connection with what they do?

In this episode we cover; - What makes a good team building session - Engaging with a disconnected workforce - Positive long-term effects of team-building - Why in-house training is never a good idea, or is it?

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/CyXn5K6py9o

Takeaways Top Tip Bespoke training or team building is much more successful than the standard ‘one size fits all’ approach, so make sure before setting any type of training up, you do your research and really understand what you will get out of the experience and how it will specifically impact a team.

Favourite Quote ‘they are choosing to get involved rather than being told – you must engage, you must interact’ – no one likes forced fun and is this something you would advocate within your social life, no! So don’t do it for your team, make activities voluntary and if they are beneficial, fun, engaging and exciting, people will want to join in anyway.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode If you are looking for a team building exercise, make it memorable! This means the impact it has will be felt over the long-term rather than it producing a short, instant boost that is forgotten in a few weeks.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Troy Sandidge https://findtroy.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/findtroy/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUdDIz3eaCdcxYIGRgwSIw

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 What do you do when you want to chat about your favourite topic – Marketing Strategy? You Find Troy!

Troy Sandidge is a Marketing Strategist who has developed a unique formula for helping his clients maxmise their Marketing Plan and like all good Marketers, his formula comes in a nicely packaged acronym – D.A.R.T: Direct Authentic Resourceful Techniques and Tactics

And we’ll cover all these elements, what they mean and how to implement them for your own business as well as taking a look at what organisations are doing or not doing that is stopping them from achieving Marketing success.

In this episode we cover; - How to use the D.A.R.T Marketing Methodology™ - What organisations are doing wrong when it comes to formulating a Marketing Strategy

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/zKq91MiTcE4

Takeaways Top Tip When it comes to the tactical elements of your marketing plan, you need to make sure that your communications are the three C’s: - Consistently produced - Consideration for who it is created for and why - Connection to the right audience

Favourite Quote ‘If you don’t have the financial resources, or the knowhow, or the manpower, let’s scale it back and let’s look at… What resources do we have to work with?’ So true, but sometimes we are suspectable to overreaching and not being able to make the impact we want. Start small (the smallest viable audience as Seth Godin would say) and build from there.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode No one has a finite budget and what budget you have will have a detrimental effect on what you can or can’t do, so be resourceful. Look at what you want to achieve in the relevant timescales and apportion accordingly.

If it’s content you need to create in the first instance, focus on doing this before pushing this out to your audience, or perhaps content isn’t the issue and project managing a campaign is where you need to pay attention? Regardless, always focus on those elements that will help achieve your main goals and objectives.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Karen Porter https://undergroundcomms.com.au

B Corp Certified: https://bcorporation.net B Impact Assessment: https://bimpactassessment.net/ (B Corp Certification is a global certification so it's relevant for everyone).

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 What do these words mean to you? Sustainable, Ethical, Environmentally Friendly. Many use these as buzz words that are thrown about like used paper in the wrong bin!

What if you want to make a real impact and not just pay lip service to these words? Taking it further than just corporate social responsibility and create real social impact and purpose. What does it take and how can we make sure its meaningful?

Karen Porter is a strategic communications specialist who helps to deliver communication strategies with a positive social impact. But this doesn’t mean just saying how many paper cups you’ve recycled, this is about being true to your brand, actively making a difference and supporting what is important to you and your business!

In this episode we uncover; - How do you develop a social purpose (I foolishly call this Corporate Social Responsibility which isn’t exactly correct)? - Being seen as credible - Getting internal buy-in - The pitfalls that companies usually fall foul to

We also cover becoming a certified B Corporation (more about this in the episode). If you are interested in becoming a certified B Corporation, it’s a wise move to take the B Impact Assessment which will show you how far off you are, here's the link: https://bimpactassessment.net/ (link is in the show notes).

With all this kindness floating around in need to know first off - Karen, what is your most memorable selfless act?

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/gtFzlQSFiLg Top Tip If you are going to talk the talk, then you need to walk the walk. Taking the B Impact Assessment and subsequently striving to become B Corp Certified show you are doing exactly that and you are not just typing words onto recycled paper.

Favourite Quote If you want buy-in from your team, they all need to contribute to how (as an organisation) you are going to show up in the world and you are going to do good.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Tpisode Even if you are not looking to become B Corp Certified there are multiple other ways to establish you credentials within your own industry’s, through accreditations and partnerships. Just make sure that these are true to your brand and meaningful to what you believe in.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Teresa Heath-Wareing https://teresaheathwareing.com https://teresaheathwareing.com/podcast/ Check out the training; https://teresa-heath-wareing-b3a9.mykajabi.com/mtc-academy

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 Selling online should be easy. After all we can all sell our - let’s call it stuff – on eBay, why should doing it our own way be any different.

Well for starters you don’t have the infrastructure, awareness, budget, online presence or any form of credibility. But, fortunately for us Teresa Heath-Wareing is joining us this week who has a passion for online sale and marketing (as well as gin – both are covered here) and runs the very successful ‘Marketing that Converts’ Academy that helps people build their business online.

Teresa is here to help us with some actionable tips to help us start to build an online business, without the hardship.

In this episode we cover; - The basics to selling online - The differences between marketing an online business rather offline - Where social fits in - Why email marketing is still relevant - The fundamental mistakes people make

Watch the episode video:https://youtu.be/A1Gwr2WzlFQ

Takeaways Top Tip – Using social doesn’t have to be time sapping or arduous. Follow Teresa’s guidance here; Pick your platform, Show up consistently, Add value.

Favourite Quote – ‘Your competitors aren’t your competitors online’ you are dealing with a whole host of other influences that you need to consider – what this means is that it’s really easy to get online, but so difficult to be heard. But you need to start, so start now!

And finally, the most important takeaway from this episode – When building a business offline (the traditional way) it is all about building those relationships and keeping them strong. While the same can be said for any online business, you need to see your audience very differently – keep your content consistent, build a database of clients and get those lead magnets sorted.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Nick Diakanastasis https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-diakanastasis/

https://www.theintrovertmentor.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 You start to sweat, heart racing, adrenaline kicks in, knees tremble….. and then press record and….. nothing. You just can’t get that video recorded.

If any of this sound familiar to you when you go to record your own videos, this week’s chat with Nick Diakanastasis is defo for you. Nick is a Public Speaking Coach and a Trained Actor who is going to help us conquer those pre-recording nerves about speaking on camera as well as some amazing tips on how to feel more comfortable and natural in front of the camera. Especially now we are all using online chat A LOT more!

In this episode we cover; - What should we do before going on camera - Getting rid of those nerves - Tips on body language and vocals - The stupid (sorry main) things people are getting wrong.

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/DE8Fll8DDT4

Takeaways - Did you know you were breathing incorrectly? Now you’re checking out how you breathe right? This should come from your stomach, not your nose or throat. Try using this technique before and during a recording and see if you notice a difference in how you are coming across on camera.

- When you are pumped full of adrenaline everything is quicker, you speak quicker, you try to get to the finish quicker and your processing speed is quicker. Is this a good or a bad thing… well it can be both, but be cautious that this doesn't affect the conversations you are having or the answers you give to questions. Slow down, as what you feel might be a slower speed will look more natural and will probably be much closer to the natural you.

- And finally, you need to give more than you think. Not for reciprocity, although you should be doing this anyway, but when on camera, always give more than you think. In fact, if you feel comfortable, you’re not giving enough – stretch yourself and give that little bit extra and move out of your comfort zone.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Lee Rowley http://leerowley.com https://www.copybrandu.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/theleerowley/

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 Buy my stuff, go on, buy my stuff.

If you don’t think this type of content works as its simplistic, intrusive and adds no value…. You’re right.

Persuasive content is key to engaging with your audience, guiding them to purchase the right solution to fix their problems. That is why Lee Rowley is joining us for a little chat about how he does this for his clients. As his LinkedIn profile states – ‘I ride shotgun in your buyer's subconscious. Then I use what I find to create refreshingly human marketing that makes your competition irrelevant’ – If this isn’t enough to get your ears pricked I don’t know what is.

In this episode we cover;

- How to generate persuasive content - How to stand out and find the unique you - Creating content that resonates with your ideal customers - What errors we need to avoid in developing content

Lee also introduces us to CopyBrand University. Lee’s own online platform which helps you develop the type of persuasive content you really need to be creating.

But before all this I need to know - Lee, what is the most powerful

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/H1PASNHB2vY

Takeaways - Lee showed us where we all need to start with our persuasive content – looking at the desired results – from the customers perspective. Sounds simple, but can be tricky when you are too close to your own business. Remember, your business is not for you, it’s made for your customers.

- We live in the connection economy. Focus on building those connections. Threading that needle that ties everything together first and foremost – not your bank account.

- And finally, my favourite line from this chat – Assumption kills copy! Never assume you know what your customers are thinking. Ask, research and test. Your customers don’t stand still and neither should our content.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Instagram Strategy for Business Growth: Dot Lung Online Course: https://bit.ly/3dOg5TK

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 Dot Lung http://www.dotlung.com

@dotlung on all social channels

Previous episode 99: https://bit.ly/2WEPqDj

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 Social media can be viewed as the second internet, it’s got its own place in our Digital Strategies, but how do you succeed on these platforms. It isn’t a case of show up, use it like you would if you were talking to family. It needs to be seen as and used as a business tool.

When I chatted to Dot Lung back in episode 99 we discussed (amongst other things) her DRANGONS formula for social success. I felt it didn’t get the airtime it deserves as it was stuck at the back of our conversation rather than front and centre.

Now with an online course to accompany the formula, I’m delighted to share this section of the episode with you all as it is truly Actionable Marketing Knowledge.

No random question, no back story, just straight into the DRANGONS formula and how it can lead to social success.

So here is Dot Lung to talk you through it.

Takeaways If you want to have a strategy for your social content, look no further than Dot Lungs DRAGONS formula. Here is a recap;

Dialogue – You need to be saying the right things. Make sure you are having human to human contact by concentrating on the conversation.

Relatability – Can you create content that sparks emotion and ‘like-ability’. Try telling stories that are relatable to your audience.

Authenticity – Stay true and stay you! Be authentic and true to your brand.

Giving Value – You must be delivering value consistently and give before your take. The more you give, the more you get.

Opinion – This can be a great conversation starter and generates engagement. You will find your true fans by sharing your opinion.

Niche – Find your niche and be specific. Trying to speak to everyone means you are speaking to nobody. Dot says this is around 250 people.

Scaling - As every dragon has scales :) but your gonna have to talk to Dot to uncover this one!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 John Espirian https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnespirian/ https://espirian.co.uk

Content DNA: https://amzn.to/3cD3yCh

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 takes a long time to be known for your craft and we shouldn’t look for hacks, cheats or quick fixes, we need to build slowly and correctly.

It’s an honour to welcome back to the podcast, John Espirian, the relentlessly helpful copywriter, Johns first appearance was way back in episode 32, but now he has a new book out called Content DNA which is packed with ideas and helpful tips on how to get noticed, remembered and preferred through being the same ‘shape’ everywhere you show up.

In this episode we focus on 3 chapters of the book;

Chapter 5 – Being known for one thing and how we do this Chapter 12 – Social media bad practice. What should we avoid doing? Chapter 23 – Writing and finding the right content ideas

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/FeN1ymkJ9SM

Takeaways

- You need to find that one thing you want to be known for. Got it? No? Well follow Johns steps to get there – What do you enjoy doing most and what brings the most value? Finding one without the other just won’t work or it’s going to make you miserable, so it’s worth taking the time to work this out.

- John took us through the bad practices he sees on LinkedIn. These are; Engagement pods, Generic invitations, Don’t ignore people – make sure you’re engaging, The follow, unfollow, Tag walls – no one wants to be another brick in a wall!

- Don't have a 1 month plan, or even a 12 month plan. Focus on 30 months. This gives you the time to build up a reputation or as Mark Schafer puts it – being ‘known’. This can seem daunting, but will pay off as there are no shortcuts here, so rewind, listen to Johns wise words and go implement.

Music Featured on this Podcast:Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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 Joe Glover https://www.linkedin.com/in/josepheglover/ The Marketing Meetup: https://themarketingmeetup.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 Well this is a first for Marketing Study Lab, we’ve ran out of guests! Of course not – but over the next three episodes we’ll be chatting to some familiar faces. So let’s meet our first two timer - Mr. Joe Glover, the Founder of the Marketing Meetup amongst other things.

I’m delighted to welcome Joe back to the show after initially appearing on episode 96 where we discussed what it takes to put on amazing events…. But what happens when you can’t put on those events? When circumstances out of your control determine that your whole business model is thrown out of the window.

Joe had a decision to make, does he pause what he has been building over the past few years, or does he look for other ways to provide value to his thriving community? Well it wouldn’t be much of a podcast if it was the pause option would it!

So what does this look like and how do you transition from what is seen as a threat to your business model to generating opportunities to be even better than before.

In this episode we chat about; - The first thing to do when circumstances change - Transitioning from offline to online events - What is needed to do this both emotionally and physically

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/XUj_6II2P_Y

Takeaways - It’s OK to go through the stages that change brings, in your own time as you need to be in the right frame of mind to tackle what is needed to be done. Joe spent some time coming to terms with basically needing to change his whole business model, but when ready he created something that was even better than before!

- If the poop does hit the fan you need to gather your thoughts and start to take actionable steps to resolve these issues. Consider things like; - Software and hardware required - What can you bring across from what you are currently doing, what needs tweaking and what needs a complete change - Look to technology and how this can be utilised to offer a better service - Don’t forget the Marketing and comms!

- And finally, look for the opportunities. Joe took his sign up functionality from an external source to having full control of the process. So where can you bring something in-house to make your customer journey even better.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de  Creative Commons License

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

Dan Gingiss

https://www.dangingiss.com

You can also download Dan’s ebook from his website: 4 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Customer Experience

Dan’s Podcast: https://www.dangingiss.com/podcasts/

Dan’s articles on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dangingiss/

iFlix: https://www.iflix.com

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

 Intro

Customer experience is one of those tasks that we all feel should be a number one priority for a company that we are having that experience with. But do we put the same amount of effort into our own businesses CX?

Dan Gingiss is a customer experience coach who believes that a remarkable customer experience is your best form of marketing. Building on his previous work within three Fortune 300 companies as well as a library of real-life examples, Dan now offers us his expertise in building an amazing customer experience.

In this episode we cover the main points that Dan’s free ebook (link in the show notes) uncovers; 4 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Customer Experience, including;

- Getting everyone to focus on customer experience - The basics of creating a great experience - The digital platforms that could improve these experiences - The tools and skills will we need in the future

Watch the Episode Video:

https://youtu.be/aA6ZB62VT14

Takeaways

- Complainers, complain because they care. Listening to your customers is so vital because of this. The ones that provide feedback and are complaining are the ones that want you to succeed, get better, improve on what you have already build. So listen to them.

- Someone has to be accountable for customer experience, although everyone should be involved in it and feel like they should be part of it. Dan gave the example of invoicing and how this can be an important part of the experience, which most companies flippantly pass off as a basic admin task.

- And finally, think about and remember ALL the touch-points your customer has with your organisation and make these memorable and true to your brand. As Dan stated, they don’t have to be expensive. Some the of best experiences are brought about through simple, practical and inexpensive changes.

 Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode Links Naira Perez https://www.springhilldigital.com info@springhilldigital.com https://www.facebook.com/springhilldigital/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/springhilldigital/

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro Facebook Ads are a topic we probably all know a little about and we certainly all consume them on some level, passively or actively. But do we really understand what goes on behind the scenes here?

Our guest on this episode Naira Perez is a Facebook Ads Expert and is with us to go through all the elements we need to know to start effectively engaging with our audience. Naira, the founder of Springhill Digital is a data geek that is committed to brand building through paid social media.

On this episode we go through the most important Facebook Ad actionable tips you need to get your campaign going and getting results, including; Building an audience and targeting, Bidding strategies, What makes a good ad, And the metrics we need to be analyzing.

Watch the episode video:https://youtu.be/7OCAuxV4eqw

Takeaways - Did you know how detailed you can get with Facebook targeting? Even if you aren’t using the platform to target customers it can be a great way to gather insight and develop an understanding as to the profile of those you seek to serve

- When creating an actual Facebook ad, its important to remember ALL the key components to stand the best chance of success. These are;

- Make sure you have an offer - Provide a message that highlights your solution to a problem - Make sure your image or video coordinates with your copy - Be clear on what you want people to do (your call to action or CTA)

- And finally, if you are using videos, make sure the first three seconds and the first frame is engaging enough to gets someone’s attention. Always think about how quick you scroll through your own feed and what catches your attention while doing this. It’s a great starter to becoming a whiz at Facebook Ads.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode Links Winnie Sun http://winniesun.com

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro This episode is all about finance, which is something that can be a difficult topic to discuss from a business or personal perspective.

So in this episode we’re chatting to Winnie Sun, found of the Sun Group Wealth Partners but more importantly for us, Winne makes money talk relatable.

A contributor for Forbes and having appearances on CNBC, ABC, CBS and Fox Business, Winnie is committed to helping anyone with their finance from those with millions to invest to the smaller $100 savings.

Some of the actionable tips that we discuss are; - What should we be doing with our money now - What not to do - And what we should be doing in times of change or even crisis Check out the episode video: https://youtu.be/W5k94RqhS0E

Takeaways - You need to start taking money seriously…. And start talking about it! So many comparisons with going the gym here. You need to be consistent, take it seriously and work on it daily. Don’t expect to know everything as soon as you walk through those financial doors either. Take your time and learn, build and grow.

- Make sure you have a purpose, work out how this can make money and do the back tracking to figure out where to start. You have so much more chance of winning if you are passionate about what you do and what brings the money in.

- And finally, have a plan! But not just one plan, many. In a world where we are told to niche down, go deep and own this space (which is so true), there is no reason you can’t do this for multiple spaces and multiple niches. As Winne said, which is so prevalent to the times we live in, make sure you have a plan B, C, D and E – if plan A isn’t working, you still have 4 plans to fall back on.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode Links Chris Strub https://www.teamstrub.com https://twitter.com/ChrisStrub https://www.instagram.com/chrisstrub/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisstrub/

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro Is not-for-profit Marketing different to for profit? We’re going to find out on todays episode.

If you think about it, the comms channels are the same and we would go through the same Marketing planning or strategy, but there must be some differences by way of using the rational and emotional to influence how we think and feel.

To help us understand all this we’re chatting to Chris Strub. Chris helps non-profits make a huge impact by leveraging the power of video to create meaningful change. Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and The Salvation Army to name just two charities Chris has worked with, he is currently focused on hands-on training sessions and live-streamed event hosting in communities around the world.

Chris’s notoriety came in the summer of 2015, when he quit his job to take a solo, unsponsored road trip to all 50 US states, over 100 days visiting and helping charities along the way – inspiring the book ‘50 states, 100 days’

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/oZjrHcwjcIA

Takeaways - Think about the emotional connection you can create. Take a look at some of the most successful brands in the world – Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, they all use emotion to make a connection with their audience and stay front of mind. Be it through lifestyle, innovation and latest tech or imagination. So how will you spark emotional connections with your audience?

- Use video to show the impact your service is having. It’s not about what you do, no one really cares, it's the problems you solve (this we found out on the special episode recorded with Ryan Foland back in October 2019 - https://bit.ly/39dSMA9) and showing this through video content can work amazingly well.

- Finally, go behind the scenes. Consistency in content is key and we all need to be thinking like a TV station and producing quality content on a regular basis that goes behind the scenes of what we actually do. Letting people in, being authentic, open and honest can resonate much better than the standard corporate business ‘this is what we’re all about’, staged video can – so let’s be seeing the real you, the real business and the problems that you are solving.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode Links Jim Fuhs https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfuhs/ https://twitter.com/FuhsionMktg Tim and Jim Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnn36obQRil327wFGA756UQ

Tools Canva: https://www.canva.com Adobe Spark: https://spark.adobe.com Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee Smartbio: https://www.tailwindapp.com/smartbio Metricool: https://metricool.com Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com Periscope: https://www.pscp.tv Streamyard: https://streamyard.com Tweetdeck: https://tweetdeck.twitter.com Gilphy: https://giphy.com

Book: Age of Influence – Neal Schaffer: https://amzn.to/2J6MOpV

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 @cousinp81

Intro Twitter has around 330 million active users and is sometimes see as the watercooler of the social channels (one for the older listeners that one). It can easily be dismissed as trash and full of negative comments, but look below this surface and there is a wealth of value in being active and using the platform.

In this episode we’re chatting with Jim Fuhs of Fuhsion Marketing, a full service social media marketing company. Jim is known for his social expertise and personal training to get your rocking on multiple platforms.

In this episode we strip it right back and discuss the all the Twiiter fundamentals you need to maximise your influence on this channel.

Jim also mentions so, so, so many apps and tools that I’m not even sure if I caught them all for the show notes!!! (Let me know if I haven’t).

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/f-pf0qpW9Mw

Takeaways - Lets cover the first steps again – Get your Bio and your header right. Don’t use a logo, use a picture of yourself (that can be used across multiple platforms) and make sure you utilize your bio and username to add engaging elements such as keywords and hashtags

- Have a Hashtag of your own (that people can use, follow or engage with) or use the hashtag of a live event to engage with those there and those that can’t make it! For example Social Media Marketing World used #SMMW20, which Jim was at AND was in the top Tweeters while there.

- And finally, Jim’s four E’s to guarantee growth on Twitter that we should all be using right now; - Education - Entertain - Empower people - And last but most importantly Engage (this is what the platform was built on and a fundamental for any success now and in the future)

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode Links Kate Walling https://www.katewalling.com/ https://www.tractionhero.com https://www.facebook.com/tractionhero

Traction Hero Links: https://www.instagram.com/tractionhero/ https://twitter.com/tractionhero https://www.linkedin.com/company/tractionhero/

The Information: https://www.theinformation.com Uncanny Valley: A Memoir - Anna Wiener: https://amzn.to/2J1PpSj

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 @cousinp81

Intro The ever-changing world of Marketing needs to be constantly reassessed which I why I’m always keen to try and get those in the know on the podcast to discuss what is coming up in the near future and provide you with some ‘take action now’ steps.

This is why I had to chat to Kate Walling. Kate is a Marketing Consultant for technology companies. Known for creating edgy brands, aggressive growth plans, and for building powerful marketing teams that know how to GSD (get shit done), which is why I wanted to speak to Kate about what we should be focused on for the rest of 2020.

Kate also runs Traction Hero, a tech-savvy marketing agency that solves high growth companies’ most pressing marketing challenges so they can get on with being growthy!

Some actionable takeaways from this episode include the need for quality content and some tools that can help here as well as a look at the effectiveness of social advertising.

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/RVYty2DkL9Y

Takeaways - Kate mentioned that the competition is high when it comes to valuable content, so make sure your is of the highest standard. Kate also mentioned Canva, which is a powerful tool to help you develop such content quickly.

- Don’t have FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to your software. It’s easy to sign up for the latest shiny object, but think about what the future holds. What you are using now, you may not be using in 12 to 24 months, so make sure it is fully flexible and you are not locked into any agreement you can’t get out of.

It can take a while to really understand now tech, so take your time before committing. Use the free trial, test it out, learn about the software and work out if it’s right for you.

- And finally, think about how your MarTech all fits together. Kate said that there is a trend for using more than one CRM system and this can be seen in other genres as well – creative and social apps, multiple email accounts, even diaries! The efficiencies that can be generated by using multiple systems cannot be ignored.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962 

Guest and Episode LinksJohn Wall Twitter: @johnjwall - https://twitter.com/johnjwall https://www.trustinsights.ai https://www.marketingovercoffee.com

Cheese Forecast: https://www.trustinsights.ai/blog/2019/06/fun-with-forecasting-cheese-of-the-week-predictive-analytics/

Search and Analysis Tool ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com 

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Grab a brew and let’s look to the future. If you love your data, or don’t know what to do with it. This is the episode for you.

It’s time to get your geek on.

John Wall has been co-host of the popular Marketing Over Coffee podcast for the past 13 years, with over a half million downloads annually and look at the developments in both Marketing and technology.

John also runs Trust Insights, helping companies understand Marketing Analytics and Data, which means he is the perfect person to ask about the ever changing world of Technology and how this is effecting Marketing as whole and what we can do to make sure we are at the sharp end of these changes.

Actionable tips include; the tools we should be using in Marketing right now (and how you should be applying them) and those that will be important in the future.

Takeaways

- John says that a data set of 30 is your minimal viable option. With a data set of 30 you can start to make decisions – but the more data the better. But remember to look for the losers, not the winners. Pause, remove or delete those elements that aren’t working for you and focus on the ones that are.

- Data, data, data. Throughout my whole conversation with John, it was abundantly clear that he is putting data that is readily available to us to good use. Data is all around us, but it’s using programs (a lot are free by the way) to make good use of this data that really counts – such as Google Analytics or Facebook Ad analysis – where we should be establishing our goals and tracking these for success.

- And finally. Keep on innovating! John’s five areas for future growth that we all need to be considering are:

Text mining, Network graphing, Data clustering, Attribution, Predictive.

Enjoy the future people!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode LinksMark Bowden https://truthplane.com

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

IntroAre you sitting comfortably. You may not be after we chat to our next guest as he is one of the top body language experts in the world. If you were ever to watch a podcast on video… this is the one (link is in the show notes).

Mark Bowden is a body language expert, keynote speaker and best-selling author. As a global authority on nonverbal communication, Mark trains people how to use their body language to stand out, win trust and gain credibility through his company TRUTHPLANE®, the name will become apparent later.

In this episode we’ll learn a whole host of actionable tips that we can utilise straight away to make our body language impactful in the way we want t be seen.

Takeaways

- Love Marks take on making assumptions about body language and how making these stick subconsciously can cause lasting effects (or thoughts) that are incorrect. Always be asking … maybe, allowing you to consider the future possibilities that these feelings may change, from a negative to a positive. Always have an open mind.

- I’ve been reading this all wrong in thinking that crossed arms are a negative signal! I’m a stickler for crossing my arms and have always been told it’s defensive and now we know, it’s a sign of comfort. Maybe I was comfortable in my defense. Either way, it just highlights how important it is to read and know your audiences non-verbal behaviours

- And finally, don’t overcomplicate things. It’s easy to fall into the trap of overthinking the smallest, micro gestures and making them into something they’re not. Stick to the obvious, the gestures you can easily recognise that allow you to move the conversation forward in a positive way – Arms folded, I wish you a good day – I actually do have my arms folded - and now you’re either thinking about folding your arms, or they are folded as well….. I’m in your mind!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Helen’s Free e-Book ‘I Just Don't Know Where To Start’: https://thecontentdoc.com/go/get-your-non-fiction-book-written/

Guest and Episode LinksHelen Pollock https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenpollock/ https://thecontentdoc.com

Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/ Hemmingway: http://www.hemingwayapp.com Yoast: https://yoast.com/

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

What can we learn from writing a book? Let me rephrase that. What actionable tips can we take from an Amazon-bestselling ghostwriter and non-fiction book coach.

Turns out, there are a lot of actionable steps to help us with our writing. Helen Pollock has transitioned from writing lively and engaging copy for businesses in a whole host of sectors to helping business people to write better books and content through her business - The Content Doc.

Helen believes that everyone can become a better writer and that creating a

simple framework for content creation is the key to great business writing.

But first, everyone needs this type of intro in their lives – Helen, what is Marketing Study Lab in Mandarin?

Takeaways

- Never write for you! Always write for your customer. Their pain points are probably different to yours and should be the focus of what you are writing. Unsure what these are – ask!

- Keep it simple. Just like no one wants to be sold to, no one wants to try and decipher what you’re going on about. Cut the jargon and write in an easy to understand way, but don't be afraid to add variety to your sentences. This will help to keep your audience engaged.

- And finally, read it aloud. There is no better way to find out how your copy actually sounds than reading it back, or even getting someone else to read it to you! This is why TV and films always have read throughs, fine tuning for their audience and you should be doing the same. ACTION! 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Get involved in the 10 day video challenge. Giving you what you need to start producing the videos that work for you: https://launch4life.com/vlic

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: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962

Guest and Episode LinksGillian Whitney https://launch4life.com gillian@launch4life.com YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwy0QK5wQZghtYH4jVVaAvg

Video Marketing Resources

Powtoon: https://www.powtoon.com/home/ Camtasia: https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html Quicc: https://www.quicc.io Clips (iPhone app): https://www.apple.com/uk/clips/ Loom: https://www.loom.com SEMRush: https://www.semrush.com Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk Temi: https://www.temi.com Rev: https://www.rev.com Raindrop.io: https://raindrop.io Google EAT: https://moz.com/blog/google-e-a-t Banklinko (Brian Dean): https://backlinko.com

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Video Marketing is almost essential when it comes to your marketing planning, so today we are going to talk through a whole host of hints and tips to get you set to start or improve your video output with Gillian Whitney, a Marketing Consultant from Launch4Life, who in her own words delivers ‘easy peasy marketing solutions’ to all her clients.

Amongst these solutions is of course, video marketing, something which Gillian has had a focus on for the past few years.

In this episode we cover:

- Ways people should incorporate video into their marketing - Best place to start with your video - How to choose a platform - The equipment you need - How to develop a strategy - Software and tools available (and there are loads)!

Gillian mentions A LOT of amazing resources, which can be found in the show notes alongside Gillians 10 day video challenge, which we also discuss.

Takeaways

- Don’t try to be everywhere all of the time. Choose one platform and do it well before attempting to master another and in choosing this platform just remember: 1 – To be where your audience is 2 – Be comfortable on the platform you’re using

- When it comes to recording video content, think about what is appropriate for the platform. How long should your video be and to give it additional piece of production value, make sure your lighting is good enough. This can be the difference between a good and a bad video in terms of engagement.

- And finally, check out the show notes for all of the links to everything Gillian mentioned throughout the episode. Even if you just start using one of these it will make you more efficient and improve your video output.

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Let us do the hard work. Subscribe and each podcast episode will come to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA

Guest and Episode Links

Phil Robinson https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-robinson-4249678/

Proctor and Stevenson https://www.proctors.co.uk/ marketing@proctors.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proctorsbristol/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proctorandstevenson/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProctorsBristol Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProctorsBristol YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/proctorsvideos/videos

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

It’s so easy to create a brand, just design a logo right? That's the brand. Wrong. The problem is these two words are just so interchangeable even I find myself saying brand when I mean logo! Probably because the word came from the ‘branding’ of criminals in the late 17th century (enough of the history lesson Pete, get on with it).

Anyway, as we’ll discover in this episode, a brand is so much more than some colours and a creative. Phil Robinson the Creative Director at Proctor & Stevenson has a solid background in copy, which means, as a Creative Director, he can sees both sides of the creative coin – the front facing and what goes on behind the scenes – perfect for giving us the lowdown on what makes a brand.

Phil’s college Dan Hardaker Head of Digital Design joined us back in episode 89 (https://bit.ly/39RiV8o), but for this chat we move away from building a Marketing Career to straight up brand.

Takeaways

- I love a good analogy and Phil’s representation of a logo being like a countries flag and the brand being everything that is within the countries make-up is brilliant. Think of any country and you get images and thoughts about what the country is made up of – weather, people, cities, activities, culture, etc – that's the brand!

- But how do you create a brand? Try and focus on these four key areas:

1 – The brands proposition 2 – The brand tone of voice 3 – What are its key messages 4 – It’s visual identify

And look, we didn't even touch the creative until point number 4… amazing!

- To create consistency within a brand Phil says you need these three things:

1 – Brand guidelines (to create consistency, not a straight jacket) 2 – Brand champions and ambassadors 3 – Regular reviews as your brand should be as malleable as the ever-changing market is lives to serve.

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Let us do the hard work. Subscribe and each podcast episode will come to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA 

Guest and Episode Links

Brain Wallace https://nowsourcing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/nowsourcing/ Podcast: http://www.nextaction.cc

The $64 Million Basketball Contract Infographic: https://nowsourcing.com/2015/07/21/tobias-harris-case-study/ SXSW Interview: https://bit.ly/39yaDlM TED Talk Satire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZBKX-6Gz6A

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Infographics are sometimes forgotten about when it comes to our Marketing Communications, but can be extremely powerful as our guest explains, with one earning a Basketball player a $64 Million contract!

If you don’t know, an infographic is a graphic visual representation of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.

Back to our guest, Brian Wallace. Brain is a recovering technologist that realised, no one cares about the technical explanation they don’t understand and for the past 13 ½ years has been developing Infographics for his clients through is company NowSourcing, the  number 1 infographic agency in the US.

Brain is also a Google Board Member, is on the South by South West (SXSW) Advisory Board, Podcaster and has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes and Mashable.

Takeaways

- To create an infographic you need to research and find the interesting data points first and foremost, but, don’t whatever you do shortcut the design. This is crucial! It’s the glue that holds all the interesting stuff together, without it you just have a pile of numbers and figures and may not generate the interest you desire.

- Make sure what you are creating is story driven, but have the data to back it up. Everyone can tell a story (or even a fake one), but it's the data that will make it and you legitimate. Remember, you should be building that Know, Like and Trust.

- And finally, we mentioned previously that you need to start with interesting data points and this is true, but don’t forget to factor in the emotion, what will truly draw in the attention of your customers? Yes, the stats and the design are integral, but that emotional connection will be the part that lasts long in the memory.

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Let us do the hard work. Subscribe and each podcast episode will come to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA

Guest and Episode LinksDot Lung http://www.dotlung.com 

Pick your social channel of choice and add @dotlung:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dotlung/ https://www.instagram.com/dotlung/ https://www.facebook.com/dotlung https://twitter.com/dotlung

Social Stats:Active monthly users on Facebook: 2.5 billion (statista.com) Active monthly users on Instagram: 1 billion+ (omnicoreagency.com)

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

If there was a formula to make your Instagram really do the business, gain attention, engagement and really start to work for you, would you be interested in this?

Our guest this week is Dot Lung, the Mother of Social Dragons (and if you haven’t guessed by the title, a Game of Thrones fan) has that formula!

And although this theme can be seen throughout all that Dot does, think complete integration and on-brand across all channels, there is a serious side behind the dragons, eggs and mythical connotations, because Dot is leading the field with her work on social media. The intro on her website dotlung.com states ‘I live 24/7 on all platforms’ and now works with businesses and individuals across the globe (or seven kingdoms) helping them to create an optimum digital experience for their brand or personal identity.

And Dot is here today to share her experience and learnings to improve your own online social presence and talk us through her DRAGONS formula!

But before we get to any of that, I need to find out Dot, what is your favourite Dragon – Fly, Fruit or Dungeons and …

Takeaways

- Your vibe attracts your tribe. And this all about being authentic to who you are and telling this to the world in a way that resonates to those that will be attracted to what you have to offer. No sales pitch, no promo, just your own unique vibe.

- It’s not about the B2B or B2C, it’s all about the H2H (human to human) connections and building relationships. Dot does this by being consistent in developing raw and real content. Ditch the fake! See the pattern here. No sales pitch or hard sell, just connections to build long-term relationships.

- And finally, of course, the DRAGONS formula. I’d suggest rewinding this episode and going back to 35.20 and listening to this part again as following Dots, on brand and on message formula will help you in developing your own social content. Even just following a fraction of this formula will change your social skill for the good.

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Let us do the hard work. Subscribe and each podcast episode will come to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA

Check out the Special Episode #251: 3 Big Ideas from 250 Books For Every Marketer: https://bit.ly/2TVd79j 

Here are just some of the books that were mentioned in the episode:

Ogilvy on Advertising – David Ogilvy: https://amzn.to/2Roh4Sd New Rules of Marketing and PR – David Meerman Scott: https://amzn.to/3aRuMoy The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader – Thomas Barta: https://amzn.to/2vf7U1I Lessons – Mark Schaefer: https://amzn.to/2O0lxbA Beyond Product – Jill Soley: https://amzn.to/36sZ51a The Go Giver – Bob Burg and John David Mann: https://amzn.to/30Q9fIe Be like Amazon – Jeffrey Elsenberg, Bryan Eisenberg and Roy H Williams: https://amzn.to/38HUuKj

Pitch Anything – Oren Kalff: https://amzn.to/38Cqxel Smash the Funnel – Eric Keiles and Mike Lieberman: https://amzn.to/3aGOVxf Mean People Suck – Michael Brenner: https://amzn.to/36qjiET Nincompoopery – John Brandt: https://amzn.to/2NZ6NKl

Guest and Episode LinksDouglas Burdett

www.marketingbookpodcast.com https://www.salesartillery.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasburdett/

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Some people collect sports memorabilia, others collect music and some even stamps. But Douglas Burdett (our guest) collects Sales and Marketing books.

If you’ve ever caught his own podcast (The Marketing Book podcast – www.marketingbookpodcast.com), you’ll know that Douglas not only collects them, but reads at least one a week and then interviews the author.

This podcast was named by LinkedIn as one of "10 Podcasts That Will Make You a Better Marketer" and by Forbes as one of "11 Smart Podcasts That Will Keep You In The Know."

Delighted that Douglas could spare the time to chat about his collection of books, the knowledge he has gained from this and provide us with not only whole host of books we should be reading, but some tips on how to become a better reader.

All the books that are mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes, so if any take your fancy, get on it!

Takeaways

- The first takeaway is quite simply is the fact that Douglas is so generous with his time and knowledge that if you are struggling to find a book that fits your specific requirement, he’ll more than happily advise you on what you should be reading. Get in touch with him, oh and don’t forget to ask for your Marketing Book Podcast bookmark!

- Remember the three big ideas Douglas spoke about that every Marketer needs to know:

1 – Correct the image problem that Marketers have 2 – Get those deep insights into your customers 3 – Making these customers happy revolves around good experiences

- If you want to be a good reader, not waste time, be consistent, learn and enjoy what you are reading,  Douglas advised us to do the following:

1 - Be specific about what you read and which authors you choose 2 - Read the authors blog to see if this is the type of writing you would enjoy 3 - Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations, it can narrow the field down immensely and save a lot of time 4 - Make it a habit – set aside some time, try to fit reading into your daily or weekly schedule, just like you would the gym, eating, or having a cheeky scotch! 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Let us do the hard work. Subscribe and each podcast episode will come to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA

Get Jeff’s Social Profile Secrets guide: https://savagemarketer.com

Guest and Episode LinksJeff J Hunter

https://savagemarketer.com (subscribe to the podcast here and check out Jeff’s Social Profile Secrets as well)!

https://jeffjhunter.com

Savage Marketing Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6MiymBirlQkym2GhpjZDpG

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81) 

Intro

If you’ve never heard of Jeff J Hunter before, you’re clearly not doing social media correctly. Jeff is the go to guy for influencer marketing and building a personal brand. He is the guy behind the guy’s and gal’s we all know. But that’s not what’s important here.

What is important is Jeff’s ability to be open, transparent, honest and show a real passion for Branding, taking his real life experience and implementing this with great success for others.

You may also know Jeff as the Savage Marketer, an outsourcing specialist or even a travel expert, skilled in getting businesses to run efficiently, even when you’re not around.

But in this episode we cover everything from:

Social channels Facebook groups Copywriting Changing your habits How to be consistent with your posts How giving value to others is always the best thing to do And how TikTok helped save someone’s life

Takeaways

- The key platforms we should all be taking a peak at, at the moment are: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Now it’s important that your target audience are on whatever platform you invest your time in unless you will be shouting into a very big, dark, empty social room!

- To effectively use social media you need to start to build your own eco-system. One way to do this is via Facebook Groups. You have a dedicated audience that have signed up to hear and learn from you. Just make sure you’re engaging and active.

- And finally, Jeff was kind enough to mention his copywriting hack that gets results; CLEAR:

C: Curiosity L: Leading them in with Value E: Drawing on Emotions A: Analysing to build expertise R: Creating a call to Reaction

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Joe Glover https://themarketingmeetup.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/josepheglover/

Books:This is Marketing – Seth Godin: https://amzn.to/39J3Dn5 Alchemy – Rory Sutherland: https://amzn.to/2QusDXO

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Networking and events can be both difficult to arrange and for some, even harder to attend and get value out of them.

So it’s time to meet Joe Glover, the Found of The Marketing Meetup, a community where marketers listen, learn, meet and share knowledge through events and workshops.

The Marketing Meetup was created only four years ago and now has a community of over 11,000 people in the UK and US, with nearly 150 events during 2019.

Before we get into how to get the best out of an event or even put one on yourself, I thought this would be the opportune time to ask that most important of questions, Joe, what is your favourite type of mic – Handheld, Lapel or ‘and the mechanics’?

Takeaways

- Joe kindly went through what is needed to get the best out of an event both arranging one and going to one.

Firstly, arranging:

- Find a venue, make it decent and one you can work with and alongside

- Food, you don’t have to do the standard, be different, but offer something people want

- Speakers, you won’t be short of people who want to speak but a good tip is to ask those you, yourself actually want to learn from

- And finally, the Marketing, don’t forget that! Know your audience and make it easy to sign up

Secondly, of you’re going to an event, remember the three Marketing Meetup mantras:

- Listen

- Say hello

- Be positively lovely

And if you see me or Joe, do the last two and we’ll more than happily do the first one! 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Sandy Grigsby https://www.sandyinfocus.com

TedTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUv0IpTSQfw

Go-to Resource:Audible: https://www.audible.co.uk/ 

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

This is the image Sandy talks about near the start of the podcast.

Intro

Deep down we all think we are good with a camera, a keen eye of a good pic, but when you come up against someone who knows their craft well, you realise that you should probably just stick to the family holiday snaps.

Sandy Grigsby is not only one of the top photographers in the US, with clients flying from around the world to get in front of her camera - from Influencers and Fortune 500 Executives, to Billionaires, Thought Leaders, and Celebrities, but within these snaps Sandy can heighten your personal brand and give you that confidence you didn’t know you had, or as Sandy puts it; this can be your Confidence Catalyst.

A psychologist behind a camera basically!

We always hear that being authentic is important, but is this possible in a world where it is easy to criticise from behind a keyboard? And why do photos spark such emotions in us. Luckily, Sandy can help us understand the answers.

Takeaways

- Sandy kindly gave us some simple tips to make our profile photos (or our own photos) better, remember:

- You need to be prepared mentally unless it will show

- Correct your posture and show your confidence to the camera

- Turtle neck it and use your butt - stick it out!

It may feel a little odd but the camera sees us differently to what we see through our own eyes, so use these tips to get better results

- Photography can be so powerful as a camera can capture a singular moment in time. It is also compounded by the fact that a photo can make you think, spark imagination and curiosity – it can mean different things to different people – a video can’t do this as it is continually moving and there is usually a narrative. So think about how a photo will make people think and react.

- And finally, if you’re not looking to fly to the US for Sandy’s services, what should we look for in a photographer and how should we prepare for a photo shoot?

- Firstly, go through their profile and work out if these are the types of images you want. Taking an holistic view of the overall portfolio of work

- Secondly, take the confidence steps Sandy talked us though previously

- And finally, be camera ready. Get a good nights sleep, TWO nights before, not one but two!

Let us do the hard work. Subscribe and each podcast episode will come to you: Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2QSk8om Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2QXQGgw

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Does your website need a page speed review? Book one now with Lukas: https://meetings.hubspot.com/pathmonk/web-review

If you want to check your page speed yourself use this: https://webpagetest.org

Guest and Episode LinksLukas Haensch https://pathmonk.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-haensch-b0199a50/

Watch the Episode Video: https://youtu.be/LZzIz7U4Pm4

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

The page speed of your website probably isn’t one of those elements that you give much thought to and even if you did, the depth that you went to in order to work out if its tip top or slower than your last health and safety meeting, wasn't as comprehensive as it should be.

Not to fear, as Lukas Haensch founder of Pathmonk.com. A company that can help increase website conversion rates by (in his own words) making the buyer experience awesome is here to chat about the importance of page speed and how we can improve our own website.

Spending more the 4 years at Google, with a heavy focus on UX (that’s User Experience), Lukas is primed to help us understand the importance of page speed within your Marketing plans and also give us some pointers on the tools and techniques we should be implementing right now.

Takeaways

- 53% of users will leave your site if a page doesn't load in 3 seconds or less. Which is huge! Think about that. If you were talking to one hundred people who were interested in what you had to say, over half would leave if you paused for more than three seconds.

- Why does Google care about your page speed? Simply put, they want their customers to have a good experience regardless of where they end up. Your poor page speed will tarnish this and Google ain’t gonna be kind to you for that.

- There is no one singular element that will increase your page speed, its all about the individual factors. Here are just some of those to consider: Image size, Carousels, Font files, And finally your Plugins. Just make sure you are viewing everything from a performance perspective and see what is effecting this. Don't panic though; you don't have to do this yourself. Try webpagetest.org first of all. This will do the heavy lifting for you.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Guest and Episode Links

Mark Harman https://www.linkedin.com/in/markredbook/ http://www.redbookproductions.co.uk office@redbookproductions.co.uk Books:Just Listen - Mark Goulston: https://amzn.to/2XSs8c7

Video Version of the Episode:https://youtu.be/Z0bhGdJzBC0

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Video is undeniably an important part of the Marketing function, with so much content being video based. In fact around 4.5 million videos are now viewed on YouTube alone – in just 60 seconds.

So who better to talk us through all things video related than Mark Harman, the Video Producer for Red Books Production. Not only does Mark work from pre to post production, but, it's about working out how a videos can work for an individual and help to engage with their specific audience, on a regular basis using episodic content rather than one off pieces. And Mark has been doing this stuff since 2007 (I’m keen to understand what he used to film way back when)!

Video Version of the Episode: https://youtu.be/Z0bhGdJzBC0

Takeaways

- One of the main benefits for creating video content is the awareness that it brings you as an individual and subsequently your business. It makes you more approachable as people already know who you are, what you do and, if you do it right, what problems you can  help them solve.

- Although Mark stated that it is a big commitment to create regular video content (his popular Video Show is now over 260 episodes) the rewards are worth it, including the exposure we just mentioned, the engagement video content can bring is impressive – especially on LinkedIn, which is kind of how we ended up chatting and recording this podcast.

- And the good news, as long as you have a phone with a camera in it, you can just start! Start small and then look to improve when you start to build you confidence and engagement…. But starting is the most important step, so lets all start making videos and build our personal brands into something worth watching!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

What Episode Snippets are in this look back of Marketing Study Lab 2019:

Using Mailchimp and the Handsome Noel Edmonds with Catherine Gladwyn the Owner of Delegate VA - Episode 41 https://bit.ly/2sMfQq5

- We discover how Catherine got on when she was on TV!

Sweet Social Media Strategies with Nicole Osborne the Founder of Lollipop Social - Episode 49 https://bit.ly/2Q6RFdT

- Nicole takes us through her steps of social media greatness

A Marketing Career with Patrick Ward Editor-in-Chief at High Speed Experts – Episode 77 https://bit.ly/2MiFhXn

- Patrick discussed the importance of qualifications and practical marketing experience

Ditch the Act with Co-Author Ryan Foland - Marketing Study Lab Special https://bit.ly/2Q6o0Sk

- Ryan walks us through the 3-1-3 challenge and how easy but difficult it can be to describe the problem you solve

Small Business, Big Marketing with Tim Reid - Episode 57 https://bit.ly/35L9xS5

Tips on Passing Your Marketing Qualification with Accounting Exam Coach James Perry - Episode 59 https://bit.ly/2PKcSeR

- James highlights the importance of using real life examples in your exams and .... in real life!

B2B Marketing with Michael Field the B2B Competitive Strategy Consultant from EvettField Partners - Episode 67 https://bit.ly/2SeVlgp

- We discuss the difference between B2C and B2B marketing

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Well it’s been an eventful year for the podcast, we so many amazing guests and more to come. 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 this year.

Now it would be easy to just copy and paste ALL the episodes together, cause each one has brought it own nugget of Marketing genius, but unfortunately that would be around a day long and take to long to upload so you’re stuck with just a few and here they are!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Guest and Episode Links

Trisha Lewis (Host of this weeks episode)!

https://trishalewis.com hello@trishalewis.com

Original Podcast Show Notes: https://adobe.ly/36Xy1rH

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

This is kind of a special episode, being that close to Christmas n’all.

I was fortunate enough to be invited onto the Make It Real Podcast, hosted by the fabulous Trisha Lewis, so I thought it would be a great time to share that episode with you all – which is basically me chatting about Marketing for 30 minutes or so.

Trisha is a Communications Coach who can show you the steps you need to take to make a real impact and be heard by the people that need to hear from you! Not only does Trisha have her own Podcast, but she also has a lively YouTube channel with helpful communication hints and tips.

You’re probably wondering what topics are covered in this episode and it’s easy to say just listen, but here is a taster of some of the magic that is discussed thanks to Trisha and her amazing show notes:

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Link to the YouTube Video on how to use Answer the Public within your SEO Strategy: https://youtu.be/uHEhrwW_Tm8 Guest and Episode Links

Natalie Alleblas https://www.natalleblas.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalleblas/

Books:Chillpreneaur - Denise Duffield-Thomas: https://amzn.to/35oGYJK Making Your Website Work – Gill Andrews: https://amzn.to/2OAf9rc

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

If you’re in to working smarter, not harder then this weeks guest is for you. Natalie Alleblas, the SEO Sleuth is here to talk about all things SEO.

With a love for data (from working for one of Australia’s Big 4 banks) and words (beginning her career in PR), Nat’s ethos is to save time and money by helping you implement SEO so you can be found online. No dark arts, no dodgy stuff, just a nerd and her numbers.

Nat practices what she preaches and utilises her skills in her own businesses, making that all important organic traffic work as hard as it can.

Takeaways

- SEO isn’t just one part of a Marketing Strategy, it can infiltrate every facet of it. Think about it – EVERYTHING we do, from the customers we speak to, to the product descriptions we provide can impact SEO in some way, either by helping create the right content, or fundamentally being visible online! Which is the overall aim isn’t it?

- If you haven’t heard of EAT before, Nat has now brought it to our attention. EAT is a Google acronym for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Which is what Google are looking for in terms of website content and author! So if you’re an expert in your field and you write about your experty things Your EAT-tastic!

- And finally, at the end of the day, make sure you’re writing for your audience. If you’re content is on point about a particular subject matter and it’s written for those who care about this, then you’re pretty much onto a winner.

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Guest and Episode Links

Dan HardakerWebsite: https://www.proctors.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proctorsbristol/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proctorandstevenson/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProctorsBristol Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProctorsBristol

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/proctorsvideos/videos

Resource:Medium: https://medium.com App:Seesaw: https://web.seesaw.me

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Our guest this week brings two huge Marketing worlds together – The creative and the Digital. Dan Hardaker is the Head of Digital Design at Proctor + Stevenson, a full-service B2B marketing agency working across creative, strategy and technology.

What makes this such an intriguing chat, is that Proctor + Stevenson have a long history with developing the next generation of design talent, which is just engrained into the P+S culture. Dan is perfectly placed to shed some light on how to develop as a Marketer and if qualifications or practical application is more important. Spoiler alert, it’s a bit of both, but you know that by now anyway.

Takeaways

- When looking for a job, be it your first one or indeed that next step up. Dan believes that you are better to find a company that provides mentorship as well as learning and development opportunities. If you find one that offers this then you will also get the opportunity, one day, to be the mentor yourself. And that is juts an amazing feeling – I’m talking from experience here.

- Dan also believes that there are pros and cons to getting a Marketing Qualification.

Pros - It’s a spring-board to a career and it provides the grounding and foundations you need

Cons - There is a valuable resource in starting work and learning those practical skills rather than the theory behind it

The correct answer. Do both – Study and get a job that fits in with your studies. Or get a job and study around this.

- And finally. One key word for those that are yet to experience the working environment. Pace – Be prepared for the speed at which things need to be delivered. Usually yesterday or in an hour is fine, but embrace the fear that comes with any role and enjoy the process of learning and developing, until you yourself, become the teacher.

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Guest and Episode Links

Dr Amna Khanamna.khan@mmu.ac.uk

Uni Profile: https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/business-school/about-us/our-staff/mrt/profile/index.php?id=974 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-amna-k-6b639b1b/

Resource:Retail Weekly: https://www.retail-week.com

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

Dr Amna Khan is a Senior Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour and Retailing at The Manchester Metropolitan University Business School.

Amna also teaches Retail Managers from some of the leading names in retail such as Tesco, Asda and McDonalds as well as publishing research in leading academic journals, presenting at international conferences and her Media Appearances read like a TV and Radio guide, including numerous appearances on the BBC, ITV and Channel 5.

Takeaways

- If you are in retail, remember that we act and shop very differently online and offline. Online is more functional – it’s about speed, we now have limited time as consumers and online shopping fits this lifestyle. In-store or offline is completely different, it’s all about the experience, an experience that cannot be achieved online – think authenticity – pop-up shops, community-led activities and the growing interest in markets.

- As we’re in the festive period it was so interesting to hear how our shopping habits have changed over the festive period. Firstly, way back in 2007 that pesky recession happened as well as the rise of the American ‘Black Friday’ which is more of an online experience in the UK. Offline, retailers effectively brought sales forward to pre-Christmas as appose to the traditional post-Christmas Boxing Day sales.

- Consumers are the winners in retail at the moment, they have offers and options like never before to fit-in with our lifestyles being ‘always online’ and the rise in discount stores that are now seen as acceptable to shop in, as we all want to be savvy a shopper. It was not many years ago that this was seen as a negative thing to do and the biggest takeaway from this chat with Amna – Always consider the market and your customers, what do they want and give it to them!

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Free Social Media Resources: https://www.brandlective.com/resources/

Buy Stacey's Book – Get Online: https://amzn.to/33XUdR4

Guest and Episode Links

Stacey Kehoestacey@brandlective.com

Brandlective: https://www.brandlective.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-kehoe-b8b25319/

HARO: https://www.helpareporter.com

Books:24 Assets – Daniel Priestley: https://amzn.to/2qxCe5l

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

 Intro

You would think that three redundancies in 12 months would dampen anyone’s spirits, but our guest this week Stacey Kehoe now runs two successful businesses – a property investment firm and a Digital Marketing Agency.

From this digital agency Stacey has helped to enhance over 500 digital marketing campaigns across the UK, US and Australia using two method –

The Game Changer Method and The Content Waterfall Methodology.

Stacey is also the author behind ‘Get Online’, in it Stacy covers the 6 simple steps that you need to know to create your own digital marketing strategy. The best bit is, it was purposely made for the non-tech savvy, offline businesses.

And we cover all of this in this weeks episode.

Takeaways

- I love the fact that Stacey has kept things simple with her six C’s Game Changer Strategy and I suggest you start to utilise these within your business:

- Connect - Create - Captivate - Capture - Converse - Convert

- Also the Content Waterfall, this could be another game changer. Start with a singular piece of content and start to repurpose it. You’d be amazed how far this will stretch and the engagement you will achieve

- And finally, traditional marketing is not dead, far from it. It can be difficult but it’s always worth throwing it out there as the more we focus on digital, the more gaps will appear in traditional channels. But remember, don't be dull or dry, be creative, stand out and most of all, enjoy the process of figuring it all out

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Laurie’s FREE online ‘good book ideas’ Course (takes less than an hour) – Sucky or Stupendous:https://www.creativewrighter.com/p/suckyorstupendous

Find all Laurie’s books on Amazon:https://amzn.to/2B0GXym

Guest and Episode LinksLaurie Wright https://lauriewrighter.comhttps://www.creativewrighter.com 

Books:Slight Edge – Jeff Olson: https://amzn.to/2MBwbEa 

App:Slack: https://slack.com/

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81) 

Intro

I love LinkedIn, its where I find most of my amazing guests, but I want to highlight the importance of this platform for you, personally, but that’s for later.

Let’s meet Laurie Wright, Publishing Strategist and Children’s Author. Laurie not only writes amazing, helpful books for children, but also helps others get their own books published and selling on Amazon (the selling part is key here), this is if they are any good. Laurie even helps you discover if your idea for a book has got a chance as well, with online courses, help and advice (the Sucky or Stupendous book idea course, which is absolutely free).

Takeaways

- Laurie was kind enough to take us through the steps to getting a book published online: 1 - Firstly make sure you have a good story (and get someone who is not dependent on you for food to give you some honest feedback) 2 - Find an illustrator, even if it’s just for the cover artwork 3 - Get your formatting right! Find someone who knows what they’re doing here 4 - Upload it (Amazon makes this as simple as) 5 - Push that big red ‘Publish’ button!!!!

- You’ve published, so now what - What do you do to get your book discovered. Laurie says: 1 - Make sure you are ‘copywriting’ and not ‘creative’ writing in your description 2 - Find your hook, why people need this book in their lives 3 - And make sure you format correctly – Headings, keywords, spacing 4 - The first month is vital – especially on Amazon 5 - And in this first month and thereafter, reviews are your lifeblood!

- And finally, taking you right back to the start: Be consistent. Laurie explains this in terms of writing a book, but I think it goes for most things in life – learning, assignment writing, research, exam prep, even in your own working environment. Book out that time (no pun intended), find your rhythm and be consistent in what you do.

Top Tip - LinkedIn

I find a lot of my guests on LinkedIn, personally love the platform. But this top tip is simply to highlight how influential this platform may be for you as you grow and build your own influential career. And there is one experiment that highlights it perfectly.

What I want you to do is type your own name into Google, hopefully you don’t have a generic name, but even if you do, give it a go. I almost guarantee you that the first search result (or certainly on the first search result page), you will see a link to your (or ‘insert generic name here’) LinkedIn profile – If you have a LinkedIn account of course – even if this was set up years ago and you’ve not done much with it. It will almost certainly appear.

And that is the influential power of LinkedIn.

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e-Course:https://bethanyjoy.org/beirresistible

Guest and Episode LinksBethany Joy https://bethanyjoy.orghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/iambethanyjoy/

Books:Made to Stick – Dan and Chip Heath: https://amzn.to/2AkPjRo

App:Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps

Other Links:https://answerthepublic.com

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81) 

IntroEver wondered, how have the done that? Where do they get their ideas from? How are they producing some much content? Well for the foreseeable, I’m going to try and uncover some of these questions as I start to give you one piece of software, tool or technique that can help you as a Marketer. This weeks inaugural tool is – Answer the Public!

But first, lets meet Bethany Joy, Brand Voice Crafter & Wordsmith Extraordinaire and with a title like that I can tell your ear have already pricked up! Bethany isn’t’ an inventor, she isn’t a complex problem solver, but what Bethany is amazing at it using the words on a page to grab attention, make sense, engage and be meaningful and with industries such as biochemistry, the environment, human rights, education, career coaching and ethical clothing you know Bethany will deliver.

Takeaways- Bethany shared with us her brand voice tips, which included: - What and how you are saying things must match what you want your customers to think about you - Keep it consistent and accurate - Never be fake, always be true to yourself - Remember it is about telling people the most important things

- All your content must be quality, helpful or entertaining. Always be thinking about your contents purpose, utilising this to achieve what it needs to achieve

- A single word can make a huge difference. As Bethany pointed out, just think about the variations in the word male and the connotations this has! From Male to Dude!!!! Very different indeed.

Top Tip – Answer the Public

www.answerthepublic.com(link is in the show notes) is a site that can help you with a number of things but mainly, keyword searches and possible questions your audience may be asking. When you first go to the site, you’re met by what looks like an angry bloke in my dads sweater. Just ignore him and type in to the search bar a topic you are interested in.

Let it do it’s magic.

And boom, you are presented with a whole host of questions that are frequently asked around the subject. For example, I typed in marketing qualifications and I got back:

- what marketing qualification is best - what is the best marketing qualification to have - how to get a marketing qualification

Scroll down and you have an A-Z of any question you can think of! 

Why is this so important? Well if you know what type of questions your audience is asking, you can….. answer them! Good for SEO, good for content and good for highlighting your expertise in a particular field. Oh it may also help your audience out as well.

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Guest and Episode LinksTom Clarke https://tjcclarke.co.ukhttps://tjcclarke.co.uk/training https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-clarke-a6732353/

App:BBC Sport: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bbc-sport/id377388936 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.bbc.android.sportdomestic&hl=en_GB

BBC News: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bbc-news/id377382255 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.news.uk&hl=en_GB

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Tom Clarke, a Independent writer, trainer and content strategist working with businesses to create compelling content that gets them in front of and resonates with their target market.

Tom spent 16 years within the more journalistic side of PR where he discovered and mastered the power of the press release, which amongst a whole host of other topics, we’re going to cover today.

Tom also creates online course, covering topics such as press release writing, which I implore you to check out. The link as always is in the show notes.

Takeaways

- Tom described a PR Strategy as one that gets you in front of a much bigger audience than your current comms do, to those that don’t know you yet.

- The main difference between Journalism and standard copywriting is that when writing a piece for a journalist, you are doing just that, writing with the middleman in mind. What will gain their attention and trust enough for them to publish it, whereas you have much more control in your copywriting and where this will be featured and the final edit!

- In order to write an effective press release, Tom shared the elements that we all need to be considering:

- The Who, What, Where, Why and When - It needs to be quick and succinctly written - With a solid 1st paragraph - And a punchy first line - And remember, always ruin the ending, by placing this at the beginning!

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Cambridge Social Media Day (7th& 8th Nov): www.cambridgesocial.media/csm-day-2019/

Guest and Episode LinksLenka Koppová https://www.lenkakoppova.com/blog

@lenkakopp: https://twitter.com/lenkakopp@lenkakopp: https://www.instagram.com/lenkakopp/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenkakoppova/ https://www.facebook.com/lenkakoppova90 

Books:Rise of the Youpreneur – Chris Ducker: https://amzn.to/2Zuqtg9

Other Links:Paralleldots.com: https://www.paralleldots.com/sentiment-analysis

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Sentiment analysis. No not the stuff the ends up at the bottom of a river (science facts). Sentiment analysis is a way to analyse social chatter about your brand. And we have a great link where you can try it out for yourself. But more of that later. 

Straight onto our guest this week - who is a freelance social media consultant based in Cambridge, UK, this part is important as Lenka Koppová, helps small, local businesses leverage the power of social media and I’m fascinated to understand how this all works, when we are all strapped for time, let alone running a small business as well as trying to drum up that all important social brand presence. Not only that, why is it so important for small (probably well known in the local area) businesses to have a social presence?

Lenka is the perfect person to provide this insight for us.

Not only does Lenka run local businesses social media, but she also runs a Social Media Conference, yep you guessed it, locally, in Cambridge. This year it’s being help on the 7th and 8th November so there is still time to get your tickets (link as ever, is in the show notes).

Takeaways

- Why should small businesses use social media in there Marketing? Lenka believes this can help to build relationships online as well as offline. Think about it, even though you might be local to a butcher, a baker or a… I’ll leave it there, the chances are you will consume some content online – opening hours, special offers etc, which helps build a reputation locally and this can be done on social.

- Time strapped businesses should also find the time to do this, but with efficiency. Have a plan, understand what you want to achieve and most important of all don’t procrastinate or fall down that rabbit hole – There is a HUGE difference between being on social and utilising it for business.

- And finally, Lenka doesn't have a formal qualification. As she pointed out, there are so many different ways to learn. And this goes for any type of Marketing Qualification or job role. Reading blogs, listening to podcasts, YouTube, conferences, online training, the list goes on. Try using these for your own research and start to expand your own knowledge around a topic you’re passionate about.

Top Tip – Sentiment Analysis 

We're going to do a few things here. Firstly explain what sentiment analysis is, secondly what this actually means and finally why we may have to be careful with the results!

So firstly, what is sentiment analysis. Put simply it is a from of text analysis that allow us to workout whether the people we are trying to engage with are saying positive, negative or pretty neutral things about us as a company, our products or services. 

The science-y bit would tell us that it is a type of data-mining that measures opinion through NLP – Natural Language Processing, text analysis and computational linguistics. This is then analysed and reveals the contextual polarity of a subject, company, product or service.

So what could go wrong!?!?!

Well, Paralleldots.com (https://www.paralleldots.com/sentiment-analysis) has a neat little tool where you can test your own statements and what sentiment this creates (the link is in the show notes). The issue here is that the analysis finds it difficult to notice the nuances of some human emotions. For example, I typed:

That food was amazing. It even came with a free bug!

90.90% Positive.

Full disclosure, there was never a bug.

Try it for yourself and let me know your results. 

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Buy the BookDitch the Act: https://amzn.to/2MvqmIAOr to find out more: https://ditchtheact.com/

Ryan Foland:Use ryan.online or go to https://www.ryanfoland.comCheck out someone going through the 3-1-3 challenge: https://www.ryanfoland.com/dna/

Book:The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss: https://amzn.to/2MbgrsR

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Guest Intro

Ditching the act can be harder than it sounds, which is why in the new book ‘Ditch the Act’ Ryan Foland and Leonard Kim show us how to be true to ourselves, love our faults and even use these to succeed in life – to live a more fruitful and enjoyable life. And who doesn’t want that.

And this bonus episode we speak to the co-author Ryan Foland all about the book itself!

In a previous episode of Marketing Study Lab I had the pleasure of chatting to Leonard Kim (episode 61 for those of you that are interested – https://bit.ly/2Wnwz0d), who co-authored the book with Ryan. But as they release the book to the general public, I doubled up and spoke to Ryan, specifically about this book and why he’s looking a little red faced at the moment.

Ryan is a keynote speaker who has done no less than four TEDx talks, a personal branding expert and the creator of the 3-1-3 method (which we’ll come onto later), which you should defo check out after this episode.

Takeaways

- People want to do business with people. Think of those products or services you can’t wait to buy. Unless you have a shed load of money behind a brand, the chances are you will be purchasing because you know, like and trust the person behind the company. What they stand for, aligned to you as a person – that creates a much more powerful bond than any company brand could.

- The 3-1-3 method is so simple, yet so complex to perfect. Try it for yourself – try and write down what the problem is you solve, the solution for this problem and who it is for. Sounds simple – try writing it and then check out the video in the show notes. I almost guarantee your answer won’t be as bloody as it needs to be!

- It's all about the problem you solve. No one really cares about your job, what you do. Unless you’re a spaceman or an old school pirate… then it might work. But in general, your job title is boring. And this book ‘Ditch the Act’ shows you how to bring the best out of you, for being you, of which solving problems is just one element of it!

Go out, get it and start to ditch your act!

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Guest and Episode LinksRuthie Bowles https://defythestatusquo.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthie-bowles/

ruthie@defythestatusquo.com

ebook: The Business Owner's Guide to Content Marketing: https://defythestatusquo.com/resources/ @annaruthus: https://twitter.com/annaruthus @defythestatusquobiz: https://www.instagram.com/defythestatusquobiz/

Books:Start with Why – Simon Sinek: https://amzn.to/2zBDYM5

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Setting objectives and KPIs is something we’re going to get into later on. Why are they important and what is the difference? We also cover this topic with our guest, Ruthie Bowles. 

Ruthie is a B2B Content Consultant - Owner of Defy the Status Quo who provides content marketing strategy and creation for B2B companies that want ‘better than your bog standard’, above average, mediocre content. As Ruthie describes in our chat, it’s all about the authenticity and moving these online connections to ones that are valuable and above all else… human!

Takeaways

- Good is simply not good enough anymore. In the digital world there is a lot of mediocre content. To stand out you need to be better than this. Ruthie takes this to the extreme with everything that she does – from client communications to ideas and the end results. It’s a message we should all be listening to. 

- Authenticity comes from – consistency, being interesting and honest and most importantly, not holding back and being true to your brand energy. Don’t choose short-term gain for long term losses

- And finally, don’t operate in silos. And this goes for content creation as well. Utilise what is around you and within other departments. This will not only improve your content but also internal communications and relationships.

Top Tip – Setting objectives and KPIs

Just time for a quick ‘spot the difference’. The difference between objectives and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

So this is as simple as I can put it and because I love an analogy, I’m going to use a car journey here.

Your objectives should be what you are focused on achieving. You main goal, an end result, why you are doing what you are doing. In terms of a car journey, this would be you end destination – the postcode you’ve punched into your sat nav.

KPI’s, are similar to objectives, but these are the smaller markers you can set to make sure you achieve your overall objectives. In the case of the car journey, this could be – fuel efficiency or reaching the half waypoint by a certain time. Elements that are not specifically your overall goal or what you aim to do, but will keep you on track to achieve this.

In summary, objectives should be your bigger picture stuff where you are looking to achieve greatness, whereas the KPIs are smaller, incremental markers that, if hitting them, will build, to achieve your main objective.

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Guest and Episode Links

Emma-Louise Munro Wilson https://www.linkedin.com/in/elmw17/ https://emari.co.uk/emma@emari.co.uk

The EMARI Code: https://emari.co.uk/the-emari-code/

Anatomy of Trust – Brene Brown: https://brenebrown.com/videos/anatomy-trust-video/

Books:Tribe of Mentors – Tim Ferriss: https://amzn.to/2PjML04(Zappos) Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh:https://amzn.to/2ZlvYyhRadical Candor – Kim Scott: https://amzn.to/2L1YtrRSacred Causes – Michael Burleigh : https://amzn.to/2ZqE5K0

App:ViVino: https://www.vivino.com/app

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

One of the old classics SWOT is widely known and used across a lot of disciplines. But do you know about TOWS? This is the part that adds value to any SWOT and we’ll be discussing this later.

But first, let’s meet Emma-Louise Munro Wilson, Content Strategist, Revenue Growth Consultant and CEO for EMARI Group. Emma is all about generating new sales, shortening sales cycles and making repeat sales easier and who doesn’t want that. With a focus on turning existing customers and employees into engaged brand ambassadors, again, who doesn’t want that.

Just one career highlight is reducing marketing spend for a client by 90% yet seeing a 43% increase after just 6 months!

Takeaways

- Marketing isn’t just important, it is the business! If you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business and Marketing drives and facilitates this. It is integral to what we do and how.

- Always, always, always, be listening to your customers. And appreciate the feedback, but ask and act upon it. As Emma pointed out, if you get a 3 star rating, there is room for improvement, ask why only 3? It could be a simple issue, such as not having a website, social proof, transparency or a missed call. All of which are easily fixed. But it could be there is some fundamental flaw with your business plan that needs to be fixed. Always be asking!

- And finally, here are Emma’s top 5, no 6 tips for creating better content: 1 – Don’t be afraid to borrow ideas (but make sure you give credit for them)! 2 – Make your content purposeful 3 – Be interested, then interesting 4 – No one cares about your business as much as you do 5 – Follow-up with specific and interesting content 6 – And this is hot off the EMARI press – Create content worth bingeing on

Top Tip – The SWOT and TOWS

We all know what a SWOT is – looking at the internal strength and weaknesses of an organisation as well as looking at the opportunities and threats of the external environment. But how do we make any sense out of this and gather valuable, actionable insight? TOWS!

TOWS (Weirich)

The TOWS model sits inside the SWOT analysis and it brings together each component. Basically what this allows you to do is focus on one opportunity, threat, strength or weakness against another to create the best strategic response to what is actually occurring. Let’s break that down:

Strength/Opportunity (SO)

Utilising a strength to exploit an opportunity is probably the most obvious thing you could do as it is your strength and there is potential within the market for this to be utlised

Weakness/Opportunity (WO)

Using opportunities against weaknesses can highlight where these weaknesses can be overcome and thus taking advantage of any external opportunities. Mitigating weaknesses puts a company in a much stronger position.

Strength/Threat (ST)

It seems obvious to lean on your strengths, but analysing these against any potential threats mean you can counteract any potential issues within your marketplace by ustilising what you do well.

Weakness/Threat (WT)

Now this is the one that people usually struggle with. How the hell do you get strategic direction from a weakness and a threat. Well this is more defensive than anything, but it is always worth considering.

Take a look at your weaknesses and look to minimise these in order to reduce the potential threats that they may be creating.

For example – you may find that a weakness is lack of internal communication and a threat is confusion about your new range of products within the marketplace. One strategy you may look to implement is creating an internal comms strategy that creates clarity over the product range which in replicated into the marketplace. 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Guest and Episode LinksLubna Forzley https://www.linkedin.com/in/lubnaforzley/ http://www.stories-co.nethttp://www.lubnaforzley.com

TEDx Talk: https://youtu.be/2QO8sV7AiUY

Books:Start with Why – Simon Sinek: https://amzn.to/327HV7t

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Porters 5 Forces is a classic Marketing tool for analyzing the competitive environment, which we’ll discuss later. 

But first, let’s have a chat with Lubna Forzley - a TEDx speaker (link is in the show notes) who runs Stories, a boutique story-transformation consultancy, which helps leaders create stories worth sharing. On Lubna’s LinkedIn profile, she calls herself a ‘Corporate Supernanny’ and rightly so, as Lubna helps craft strategies that can be implemented, not ones that will end up going nowhere, which so often happens.

But this isn’t all based on intuition as the strategies built on data. Think of it like giving you data soul. But what makes Lubna even more impressive is her back story, as you’ll find out a little bit later on.

Takeaways

- Lubna shared two tips to becoming more creative, that can be implemented in any situation:

- Be fearless - Connect with your audience

If you can do these two things, creativity should be much easier and more effective

- When discussing data, Lubna is in no doubt that you should be using it to create stories of value. Think about personalisation and tailoring communications towards an individual rather than a set of customers. Yes this takes some time and planning, but it is possible to generate those one-to-one communications that create huge impact 

- And finally, in situations where you feel overwhelmed or get ‘the fear’, just think – what’s the worst that could happen? As Lubna described, she grew up with bombs landing at her feet! Now put that into context with sitting an exam, starting a new job or doing something you are concerned about….. be fearless!

Top Tip – Porters 5 Forces (Porter, 1979)

So what are Porters 5 Forces and why is this model so important?

As you many expect, the model itself focuses on the 5 forces Michael Porter deemed crucial to focus upon within a company’s competitive environment, within a market sector and also outside of this sector. 

Although created back in 1979 and they still hold true. So let’s take a quick look at each one:

Competitive RivalryWhat is the rivalry like within your market? Is it fierce or do you own a niche in the marketplace? Are there few or many competitors? The answers to these questions will make a huge difference to your marketing strategy.

Supplier PowerHow much control do suppliers have? If raw materials are in short supply you may find they hold all the cards, but a good relationship with a supplier, or utilising various suppliers may help reduce the risks of this becoming an issue.

Buyer PowerDo your buyers hold all the cards? If you are dealing with a small set then possibly, yes. Switching costs become important here, the harder it is to switch, the less likely it is to happen.

Threat of SubstitutionAre there different ways of solving the customers problem that aren’t exactly what you offer? If these substitutes offer a better solution then they need to be considered as a threat. Within this category, try and think creatively as to what could be a substitute as it may be a product or a service that you haven’t considered before. 

Threat of New EntryAre competitors entering your market and increasing competitor or is it a difficult market to penetrate? It’s worth considering how long it may take to become established within your market and how easy it is to enter. Some industries can be hard to penetrate – such as pharmaceuticals or geographically, whereas with others there are not as many barriers. 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Guest and Episode LinksRichard Forshaw-Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardforshaw/ https://rfsmarketing.co.uk/https://www.facebook.com/rfsmarketing @rfs_marcomms: https://www.instagram.com/rfs_marcomms/ @rfsmarcomms: https://twitter.com/rfsmarcomms 

Books:Blue Ocean Strategy – W. Chan Kim: https://amzn.to/2KZSAdH

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Marketing Strategy can be easily missed or forgotten about in the melee of tactical activities, but Porters Generic Strategies can help with this, which we will find out about later.

First, let’s meet Richard Forshaw-Smith, a sales, Marketing and Communication Specialist from RFS Marketing & Communications. Richard has held a number of senior positions within and working for businesses in the public sector. So he is in the perfect position to talk us through the nuances of this industry and how the heck we should be Marketing within and to this industry. 

Takeaways

- Richard points out that the challenges are generally the same whether you are marketing within the public or private sector, with the main difference being the application of the chosen tactics. Massively important this – the application of the tactics as this can make a huge differential advantage. 

- When discussing spend and budgets, Richard highlighted that justification will always be required, it’s a no-brainer really. The more important element to focus on is setting objectives that have an impact for the public, as this in turn will affect how much you have or need to spend. For example – Promoting health benefits, if done correctly, will reduce the need for hospital care over the long term and thus, cut the cost of operations – Marketing in action – boom! 

- And finally, if you are looking to get into Marketing within the public sector, just go for it. We hear that a lot on this podcast, just go for it! Try lots of things and make sure the environment, culture and surroundings are a good fit for you. Exposing yourself to different challenges will also provide experience that can help later on in life.

Top Tip - Porters Generic Strategies (Porter, 1980)

To what is this model and why should we be considering it to help shape the strategic direction of an organisation.

To break this model down for you, Porter suggests four business strategies that can be adopted depending on a number of variables such as; what type of oragnisation it is, its marketplace and its competition. 

What it really highlights is whether a business should look to go niche and narrow or take a broader stance. So let’s review each element individually:

Cost Leadership

With this strategy, the objective is to become the lowest-cost producer in the industry, by traditionally producing on mass to achieve economies of scale. 

One word – Primark, ok here are a few moreor a large supermarket chain

Cost Focus

Here a business seeks a lower-cost advantage in just one or a small number of market segments, a niche if you like

Pepsi and many soft drink companies use this to their advantage.

Differentiation Focus

This is similar to cost focus although a business will look to differentiate itself within a niche target market segment utlising some form of differentiation that appeals to a small audience.

Think Lush or body shop for their ethical stances

Differentiation Leadership

This is almost the role reverse of Differentiation focus as a business targets a much larger market, yet it still looks to maintain an advantage by differentiating across a whole industry.

It is still all about positioning the business uniquely to meet those criteria.

An example here would be McDonalds, no one offers what they offer and they do it on a large scale, to many different sets of customers.

So what Porters model allows us to do it provide clarity around a Marketing strategy in terms of the overarching direction that a company should move towards. There is no right or wrong answer here, just different strategies, each one with positives and negatives. 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Guest and Episode Links

Jay Mullings https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaymullings/ @writtenmirror: https://www.instagram.com/writtenmirror/ @writtenmirror: https://twitter.com/WrittenMirror Written Mirror: https://www.youtube.com/writtenmirror

Books: The Art of War – Sun Tzu : https://amzn.to/2PidA4B

App: Strong Lifts 5x5 Workout Planner: https://stronglifts.com/apps/

 Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81 (@cousinp81)

Intro

So this episode has been recorded in a slightly different way, mixing things up a little, so a big thank you to our guest this week, Jay Mullings, for editing the actual interview part of this episode. 

And with that in mind, let’s meet Jay, a content producer on YouTube, just search for Written Mirror and you’ll find him. This title doesn’t do him justice however, as Jay covers a whole host of creative development from copywriting to screenwriting, manuscript editing, photography, film/TV directing, audio/video editing, colour correction & grading and of course, publishing. 

Jay also has a host of awards to his name from Screen Play writing awards to International film Festival Accolades – way too many to mention here. So who better to take about all things creative and the creative process?

Takeaways

- Jay’s ethos is to go out and get it done regardless, to the best of his ability and thrive off this, which is amazing. So who are you doing what you’re doing for? Having a focal point, even if it’s for yourself can be a powerful thing to have in your locker.

- When creating content be open to creativity and the story you are telling, but let’s bring this down to writing, especially within Marketing Assignments. Jay mentioned that you need to be thinking about the person that will read what you have written and this couldn’t be more prevalent than in Marketing.

- And finally, to keep that writers block away, mix up your content, both what you are consuming (by way of research) and also how you tackle creating that content – check out www.youtube/writtenmirrorfor more advice on this (the link is also in the show notes) 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Guest and Episode LinksPatrick Ward https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickjamesward/ https://highspeedexperts.com/

Books:The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss: https://amzn.to/31SO9rZ

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

What type of company do you work for and what does this actually mean? Not what you may think, but more about that later.

Let’s meet Patrick Ward, currently the Editor-in-Chief at High Speed Experts, a broadband connectivity search engine and IT industry education platform. Patrick is a writer by trade and has worked extensively across the insurance, real estate, finance, travel, and tech industries, with notable clients including Allianz and Cathay Pacific and is currently a member of the Forbes Communication Council.

The main reason I invited Patrick on today is because of his rise through the ranks within the Marketing Profession, to provide you with an insight into the how, what and why of a career in Marketing. 

Takeaways

- When starting or in the middle of your career you need a path. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but what do you want the next 10 years to be like and do you have a plan to achieve this. It’s like most things – failing to plan, is planning to fail!

- When considering career progression, Patrick pointed out that there are three things that will help you, always – people, communication and interaction, which kinda makes sense as these are the three things that are essential when implementing a Marketing Strategy

- And finally, Partick reminded us that learning on the job is so important, but…. Don’t forget that your Marketing qualification will form the bedrock of this learning, which you then can apply to your daily duties. This will not only assist you in becoming a better marketer, but also help you find out what type of Marketer you want to become.

Top Tip - Which company are you?

It’s important as a marketer that we understand what type of company we are marketing. At its core it can be a number of different types. Here’s a rundown of these types and what this may mean:

Selling Orientation: This focusses on the actual selling of what exists rather than satisfying customer needs and wants. Usually comms are focused around short term promotions, rather than long term stability.

Production Orientation: This process looks to maximise output and thus profit, which is all about economies of scale. Quicker, faster, cheaper. An internal approach.

Product Orientation:Whereas production concentrates on economies of scale, the focus here is on the product / service itself, designed to what is ‘thought’ to be the best solution. This however may ignore actual customer tastes and needs and you may end up focusing your efforts on features and benefits that are not important.

Marketing Orientation:  As you would expect, customers requirements are embedded into all activities. Customers are at the core of everything that is done. The trick here is to understand your market. If this isn’t correct, the orientation may fail as the strategy will be incorrect.

There is one more type I want to cover here and that is Societal Marketing, which means a company is looking to balance the needs of its customer, society and the company itself which means a more ethical stance on your strategic approach. 

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Guest and Episode LinksMonique Russell https://www.linkedin.com/in/clearcommunicationcoach/ https://clearcommunicationsolutions.com/

Books:The Success Principles – Jack Canfield: https://amzn.to/2TWKIgV

 Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81) 

Intro

How credible are you? How important is credibility for your business. We’ll find out later when we take a look at Credibility, the four and final C of Marketing Communication.

But first, let’s meet Monique Russell an Executive Communications Coach. Sounds very prestigious doesn’t it. Well, what Monique does is help corporate professionals improve their communication skills and to date has taught over 2,000 people globally. Monique has also helped inspire parents who were stuck on how to motivate their children, which she is tremendously proud of and rightly so.

But I want to get into the type of communication skill you, the listener need right now, in business and in education, especially if you are new to a business and want to make that great first impression or just simply communicate with your colleagues more effectively. 

Takeaways

- Here are Monique’s tips for what to do when starting a new role and it’s quite extensive:

- Ask questions, pay attention to what is around you, share strengths and experiences, keep on learning and understand the work culture – is it for you? Do you fit in?

Did I miss anything?

- You need intention and action to be noticed. Take ownership of building social relationships. Make the effort and try talking face to face rather than remotely, it can make a huge difference 

- And finally, the dreaded M word. Meetings. Monique gave us a few short, handy piece of advice to keep these on-track and worthwhile: - Always have an agenda - Set a timeframe - Give the meeting a purpose and have an outcome - Provide a short recap for those ongoing meetings or for any newbys that may be joining you

Top Tip - The 4C's of Marketing Communication: Credibility

Have you even gone to purchase something from somewhere not credible? Seen some comms, thought it looked dodgy and bought it anyway… actually don’t answer that. Whatever you get up to in your own time is your own business, it’s not for here.

But if you haven’t, there is a reason for that and that’s because communications need to be credible to stand any chance of long term success. Yes, you can fool some people, but not for very long and not with any type of long term commitment from them.

But how do we do this. To gain credibility you need to become credible within the mind of the customer. This can be effected by a whole host of elements – the words you use, the font type, colours, images, sounds, smells and even the people that endorse your products or services… the influencers.

With all this in mind, the one thing you need to keep front and centre when making your communications credible, are your customers – what will resonate with them, what do they find credible? Answer these questions and you’ve hit the credibility mother-load… all you have to do now is be credible in your actions before, during and after purchase.

Out of all the C’s of communication, this one, credibility, for me, is the one that will provide long-term success, an affiliation with your customer, turning them into advocates and it is just damn ethical to be credible!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Guest and Episode Links

Ella Orr https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-orr-socialmediaconsultant/ https://www.facebook.com/ella.orr @muchmoresocial - https://twitter.com/muchmoresocial @muchmoresocial - https://www.instagram.com/muchmoresocial/

Books:Rise of the Youpreneur – Chris Ducker: https://amzn.to/2Zuqtg9 

Enjoy the episode - Happy Marketing!

www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

How competitive are you? And how important is this in a business sense? Well it is one of the core components of the 4C’s of Marketing Communication, so we’ll find out later.

First, let’s meet our guest, Ella Orr, who is now a freelance Social Media Manager after previously spending a career within teaching. So site down, shut up and listen!

Ella started with knowing, literally nothing about social and now creates bespoke social media strategies and delivers training on all the platforms you’d expect - to small businesses, local organisations and charities. What a journey! 

Takeaways

- Like Ella, whatever you are wanting to do… just start. You will be amazed how far you can get in next to no time. So if it is your studies, a marketing plan or learning a new skill, just freaking start!

- Here are Ella’s top 5 tips for small businesses when starting out on a social journey:

1 – Learn from the best – Buffer, Hootsuite, etc. They know what they are doing and there is loads of free ‘stuff’ to help you start 2 – Training – Get to it! Learn and implement 3 – Have a strategic approach. Like everything you do, you need to know why, for who and what. It’s the same here 4 – Focus on one platform at a time 5 – Test, measure and review - simple

- And finally, keep an open mind, don’t dismiss anything until you’ve tried it a least once.

Top Tip – The 4C's of Marketing Communication: Competitiveness

Competitiveness, some have more than others, but for a business, it is hugely important when it comes to communication.

When we discuss competitiveness, what we mean is our competitive advantage against our competition, what gives you that edge? And whatever this is, it should be consistent throughout all your communications. 

This doesn’t mean you have to be aggressive in your approach, far from it, you just have to be different enough to stand out. This could be using the quality of product or service, pricing structure or model or even utilising differentiation and challenging the mould – Think how Uber, Apple or McDonalds uses their communications to highlight why they are different.

Music Featured on this Podcast:

Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Subscribe on your favourite platform with new episodes appearing every TUESDAY:Spotify Libsyn Podcast Page TuneIN Stitcher iHeartRadio Apple Podcasts 

Guest and Episode LinksLucia Knight https://www.midlifeunstuck.com 

Books:X Change: How to torch your work treadmill - Lucia Knight: https://amzn.to/30Awfto

Designing Your Life – Bill Burnett and Dave Evans: https://amzn.to/30Hi7OU

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

We continue our look at the 4C’s of Marketing Communication and provide a little clarity around this topic later, that being clarity is one of the 4C’s so we’ll be discussing clarity, not clarity of the 4C’s….is that clear?

We’ll sort that out later.

First, let’s meet Lucia Knight, Career Happiness Designer and author of X Change: How to torch your work treadmill, or to give it its full title:

X Change: How to torch your work treadmill, retire your boss, dump the ingrates, torment the passive-aggressives, escape the toxic office, get your fierce on and design the career that lets you live, love and laugh after 40

After going back to university to study Philosophy (as well as being a full-time Mum), Lucia discovered that in order to get a life and career that is meaningful and satisfying then the best way to do this is to have at least a little structure in how you are going to achieve this – I’ll let Lucia explain this in a little more detail.

Takeaways

- Are you doing work that matters? (a good old Seth Godin proverb there – total misuse of proverb I’m sure). But this statement, as Lucia highlighted - it’s massively important that you are. And there are a number of elements to consider to help you figure this out:

1 – You need to find your uber or super strength (and who doesn't want to feel like a hero)?

2 – Is your work deeply fulfilling or satisfying?

3 – What problems would you be happy to be figuring out for years?

If we can start to think on these terms we will start to do the work we love.

- When searching for a meaningful career, don’t just ‘hit and hope’. To do this correctly you need to start a framework from which you can start to make the right decisions and take actions against. Like following a recipe

- Focus on one thing at a time and make sure you are maximizing this time, regardless of what it is: family, study, work, chilling, even sleep as this is a huge proponent on how the rest of your day will pan out, physically and mentally.

Top Tip – The 4C's of Marketing Communication: Clarity

If you’ve ever been confused by anything, ever, you’ll understand why clarity is so important within any Marketing Communications.

Take the last thing that confused you. Mines probably my shoe laces, but you get the idea. Now think how you felt towards this thing. Comfortable? No, Attracted to it? No, Any affiliation to it? Again, no.

This is why you need clarity in your communications. Now think about some of the best communications you’ve had. This may be from a Sat Nav, a paint tin or a coach. Was it easy to understand? Yes, Was it easy to follow? Yes, Could you do exactly what it said on the tin? Yes! 

Now go and make sure all your communications are clear, unless you’ll be stuck with Velcro shoe for the rest of your life!

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

Guest LinksLouis Grenier https://everyonehatesmarketers.com

Books:The 1-Page Marketing Plan – Allan Dib: https://amzn.to/2YJz7mYBrainfluence – Roger Dooley: https://amzn.to/2LMCFSb

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Of course I’m going to start with a review of the 4 C’s of Marketing Communications by discussing, Consistency, which I’m hoping to achieve through this weekly podcast. Am I? Maybe let me know if I’m not and I can look to change things around, or if I am, just drop me a note to say, good job, you’ll find me on LinkedIn or email me at peter@marketingstudylab.co.uk.

Anyway, lets meet our guest this week, Louis Grenier, the owner of everyonehatesmarketers.com and Content Lead at Hotjar (an amazing piece of software for tracking website visitors). But today we are more interested in why everyone hates Marketers. It’s easy to see why, as on the face of it Marketing is either seen as intrusive to our lives, fancy advertising or playing around with social media. But this is on the outside and as we all know, good marketing, quality marketing, a marketing orientated approach is so much more than paying lip services to something.

Louis has spent a career, no a passionate obsession on Marketing and through his podcast highlights the shady, aggressive marketing world for what it is, while being an advocate for helpful, respectful, personal and above all else honest marketing.

I have to apologies now, as this first question is the epitome of stereotyping as you’ll understand by Louis amazing accent - Louis What is your favourite wine?

Takeaways

- Focus on understanding your audience first and the go from there. Everything stems from understanding your target market, what they want and why. If you don't do this ask yourself, where should I start instead – I’m pretty sure you won’t be left with many, if any other options.

- This leads nicely onto where to start on your road to success, which would be interviewing five customers, digging deep into their actual customer journey, from the moment they realised they had a problem to the point of purchase and work from there. From this you’ll be able to discover a lot more about your customers than just ‘what’ they purchased, you’ll be digging into the ‘why’!

- If you want to avoid the shady and aggressive marketing tactics simply do as Louis says – If you wouldn't do it to your friends, then don’t do it!

Top Tip - The 4C's of Marketing Communication: Consistency

Think of a brand or a company or a product or a service. These may change over time. What they offer, the personnel, location, logo, etc. But one thing is for sure, whatever you are thinking of will have resonated with you for their consistency in approach. And by maintaining this consistency, they have become memorable to you.

A consistent message will eventually break through the myriad of communication noise we have around us becoming more noticeable, memorable, with a recollection for what they offer becoming easier over time.

The whistle at the end of a fast food chains advert, the chime made when a computer processor is mentioned and of course – Meercats. All of these, although I haven’t mentioned their company names are instantly recognizable because of their consistent and yes, something annoying approach to communication.

Music Featured on this Podcast:Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License

 LinksVictoria Doxat https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-doxat/ https://victoriadoxat.com

Books:Influence – Robert Cialdini: https://amzn.to/2ITaRtf

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

The communications mix and the marketing mix are two very different things, but they are also intertwined, which we’ll find out about later on.

First, let’s meet Victoria Doxat, a copywriter who specialises copy, - or should that be content…… Victoria will explain the difference in a minute - for B2B clients ranging from entrepreneurs and SMEs, to large corporations. It takes a special kind of person to be able to go deep into topics that others may find boring and turn them into readable and valuable content, but Victoria does this by producing articles, case studies and even white papers and is anything but boring.

Oh, Victoria is also a Philosophy Lecturer, as you do, with all that free time, because copywriting is easy, right?

Takeaways

- So it seems there is a bit of a difference between content and copy. Victoria explained that copy aims to sell something, whereas content provides the audience with the information they need to make a valid decision….. but is there a real difference? I’ll let you decided. As long as it has good intentions, it’s all good for me.

- There are some tips that Victoria kindly shared with us that can be used in most writing situations. Including Marketing Assignments: - Write for a specific purpose and remember this (always have the brief, task or question in from of you) - Use headings and structure to make your writing easy to follow and a basis for the main topics you want to cover - Then , do your research – research the simple things first. Remember Google is your friend for this in most instances - Start to slot your findings under each appropriate heading - And finally, once you have done this, you can start to structure your assignment or content and make it readable. This doesn't have to be done until the other steps are complete, so don’t think you have to get it right first time or that it can’t change later on. It’s a process, not carved in stone.

- When writing assignments or in an exam, make sure you are making it interesting and don't be afraid to get creative. We’ve heard this before but it’s worth reiterating – Remember who is reading your content and make sure it resonates with them, but in our own language, our tone, so it is undeniably yours.

Top Tip – The Comms Mix and Marketing Mix Confusion

This is a very brief, but massively important tip and its about, what so many do without noticing it and this is confusing the Extended / Digital Marketing Mix (7P’s) with a Marketing Communication Mix.

Now they are intrinsically linked and you cant have one without the other, but in short:

Extended / Digital Marketing Mix = 7Ps. Covering all elements such as price and people which we have been discussing on the previous eight episodes (no I haven’t gone mad, one was a round-up of the 7P’ s).

Marketing Communications Mix = Is part of the Promotional element of the 7Ps. Think of this as the elements that your consumers actually see and are engaged by – the tip of the marketing mix iceberg – your content, communication channels and calls to action if you like.

Don't get the two mixed up or confused. The world won’t end, but I’m not prepared to try it to see if it would!

Music Featured on this Podcast:Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksKrista Fabrick https://www.linkedin.com/in/krista-fabrick/ https://www.instagram.com/kristafabrick/

Books:Known - Mark Schafer: https://amzn.to/2J4TpAM

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

As we round up our look at the Extended Marketing Mix (7P’s), it seems fitting that this week we talk to a Marketing Consultant and Professor.

Let’s meet Krista Fabrick. Krista teaches Marketing and Social Networking through both the theoretical side and the more practical elements, utlising the many social platforms in what she teaches. This also transfers onto startups and small businesses, who simply haven’t the time to sit down, learn, develop and implement a marketing strategy.

Not only that, but Krista is also pursuing a Doctorate in Business Admin and Marketing with a specific view on social media. More on that later.

Takeaways

- As we heard last week with our chat with Mark Shaw, you need to understand the platforms to use them successfully. Krista takes this one step further with the premise that you need to understand the history, the principals, strategies, frameworks and foundations of each platform to early gain a competitive advantage when using them. Without this knowledge you are starting right at the bottom with a long way to go!

- Consistency, consistency, consistency. Showing up regularly and getting into the habit of this being part of your daily life. Yes there are other comms channels we need to consider, but they are just they same. We all need consistency in what we do, which leads onto the final takeaway.

- Learn the theory and practice this in the real world. It what good marketing is all about. Many don't want to do the theory and go straight to the practical, which can work, but in my opinion, it takes twice as long and not documenting your progress can start to make you make decisions based on intuition alone. Not a good long term strategy.

Top Tip - The 7P's round up

I just want to wrap up our look at the 7 P’s, the extended marketing mix and why it’s important that you always consider every element. They are all linked together. If you change one element it will have an effect on others. Lets take a look at an example of how this would work.

Let's start with Price – And you increase the price of a service dramatically.

This will have an effect on the People as your customer will expect a higher level of service for a higher price.

Your Physical Evidence will probably have to be updated to highlight the additional quality you now include. 

And your Promotional material will need to mirror the change in both physical evidence and pricing structure.

That is the complexity of the Marketing Mix and why it should never be placed in the background. It should be front and center in your tactical Marketing approach.

Music Featured on this Podcast:Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksMark Shaw https://www.linkedin.com/in/markshaw101/

Books:Simon Sennek: https://amzn.to/300rZDjSeth Godin: https://amzn.to/2RPR7K9 

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

This episode is all about people. People online, people on social, people in……yep, real-life, real people imagine! Not only will we look at this element of the Extended Marketing Mix, but this topic is what our next guest is all about.

Mark Shaw is known for his out spoken posts on social media, but he is also known as the Anti-Social Speaker, why?

After numerous, unrelated jobs, Mark became one of the UK’s leading authorities on social media and for 10 years was the ‘go to guy’ for the BBC, Sky News, journalists & businesses. Now, he is trying to expose the frailties behind what a lot of Marketers see as their only comms channel – social media. Mark is not anti-social media as he is anti-what social has become.

Takeaways

- When using social media as part of your marketing communications, although you should always remember… it is a social platform, from a business perspective you need to ask yourself – Does it drive the needle nearer to our main objective? If not you need to start questioning your motives and strategy! This isn’t to say all posts should be salesy, far from it. Be helpful, engage and be social!

- But how do you get noticed on social platforms. Here are Marks top tips:  - Stand for something  - Be exciting in a way that resonates with your ideal clients  - Value your audiences time as much as you value your own 

- And finally we’ll end with a great quote from Mark ‘If you want to lead the Orchestra, you need to turn your back on the audience’. That's not to say ignore your tribe, the people you want to be speaking with, no. It simply means, be you, do you, this is your niche as there is no one else like you on this planet.

Top Tip - The 7 P's - People

The final P. People. Where do people fit into the extended marketing mix? This was originally introduced as part of the extended mix for services but I feel it’s as relevant within a product-based company as it is a service.

People form part of the service you are offering,  be it a health spa or a retail outlet. But they are much more than just ‘people’. These superstars determine the level of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction that is created every time they come into contact with one of your or their customers.

Think of a bad experience you’ve had and I can almost guarantee it either included someone doing something poorly or unprofessional – not to the level you expected, or they were part of the solution – either positively or negatively. That is how important ‘people’ are. 

In order to get this element of the mix to a high standard, it all starts with hiring the right people, with the right attitude and skills so they can deal with customers professionally and most importantly of all - in line with your brand values. 

A great way to highlight this is the service you would get in McDonalds and at the Ritz. Both may be impeccable, applaudable, but they would both be very different experiences, conforming to each companies brand values.

Music Featured on this Podcast:Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksLucille Ossai’s https://www.LucilleOssai.comLucille@LucilleOssai.com

Business Communications Blog: https://www.LucilleOssai.com/blog YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM6nlSUQeKL8Arvzk7VylpA LinkedIn: http://ng.linkedin.com/in/lucilleossaiCommunicationsPro Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Lucilleossai Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lucilleossai

Books:Talk Like TED – Carmine Gallo: https://amzn.to/2ZHk3GW

Extras:For extra help with editing and proofreading: https://www.Grammarly.comGrammar page of the University of Bristol: https://bit.ly/2Y1DPw8

(Lucille’s pro tip for using this resource: I always advise students to begin with the section on 'punctuation marks', then the 'common confusions' section, then 'other pitfalls and problems', etc. They could read the information and do the grammar exercises to test their understanding. They should refer to this resource regularly). 

Enjoy the episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Lucille Ossai is a strong advocate for effective communication skills. She is passionate about helping professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders hone their communication skills so that they excel in careers and boost business results. As the founder and editor of the award-winning Rethinking Business Communications Blog, her blog is ranked among the top 30 communications blogs on the web by Feedspot. It has also been named a top business communication blog by Business First Impressions. 

Lucille is the communication coach at the globally ranked Lagos Business School in Nigeria, where she facilitates sessions on communication in open seminars, as well as provides communications support for full-time MBA students and executive MBA participants. In her private ventures, she is a communications trainer who brings her wealth of experience in blogging, lecturing and coaching to deliver communication services for individual and corporate clients.

Her motto: Take action today to improve your skills because you cannot wish your communication problems away. 

Takeaways

- Communication skills give you the opportunity to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack. If you are communicating better than others it means you are better understood, provide a clearer explanation and make it easy to follow your thought process. And this is the same for your Marketing Assignments, where a structured and coherent approach can pay dividends.

- Lucille highlighted her three rules for effective communication which we can all learn from to become better communicators in anything we do. These are:

- Consider your audience - Use simplicity, brevity and clarity (what Lucille calls the three beacons) - Timely and factual feedback

- When communicating through writing always make sure you know and understand who your audience is and write accordingly. Again, this is the same with your Marketing Assignments. Make it easy to follow, edit and proof read while also not taking any chances with incoherent language and cryptic sentences, which brings us full circle and back to the three beacons of communication: Simplicity, Brevity and Clarity.

Top Tip – 7 P’s - Process

Efficiency, Structure, Usability, are just three of the words that spring to mind when you think about a process. And this is just the same within the extended Marketing Mix.

The requirement of a process within this mix is vital for a number of reasons, not just the three key words we’ve just highlighted.

Firstly, every process will have an impact on a customer, either directly or indirectly. A good tip here is to reverse engineer the process. Look at it from the customers perspective and work out what could be improved.

Although these processes and systems need to be robust and effective, they still need a level of flexibility to deal with changes within a marketplace, supply chain or indeed cultural shift.

And finally, involve others in creating and designing of any type of Marketing process as this improves communication internally, generates buy-in to any changes and helps to view the whole functionality from different perspectives so it work as well internally as well as it does externally.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Guest and Episode LinksDr Geraint Evans http://www.drgoevans.comhttps://www.instagram.com/drgeraintevans/ https://twitter.com/DrGeraintEvans_ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgeraintevans/

Books:The Excellence Dividend – Tom Peters: https://amzn.to/2FVG0u2

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81) 

Intro We’re continuing to look through the Marketing Mix, or 7P’s as they are more fondly know with a look at Place this week. 

But first, let’s meet Dr Geraint Evans or G for short. G is an award-winning Interim Chief Marketing Officer, with a track record for delivering world-class commercial strategies, leveraging the full marketing mix, products, platforms and channels and has worked for the likes of Virgin Media and Odeon.

G holds a PhD in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, a Masters in Marketing, and is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing so what I wanted to ask is, G, give us your best doctor joke!

Takeaways

- The future is now! The future is happening now and those that cannot see this may be in big trouble later on. The technology that we may be talking about now as if it is ‘futuristic’ is already being used. Machine learning, AI, block chain and 5G to name a few are out there. And we should know about them, understand their capabilities and start to see if they are applicable to our current working environment.

- When considering your profession, regardless of how niche it may be, it is important to make sure you have a well rounded view of Marketing. It is definitely OK to niche down, but you will inevitably need to understand the bigger picture – your customer and their journey as well as what is driving a company from a financial perspective and other none direct marketing related elements.

- Understanding the science behind marketing is important as even the simple models we use can be complex to implement. Marketing Qualifications can help build these foundations and alongside experience and practical applications it can become a very powerful asset.

Top Tip – 7 P’s – Promotion

Probably the most utilised of the 7 P’s in any extended marketing mix (for a marketer) is Promotion.

Why you ask?

Because this is the part that everyone sees, the top of the Marketing Mix iceberg that is there to highlight to consumers that you have the best solutions to their problems….. this bit that everyone has an opinion about. 

Promotion is exactly what it says it is. The promotional elements, which include:

- Communication Channels – websites, social, print and radio for example - Content. Be it audio, visual or copy - Logos and colour used to distinguish us from the rest of the pack - The generation of interest and the tactics we will use to gain interest

But before we even get to that we need to make sure we are building on the solid foundations of research, analysis and being complimentary to the other P’s within the Marketing Mix.

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Enjoy the episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

We all seem to be focusing on the Digital elements of not only our Marketing, but our business and social lives as well. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the real world in all of this and how Physical Evidence can play a huge part in your Marketing Mix. More on that later.

First, it’s time to chat with Michael Field about all things B2B (business to business). It’s so easy to focus on the B2C (business to consumer) elements of Marketing as they are all around us and impact us every day, but the majority of us will ply our trade within the B2B sector and Michael is the perfect person to guide us through what we should be doing here.

Michael, who was also a guest lecturer at Edith Cowan University for a number of years, now focuses on developing competitive strategies for medium sized businesses for EvettField Partners. Michael specializes in helping his clients gain market share, build compelling value propositions, identify value drivers and develop meaningful, evidence-based and actionable strategic plans. Now this may all sound very buzz-wordy but believe me, when Michael talks, you listen as there is theory and analysis behind what he offers, building the solid foundations of Marketing that are so badly missing in many organisations Strategy.

Takeaways

- Why is marketing important. As Michael points out, it can help companies grow and break through that plateau that other functions, such as sales cannot do alone. But it needs careful consideration backed by proper analysis. Basically, its more than just your logo, literature and a website – what are the strategic implications. 

- This leads on nicely to not forgetting about the fundamentals of marketing. These are the bits that people can’t see, or don’t want to see. The research and analysis that is required to base any type of Marketing tactics on top of. These are the foundations of good Marketing.

- When thinking about the various channels we now have at our disposal, it doesn't mean we should be on all of them or spread ourselves to thin. No, we go where the market is. Consumer buying behavior has driven our need for Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing didn't drive the need for customer to be on these platforms. It is down to us as Marketers to understand where our customers are and be there when they need us.

Top Tip- 7 P's - Physical Evidence

Within the extended or digital marketing mix sits physical evidence. What do we mean by this and why is it a consideration? After all, for many businesses e-commerce is the only platform and thus, physical evidence is an non-entity…. Wrong.

Yes, physical evidence is far more prevalent within the service industry. Take a salon or a butchers for example, the smells, sound, décor, ambiance, cleanliness, colours, clothing and even equipment is vitally important as an indicator to the quality of the service that will and is provided.

But even for those organisations with very little by way of physical evidence, it is an important factor as including the physical in what is a none physical landscape can be a game changer.

What the heck am I talking about. Take Amazon for example, their physical evidence is exceptional irrespective of their digital presence, lets take a look at some key elements:

Packaging – usually branded and even the tape they use to seal the packaging is either branded or utilised in some promotional way

Warehouses – Those massive things you see on the side of the road, yep, they play their part as an indicator to the vast delivery network that can get a packaging to you in under 24 hours

Drones – They may not be quite there yet, but the fact that this is even a possibility highlights that the company is a thought leader in their industry, pioneering new technology and looking at ways to better serve their customers

I’m off to order Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt as I need it tomorrow…. No, NOW! By drone please!

LinksMichael Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfieldcom/ https://www.evettfield.com

Books:Good Strategy, Bad Strategy – Richard Rumelt: https://amzn.to/2ZEC2ha

App:Slack: https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Enjoy the episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Intro

Where is the place to be? Why is location (physical or digital important). This will become apparent a little bit later on. Diana can basically turn your video, audio and graphics into something that people want to learn from. 

But first we’re chatting to Diana Wilson, a freelance video editor who’s niche is within the online course creation market. Taking your audio and video and making into something people want to learn from. Not only that but Diana also helps her clients with the sales and marketing elements of their business.

Certain circumstance (as we’ll find out later) is what drove Diana to enter this market, but in doing so it became apparent that this was not only her passion, but she was pretty darn good and what she offered.

Takeaways

- If you’re struggling to understand where you fit in life or where your passions is that you can make a living around, Diana has the perfect antidote: Write everything down, find the middle, how you can combine these elements and focus on this and solely this – your sweet spot! 

- When creating an online course, audio, visual, content and the value you bring are all important aspects. If you know your audience, you can tailor what you are providing to what they actually want rather than what you ‘think’ they need. Two very different propositions indeed.

- Preparation, preparation, preparation. Start with the basics and then develop from there. If you can create a roadmap for the entire development process then this will keep you on course, reduce procrastination and make you more efficient. Which is very similar to writing a Marketing Assignment. Do your prep, start off with the main points you want to get across and then develop your answer from there.

Top Tip – 7 P’s - Place

Where do you by your stuff? Online, retail store… 'round the back'?

Regardless of where you purchase, when you are thinking of ‘Place’ within a marketing mix there are a few elements that are critical to consider when thinking of your route to market. 

The first element is how much control do you need within the whole supply chain? If you need to keep a tight control of what your product and service looks like, the packaging, protection and the delivery as this is what make you unique then its worth considering going direct to consumer. If you are happy to relinquish control or it’s more cost effective, it may be worth handing this over to a Distributor or a Wholesale who will take this task away from you.

Other elements that may determine your channel selection could be:

- Geographical location. If local the  you may be able to facilitate delivery, international, is it better to hand this over to an expert that already has the infrastructure to deal with this shipping

- Product characteristics such as fragility and the trust put in your supply chain to handle delivery with no repercussions. This is similar for high ticketed items and the security required to delivery them.

- Don’t forget the dreaded legal issues, legislation, tax implications, trade descriptions and the crossing of international borders, as well as the variations of these within different countries.

Make sure the places you intend to use suite both your company, the product or service you are delivering and, most importantly it matches your target markets expectations, no, exceeds your target markets expectations.

Links

Diana Wilson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-wilson/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ueXwEVf8Qek95FLmyjoaQ https://sites.google.com/view/texastasker/home

Books:Building a StoryBrand – Miller Donald: https://amzn.to/2Rz8XRq 

App:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com

Extras:

Course Marketplaces:Udemy: https://www.udemy.comSkillShare: https://www.skillshare.com

Hosting Platforms:Teachable: https://teachable.comThinkific: https://www.thinkific.comKajabi: https://kajabi.com

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Enjoy the episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

This week we’re taking a look at where Price fits into the Marketing Mix (the 7P’s). But first, let’s meet Vicki O'Neill.

Vicki is helping companies bridge that gap between marketing and sales and she has the experience needed to achieve this. Vicki also hosts the podcast ‘Connect the Dots’, tackling and talking through those important areas where sales and marketing could and should be working in harmony as this increases employee satisfaction, customer engagement and business results and who doesn't want that!

Takeaways

- Without sales, a company doesn't exist and without marketing people don't know the company exists. Just let that sink in! Now you understand why it’s so important we all just get along.

- Aligning both sales and marketing goals has a whole host of benefits including;

Better customer retention, better revenue, better profits and a better atmosphere internally…. And why wouldn't we all just want to get along!

- Automation can be a great way to speed up a process or create efficiencies. But only under the right circumstances. For example AI will only ever be as good as the data that precedes it, which should be thorough and detailed…. For now! I think we’ve all seen the errors that can occur when AI doesn't have the right data, not good!

Top Tip – 7 P’s - Price

I don’t think I have to shove it down your throat the importance of Price within a Marketing Mix, but the connotations of setting this can be varied. The price will have a detrimental effect on how people view a product or service and it has the power to destroy a brands positioning as well as create its prestige.

It’s important when setting a price that you consider if it is a right fit for, not only the product or service as well as the actual company (after all it needs to be making money), but also from the customers point of view – your target market. Set it to high and they won’t be able to afford it or see the value, to low and it may be perceived as not having enough value – i.e. it’s seen as cheap.

In addition to this, the pricing structure is also important – will this be subscription based, a one off payment or an annual payment perhaps? 

LinksVicki O’Neill https://www.vickioneill.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickioneill/

Books:Marketing Rebellion – Mark Schafer: https://amzn.to/2WdxNeW

App:Canva: https://www.canva.com

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Enjoy the episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81)

Over the coming weeks, not only do we have some amazing guests to chat with, but we’ll be taking a look at the Marketing Mix, more fondly known as the 7 P’s – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Process, People and Physical Evidence. This week we start with product. But first we need to have a little chat with Branka Injac Misic.

Branka Injac Misic is the CMO of GigSuper, a company that helps the self-employed manage their money. Sound boring? Well it’s Branka job to turn taxes into something we should all be excited about by looking after the community of customers that use GigSuper. All this while also running her own company – onetinytribe.com that offer prints, posters and artwork to inspire and promote adventure amongst mums and baby boys.

Takeaways

- Streamlining a customers experience is hugely important and can make a massive difference, especially in complex industries such as finance. Branka breaks down the perceptions and walls that are built around the complex and keeps it as simple as possible.

- CX and UX are different. A user experience (UX) usually sits within the Customer Experience (CX). This is the usability of the product or service, whereas the CX covers EVERYTHING – from what the customer hears and does, to the branding the journey and the main touch points throughout this journey.

- Base everything on customer research. The clue is in the title – CX! It is their (the customers) experience and you need to under what they need and are looking for to provide the right experience.

Top Tip – 7P’s - Product

The product element of a marketing mix is easy to understand. It’s the product you’re selling to solve a customers problem. Without this, or some carnation of it such as a service, you are basically trying to sell air!.... unless air is actually what you are selling and then this becomes your product.

Within the product section of a Marketing Mix you need to consider what the product is, what it does, why it does this and why people need it.

In terms of its position within the overall mix, the product will help to establish the pricing structure, how it will be sold (i.e. through what channels) and the features and benefits it will invariably be sold upon. 

LinksBranka Injac Misic https://www.gigsuper.com.aubranka@gigsuper.com.au

Books:Contagious - Jonah Berger: https://amzn.to/2HZ1F4N

Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License