Marketing Builder Podcast

If your organisation engages in some sort of sales process, irrespective of whether you are B2B or B2C, then a leave behind could add an extra dimension to your sales process and help get the sale. Listen in to how to dial into ideas for amazing leave behinds and hear of great example I used to use. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to one source, based on total website traffic, the social media behemoth, YouTube, is the second most visited site behind only Google. Further, 90.6% of the global internet users, aged 16-64, use it to watch videos. That number would certainly be pushed higher if under 16s were included! Internet users aged 16-64 spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media each day. That all adds up to video being a strong consideration tactic in your marketing. But how can you best use it, what do you need to consider, what equipment do you need, etc? Damien Maher, from Newcast Studios, has worked in video production and TV broadcast for almost 30 years, and he joins us to discuss video for business marketing.  Be sure to check out newcast.com.au, lonsdaleststudio.com and connect with Damien on LinkedIn Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Social media is ever present in our lives. It has come a long way since the days where the boring old men, in grey suits, just thought it was just a waste of time and something that was a plaything for the kids. Instead, it is now a space that is often critical to our business's marketing because, at a minimum, and if we put the time we spend on it aside, it can often be free marketing. However, if you are like a lot of businesses, you look at social media and think, “What the hell am I going to post?” It is pretty common. That's why, in this episode, I share 20 social media post ideas, and I give a little bit of an explanation and some context for each one. Once you've had a listen, be to head download the one-pager where I have collated them all for you - here. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a business owner or a marketer, you'll appreciate the importance of being able to verbally get your message across; whether that is to the Board, senior execs, staff, at events, or whether you are producing videos or podcasts in your marketing. We also know how important storytelling is in marketing! It doesn't matter whether you are a seasoned exec, a senior marketer, a small business owner, or a sole trader because, in this episode, Cam Sullings discusses the importance of speaking and presenting in marketing and gives us loads of great advice to help you deliver your messaging clearly. Cam has a long history in communications as straight out of school he worked for a corporate video and events production company, in Sydney, before embarking on his radio career. If you live in Canberra, his voice might sound familiar because you can hear him on the radio, MCing game days at the Raiders, or MCing a big event. Enjoy See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Account Based Marketing is a strategic approach to marketing where you identify organisations, in target industries, and consider each organisation a market of one. Account Based Marketing is a strategic approach to your marketing where you create personalised and tailored communications that are designed to nurture people through the sales funnel. It is perfect for those in the B2B space and those that have long or complex nurture and sales funnels. If you feel like traditional marketing approaches are not working for you, those that are suited to B2C, like social ads, email campaigns, and generalised content, then Account Based Marketing could be the answer. This episode is part two of a two-part series. In this episode, I'll walk you through the final steps in beginning to create an Account Based Marketing approach and provide you with a basic example. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Account Based Marketing is a strategic approach to marketing where you identify organisations, in target industries, and consider each organisation a market of one. Account Based Marketing is a strategic approach to your marketing where you create personalised and tailored communications that are designed to nurture people through the sales funnel. It is perfect for those in the B2B space and those that have long or complex nurture and sales funnels. If you feel like traditional marketing approaches are not working for you, those that are suited to B2C, like social ads, email campaigns, and generalised content, then Account Based Marketing could be the answer. This episode is part one of a two-part series. In this episode, I'll walk you through the first steps in beginning to create an Account Based Marketing approach. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is the last in a nine-part series answering listener questions.  This episode's listener question comes from Roddy Boyd, from 23 Creative, who asks, “What is your favourite way to market to people?” Unlike the first 7 episodes, where we only had one expert joining us, in this episode, as with the preceding episode, all of the experts so far have been posed the question which makes an awesome combined episode where we get to hear multiple views about the same question. Joining us in this episode is: Colin Anstie from RD Consulting.  Tim Hyde from Win More Clients; Josh Strawczynski from JMarketing; Peter Ring, from Altitude Brands; David Pembroke, from contentgroup; and Todd Wright from Threesides Marketing; You can also connect with the guests on LinkedIn by simply clicking their names above. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is the eighth in a nine-part series answering listener questions.  This episode's listener question comes from Roddy Boyd, from 23 Creative, who asks, “What was the best result you have seen from a marketing campaign. Specifically, small business?”. Unlike the previous 7 episodes, where we only had one expert joining us, this episode, and the final episode, all of the experts so far have been posed the question which makes an awesome combined episode where we get to hear multiple views about the same question. Joining us in this episode is: Todd Wright from Threesides Marketing; Josh Strawczynski from JMarketing; Tim Hyde from Win More Clients; Peter Ring, from Altitude Brands; David Pembroke, from contentgroup; and Colin Anstie from RD Consulting.  You can also connect with the guests on LinkedIn by simply clicking their names above. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode's question comes from Bruce Calder, from Bull & Bear Special Assignment, who asks, “With Google threatening to withdraw their search engine capability in Australia in retaliation for paying for news content, some ideas for Plan B please?” This episode is the seventh in a nine-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. In this episode, Colin Anstie, from RD Consulting, an agency that focuses on marketing, communications, and change management, with a particular focus on government (but they also work with SMEs as well), joins us to answer Bruce's question. You can connect with Colin at https://www.rdconsulting.com.au/ or on LinkedIn. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode has two listener questions, both from Palliative Care ACT. Dave Burnett asks “What’s the best way to argue the return on investment of marketing for NFP's and are paid advertisements on social media worth it?” and Tracey Gillard asks, “Our charity’s purpose is to advocate and support quality palliative care. However, death is not an easy sell…what advice do you have re: marketing something that is not talked about/is taboo across many cultures?” This episode is the sixth in an eight-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. In this episode, Gail Hopkins, Managing Director at Make It Happen, an agency that offers NFP marketing services, joins us to answer Dave and Tracey's questions. You can connect with Gail and find out more about Make It Happen at mih.com.au Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode's question comes from Phillip Jones, from Two Degrees Group, who asks, “In a world with no, or little trust, in brands (we see through you) ... how do you market?” This episode is the fifth in an eight-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. In this episode, David Pembroke, Founder and CEO of contentgroup, an agency who have long been experts in content marketing, joins us to answer Phillip's question. You can connect with David at contentgroup.com.au or on LinkedIn. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode's question comes from Jacquie Tewes, at Nurturing Your NDIS, who asks, “What are the best ways to create a name for my online program which is appealing to new disability sector business owners across Australia?” This episode is the fourth in an eight-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. Peter Ring, from Altitude Brands, who has been the creative architect of over one hundred brands and brand experiences, joins us to help answer Jacquie's question.  Peter is an expert in helping his clients make the invisible, visible, and he achieves this by distilling where a business excels, drawing out its positives, and promoting and exploiting that through its brand proposition to create relevance, resonance, and customer engagement. You can connect with Peter at www.altitudebrands.com.au or LinkedIn Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode's question comes from Jacquie Tewes, at Nurturing Your NDIS, who asks, "How can I create my master marketing email list when I have contacts on a variety of social media platforms? Tim Hyde, Chief Fixer and Founder, at Win More Clients, joins us to help answer Jacquie's question. Tim focuses on helping experts win more clients, with less effort, and implementing a framework for calm, predictable, and organised growth. This episode is the third in an eight-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode's question comes from Kieran May, from Accross Business, who asks, "This might be a good question to answer for start-ups but when should I start marketing? Or is this a bit like the chicken and the egg? And how do I know when it’s time to call in a professional?” Joshua Strawczynski joins us to help answer Kieran's question. Josh is the Managing Director & Online Consumer Psychology Expert at JMarketing who use their award-winning digital marketing psychology & UX techniques to help influence your customers' online behaviour. Josh made the amazing offer of a free, one-hour, online consult for your marketing so be sure to head along to jmarketing.agency to take advantage of that. Be sure to mention you heard about it on the podcast. This episode is the second in an eight-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode's question comes from Liz Fitzgibbon, based in Tasmania, Australia, who is doing some great things helping the local tourism sector bounce back from COVID-19.  Liz asks, “The current climate post-COVID has forced the local tourism sector to find a completely new audience, where most SME’s previously relied on International traffic. What advice do you have for these advertisers to capture a domestic audience? Where should they start? Where can they make the best use of small advertising budgets?” Todd Wright, Founder and Director, of Threesides Marketing, in Canberra, Australia, has a long history of helping local tourism operators and he joins us to help answer Liz's question. This episode is the first in an eight-part series answering listener questions. For each episode and question, an amazing marketer from my network will join us and provide some different points of view and advice. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Testimonials; they are so important yet so painful to source. Of course, you’ll probably have some favourite customers or clients that you know would be more than happy to write a testimonial but you don’t want to be too much of an imposition. So, how do you source good, succinct, testimonials, real ones, but get them quickly? As such, the answer lies in the middle of writing them yourself (always a no, no :) and asking your customers or clients to write them. In this episode, you'll learn the process for sourcing great testimonials, quickly, that are authentic. A process that is painless for everyone! Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is part 2 of my chat with Bob so, if you haven’t already, head back to the last episode, episode 34, and listen to that. When it comes to digital advertising, Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the behemoths. In the social media world, Facebook is the category killer, dwarfing everything else and that means they have a tonne of data on people. A lot of people find that creepy, some unethical, but we aren’t here to discuss the ethics of what Facebook does. It is what it is, for now, but what it does do is present you with a massive opportunity ... if your target market is on Facebook.  Bob Regnerus is the author of the 4th Edition of the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising. Bob has an uncanny ability to pull a person’s story out of their head and heart and engineer that into highly-responsive ads and creative. Bob has 22 years of experience in Digital Marketing and has served thousands of clients and industry leaders such as Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Ali Brown, and Perry Marshall. Bob joins the show to discuss what it takes to create a successful Facebook Advertising campaign. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to digital advertising, Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the behemoths. In the social media world, Facebook is the category killer, dwarfing everything else and that means they have a tonne of data on people. A lot of people find that creepy, some unethical, but we aren’t here to discuss the ethics of what Facebook does. It is what it is, for now, but what it does do is present you with a massive opportunity ... if your target market is on Facebook.  Bob Regnerus is the author of the 4th Edition of the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising. Bob has an uncanny ability to pull a person’s story out of their head and heart and engineer that into highly-responsive ads and creative. Bob has 22 years experience in Digital Marketing and has served thousands of clients and industry leaders such as Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Ali Brown, and Perry Marshall. Bob joins the show to discuss what it takes to create a successful Facebook Advertising campaign. This is part 1 of 2 of my chat with Bob so be sure to pick up the conversation again in Episode 35. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot of marketing focus and spend these days goes into digital ad spending. You might be spending money on Google Ads or social media ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter, and maybe you are even running retargeting ads, those ads that follow you around the internet when you’ve shown interest in a particular product or topic. However, there are not many businesses that can run digital ads with a call-to-action to buy and have a high click-through rate and then a high buy rate. Usually, there needs to be a bit more in-between the ad and the purchase. That’s’ where landing pages come into it. In this epsiode, I'll gove you 10 best-practice pieces of advice to help your landing pages convert. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Freeman started a nutrition blog, and it was pretty popular. So popular, in fact, it made her think about whether, after her son reached Kindergarten age, if she should return to her government job or press on and see if she could build a nutrition business. That was in 2012, and now, in 2020, The Healthy Eating Hub boasts two locations in Canberra, Australia, a strong team of nutritionists, and an amazing social media following with their Facebook page having more than 15,000 followers. The Healthy Eating Hub isn’t into fads and diets. In fact, you very quickly come to realize that Kate and the team are all about keeping it real, for real people. And that is what their content focuses on, keeping it real and Kate is like any small business owner in that she creates lots of great, helpful content such as blogs, videos, and social media posts. But that wasn’t enough and, this year, Kate launched a podcast series called The Daily Dollop. Kate joins the show to discuss how she uses the podcast in her marketing. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marketing is about finding people with a need and getting them to trust you. And, as such, your job is to get the right information to the right people at the right time. So, how do people really know that you are an expert that can be trusted? The answer is teaching. Marketing through teaching. Otherwise known as content marketing. By using content marketing to show people how you help them, you demonstrate your expertise and build trust with people and, people buy from people they trust. In this episode, I'll discuss how this approach can do wonders for your business and address common fears and objections. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Ring, from Altitude Brands, has been the creative architect of over one hundred brands and brand experiences. In my hometown of Canberra, Australia, Peter was part of the legendary Zoo Creative Agency and he was part of the leadership team that helped, after it was born from a merger, grow exponentially and very successfully to around 80 staff. The truth of the matter is, at the time, if you were a big brand in town, you worked with Zoo. Peter rose to be Managing Director before, in 2009, striking out on his own and starting Altitude Brands, helping many more successful brands. Peter describes his ideal client as someone who wants to reach their potential and has the desire to make that happen and move to a higher level. That’s because his positioning statement is "Aim High" and, if you do, and you have the motivation, there is no doubt whatsoever Peter can help you build an amazing brand. Peter has worked with some of Australia’s biggest brands but also SME’s like restaurants and small consultancies. As such, Peter brings not only the depth of knowledge to the chat to you’ll find valuable, but also the breadth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Running competitions is a great way to not only build engagement and brand awareness but, more importantly, build your database. That's because a database of directly contactable people is usually the most powerful marketing asset you can have. In contrast, you are only ever renting an audience on social media, the radio, etc because you can’t contact those people. In this episode, I outline some fundamentals and pro tips for running successful social media competitions. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Pagotto, Founder and Managing Director, at SixGun, is a listener of the show and reached out to me to suggest that sharing the success that they’ve achieved for a client, Detail Central, an automotive, marine, and motorbike detailing service, would be of interest to the rest of you. I 100% agreed and so we made it happen. David has a history working for various marketing agencies before founding SixGun in 2017. David’s approach, and I take this form Six Gun’s website is, quote “Our approach focusses on building relationships with our clients. We take the time to learn about your industry and your ambitions for the future to plan the perfect strategy. No two businesses are the same so we don’t follow a template and ensure that everything we do is unique to your website. This means high-quality content, comprehensive website audits and technical improvements, social media strategies, and Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and Instagram marketing campaigns.” To be fair, that is what all good marketers should be doing so I knew David was going to be able to offer some great insights and obviously the practical application and examples from their work with Detail Central. You can find out more about SixGun at sixgun.com.au as well as follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and connect with David on LinkedIn as well. You can visit the subject of the case study, Detail Central, at detailcentral.com.au Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Traditional marketing channels still hold great lessons for us; if you look closely enough. In this episode, I'll explain how you can use a tactic that magazines have been using forever, to plan your content out into a repeatable process and takes the stress out of the question “What are we going to post or create this week?”. Be sure to visit this episode's show notes, at marketingbuilder.net, for the free resource to help. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roddy Boyd, owner, and Director at 23 Creative, returns for part two of a two-part series on great business websites. I invited Roddy on the show because pretty much every business has a website, but not every business has a great website. Websites can sometimes be a bit of a mystery for businesses. Sure, they know they need one, and they know what a good one looks like, but they don’t know how to take ownership of their site and make that happen. Most of you have and will use a web developer to build your site but, so often, it can be a frustrating process - whether it is taking too long, not exactly what you wanted, you don’t know how it all works, you don’t have control of and access to the backend, or it isn’t helping your business like it should. Roddy knows that building a website isn't enough and that you need to make sure it has clear and concise calls to action and is easy for your target market to navigate. In this second chat with Roddy, we cover off the importance of website speed, usability, compatibility, SEO, hosting, backing up your website, what we need to do when a site goes live, customer relationship systems, how search engine marketing flows into your site, why your website is the lynchpin of your marketing, and a few war stories to make it really interesting. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Roddy Boyd, owner, and Director at 23 Creative, joins me for part one of a two-part series on great business websites. I invited Roddy on the show because pretty much every business has a website, but not every business has a great website. Websites can sometimes be a bit of a mystery for businesses. Sure, they know they need one, and they know what a good one looks like, but they don’t know how to take ownership of their site and make that happen. Most of you have and will use a web developer to build your site but, so often, it can be a frustrating process - whether it is taking too long, not exactly what you wanted, you don’t know how it all works, you don’t have control of and access to the backend, or it isn’t helping your business like it should. Roddy knows that building a website isn't enough and that you need to make sure it has clear and concise calls to action and is easy for your target market to navigate. In the first part of my chat with Roddy, we cover off planning, target audiences, calls-to-action, content management systems, how to pick the right developer, structuring a website, how much they cost, content, and a few war stories to make it really interesting. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Content creation is adding your voice and value to handpicked content that you know will help your target audience and then sharing it with them. It is often a super easy tactic to execute and can be executed for no additional budget ... yet have amazing results! Content curation is a great approach because it is so much easy than creating original content; you simply have to curate it for your audience and provide some context. The reason it is considered part of your content marketing is not because what you are sharing is content, of course it is, but because content marketing is all about demonstrating your expertise to build trust and be seen as an authority or expert. So, you can’t simply cut and paste links and flick them on. That's why it is called 'curation' and not simply 'sharing'.  In this episode, hear about two great examples of content curation that I've used to help boost businesses' marketing. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Aaron Wild, from Reach Local, joins the show because I speak to a lot of businesses where Google Ads would be a great option for them but they, for whatever reason, shy away from it. Maybe they don’t like spending the money on advertising. Maybe they have had campaigns in the past but managed it themselves and they didn’t have great success and so they don’t think Google Ads are a very good option for them. It is strange to me because we can conduct concrete research to tell us if Google Ads are likely to pay off, they are so highly trackable it is not funny so you’ll know your exact ROI each month,  we can set our own budget, and we can stop and start them with a click of a button. In the past, I used to offer Google Ad campaign management for people but those were the days when it wasn’t as complex or as competitive as it is today. That’s where Reach Local comes in. Founded in 2004, Reach Local operates in 5 continents and has had over 19,000 clients, having delivered them over 201 million leads with a lead being a phone call, email, or web event from one of their campaigns. That’s why, these days, there is no way I’m as smart or as organised as Reach Local so I can’t, in good conscience, charge people to run their Google Ad campaigns. As such, any of my clients who need Google Ads, I simply introduce them to Aaron and let him and the team do their thing and generate leads. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

When getting serious about content marketing, a lot of businesses start with the vehicle, or asset, and focus on that. They think, “Oh, let’s start a blog” or “Let’s start a podcast”, and then they try and figure out what to fill it with. That is always a really painful approach and fraught with danger. Instead, focus on the 'what' and not the 'how'. Focus on what you want to communicate through your content, and how you want to influence the audience, and then decide the how of delivering it? The beauty of taking a content-first approach, instead of vehicle-first approach, is that you start to open yourself up to all types of repurposing and recutting content. Repurposing and recutting content is, in my opinion, one of the greatest efficiency tricks in marketing. In this episode, I'll explain a top-down and a bottom-up way for you you repurpose your content and maximise its value. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Reward Buddy launched in 2019 after Luke Santamaria implemented and brought to life a referral program for a physio group that he managed. From there, Luke saw an opportunity to help other businesses, especially those that aren’t digital and trade online, to leverage their word-of-mouth and grow their referral programs. RewardBuddy is great for service-based businesses such as cafes, gyms, trades, health providers, and those that don’t have a lot of time or money to put into marketing but who rely on word-of-mouth and referrals. The platform also helps retain clients with a loyalty reward aspect with a points system for using business on the platform as well as reviewing businesses on the platform. The great thing is, those points can be used with any business on RewardBuddy. Further, the platform provides the flexibility for businesses to create and implement bespoke reward programs so they aren’t forced into a one size fits all or pre-determined packages. One of the advantages of the platform is that through a business’ reward system, they are collecting names and contact details of their customers; something that is sadly overlooked by a lot of small and medium businesses. I found out about RewardBuddy on a Facebook group I am a member of where Luke had posted an article titled, 8 Ways To Get More Customer Referrals. I thought it had some great and practical advice especially for those on limited budgets because a lot of what Luke talks about can be implemented without spending a lot of money. Being the passionate word-of-mouth and referral advocate Luke is, we went way over time on covering the 8 ways to get more customer referrals, so, I’ve split the chat with Luke up into two episodes. If this is the first episode of Marketing Builder you’ve listened to then I recommend heading back and listening to episode 18 and the first half of Luke’s chat.

Reward Buddy launched in 2019 after Luke Santamaria implemented and brought to life a referral program for a physio group that he managed. From there, Luke saw an opportunity to help other businesses, especially those that aren’t digital and trade online, to leverage their word-of-mouth and grow their referral programs. RewardBuddy is great for service-based businesses such as cafes, gyms, trades, health providers, and those that don’t have a lot of time or money to put into marketing but who rely on word-of-mouth and referrals. The platform also helps retain clients with a loyalty reward aspect with a points system for using business on the platform as well as reviewing businesses on the platform. The great thing is, those points can be used with any business on RewardBuddy. Further, the platform provides the flexibility for businesses to create and implement bespoke reward programs so they aren’t forced into a one size fits all or pre-determined packages. One of the advantages of the platform is that through a business’ reward system, they are collecting names and contact details of their customers; something that is sadly overlooked by a lot of small and medium businesses. I found out about RewardBuddy on a Facebook group I am a member of where Luke had posted an article titled, 8 Ways To Get More Customer Referrals. I thought it had some great and practical advice especially for those on limited budgets because a lot of what Luke talks about can be implemented without spending a lot of money. Being the passionate word-of-mouth and referral advocate he is, Luke went way overtime on covering the eight ways to get more customer referrals. As such, I’ve split the chat with Luke up into two episodes. You’ll hear the first half here, in episode 18, and the second half in episode 19.

So often, we have the opportunity or the idea to pursue some marketing tactics. Something like some TV ads, or email campaigns, or social, etc. Often, however, when I’m talking to businesses, they look at the tactic in isolation. They are only considering the what (the tactic) instead of the context (the why) in which they might execute that tactic. When I say, "the context of the why", I mean, what are they trying to achieve. Why do it? Often, we’ll think that the goals they have set would inform us but, in marketing, before setting specific goals, we need to set some objectives (strategies) and then our goals sit under those. As such, before we can properly consider any marketing tactic, we need to be guided by our objectives. In this episode, I'll outline the eight objectives you can pursue and how to decide which ones are best suited to your unique business.

I was excited when I saw the title of a recent blog, that Matt Fenwick, Founder of True North Content had written, called The Northstar Framework: A Guide for Smarter Communications Decisions. It’s a fairly common scenario for a lot of comms professionals and I know I’ve certainly been in this position loads of times. I’m either stuck with a bunch of ideas, and don’t know which ones to go with, or I’ve got a plan all set and then, one random morning, after the boss or a client has read a blog or listened to a podcast, they get all excited and say, “Hey, we should be doing this new ABC or XYZ thing!”. Maybe it’s TikTok or Vine or whatever the kids are into. And that latter one is hard because they are the boss or the client and they are all excited but, deep down, you know it isn’t a good idea. But how do you say, “No” or, better still, how do you give the idea some air and work towards a smart decision of ‘yes’ or ‘no’? The reason I was excited when I saw Matt’s blog, The Northstar Framework: A Guide for Smarter Communications Decisions, was because I’d sort of toyed with the same type of idea, a flow chart/decision process/matrix to help us work through deciding whether we should use a marketing tactic or not. I, however, had never given it any serious bandwidth to try and figure out. So, I was happy when I saw that Matt had done all the work for us all and, to be fair, he’s done a better job than I probably would have!

Everyone wants ‘more’ sales’ but simply focussing near the end of the buyer decision process is naïve. That’s because your current pipeline state provides some excellent and hard data around how your target audience moves from awareness through to a customer. No doubt, you are already doing some marketing, and that is providing you with some customers, but you would like more. That’s fair and pretty normal. Most people’s initial reaction, in wanting to increase their number of customers, is to simply add more people to the top of the funnel. The challenge with this position is that you may not have the ability to manage more potential customers through each stage of the pipeline. For example, could your receptionist cope well if the number of phone calls quadrupled? Or you had to respond to four times as many email enquiries? Maybe, maybe not. But assuming is not the way to market effectively. In this episode, I’ll show you how to examine your pipeline and make a decision on where you should be focusing your marketing. Enjoy.

I’ve known Tom for a number of years and I’ve had him and the team complete work at my place. To say that Water Tight Canberra is not like most plumbers, or tradesman for that matter, is an understatement. It doesn’t matter what industry it is, I see many examples of business spruiking certain things that they think the consumer wants to hear and which they think differentiates them. Things like passion, dedication, experts, focus on customer service, reliable, etc. It’s weird because, as consumers, these days, they are not really differentiators, they are just what we expect a business to provide us. It’s a minimum. There’s a lot of businesses talking the talk but not walking the walk. That’s not Tom Martin and Water Tight Canberra. Tom really is focused on not just doing a great job but also the customer service. The proof is in the pudding with amazing Google reviews and winning a National Telstra Business Award. There is a lot all small businesses can learn from Tom and that’s why I invited him on the show. I started out by noting that, for lay people, plumbing would seem a fairly straight forward business and we might find it hard to differentiate between one professional, experienced, and licensed plumber and another and so, I wanted to know what unique elements of his business, or industry as a whole, really need to be taken into account when executing his marketing.

What are buyer personas? Buyer personas are fictional, generalised representations of your ideal customer or customers. They help you understand your target audience better and make it easier for you to align your marketing to the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of different groups that you might be trying to appeal to. The key thing is that they should be based on research. Not gut feel. In this episode, learn how to build real buyer personas that will help you focus your marketing.

People often tell you to "Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life", and that’s the saying that comes to mind when I think of Phillip A. Jones, The Martini Whisperer. One part of Phillip’s business ventures is Two Degrees Group, which he started in 2010. On paper, it’s a fairly typical consulting business but, scratch the surface a little and there is some really interesting stuff going on. Phillip is the Chair of Judges for the Canberra and Capital Region Tourism Awards and a National Judge for the Australian Tourism Awards. Plus, he’s been invited to be a judge at the inaugural New Zealand Spirits Awards and the Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia’s Distilling Awards in 2019, in addition to being engaged as a judge for a range of tourism, hospitality, and customer service awards programs. Probably the most interesting element though is Phillip’s alter ego, The Martini Whisperer, which sees him being commissioned for bespoke creations, hosting events such as masterclasses, and a frequent guest speaker and presenter on craft spirits, and of course, the Martini. In 2015, that all led to him having the honour of presenting the first-ever TED talk on the Martini. Phillip’s journey is a great mix of being passionate and knowledgeable about something, putting yourself out there, taking opportunities as they come, and then, like most of us in small and medium businesses, taking stock after some early success and then getting way more strategic about the business. Now, this episode is a lot longer than a normal Marketing Builder episode but I enjoyed talking to Phillip so much I just did not care about trying to keep him to a time limit nor did I look to edit it heavily to make it fit a certain time. I trust you enjoy hearing from Phillip as much as I did.

Marketing budgets are always a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, right? So often we need to sell some more products or services, so we can invest in marketing, but investing in marketing will help us more easily sell more products and services! There’s a lot of advice out there where people will tell you, depending on whether you are an old business or a new business, and whether you want to grow or you want to maintain, what percentage of your annual turnover you should spend on your marketing. It feels so impersonal and not tailored. There’s no consideration of so many of the factors that impact a business’ marketing or the wider business goals, including the internal skills you have and time you can commit to marketing. Instead of blindly trying to spend a predetermined percentage of turnover, and trying to figure out what tactics to spend it all on, you should be working from the other end and reverse engineering a budget from the tactics you think will best help you achieve your goals. In this episode, we take a look at how you can easily do that and then have confidence that the budget will support the best tactics you’ve chosen to achieve your goals. Enjoy.  

I asked Mel to come on the show because she was a guest on another show I host, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s podcast, and in my research I was struck by how much content marketing Mel creates around her business and figured she would have some great insights to share with us. Mel describes her work as “helping people be better at doing business with people by strengthening relationships”. Mel says she helps people identify who they need to have relationships with, who their stakeholders are, what the messages are they need to get out to those stakeholders, and then craft and deliver those messages. In a past life, Mel worked in a government department but was frustrated by the work and not enjoying it; in some part due to the highly political environment. Mel figured a move to part-time would help but her request was rejected - the head of HR couldn’t understand why a woman with no children would want to work part-time! That was in 2006 and, so, she resigned and she hasn’t looked back. Mel largely delivers strategy facilitation, workshops, and does lots of speaking. Mel works with CEO’s, and other senior leaders, and leadership teams, mostly in large non-profit and member-based organisations as well as organisations in the financial sector. You can find out more about Mel at www.melkettle.com or connect with her on LinkedIn here. Enjoy.

The Content Pyramid is a concept that allows you to organise and map your content and engagement in a way that moves your target audience from free content consumption and engagement through to core customers and beyond. The concept revolves around recognising that we can't always easily and quickly move people from initial awareness through to customer.  Further, there is the option for products or services that can be positioned which offer the opportunity of low turnover, high-profit margin; which would be in addition to your core products and services. In this episode, after I outline how the Content Pyramid works, I walk through an example of a business and map their content against the pyramid. It’s not all theory though. To help, there is a downloadable worksheet that maps the example against the pyramid and provides space for you to complete the exercise on your business. This resource is available to Patrons of the show and available at the Marketing Builder Patreon Page. Enjoy.

Emma is a graphic designer and owner at HOLA! and a few years she made a decision that completely changed her career. After years of relying on web developers to service her clients, she followed the advice of a fellow designer and set out to build websites for clients herself. Creating websites is something she now loves doing because it blends perfectly her love for design and tech—her inner artist and inner geek! Emma has a passion for creating beautiful, functional WordPress websites that help take businesses to the next level. And, she’s on a mission to help other graphic designers learn the skills to become beautiful website creators and build the business of their dreams in the process. Part of that mission is a Facebook group for graphic designers wanting to follow Emma’s path and build WordPress websites. The Facebook group is an online community that helps support people on that path and she offers her courses through the group. The group has helped grow her business by feeding members into a previously non-existent revenue stream. You can find out more at hola.net.au/ as well as check out the Facebook Group.

Not all marketing tactics and content are equally as effective at each stage of the Buyer Decision Process. For example, while some tactics are great for building awareness, they aren’t great for converting a highly engaged potential customer. In this episode, we revisit the Buyer Decision Process and I align the broad goals of awareness, engagement, conversion, and loyalty that you are trying to achieve as a business. I also give some examples of tactics and explain how they are well placed at some stages but wouldn’t be very helpful at other stages. All of this helps you pick the most suited tactics for the areas of your pipeline you wish to focus on. It’s not all theory though. At the end of the episode, I outline how you can use the Buyer Decision process, and your broad objectives, to choose the most effective tactics for your unique situation. To help, there is a downloadable spreadsheet which maps all of the marketing tactics against their best area of focus. This resource is available to Patrons of the show and available at the Marketing Builder Patreon Page.

Louise is the owner of Lollypotz, a hamper business offering a wide range of gifts for all manner of occasion and type of person. Louise has been in business since 1999, so, at time of recording, that’s 20 years. The interesting thing about that is that, when you look at a hamper business, it doesn’t have low barriers to entry and it is very easy for competitors to browse other’s sites and copy product offerings and even price them lower. That’s an important point and really does go to underline the abilities of Louise and her success in growing her business including being either a finalist or winner in various categories of the Telstra Business Awards, over numerous years, including being named as the winner in the Business Owner category of the 2013 Telstra ACT Business Women's Awards. You can find out more at www.lollypotz.com.au or on Facebook

No matter what you buy, whether it is complex, simple, business to consumer, or business to business, every purchase follows six steps and it is known as the Buyer Decision Process. The 6 steps of the Buyer Decision Process are: Awareness; Research; Evaluation; Decision; Purchase; and Post-purchase Evaluation. A lot of businesses simply focus at the top of the process (or sales funnel) with awareness and initial engagement tactics. That’s usually pretty naïve, however, because there is a whole bunch of stuff after awareness and initial engagement where your potential customer can be influenced to continue to move towards a purchase from you, or you can lose them. Understanding the Buyer Decision Process helps you determine the information needs of your audience and craft marketing that can meet those needs. It’s not all theory though. At the end of the episode, I outline how you can use the Buyer Decision process to list the information needs of your audience, at each stage, and then identify the content you’ll create and the tactics to deliver them. The Buyer Decision placemat for the exercise is available to Patrons of the show and available at the Marketing Builder Patreon Page.

Anthony Ferraro is a local legend in my area. He moved to Canberra, Australia, in 2009. As a local passionate business owner, however, it feels like he grew up here. He is well and truly part of the community. Anthony set about reviving a legendary take-away shop which used to be called Theo’s; in a suburb his wife grew up in. A few takeaway businesses have come and gone from the space, over the years, yet none have been very successful. Now, with Anthony at the helm, it is once again a thriving business known as Little Theo’s. When you listen to Anthony speak, it becomes very clear, very quickly, as to why he has been so successful. In fact, he’s done such a good job that Little Theo’s is the only takeaway in Australia to be listed in the Good Food Guide, the number one destination for credible, independent restaurant, bar, and cafe reviews. Enjoy!

A couple of years ago, I got into this weird argument with my Dad. My Dad is a really smart man. He’s a radio engineer by trade, then studied IT as a mature -age student, and now owns a data centre consulting and training business. He’s the sort of guy that has every tool you’ll ever need and once built a double brick garage and most places our families have lived, he’s built decks. Plus, he’s really financially smart and often bores me with talk about shares and the next big thing on the stock market. The weird argument started when he asked me what the difference is between marketing and advertising. Seeing I have bucket loads of marketing experience, teach it at university, and have a master of marketing, I was confident I had it covered. So, I confidently said something like, “Advertising is just one element of the promotion activities a business undertakes. It’s an element that works in combination, and is a result of, a bunch of other stuff like market research, the product, pricing, and stuff like that.” “Right, but what is the difference?” he countered. We started to go round and round in a weird conversation where the more I tried to explain it, the less he understood. I couldn’t even explain what marketing actually was in a way that made sense to a non-marketer. In the end, I kind of just gave up. In this episode, I'll give you a really easy to follow the definition of marketing and talk to you about how you can use the age-old Marketing Mix to find people with a need and get them to trust you.

Kate started a nutrition blog, and it was pretty popular. So popular, in fact, it made her think about whether, after her son reached Kindergarten age, if she should return to her government job or press on and see if she could build a nutrition business. That was in 2012, and now, in 2019, the Healthy Eating Hub boasts two locations in Canberra, Australia, a team of 10 and a strong social media following with their Facebook page having 15,000 followers. As you’ll hear, the Healthy Eating Hub isn’t into fads and diets. In fact, you very quickly come to realise that Kate and the team are all about keeping it real, for real people.

Your host, Daniel Oyston, sets the scene for what you can expect from each episode of Marketing Builder and pokes fun at some of the supposed 'gurus' promising to change your life if you follow their unique methods.

Marketing Builder; the show where you’ll get lots of little bricks of practical and clear advice to help you build up your marketing. www.marketingbuilder.net