Something Inventive - A Marketing Podcast

A clip from a joint webinar with Heidi from Minx Media where Ben goes through how to review and optimise your Google My Business profile. For show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-37-reviewing-your-google-my-business-profile

Ben & Clare discuss why every business should be gathering customer testimonials. https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-36-why-you-should-be-doing-customer-testimonials/

Ben shares his method for developing a blog content strategy to get found online. https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-35-content--blogging-strategy

Martin Dugan from Double Tap Marketing shares his approach on managing outbound marketing and cold calling through to nurting the outcomes. https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-34-cold-calling--nurturing-the-marketing-funnel

Ben speaks with Jonathan Mahan on how to be authentic on video and the benefits of engaging your customers with candid videography. https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-33-being-authentic-on-video-with-jonathan-mahan/

Ben speaks with Ben Everard on his approach to problem solving and the steps he uses to overcome them. https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-31-claire-dores-mindset-business-goals/

Ben talks to Claire Doré, a life coach about her tips on reprogramming your mindset and achieving your goals. https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-31-claire-dores-mindset-business-goals/

Ben speaks with Rod Hande, an up and coming magician on what marketing methods he uses to promote his business. Rod also does his first video conference magic trick! https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-30-marketing-magic-with-rod-hande/

Ben share's his ultimate guide to proof reading marketing content in ten achieveable steps. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/imc-podcast-29-the-ultimate-guide-to-proof-reading-content

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-28-the-benefits-of-influencer-marketing/ I am joined by Shayna Rattler a leading expert in corporate sponsorship and influencer marketing to discuss how this could benefit your business.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-27-the-reasons-why-you-should-be-doing-video-testimonials/ I am joined by Clare to discuss the reasons why you should be making video testimonials and how your business will benefit by them.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-26-how-to-review-your-blog-content/ I share our process for reviewing your blog posts to find out which articles are getting the most visits and cause people to take action, and which ones are deadwood that needs cutting away.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-25-marketing-funnel-with-michelle-evans 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.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-24-use-email-marketing-effectively/ 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.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-23-email-marketing-with-nikki-elbaz/ 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.

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.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-21-marketing-boost-engage-your-customer 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.

https://ratherinventive.com/blog/imc-podcast-20-marketing-boost-understanding-your-customer/ 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.

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.

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!

This is the forth 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 4 and it’s about Search Engine Optimisation. Enjoy!

This is the third 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 3 and it’s about Website Development. Enjoy.

This is the second 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 2 and it’s about analytics. Enjoy.

For the next 6 episodes 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 1 and it’s about planning. Enjoy.

This is the second episode focused on growing a community of like minded people online, why you might do it, how to start and keep it going. This episode features a clip from a conversation I had with Alex Galviz who, along with a few others, started the ‘LinkedIn local’ events that grew into a global movement. More recently LinkedIn has taken on these events officially. Alex shares how it all started and snowballed to cover 80 countries and 600 cities.

Over the next two episodes I focus on growing a community of like minded people online, why you might do it, how to start and keep it going. In this episode an I’ll share a clip from my interview with Tom Ross last year He talks about how he’s built up his community of customers the hard way, one at a time. There’s lots of great advice here but no shortcuts!

So you’ve got a swanky new website but you’re not happy with the speed. It just feels slow. You know your customers won’t like a slow site but do you know that speed is also a factor in SEO. Here are some tips and WordPress plugins from Tim Nash at 34SP on how to speed up your website. I’m afraid audio wasn’t great for this episode, please bear with it. I blame the internet!

For this episode I thought it would be good to revisit a conversation I had with Sarah Dixon from the Contract Store on what details and documents we need to have on the website to make sure we don’t fall foul of the law. We cover all the fun stuff from Ecommerce terms and conditions to GDPR. Enjoy!

This episode features a walkthrough of creating a content page using the WordPress Block editor along with some tips on how to layout content. This is just a short clip taken from my Pro Club Webinar IMC #10 WordPress walkthrough which was recorded at the end of last year. The WordPress editor has changed a little since then but fundamentally it works in the same way.

There are so many different and varied ways to build a website from coding your own in HTML to using a Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Weebly, Squarespace or WordPress. In this extract from club webinar #18 I talk through the pros, cons and costs of the top website builders out there.

This episode features an extract from a recent club webinar #18 where I share my entire process from planning to go live. I talk about how best to plan your website, how to do a competitor review and tips on mapping out your site.

Back in July last year I spoke with Tess Coughlan-Allen about planning the content for your website, along with tips for getting started and a helpful tool to map out your content. I firmly believe that websites should be built around the content first and is actually a key part of the design process. If you are starting a new web project or revising your current site you’ll find real value in this conversation.

Does your business need a website any more? Can’t we just publish our details on Facebook and even use it to sell products directly? With so much communication already happening on social platforms it makes sense to move over your brand presence as well. Or does it? Here’s an extract from a conversation with Ben Wheeler in which we discuss the role of websites in marketing and ask in are they diminishing in favour of social business pages.

Continuing on our theme of SEO I thought this interview with Duane Forrester (recorded back in early 2019) would be helpful to show how structured data and schema is a key trust signal for search engines. We discuss why we should be using structured data on our website, how this impacts conventional SEO and why it matters for voice and augmented reality.

In this episode, I share some of my conversation with Chris Richards about our landing page review process. It was taken from Club Webinar #16: Improve landing page SEO. We talk about what ‘On-page’ SEO is, what we look for during a review and of course some tips to improve your SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position). Enjoy!

In this episode I feature an extract from my club webinar last year where I share some background on what SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is, why it’s important and some tips on getting started. If you are new to SEO, this episode will be a good place to start. But if you are a little more experienced then I’ll be sharing more ideas and advanced techniques in future episodes. So settle in and join me while I explain some SEO basics.

The Something Inventive podcast is changing tack and will be coming back in a new format for the next episode. Watch this space! Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/59-the-something-inventive-podcast-is-changing-tact

Genevieve shares her journey into crowdfunding her business and the strategy she implemented to make it a success. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/58:-genevieve-brading-crowdfunding

Ben speaks with Nikki Elbaz, a copywriter specialising in email marketing for SaaS/tech companies. Sponsors for this episode: - 34SP.com – A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. - BombBomb.com – A simple way to create and send personal video by email. Visit vid.us/somethinginventive to get 10 video examples from real users. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/57-nikki-elbaz-email-copywriting

Ben speaks with Rod Hande, an up and coming magician on what marketing methods he uses to promote his business. Rod also does his first video conference magic trick! Sponsors for this episode: - 34SP.com – A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. - BombBomb.com – A simple way to create and send personal video by email. Visit vid.us/somethinginventive to get 10 video examples from real users. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/56-rod-hande-close-up-magic

Ben visits Sarah in her home office to talk about why she wrote an Environmental policy as a solo worker and freelancer and her forthcoming book ‘Survival Skills for Freelancers (or how to go solo without going loco).’ Sponsors for this episode: - 34SP.com – A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. - BombBomb.com – A simple way to create and send personal video by email. Visit vid.us/somethinginventive to get 10 video examples from real users. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/an-environmental-policy-for-a-freelancer-with-sarah-townsend/

Ronald shares his experience of how he got into the world of WordPress and became a brand ambassador for Yith. Sponsors for this episode: - 34SP.com - A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. - BombBomb.com - A simple way to create and send personal video by email. Visit vid.us/somethinginventive to get 10 video examples from real users. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/54-ronald-gijsel-building-community-and-yith-woocommerce-plugin

Through my Fastershire links, I get to work with many businesses in the hospitality and tourism industry. So when event organiser, Steve Gardner-Collins invited me to come along to the Three Counties and Cotswolds Tourism Forum with a press pass to cover the event, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to learn more about this sector. Sponsors for this episode: - 34SP.com - A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. - BombBomb.com - A simple way to create and send personal video by email. Visit vid.us/somethinginventive to get 10 video examples from real users. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/53-three-counties-and-cotswolds-tourism-forum-2020-round-up

Ben talks with Edward White from ATLIVE to discuss how he got into film making and developing his own style. The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/52-edward-white-shares-his-journey-into-filmmaking

Ben talks with Jonathan Mahan from Bombbomb on how video can improve business and gathers some tips on how to get comfortable on camera. The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/51-jonathan-mahan-video-promotion-and-tips-to-get-comfortable-on-camera

Clare and Ben take a look back at the bi-weekly podcast featuring Ben and guests for 2019. Cherry picking some of their favourite interviews about marketing, creativity and business. The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/50-clare-and-ben-take-a-look-back-at-2019-something-inventive

Ben discusses with Ben Wheeler the role of websites in current marketing, diminishing in favour of social business pages. The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/49-ben-wheeler-changing-state-of-websites-in-marketing

Based in the United Arab Emirates, Lubna Forzley-Badr shares how she disrupts corporate businesses through the art of storytelling and creative a business narrative. The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/48-lubna-forzley-badr-storytelling-something-inventive

After spending 3 days, attending 12 talks and walking over 20,000 steps, Ben is back from Bath Digital Festival. He was lucky enough to interview some of the speakers and attendees to bring you a flavour of the state of technology and marketing in 2019. It's a fully packed episode and we hope you enjoy it. The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free. For show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/47-bath-digital-festival-2019-roundup-something-inventive

Ben meets with Nicholas van der Walle to discuss how Astute Graphics managed the process of updating their website with a new product pricing system. For show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/46-nicholas-van-der-walle-on-managing-change-something-inventive/

Ben talks to Claire Doré, a life coach about her tips on reprogramming your mindset and achieving your goals Show notes: https://ratherinventive.com/blog/claire-dore-how-marathon-training-has-helped-me-in-business