Ben shares three ideas that could help grow or even kick start your social media engagement. He has been developing the ideas over the years so you may already have heard a few of them but it’s always good to have a refresher.
Notes
Be Remarkable
How to create remarkable content that spreads further by working with others
Choose a social network you like
Where your audience hangs out
Reach out to your audience
Be remarkable
Be consistent
Connect on a personal level
Be the First to Follow
Understand how to attract people and create a movement
Start a Social Tribe
Local businesses promoting local businesses on the web and through social media
Stats from McKinsey on the changes and what this means for the future of online sales. Via Jonathan Pollinger.
More than three quarters of buyers and sellers say they now prefer digital self-serve and remote human engagement over face-to-face interactions—a sentiment that has steadily intensified even after lockdowns have ended.
Safety is one reason, of course. But self-serve and remote interactions have made it easier for buyers to get information, place orders, and arrange service, and customers have enjoyed that speed and convenience. Only about 20 percent of B2B buyers say they hope to return to in-person sales, even in sectors where field-sales models have traditionally dominated, such as pharma and medical products.
I enjoy in-person contact for connecting and relationship building but buying online is almost always easier especially for repeat purchases. Also where it reduces the need for travel I’m all for it.
In this episode I share an extract from my conversation with Michelle Evans onhow developing a marketing funnel can take your from simply surviving, to SOLD OUT. Michelle takes us through the steps of developing a funnel from understanding your audience before jumping in to develop a funnel that will nurture more customers into working with you.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here ratherinventive.com/club/
I guested on Benjamin Catley-Richardson podcast about a failure in my business past and a challenge that I’m currently facing. As he mentions at the end we could have talked for hours, and we often do. A great person to have a coffee with.
In this episode I share an extract from my club webinar where I look at the uses of email marketing and what clicks and views to expect.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here ratherinventive.com/club/
‘The secret is mundane, but to me it’s thrilling. The card choice is a force. But choice from those dozens of boxes of tea really is a free choice, and the choice of tea bag within that box is also a free choice. There’s no sleight-of-hand: the magician doesn’t touch the tea boxes or the teabag that the volunteer chooses. The card really is inside of that sealed tea packet.
The trick is all in the preparation. Before the trick, the magician buys dozens of boxes of tea, opens every single one, unwraps each tea packet. Puts a Three of Clubs into each packet. Reseals the packet. Puts the packets back in the box. Re-seals each box. And repeats this hundreds of times. This takes hours — days, even.
The only “trick” is that this preparation seems so boring, so impossibly tedious, that when we see the effect we can’t imagine that anyone would do something so tedious just for this simple effect.’
I’m lazy and if I can get a chance to automate or simplify a task I’ll take it but sometimes there is magic in just doing the hard work.
For example when working on a new website we often need to copy of blog content. If there is a simple way to export the posts to the new site I’ll take it but if the site doesn’t provide this and there aren’t many posts (say less than 25) then it’s often quicker to copy and past between the two sites.
3rd party cookies are dead, so Google has been cooking up their replacement, Federated Learning of Cohorts or FLoC for short. Read more about FloC in this article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
‘If you have been assigned a FLoC ID, it means that your browser has processed your browsing history and assigned you to a group of “a few thousand” similar users. The FLoC ID is the label for your behavioral group. This numeric label is not meaningful on its own. However, large advertisers (like Google) and websites (like… Google) will be able to analyze traffic from millions of users to figure out what the members of a particular FLoC have in common. Those actors may use your FLoC ID to infer your interests, demographics, or past behavior.’
As a marketer I find a few tracking metrics such as which web pages have the most visits and where (broadly speaking) people came from highly useful but I don’t want to get lost in the data and would rather focusing on making great content and working with clients. And as an advertiser It’s great to refine your spend to only show ads to people who will be most interested. But I don’t agree that we need pervasive tracking to achieve this.
Some of the best advertising that has influenced me, has been from places of trust such as podcasts I love or blog I read daily. If a company wants to get in front of more people they might be better to tie into content providers with the right audience rather than target individuals on any platform with hyper personalised automated ads. The problem is that social media platforms have inserted themselves in between us and the content and are now charging rent.
A lot of people’s go-to in marketing is social media but I’ve noticed a reinsurance in email newsletters. I speak with Nikki Elbaz an email marketer about the benefits.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here ratherinventive.com/club/
Everything from setting up the plugin to products, discount vouchers and shipping and order processing.
Notes
Woocommerce is a full featured ecommerce system which allows you to sell a wide variety of physical products and digital products along with a wide range of extenstions for subscriptions and mentions amongst other things.
When you install Woocommerce for the first time
You need to access the Plugin tab on the dashboard at the back end of your wordpress website. Add new, then search for ‘Woocommerce’. It should be the top hit, press install now button and then activate to install. Once it is installed you will get a little Wizard setup screen, going through some of the basic information.
Choose whether prices will be inclusive of VAT or not. Only shows it you enable taxes in General tab
Chose whethere your customer base is business to business or business to consumer on which tax option you opt for.
Calculate your tax based on your address. If your company is based within the UK, regardless of where the customer is located they will pay UK tax. There are lots of options available if you ship abroad and can rank your tax to correlate with different states and regions.
WooCommerce Key Shipping Setup Tips
Shipping zones allow different options for each country or area you define
If you have any specific shipping issues, that I haven’t covered within the run through best to get in touch and run through these as shipping options are bespoke and taylored to each business differently.
By default Woocommerce comes with default payment details i.e Bank Transfer, Cheques, Cash on Delivery or Paypal.
With each option you will follow the form to input your information and requirements.
When setting up Paypal payments you will need to put in some details to activate this option. Ensure you capture the identity token so you can capture the payment and send the order details back to your website.
We recommend Stripe highly for taking credits. You will need to add this as a plugin. It is free, there are lots of other free plugins for different payments method if you would like to chose something else.
For this episode I’d like to share an extract from my Marketing Boost webinar where I look at why feedback is important and how to get more of it. Spoiler, you just need to ask.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here ratherinventive.com/club/
To watch the full video and get access to all previous videos and resources join my Marketing Club – Get free access for 30 days
My advice for business getting serious about their marketing. These tasks follow a similar format to my Foundation level but will be suited to business already doing a bit of marketing.
Notes
Marketing Fundamentals walkthrough (Pro)
You’ve graduated to the pro level well done. These tasks follow a similar format but will be suited to business already doing a bit of marketing or those who’ve completed my Foundation level.
Watch IMC #8 to learn why image optimisation is important
Reduce image size
Remove unused plugins or add-ons
Ensure your website navigation is clear and simple
Audit your page content to ensure information is current
Make sure your website has a Call To Action
Top Tip: Don’t delete plugins straight away, leave them deactivated for a couple of weeks just to make sure you don’t need them. If you have had the site developed by a web developer ask them to double it check to ensure that ones you are not using aren’t slowing down your site.
For this episode I’d like to share an extract from my Marketing Boost webinar where I share how you can be remarkable in your business and why that matters. Credit goes to Seth Godin for the idea.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here ratherinventive.com/club/
Until listening I was ignorant of the difference between the ™ symbol and the ® symbol. One is legally recognised and registered and the other is your assertion of an unregistered trademark.
My recommendations and advice for a startup or business new to marketing.
Notes
Marketing Fundamentals walkthrough (Foundation)
https://ratherinventive.com/blog/marketing-strategy-foundation/ My recommendations and advice that I have gained from working with over 500 companies in the last 10years. This is the Foundation level out of the series which is targeted at startups and businesses that are new to marketing.
Planning Section Highlights
Write down three things you’d like your business to achieve over the next 12 months
Take each objective and note down how you’ll achieve them
For this episode I’d like to share an extract from my Marketing Boost webinar where I show a technique to better understand how you can marry what you offer to your customers needs.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here ratherinventive.com/club/
This webinar is a screen share walkthrough of how to create text ad on Google. I share some of the tips I’ve learned along the way and my process for planning and creating ads on Google.
Notes
Where possible try to do inbound marketing put information out there for people to find. However, advertising and outbound marketing can help kick things off to start with. It can be good to combine the two.
Inbound – You put out information i.e. a how to guide, a video, give and share information. Your customer will find it online and share it for you.
Outbound – Pushing information at your customer; disrupting what they are doing i.e. a phone call, advert.
We’ll be using CCTV Logbook from Ecl-ips as an example. This web app helps people audit their CCTV system hardware.
Campaign 1
Goal: Signup for a trial walkthrough webinar
Audience: Security Managers who need to know when assets where maintained as they are responsible for site security and cannot have any cameras or recording equipment out of order. Saving time for staff or external engineers
Benefits: Detailed CCTV camera asset log, Maintains full audit history, Easy to use, Save time on engineering audits
Budget: £600/mo (£20/day)
Campaign 2
Goal: Watch video ‘How to manage GDPR and privacy for CCTV’
Audience: Business Owners who need to comply with legal obligations of data protection enforced by ICO. Don’t want to risk fine.
Benefits: GCPR compliant and secure. Reduce risk of fine from ICO
‘Repeat business is important because the average repeat customer spends 67% more in months 31-36 of their relationship with a business than they do in months 0-6. This particular study pertains to e-commerce sales but I have seen similar patterns in the B2B space also. It’s really all about trust. Once you’ve earned it, they’ll come back for more.’
I cannot correlate the percentages but I know that I win more business from clients that I work with regularly. In fact just regularly communicating with clients I’ve found will stimulate business either by giving them ideas or keeping my business front of mind.
Matt’s article is specific to his industry but a lot of the advice works for any business. He outlines the following tips:
Get process in place – You’ll look and be more professional and work will be easier to manage
Don’t hide behind your email – Find other ways to communicate with them: in-person, video call, gifts, referrals
Get to know you clients – You’ll be able to serve them better and it’s rewarding for your soul if you have a genuine connection
Build long term relationships – Time spent will pay dividends in future work and referrals
Self development – Listen to the best podcasts and audio books available. Ask clients for their favourites and share yours with them
‘How do you know if what you’re doing is right while you’re doing it? You can’t be. You can only have a hunch, a feeling, a belief. And if the only way to tell if you’ve completely missed the mark is to ask other people and wait for them to tell you, then you’re likely too far lost from the start. If you make products, you better have a sense of where you’re heading without having to ask for directions.’
I often get asked if a certain page design or ad is going to work before it’s even off the drawing board and Jason’s post echos my thoughts. You just can’t.
Sure something may have worked before, for another company, in another medium but will it work now? I don’t know. But I do know that we can try it out, tweaking the idea until it does or doesn’t. Either way we’ll know for sure.
This is the final of 6 episodes in which I’ll be walking you through the foundation level of my Marketing Strategy. I’m going give you ideas, advice and guidelines in a simple, step by step process that will work for any startup or business new to marketing.
The episodes cover Planning, Stats and Analytics, Website Development, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media and Business tasks that you need to do to give you marketing strategy a great foundation.
If you want to jump ahead everything I’m talking about is available online now ratherinventive.com/marketing-strategy
For now here’s part 6 and it’s about Business. Enjoy.
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here https://ratherinventive.com/club/
Learn more about mining LinkedIn to find prospects and then how best to engage with them.To help me explore this topic I’ll be joined by social media and blog writer Jack McCaughtrie from (Core Tree).
Build awareness of your company and how to help people
There is less noise in the channel, because it is a business to business platform it has a more professional mentality to it and people are more diligent in their approach Jack McCaughtrie
Case Study – Witley Jones
Bespoke school furniture manufacturer, based in Worcestershire.
They wanted to build their awareness and engagement in education
Trying to get an in, in a busy market
Approach of not hard selling but one of trying to support and align partnerships
Understand, Engage and Convert
Building an Audience
Quality not quantity
Reconnect with contacts, clients and colleagues
Use market intelligence to identify new companies and people
Connect with new people you have (or going to) meet
Digitising your network
…you have 100% control who is in your audience and have control in targeting the right people. It is important you connect to the right kind of audience, a target client or prospect who have some value to you or you to them. Jack McCaughtrie
Search
Use Company Pages to find best contacts
Search for Job Titles,
Location and industry
Set up ‘Search Alert’ for weekly email
Who to connect with
Connect with people who are directly relevant to you
Associated with markets you work with
People who would be interested in content you can share
People you can help with
Don’t simply collect connections
Connect with people that interact with your posts
Start a conversation
Personalise your connection invitation
Soft intro message once connected. Not sales focused
Ask questions to encourage a response
Follow 2/3 days after invite accepted
Be patient
Breaking the ice
Be inquisitive about their business or sector
Make an opportunity to send more information – relevant blog or video
Refer to a post they have shared recently or something you have seen on their website
Ask a favour (Benjamin Franklin effect)
Nurture & Follow-up
Sow the seeds that will grow over time
Be patient. Building relationships take times
Have regular content to share within your network
Ask who the best person to contact
Ask if you can share more information
Don’t be afraid to follow up once, twice, three times
Review your profile
Must be up to date and accurate
First impression counts
Make it relevant to your audience
Answer the questions your new connections will have
Thumbs Up is a handy YouTube video thumbnail listing preview tool. Use it to make sure your content can be seen at every size and that important text isn’t covered up.
This is the fifth of 6 episodes in which I’ll be walking you through the foundation level of my Marketing Strategy. I’m going give you ideas, advice and guidelines in a simple, step by step process that will work for any startup or business new to marketing.
The episodes cover Planning, Stats and Analytics, Website Development, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media and Business tasks that you need to do to give you marketing strategy a great foundation.
If you want to jump ahead. everything I’m talking about is available online nowratherinventive.com/marketing-strategy
For now here’s part 5 and it’s about Social Media. Enjoy!
👋 If you found this podcast interesting you might like my Marketing Club. Join to receive regular tips and advice on marketing, video and the web and Pro Members get access to my live marketing webinars every month, exclusive discounts and other perks. Find out more here https://ratherinventive.com/club/
Wow, you’re now on the Expert level. As with the previous tasks they follow a similar format but will be suited to business regularly promoting their business or those who’ve completed my Foundation and Pro levels.
