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  LMS Collective Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LMSCollective Intro This week I had the honour of chatting to Louisa van Vessem in her LMS (Learn Motivate Succeed) Collective Facebook Group (link is in the show notes if you fancy joining) about the Customer Journey, one of my favourite topics. It’s so important as todays journey is sporadic and anything but linear as it has been in the past.

You may remember Louisa from episode 35 (https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/episode-35-the-time-terrorist-and-money-laundering-louisa-van-vessem-va-workflow-virtual-assistant/) where we chatted about how VA’s (Virtual Assistant) can help you run your business and claim back some of your most valuable asset… time!

In this episode we cover; - The customer journey - How to map your own customer journey - The importance of knowing your touch-points - And I’ll be hopping on my soapbox a few times (soz in advance)

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/-8DridnBtT8 

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 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

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

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)

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. How can you create a Marketing Strategy without this….. truth is you can’t, so lets discuss this later.

First, we’re going to have a chat with Teresa Gandy the Customer Survey and Customer Experience Expert at Clarity CX. The first of two episodes where we take a look at CX in more detail. Starting out as a Business Administrator allowed Teresa to really focus on what matters - viewing and solving other people’s issues. Fast-forward a few years and now Teresa helps to create great customer experiences and improve businesses workflows, especially for smaller businesses, bringing big business practices into the smaller business world and helping them thrive.

Takeaways

- A Customers Experience (CX) is every single touch-point and needs to be considered even before a customer is a customer! With 70% of purchases based around the feelings we have, this experience needs to be tip top

- Culture, process and operational changes are all as important as each other when it comes to CX and they should never be set in stone – they are as living and breathing as your customers. Moving and changing a CX needs to be done along with the changes within the market and consumers.

- To create an excellent survey you need simplicity and speed. But post-survey, remember to share the results unless the whole survey become pretty redundant.

Top Tip – STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning)

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning, or STP for short is a concept that can help you focus your marketing strategy towards the right target market in three simple steps…… with a little work of course.

Segmentation

Segment your market into sections of similarity. Divisions of people that have the same likes, interests and demographic background in order to understand their place within a certain market.

Targeting

Which of these segments will you target? And why?

You will need legitimate reasoning behind this why? It could be the largest segment, most profitable, most aligned to your beliefs or even the one that you a closest to! Ideally it will be all of the above, but sometimes we have to make the decision and decide which segment, amongst others is the right one for a limited number of reasons.

Positioning

Finally, how will you position yourself in order to be viewed as the right solution to your target markets problems. What features and benefits will you use to highlight this fact. Remember to consider competitors as well as you’ll need to position yourself differently and order to, well, differentiate your product, service, software or company from others. 

In doing this you place yourself in a unique, one off position within your market that no one else is in and therefore become the only solution within this niche.

LinksTeresa Gandy https://claritycx.co.ukteresa@claritycx.co.uk

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

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

The Total Product Concept is something that can really help you out when reviewing the elements of a product that consumers may be attracted to. More of that later. But first, let’s meet out guest, the wonderful Hala Taha.

Hala, not only has the best name in the world, but hosts theYoung and Profiting Podcast and is also Growth Marketing Operations Manager at Disney Streaming Services. But this is only part of Hala’s story, from radio to running an all-female team of bloggers and working for a Fortune 50 company. Hala’s passion is infectious and from just listening to the podcast you can tell her desire to succeed at what is in front of her makes Hala stand out from the rest. So what better person to chat to and provide a wealth of knowledge AND motivation for you to nail your Marketing Qualification.

Takeaways

- Don’t waste your time! Take a seat and write down your daily or weekly activities. Now take a look at those elements where you could be more productive and work to enhance your efficiency for ‘getting stuff done’ during those periods.

- Start with an end goal in mind and work back from there as to what needs to be achieved. This can work very well in business and also for your studies.

- It’s never to late. You can always pivot (and by pivot we mean change the course of your future by doing things different to what you do now). The door is never shut, so if it feels right… take that chance and by putting one step in front of the other, do the pivot.

Top Tip – Total Product Concept

So what’s this thing we call a Total Product Concept?

Well the actual model and the theory behind it can be broken down into four key areas, all important as you’ll see:

Core

The core is that element of the product that is why it exists and meets the need of a target market. The core benefit.

Expected

The expected elements are the things that your target market almost take for granted. The colours, brand, packaging, features, accessibility, usability, for example.

Without these the products just wouldn’t sit right with those you are trying to have an influence on.

Augmented

The augmented part of a product is the part that is bonus. Those elements that aren’t expected, but can make a difference and differentiate your product from the rest. This could be anything from an extended guarantee, exceptional customer service or added bonuses.

The product doesn’t need these elements to exist, but your target market may thank you and remember you for providing these.

Potential

And finally, potential, which as you may expect are those facets that a product could ‘potentially’ have in the future. A longer battery life or a variety of colours for example. This is the part where innovation and creativity can help move a product and even a company forward and ahead of the competition.

LinksHala Taha https://www.youngandprofiting.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ @yapwithhala: https://www.instagram.com/yapwithhala/ @ youngandprofiting: https://www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting/

Books:The Like Switch - Jack Schafer: https://amzn.to/2EAhG0b

Music Featured on...

Ansoffs Matrix (created by Igor Ansoff in the 1960s) is a Marketing model that stands the test of time and we’ll see why later on. But first, we’re going to have a chat with Leonard Kim about all things Influence.

Leonard is the Managing Partner of InfluenceTree an organisation that teaches you how to build your brand. Be it personal or business. But that isn’t the end of his story – as you’ll find out, the stories we tell are important – as Leonard has been featured in Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fortune and the Huffington Post. He is also been recognised as one of the top writers in the fields of Marketing and Business Strategy.

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

Takeaways

- Fear – Do something about your own fears. Don’t just face them, embrace them and work through it. Fears can be false indicators, yet these usually end up being the best things we ever do!

- When writing his book - Ditch the Act (link is in the show notes), Leonard spent the time to get the material he needed, then looked at the structure, placed the info into chapters (using bullet points initially) and then made it make sense, chapter after chapter – small, manageable pieces. Which is so similar to writing Marketing exams and assignments. A lot can be taken from this.

- When looking to utilise an influencer with the B2B space, in any industry you need to consider the following:

            - Does this person like or use our product or service

            - Will they stay loyal and be an advocate

            - Check out the audience – Are they right for your brand

            - How much influence do they actually have!

But, the most important takeaway here is that you should look internally for your influencers and make your employees the advocates.

Top Tip – Ansoffs Matrix

As we found out at the start of this episode, Igor Ansoffs Matrix has been around for over 50 years, but is still used today in academia and practice.

So what is it and how can it be used. Firstly, the link in the show notes will take you to a diagram of this model, which you may find useful while listening to this explanation. OK, got it, nice one.

In its essence, this model can assist with strategic marketing planning when looking for growth opportunities. It is split into four distinct strategic directions depending on four factors:

Products – are they new or existing

Markets – are these new or existing

Depending on the market and product or service your are focusing on will determine the overall strategic direction that should be the main focus of the business and your marketing strategy.

For example, for a new product that is entering an existing market, a product development strategy is required. This could mean a number of things such as line extensions or product developments due to R&D and feedback, where the company is looking to introduce these developments into an existing market where the brand is already know.

Understanding all four strategic outcomes from this model:

Market Penetration

Market Development

Product Development

Diversification

Means we can look to utilise tactics that compliment this direction making the strategy much more manageable and achievable. But like any good strategic model, we can only come to these solutions and decisions once we have done our research, our situation analysis and understand where we are and the potential gaps in the market that could be...

Episode LinksJanine CoombeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janinecoombes/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8BWALizli9ioklqzrt8l8w Books: Mindset - Dr Carol Dweck: https://amzn.to/2X2iIJ4

Pearls of Marketing Wisdom

Who would you go to if you wanted to understand the importance of a marketing plan? We’ll be chatting to just that person in a minute and later on in this episode we’ll also discuss what SOSTAC stands for – spoiler alert – its something to do with a marketing strategy!

Right, back to our amazing guest this week, Janine Coombes. Janine is a marketer that helps small businesses develop and execute their own marketing plans, with simple, easy to follow strategies. And Janine does all this in a lighthearted way that is infectious, just check out her videos!

Takeaways

- So many people mistaken marketing communications for a full marketing mix. As Janine pointed out, the communications part of a marketing plan is just one element and although vita, this is a step that comes after all the planning, setting objectives and the strategic direction stages of a marketing strategy. Without these it’s impossible to know who your communications are aimed at and which channels these comms should be designed for – let alone the overall direction of the organisation.

- Ever heard of Ansoff’s Growth Matrix, no? Check it out. Although it was originally designed in 1957 and published in the Harvard Review, it still holds relevance in today’s marketing planning. It helps to highlight the strategic direction a company should or could take and the risks that come with this change in direction. Janine also uses this model to highlight where a company may be spreading themselves to thin and pulling in different directions with no strong singular vision, which is an excellent use of this model. 

- And finally, Janine’s own style of comms. Janine uses LinkedIn and YouTube to provide followers with a unique and true to her own personal brand style of video, using characters to describe certain aspects of Marketing, aspects that Janine herself is an expert in, in her own way.

This only has any success however, if the comms style matches the person or business. Imagine turning up to a meeting you thought was going to be formal and corporate (due to the messages you’d been receiving), to only find out that it is a relaxed and care free culture, the two wouldn’t match, a false impression is given and trust will be lost…. Not a great start!

Top Tip - SOSTAC

This is my favorite marketing model, yep, I’m that geeky I’ve got a favorite marketing model. And I was so fortunate to chat with its create PR Smith in Episode 10 of Marketing Study Lab, where PR Smith described how it has been used for planning marketing strategies as well as other large projects, including a wedding!

So why is it my favourite?

Simple. Because it’s simple, versatile and provides a complete vision of the now, the future and how to get there.

So very briefly, how do you use it:

Situation Analysis

The where are we know, a review of the internal and external environments so you know exactly where you fit within the wider market, what impacts and influences are effecting you and how internal aspects shape an organisation

Objectives

Where you want to go. Now you know your situation, it’s time to set some objectives in terms of where you want to be! This can be as long or as short as it needs to be; 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, even 10 years.

Strategy

The strategy is the overall direction that you need to go to meet your objectives. Think about it like taking a road trip. You know you want to get from A to B, the strategy tell you how you...

What can us Marketers learn from accountancy? Turns out, quite a lot when it comes to assignments and exams and we’re not talking numbers and figures here. We’re talking straight-up, invaluable tips for passing your Marketing Qualifications. So who is this accountant that we’ll be chatting to today.

Welcome, Mr James Perry, who has traversed from Accountant to Accounting Exam Coach. James is spreading his words of wisdom over podcasts, videos, coaching and public speaking while also speaking in schools about emotional wellbeing & entrepreneurship. But what me and James will be chatting about today are the missing elements of passing an exam or an assignment, which are applicable to many different professions, especially accountancy and marketing.

Takeaways- In any assessment situation it’s easy to get carried away and see the questions you want to see. Read and reread the question, making sure you answer the task given, not your own.

- Check the weighting of each question, in terms of the marking scheme, working out the word or page count per mark. This will determine how much or how long you should be writing for before moving onto the next question. Remember, the first few marks are the easiest so if you need to move onto another question and come back to this one, just leave a little space.

- It’s easy to forget the real world when writing an assignment, but using real world examples can really make your answer pop! It also helps with the following fundamental elements of any answer:

- Highlights wider reading and research - Provides justification for your answer - Shows an element of understanding for your own organisation and others

Top TipHere is a bonus top tip from James, not me this week and that is, ‘you can’t eat an elephant in one bite! And what James means by this is don't see your exam / assignment as one huge piece, break it down into manageable sections, that you can control and focus on, one bit at a time. Be it by task, section, question or even breaking the questions down bit by bit to make sure you cover all the necessary elements – oh and I’m going to interject here with my two pennies worth – start the question by bullet pointing the key areas you must / need to cover to gain the marks and work from there, elaborating on each one so that they each make sense and are justified.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksJames Perry LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesperrycoach/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.perry.presents/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AccountingExamCoach/

http://www.accountingexamcoach.com/

Podcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/accounting-exam-coach-podcast/id1447174222?mt=2 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0OdD5xHSicKZr5AshPFFrP

Books:Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill : https://amzn.to/2OIOTKG

Have you got the right mindset? Struggling to sit down and concentrate? I have a little tip for you that will help you here.

Before that, let’s chat with Sara Bliss, writer, digital content strategist and more important, a New York Times bestselling author (that's a first on the Marketing Study Lab podcast). Sara’s latest book Take the Leap, features stories of those men and women that have radically changed their careers and ultimately their lives and as you can image there are a lot of learnings to be had here – but more on that later. This is Sara’s 11th book after such title as Hotel Chic at Home and Bobbi Brown – Pretty Powerful.

As you can imagine Sara’s career also spans a multitude of writing positions such as Senior Writer and Editor for Yahoo with articles also published in the Wall Street Journal and Esquire to name just to from a large list of titles.

Takeaways

- In researching and writing the book Take the Leap, Sara discovered that switching careers isn’t easy as the book covers the good and bad parts of this transition. Which is the same as a CIM Qualification, yes it’s difficult and yes there will be changes in your lifestyle required, but do it anyway as this is where the magic happens – and we all have it in us to make changes.

- When writing for different brands, Sara explained that its all about translation and understanding who the brand is and what it stands for. Again, similar connotations can be seen within Marketing Assignments, you must remember who you are writing for and why! You must translate what you are saying into something that is easy to understand and will gain marks

- And finally. If you are struggling with writing your assignment, first find an outline and an idea of where you need to go with the answer. Then you can start to give it structure, focusing on the key points. Make it compelling, engaging and above all….. your own!

Mindset

So you sit down to start your Marketing assignment and all you can think of is thousands of excuses why not to do it right now, gotta wash my cup up, do some washing, ironing, just check the footi score, wondering what’s happening on Instagram? All those kinds of things.

And this is easy to do when you feel you have a mountain to climb, so get off your own back and listen to these short tips that will help you knock you assignment into shape:

- Where do you do your best work? Need silence, music, inspiration, a clean space? Whatever it is find it and lay everything out so you’re comfortable with your surroundings

- Flip the phone. Put your phone on silent and turn it over, its easy to get distracted by a ping or a red dot!

- Get a brew, water, snacks, so you haven’t got the excuse that ‘you’ll just go and grab this or that’

- And the final most important one – take breaks, regularly, only 5/10 minutes but take them – set the timer on your phone (before you flip it) for around 40-50 minutes or longer if you feel confortable with that and dive deep into your work for this time period, then take the break, give yourself some space and let what you have written stew for a little while, when you come back to it, you may see it from a different angle or know you have nailed it first time.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksSara Bliss: https://www.sarabliss.com

What is Mendelows Matrix? It’s another Marketing framework that look at the internal, but more on that later, as now is the time to chat to our guest, who is one of the reasons you are listening to me right now.

Tim Reid is one of Australia's top marketing keynote speakers and host of The Small Business Big Marketing Show which just happens to be a podcast and one of the first that I was ever introduced to and hooked on (please check Timbo’s show out, it is Marketing GOLD! - and that is a little in joke from his show, you’ll understand it when you listen to it).

Anyway, Timbo helps small business owners make their company, products and services truly irresistible, using public speaking, masterminds, workshops and webinars as well as, of course the podcast.

Takeaways

- A man after my own heart. Timbo admits that his podcast has lead him onto greater things such as conferences and keynote speeches and it shouldn't be a forgotten medium when it comes to comms planning. Thanks for showing me the value and genius of the podcast Timbo. 

- In speaking to a lot of business owners, there are some fundamentals that, from a marketing perspective are important to get right in order to increase your chances of success. Firstly, try and make marketing your hobby, something you enjoy, but remember to put some theory and relevance behind it by understanding who you want to appeal to and make it clear why they need you in their lives

- Finally, the boomerang effect. Timbo believes that what you put out there you get back by using the ‘pull’ technique where you get your target market to come to you by being helpful and engaging that builds trust and familiarity reducing the price sensitivity rather than the pushy type of marketing that can be…. Lets face it, pushy!

Mendelows Matrix

This is a quick tip as its difficult to describe a boxed framework on a podcast so here are the basics of Mendelows Matrix (check out the link in the show notes so you get a good feel for what it is we are discussing here).

So what is it? The matrix is a tool that can be used to consider attitudes of an organisations stakeholders in terms of a project or strategy plotting their interest towards it against the power they hold. What impact, involvement or influence they may have and in turn how well informed or involved they need to be, which will have an effect on the success of the project or strategy.

There are four key areas in which a stakeholder may be placed:

• High Interest and High Power
• High Interest and Low Power
• Low Interest and High Power
• Low Interest and Low Power

Depending on where key stakeholders are positioned, you will be able to determine the impact they may have and the involvement they will require in order for a project to be successful. These stakeholders hold the key to the three key pillars of most strategies, being resource, cost and time.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksTim Reid https://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/

Podcast:https://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/podcast-2

Podcast Episode:How to create a highly profitable customer manifesto: ...

In this weeks episode we take a look at McKinsey's 7S’s, find out more later. First we’re going to chat to Kevin Tewis-Allen, a chap with one of the most impressive if a little random resumes. Kevin has worked for anyone and everyone from being the CMO at Street Soccer Foundation to the marketing advisor at number 10 Downing Street – I think he’s the first guest to hold that accolade.

He’s also worked for UNILAD, founded a music production house and helped most of the top 250 FTSE firms improve their business through improved customer strategy, as well as being a leading expert of what we currently class as Gen-Z.

Takeaways

- Who are Gen-Z. We all have categories we fit in and Gen-Z is no different. The 12-24 year olds that have known nothing but a word with digital technologies at its heart and have a nack for working out the truth from the lies. But the main takeaway here for Marketers is that they are not brand loyal and have a great affinity those organisations that champion the cause.

- When everything looks the same on social channels it is important to be different with your creative. Remember, visualization is key to being different, but you only have a 1.7 second window to gain interest and engage, so make it exciting.

- And finally, even Kevin doesn't believe he understood the power of a CIM qualification when he was studying. Researching and understanding marketing strategy and the theory behind it means you start to become aware of various elements such as risk, factors, markets micro-climates and what is going on around you, the basis for where your planning should start.

McKinsey's 7S’s

This model is made up of 7 internal factors that need to be aligned if it is to be successful. If one is impacted, this impacts the rest. So these 7S’s are made up of hard elements (as they are easier to define):

Strategy

Structure

Systems

And the softer elements:

Shared Values

Skills

Style

Staff

In reviewing each element of this framework it will become apparent how well an organisation will perform throughout a set strategic approach and where issues may occur and need to be addressed.

Other areas that this framework looks to address are:

• Improve the performance of a company
• Examine the likely effects of future changes within a company
• Align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition
• Determine how best to implement a proposed strategy

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksKevin Tewis-Allen kevin@kevintewis-allen.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevintewis/ 

Books:Richard Branson: Like A Virgin: https://amzn.to/2VfrXoLThe Virgin Way: https://amzn.to/2BKx4FMLosing My Virginity: https://amzn.to/2DWjRu6Finding My Virginity: https://amzn.to/2V7ygdG 

App:Rightmove: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rightmove-property-search/id323822803?mt=8 ...

What is the difference between a metric and a measurement? So easily interchangeable aren’t they, but they do have subtle differences that we need to discuss, which we will be doing later, but first it’s time to chat to Jacqui Jagger.

Jacqui is a mindset and business coach who helps hardworking, ambitious business owners to stop overthinking and start taking action to grow their business. More importantly from an assignment point of view, Jacqui can help us understand how to stop playing around the edges and start making definite, purposeful progress so that you feel like your studies and writing is always making progress, which it inevitably is.

The best thing is, there is no fluff or BS. We train our bodies, we look after pets, we even buy insurance for our phones, rings, watches and household appliances, but do we pay as much attention to our minds and mindset, which is probably the most important of them all…. And there is no insurance claim to be had from lack of mindset. 

With this in mind I wanted to go deep with the opening question, Jacqui - Marshmallows and Spaghetti…. Discuss?

Takeaways

- Its amazing the synergy between Marketing planning and the way to tackle your own mindset. Jacqui pointed out that you shouldn't start with your goals and objectives, but with the why! Why are you doing what your are doing or want to do? And this is the same as reviewing your situation analysis within a Marketing Strategy before setting your objectives

You don't know where you want to go, if you don't know where you are to begin with.

- Why do you not have the time to do everything you want to? Jacqui says that we fill our time with: - The should dos - The Habits we have - And then we add the other things on top of this that come up…….No! Stop!

Get clear and get focused on what is important. Create a plan that works for you and use it!

- And finally, find that trigger that will break a habit or create a new one. Want to go to the gym more, put your gym stuff out ready, or tie your running shoes to the front door! That way it is in front of you and not to the side hidden away.

But make sure you only change one thing at once, don’t be fooled into thinking you can change everything at the same time, overnight. This will lead to overwhelm and falling back into the same old habits.

Metrics and Measurement

Mastering metrics can be difficult, especially in an assignment scenario (Mastering Metrics is one of the CIM modules at level 6). But what are the differences between the two? Hopefully in explaining these, your assignment and the wording behind it will become much clearer.

So what is a metric. In marketing terms a metric is something that can be based on a standardised procedure, calculation method or system for generating a number, compared to others. 

A measurement is slightly different, as it is the number that is generated by taking a measurement that doesn't necessarily have to be taken in the same way every time and it is not compared to another. It is its own single entity.

Lets look at an example so we are perfectly clear what the heck this means:

You’re asked to measure the size of a room – this would be your measurement.

Then you are asked to provide the average size of all the rooms in a house, this outcome would be the metric outcome of all the measurements.

Got it?

So if you are asked for measurement techniques think of the things that do the measuring. For metrics, think of the things that are looked at in comparison to each other.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/

Ever been influenced by something, or even someone. We’ll be covering what an influencer is later, but first we’re discussing all things content with the wonderful Janine Wood.

Janine is a Senior Partner at Armadillo Consulting Group providing Communications and Strategic Management Consultancy where helping organisations capture their target audiences' attention with tailored, impactful content is the name of the game. For over 25 years Janine has worked in a variety of sectors right through from new and disruptive technology to packaging design and loves creating strategic plans and writing the content within them.

Takeaways

- Creating content, content that matters needs to have some form of structure. The main points Janine raised for doing this through thought leadership are:

- What is the overall strategy - Who is their target market and who do they want to be reading about them - Then what will resonate with this market, making it thought provoking - All this before you consider where this content needs to be placed (different channels) - And don't forget that CTA – Call to action - Finally, remember it is always quality over quantity.

- Rather than focus on what people are doing wrong, Janine suggests its more about the opportunities that are being missed. Creating a standard press release and then sending it out to the wider world is not good enough. You need to be selective in your approach and tailor your content accordingly. Remember, it’s your name, your brand and your reputation, so make sure your content is as interesting as you are!

- And finally, thought leadership is very different from being an influencer, although they both look to do similar things. Influencers are more visual and impactful, whereas thought leaders need to be going in-depth with their content. Either way, it is what will fit with the brand that can be the deciding factor.

Influencers

As we’ve been speaking about this today, I thought it would be good to dig a little deeper into this type of Marketing. Now influencer Marketing isn’t anything new. It’s been around since the famous were seen as, famous! But what has heightened the knowledge of this tactic is the accessibility to communicate to hundreds and thousands of people with very little investment, mainly through platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Influencer Marketing is leveraging the popularity of an individual to promote a certain product or service to a desired set of people. The important factor to consider here is the relevance any individual has in a particular market. Both the influencer and the thing that they are promoting must be aligned and have the same principles in order for them to resonate within the market an organisation wants to promote to and persuade to take some sort of action – usually transactional.

If you are still unclear as to what this is all about, take a look on Instagram at a personal trainer called James Smith, although he doesn’t endorse much himself (only the brand he has close ties to and believes in) he does shine a light on the fitness industry and how some celebrities are endorsing products they (a) shouldn't be and (b) are offering false promises to influential people with limited knowledge – check him out and you’ll soon see what I mean (link in the show notes as always).

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) 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 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

Remember blogging, remember actually writing content. That’s what we’ll be talking about later on, but first…

We should all take security seriously, whether its physical or digital, both are important. But with people looking for that frictionless service it is easy to get complacent. Enter Suzanne Girdlestone, who helps SME's protect their own businesses with her company Smart Business IT. Suzanne prides herself on her jargon free service, making the complicated simple and more importantly secure.

Takeaways

- Suzanne took us through a few buzzwords in data security, which was great. But my first takeaway here is, if you don't know, ask! And if you’re still not sure, get an expert in. Don’t try and fix something you know very little about, it will only end one way. 

You wouldn’t try and fix your boiler or switch board without knowing what you were doing would you… well you might, but you wouldn't be around to tell us you have anyway.

- I never realised that cloud-based software is still physically stored… like an idiot! If you use cloud-based software, make sure it is ISO27001 compliant. Do you due diligence and don't scrimp on the security.

- And finally, Suzanne’s three top tips for being extra secure online:

1 – Use a passphrase rather than a password (mines going to be I wandered lonely as a cloud) if anyone is interested

2 – Keep your patches up to date – these are the updates you get from your software provides (but make sure they are legit)

3 – Back-up, back-up and back-up. You can never have to many back-ups!!!!

Blogging

What actually is a blog?

It’s origins lie in people writing a web log, a journal of their day. This was then shortened into simply blog. But since then this journal type entry has been expanded much further than content of someone’s daily life. As always, marketers have ruined it and turned blogging into something that is now seen as more commercial than it is a diarised entry of someone’s day. 

Today blogs are used by large global corporations as well as individual bloggers to provide detailed content for their followers.

The main benefits of a blog are:

- Flexible and versatile with entries being added from most devises, anywhere

- Can help build trust and credibility on particular topics

- They can be a good source of revenue

- They are a good way to keep customers up to date

But a dormant blog is not a good thing and it does take a lot of time, especially to keep it consistent. So if you are considering a blog, make sure you have a plan and can stick to a regular posting schedule so that followers become use to and anticipate your next post.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksSuzanne Girdlestone suzanne@smartbusinessit.co.uk https://smartbusinessit.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-girdlestone-7186a383/

App:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.comWhatsApp: https://www.whatsapp.com

I thought we’d take a look at a model that is relatively overlooked in my opinion. The McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey, but more about that later.

First, let’s meet Ben M Roberts (you can blame his parents for the use of the M). Ben is the Head of Marketing at Talkative, providing software that allows embedded voice, video, chat and co-browsing on websites – which is a really neat idea so check them out. Ben also hosts The Marketing Buzzword Podcast that breaks down common marketing buzzwords to help its listeners, understand and implement them into their Marketing Strategies. 

Takeaways

- Building a rapport and a personal relationship with your customers can provide a better service. By assisting and helping customers, either face-to-face, via messaging or over the phone can break down the barriers that some platforms have put up and helps stop the ‘keyboard warrior’

- You can personalise your B2B communications. Take an app like Bonjoro (link in the show notes) that can provide everyone, even at an exhibition, with a personalised video message. Remember the small things add up! – Break your data down and make your content highly personalised and highly relevant to each client individually.

- Ever heard of snackable content? Well a past guest on this show Julia McCoy discussed this with Ben on his own Podcast – Marketing Buzzwords. And Snackable content can be valuable content that has been sliced and diced from a longer piece of content – take this podcast for example, I could share a quote from the chat with Ben, a quote that is interesting and engaging. Where snackable content doesn't work is when no thought is put into it, as it is such a small piece of content. But isn’t this true of anything. Make it relevant, interesting and engaging…. Always!

McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey

McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey is a break from the traditional marketing or sales funnel. Instead of looking at the different stages of a purchasing decision, which is lineal, step-by-step and in a methodical order, where Marketing touch-points are used to guide and influence consumers to the one and only decision – a purchase. This is no long sufficient to replicate the mountain of information and choices that are available to any one consumer. We now live in a Marketing world where there is always a two-way communication and three parties are now involved in the purchasing decision – the buyer, the seller and the opinions of others (think comparison site) – when was the last time you made a purchase without looking to see how many stars are involved?

The in the McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey it is said that the process is now a circular journey with different four phases:

Initial consideration;

Active evaluation (researching potential purchases);

Closure (when consumers buy brands);

Post-purchase, (when consumers experience them).

The main difference here is that consumer now make the conscious decision to potentially add more options and more brands into the mix while still looking to make that final decision, post their initial consideration.

As Marketers we should now focus our efforts on reaching customers at the moment that will most influence their purchases. Ultimately it is all about being in the right place at the right time, providing the information they need to make the right decisions.

More information on this model can be found using the link provided below: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-consumer-decision-journey

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk

We covered a topic very briefly on episode 44 with Mr Ryan Holtz, which was CRM (Customer Relationship Management). We skirted over the idea of what this is and why it was important but not the specifics, which is what we’ll be doing later on in this episode.

But first, lets have a chat with Evan Wyk, a Brand Guardian and believe me, after this conversation you’ll really understand what a brand guardian is and should be. Evan has worked within the media sector over the past 20 some years and now helps brands if they are a bit stuck in today’s busy marketing landscape. Evan helps companies draw the attention of those they seek to serve – their idea clients.

Takeaways

- So what is a brand then? Evan explains that a brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room – I don't think he meant bitchin, well Jeff Bezos didn't when he said it anyway. This goes deeper than a name, it is a perception of quality, that spreads further than an organisation can do so itself. People remember what you told them, not what you sold them!

- Consistency of brand is vital, especially on a Global scale. If it isn’t the same your target market will be getting confused with who you are and what you do. The best way to counteract this or control it – a brand bible, a set of guidelines that is the encyclopedia of your brand and who doesn't love a good encyclopedia.

- And finally, a brand is important for the internal company benefits as well as the benefits it brings to an audience. This means it can build confidence, improve quality and increase the expertise by attracting the best candidates. All of which subsequently means a better customer service.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

So what is Customer Relationship Management. Simply put, it's a massive diary and address book for organisations. But lets get a bit more technical here. A CRM is an approach that an organisation decides to take in regards to its interactions with potential and current customers, using software to have input, manage and analyse this information.

The idea being, that if all the information about a customer is stored in the same, accessible location and kept up to date, then this will make it easier to serve them and ultimately drive revenue. It also offers the opportunity to chop and manipulate the data to produce analytical reports that help in understanding the make-up of your customer base and any current trends. 

Some CRM systems such as Safesforce can now be integrated with other software that allows further admin, marketing, financial and sales functionalities, creating efficiencies with a business and a seamless journey from the customers perspective.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksEvan Wyk www.evanwyk.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/evan.wyk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evanwyk.development LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-wyk/

Books:Strength Finder 2.0 – Tom Wrath: https://amzn.to/2WBLvF3We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver: https://amzn.to/2UJawwz

App:Adobe Spark Post:

Welcome to episode 50! Yes 50, of the Marketing Study Lab. And this is a mega special episode as I speak to, rather nervously I may add – Goldie Chan, as well as finding out the difference between AR and VR.

Hopefully by now you’ve got the jist of what is going on here, but if you don’t, not to worry, you'll soon catch up. And what better way to start this catch-up than with my guest, Goldie Chan.

Goldie has gone from a Biological Science degree to LinkedIn’s Top Voice for 2018 and a contributor to Forbes. Providing social media with purpose, Goldie is currently the strategic lead for Warm Robot, her social media agency, helping Fortune 500 C-level executives. But what caught my eye was the top-performing LinkedIn video series #DailyGoldie offering advice and guidance as well as sparking debate e very day for over 500 consecutive days and still going strong.

Takeaways

- When considering the differences between a personal and an organizational brand, Goldie explained that a personal brand looks at the person, their life, who are they, what do they do and what aspects of daily life can be repeated to be an authentic brand that creates authority, which is similar to organisation branding in that they must be authentic and create authority to mean something.

- If you are starting from zero, zilch, nothing then the best place to start is to find out where your target market is and contribute there. Start to be part of the conversation, before even considering becoming a thought leader in that space. 

- When building an online presence take it one step at a time and one platform at a time. Start with one, master that one, go in-depth, then move on to other places.

- And a special bonus pro tip here – When videoing, pretend the camera is your friend. You will come across as more authentic and real, increasing your engagement.

AR and VR

So what do these acronyms mean?

AR – Augmented Reality is defined as an interactive experience of a real-world environment "augmented" by computer-generated information.

VR – Virtual Reality is defined as an interactive computer-generated experience taking place within a simulated environment. 

The main difference between the two is that one VR is built within an environment that is completely computer-generated, whereas AR relies on both computer generated information as well as the real world in a combination of the two. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but it is the incorporation of AR into our everyday lives that is the most exciting, opening the possibilities for digital enhancements to our daily activities to make them more efficient, productive and overall reduce friction that can occur when technology is not utilised to our advantage.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Links

Goldie Chan https://www.warmrobots.com/Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goldie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldiecylon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoldieChan

Books:Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi & Tahl Raz:

How do you cross-sell? How can be of benefit to a business? And what options do we have when implementing this type of strategy. If you don't know we’ll be chatting about it later.

But first, let's chat to Nicole Osborne, the founder of Lollipop Social a company that provides social media management, consultancy, coaching, strategic development and advertising strategies. Nicole is also a proud Chartered Marketer, studying and achieving this status via the CIM.

Takeaways

- What do you want to be known for?

This is where your social content should be focused. Yes, from a holistic view your content needs to be varied, but the overall objective and underlying themes should always be consistent be it looking to sell cars or cans of soup!

- Nicole’s formula for creating an excellent social strategy follows 9 key steps, I’ve narrowed these down into 7 stages which are:

1. First and foremost, understand the needs of the business
2. Use customer personas to define the market and the platforms that should be used
3. Each platform will require a bespoke strategy that also fits in with the entire Marketing Strategy
4. Optimise each platform to maximize exposure
5. Look to the key influencers within the same marketplace
6. Create a content strategy that is consistent, on message and on brand
7. And remember you must measure and monitor via each platforms metrics.

Nicole refers to this as the Test, Measure, Reflect and Refine model and it works for me.

- And finally, lets bring it back to your studies with a study buddy, which we’ve spoken about in the past on episode 28, but what Nicole highlighted was the fact that a study buddy provides accountability, giving you motivation and encouragement with your CIM Qualifications. So go get one!

Cross-Selling

There are many different ways we can cross-sell before, during and after a purchase or decision has been made by a customer. But what is it?

Cross-selling is the action of selling more than was originally anticipated to an existing customer.

There are loads of great examples but I like to think Amazon do this best, attributing around 35% of all sales to the “customers who bought this item also bought” and “frequently bought together” options.

Other examples range from a car sale including additional features to a fast food outlet asking if you want extra fries with your meal.

What are the benefits of this? Well, there is the obvious of the increased revenue from a customer who is already buying from you. But other benefits such as the introduction of a new / unknown product or service to a customer could extend the customer life cycle or selling existing stock so that you can replace it with newer items. These items should always be linked in some way and offer a benefit to the customer unless there is a danger of isolating them and potentially losing their customer all together.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksNicole Osborne https://lollipopsocial.co.ukLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleosborne1/ Twitter: @Lollipop_Social

Books:Steal the Show – Michael Port:

Who’s in your tribe? What the hell is a tribe. We’ll find this out later, but first we’re going to have a chat with Angela Ferrari.

Angela is a children's book author/ illustrator but also the creator and host of Story Spectacular, a twice-weekly children’s podcast featuring characters such as Nutty the Squirrel and FluffleStiltskin, but don't let this fool you. Behind all the imaginative and creative characters Angela is serious and passionate about what she produces for both parent and child.

Takeaways

- What are the pain points of your audience? Can you help to solve them? Although Angela’s target audience is aged 2-5, from a parents perspective these pain points are at bath and bedtimes, so the stories told on story spectacular are aimed at these

- How would you get feedback from an audience that struggles to talk, let alone type an email? Angela makes the most of her audience at live events to get feedback in real time allowing her to tweak stories and elements that may not be working.

But from a parents point of view Angela is very active on social platforms and receives lots of feedback via iTunes reviews. Feedback can be gathered in many different ways and usually the best is where it is easiest to engage with a company

- Finally Angela provided these tips for getting into the creative mindset:

            - Enjoy what you are doing, if you cant enjoy it, no one will

            - Look to incorporate your own emotions and passions into your work

            - Use visuals, they can help elaborate or even enhance the points you are making

            - Relax and find a place a way from distractions (mines in the shower)

Tribes

So what are these things we call tribes? Interesting you should ask that as they haven’t really changed since we were living in caves, its just the location that differs. 

Where you may segment your customers into different categories, a tribe can be classed as a slightly different beast in that it means a group individuals who are linked by their social interests.

Today, these tribes are all over the internet, as it is the perfect place to find people with the same types of varied and niche interests as you, particularly on social channels that allow you to even set up groups (like we do offline) for people that may find your hobbies or passion of interest.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksAngela Ferrari: https://storyspectacular.comangela@storyspectacular.com Twitter: @storytacularInstagram: @storytacularFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/storyspectacular/

Books:Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert: https://amzn.to/2Tvxtm6

App:DuoLingo: https://www.duolingo.com

AIDA – Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. It's a simple tool but one very much worth remembering and we’ll do that later.

Before we get all automated and these intro start to write themselves, let’s have a chat with Natalia Wiechowski a Personal Branding Expert, bilingual keynote speaker, LinkedIn Trainer and an Edutainer, so you know this is going to be a fascinating chat. Oh yeah, Nataila is also a Dr. of Philosophy, Social scientist and a certified digital marketing professional with experience in human behavior & social relationships. So basically she knows what I’m thinking at all times and I’m scared!!!

Takeaways

- People want to hear your story. A story that you can tell and that is trustworthy. Think about the brands you connect with, do you feel like you know them, are they more personable to you than others, relate to you a little more? Do they share the same messages in terms of how you lead your life? They probably do. And this is why you feel connected to them and ultimately make those purchases.

But be cautious, as Natalia put it ‘telling stories is the new big brother’

- Good content, the core or basis of it, consists of 50-60% real life problem solving. Listen to your audience, what are they struggling with and are worried about and how can you help. 

- Natalia discussed her top tip for becoming more employable, straight after you studies – without writing a CV, which sounds bizarre but when you talk through it, it isn’t really, so listen  up:

- Don’t wait until after your studies – the number one rule! - Start networking while you are still studying, building those connections with the people and organisations you want to work for - Get clear on how these organisations function and recruit - Don’t forget that practical experience as well, the proof is in the doing - And finally, ditch the CV (wow big statement), but first of all find a way to gain the attention you need to get people to approach you rather than the other way round – this can be on social channels, blogs, podcasts, how about even singing your resume (I’m not even going to attempt that one), but perhaps you might. 

You want some proof, check out the two examples in the show notes where not using a CV has lead to a dream job: the fearless girl and Nina’s Airbnb story. 

AIDA

AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action), the traditional model for describing the stages that a consumer will go through from the first interaction or becoming aware of a product or service through to an actual committed purchase.

One of the benefits of this model is its simplicity and versatility in terms of its use with communication messages as it is seen as a stimulus-response model, which is what we want from our comms, a response.

Times have changed however since the creation of the AIDA model and although still prevalent in many Marketing communication plans it is now seen as to linear in a digital environment, also ignoring post-purchase behavior which is a major factor to be considered.

Test the AIDA model on your next communications plan or assignment, but don't forget that other influential factors outside of this model may need to be considered dependent on your overall objectives.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksNatalia Wiechowski: https://thinknatalia.com

How important is copy within you Marketing Strategy, well it turns out very - and we’ll find out why later.

But before all that, I’d like to introduce Craig Hannan, the Head of Branding and Marketing at The Anfield Wrap, an award winning, independent podcast, website and radio show all about Liverpool Football Club. It’s Craig’s responsibility to drive growth within the company via subscriptions, live events, merchandise, sponsorship and a whole host of other activities that are focused clearly on a passionate footballing demographic. Now this was quite a lengthy interview compared to some of the Marketing Study Lab episodes. I put this down to the passion we both have for Marketing, Football and Liverpool – So apologies, but no apologies cause I enjoyed it and I hope you do to – If you’re into Marketing or Football, this is definitely the episode for you. But before we get into things, I need to know is purple is the new red?

Takeaways

- The power of a marketing strategy. Most people when they think of marketing think of a comms mix – the front of house (advertising, direct mail, social media, etc) but Craig highlighted that a strong strategy can help to change the culture of a company. It provides a focus for the entire ogranisation, where no other department is in a position to do this.

- Don’t be afraid to get creative and implement your own ideas. But make sure you mix these ideas with actual data to back them up, they hold more relevance that way. Take the Anfield Wrap for example, described as fanzine culture for the digital age. They could have kept to the tradition print fanzine, but spotted a niche, a gap in the market, white space and weren’t afraid to be the first to try it.

- As much as Marketers hate to admit it, word of mouth is one of, if not the best marketing tool we have (damn those mouths) – this is especially so in a passionate industry such as football. Using these loyal fans, advocates, to promote your own products and services, combined with a robust communication strategy can be a powerful combination. And remember to listen to the customer, giving them what they want, not what you want.

How Important is copy?

The short answer is very. You wouldn't be listening to me now if it wasn't for an audio version of some copy and you certainly wouldn't have heard of half of the organisations and brand that you hold dear if it wasn't for copy, be it in the form of a script, blog, social posts, literature, advertising. Basically the majority of the comms channels you can think of, then add some more.

But why? Here are some short snippets to explain:

- It creates trust – If your copy is consistent and correct, this adds a layer of trust

- Words are sharable – Especially on social channels and are more likely to be read than a video is to be listened to (unless the video uses copy)!

- SEO – Digitally speaking, optimisation is all about the copy and as we all know, if you’re not on the first page of Google, you’re not on Google

- It makes for a good UX – Everyone loves a great image and a slick webpage, but if the copy isn’t correct, this can detract from the user experience and leads to clicks away from your site

- And finally, it sells, as it appeals to your target audience, and we’re back to the - know, like and trust theory.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksCraig...

Do you think that robots will end civilisation as we know it? Quite a heavy question to start off with, so let's just discuss what Chat Bots are for now and make our way up to that one.

Julia’s back story is a little different - only seven years ago, Julia started her own company and has never looked back, with nearly one hundred members of staff now on board. Express Writers is a writing agency that cerates content, helping to build a brands presence online.

Takeaways

- Your light bulb moment. Have you had any? Don’t panic if not, they will come. The important thing is to keep on going.

- Content creation and storytelling is massively important within Marketing today, but so many are doing it themselves and that is fine, as long as they know what they are doing. If not, bring in the pros. Take fixing your roof for example, the chances are you wouldn’t tackle that on your limited expertise (unless you’re a roofer) you’d call a professional and content creation is no different.

- There are many ways to measure or analyse your content other than your income. Julia describes a few of these as:

- Lead generation - Bottom-line sales and growth - Engagement, shares, likes (basically gaining trust through content)

Yes this last one is a little bit inside the vanity metrics bracket but as long as they are seen as just part of your analysis, you can gain valuable insight into your strategy by reviewing them – just don’t rely on these solely.

- When writing an assignment or essay, get everything down, even if you think its rubbish…. and then walk away. We’ve mentioned this before as a top tip. Walking away, getting some space between you and your work can recharge and reset the brain. If you start to do this as a rinse and repeat cycle it will start to become second nature and really help you in completing a great assignment.

Chat Bots

So what is a chat bot?

You may have heard it called another term: smartbot, talkbot, chatterbot, Bot, IM bot, interactive agent, conversational interface or artificial conversational entity, but lets stick with chat bot for now.

A chat bot is a computer program that mimics conversation with people using artificial intelligence (via audio or copy). They can transform the way we interact over the Internet from a series of self-initiated task and conversations.

What we are saying is that instead of having a conversation with a human over the Internet, we are chatting to software that has been programmed to respond to particular phrases that the majority of consumer would use.

But lets step this up a level. The most recent incarnation of these is what Google calls ‘Google Assistant’ which works in a slightly different way in that a user firstly has to ask Google to arrange something, in this instance a hair appointment. This is what happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5VN56jQMWM

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksJulia McCoy: www.expresswriters.comwww.expresswriters.com/write-blog Podcast: The Write Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-write-podcast/id1082066558?mt=2 Instagram:

Paid, Owned and Earned Media. What are the differences? We’ll talk about that later.

But before we do any of that I cant wait to have a chat with Ryan Holtz. Ryan's digital marketing work has been featured by Twitter, Automotive News, Canadian Auto Dealer Magazine, Huffington Post and several other major publications.

An outspoken and charismatic keynote speaker at various events, schools, conferences and is in high demand so it was humbling when he agreed to come on the podcast and discuss the motoring industry and the importance of a CRM, amongst other things.

Takeaways

- Follow your own path, it will take you where you want to and are supposed to be. More importantly, don’t forget to enjoy the process and the getting there. And of course, this includes your CIM Qualification journey – would love to take it with you.

- CRM (Customer Retention or Relationship Management) is hugely important if you want to stay in touch with your core audience, BUT and this is a massive BUT – The data must be clean and valid – rubbish in - rubbish out, unless you want to target M. Mouse and D. Duck! Think of it as your businesses little black book (for those who don’t know, a little black book used to be the thing ‘metaphorically speaking’ that had all your contacts in – those, personal, intimate contacts *cough* moving on.

- In this fast paced world you need to keep an open mind and always be ready to change on a Dime. Today, we have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with the giants of our industries and because the small businesses have the flexibility to move fast, this should be taken advantage of wherever possible.

Paid, Earned and Owned Media

This is where I tell you the difference between paid, owned and earned media in a digital landscape. Now this is important for two reasons. 1 – You should know this regardless of where you are at in your career, 2 – It forms the fundamentals for the CIM assignment question we will be discussing after this.

Earned mediais essentially online word of mouth, usually seen in the form of mentions, shares, reposts, reviews, recommendations, likes, retweets or whatever term a platform uses for engagement of any kind.

Owned media is what it says it is, it’s any web property that you are in control of. This can be your own website, a blog or a social media channel.

Paid media is simply what you pay for within the online space. Usually to generate traffic or create further engagement through things like online advertising, paid social (posts and even influencers) and not forgetting PPC (Pay Per Click) and retargeting.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksRyan Holtz: Ryan Holtz Podcast: The Ryan Holtz Show: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-ryan-holtz-show/id1167195878?mt=2 www.ryanholtz.cainfo@ryanholtz.caTwitter: https://twitter.com/RyanHoltz1 @ryanholtz1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholtz1/ @ryanholtz1 Facebook: www.facebook.com/ryanholtzmarketing

Books:Ego’s the Enemy – Ryan Holiday:

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...

Ever wondered what SaaS is? No I don't mean to be a bit cheeky, I mean the acronym SaaS. I’ll explain more later.

But first, my guest, Maiten Panella, a doctor of psychology with 15 years’ experience in supporting International organisations with branding, planning, consulting, communications and of course digital marketing.

Takeaways

- Local and international Marketing are majorly different, although they both revolve around the customer, the audience will always be different. Different strategies are required per country or even different parts of a country, depending on the different cultures, history, language and dialect. Speak the language of the customer.

- Maiten says you need to consider the following when Marketing on an international scale:

- Daily life of the customer – the way of living, thinking and day-to-day living - The different business practices in specific countries - Remembering the smaller stuff, particularly around legislation – take GDPR for example – important in the EU, not so in Latin America – But they may still need to know these elements, especially if working on an international scale.

- Algorithms can play a huge part of getting noticed online and these can be different depending on the language and country, as algorithms are now so sophisticated they can track not just the keywords or search terms (which are different anyway), but the intention as well.

SaaS Business - What is it?

You may have heard this acronym a lot more recently as it is very topical.

So what does it stand for: Software as a Service.

And what does it mean: Basically it means that a company or individual is providing some element of software to other individuals or organisations, usually under a licensed model. For example Salesforce or GoToMeeting, which you may have heard of, if not, look them up and you’ll get it.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksMaiten Panella: www.maitenpanella.com

Books:Brand Now – Nick Westergaard: https://amzn.to/2JBUFLO

App:Asana: https://asana.com

I want to introduce you to Post-It Marketing, which is posted on all the relevant social platforms, but mainly LinkedIn. These are 30 to 60 second videos about a Marketing topic to give you an insight into the industry and some of its nuances, but more of that later.

But first, let's have a chat with Phil Nottingham, from Wistia the go to chap for Video Marketing, which is integral to consider in todays Marketing communication planning. We’ll find out how to create compelling videos and how they can help with SEO.

Takeaways

- Remember that the story, is all about the story regardless of the production value. It’s the narrative and the message that will win out and putting people front and centre. Phil says that the best videos are those that reduce the barrier that technology has put in our way. A more human way of communicating.

- How do you create compelling video (regardless of your budget)….

1 – You need to understand your goals and positioning of the brand

2 – The main goals for the video, which links to;

3 – What is your call to action, what are you looking for your ideal clients to do once they’ve watched the video. Remember Channel, Action, Message.

4 – Pre-Production Planning – You’ll need a script, locations, actions, etc

5 – Recording

6 – Editing and Post-Production

7 – Optimise for the channels you intend to use to output your content – Supporting copy, thumbnails and all that intro stuff

8 – Promotion (sometimes forgotten, but to achieve your goals, hugely important 

- Videos can have a big impact on your SEO. Search engines may not be as good at crawling videos as they are images and text, but they are improving all the time and do have an impact, just check out the video search results on Google!

- And check out soapbox, which can help with you own video strategy: www.wista.com/soapbox

Post-It Marketing (Professionally Simple)

I want to bring you as much information to help you with your studies as I possibly can and what I have found is that short sound bites along with long form content (i.e. this podcast) works really well and compliments each other.

So what am I talking about? Well, Post-It Marketing is just that, me with a post-it note creating 30 to 60 second videos about a Marketing topic to give you an insight into the industry and some of its nuances.

From the acronyms we come across to how a chicken dinner can breakdown the differences between omni and multi-channel marketing. I try and cover it all!

Check them out at www.marketingstudylab.co.uk/postit or connect with me on LinkedIn, where these post-its are posted regularly. And remember the Marketing Study Lab Facebook Group for a whole host of other Marketing related stuff.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksPhil Nottingham: www.wistia.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/philnottingham @philnottingham phil@wista.com Soapbox: www.wista.com/soapbox  

Books:Creativity Inc.: Ed Catmull - https://amzn.to/2PErYDp 

App:Runkeeper:

Well, well, well, you may have missed the last few episodes, that time of year, but we just cracked on, soz about that.  Anyway, for those who are joining us for the first time, welcome and for those that are regulars, it’s time to put down the turkey and lets get back to business as its regular programming from here on in.

Just a quick note on a new Facebook Group we’ve launched, aptly named the Marketing Study Lab Facebook Group, so before we move on, head over to Facebook and join the group. The more people that join the better the ‘bants’ will be. But in all seriousness, join us and keep the knowledge flowing.

It’s someone’s birthday, well tomorrow it is, yep, it’s our guest this week, Catherine Gladwyn’s birthday tomorrow. What a present, to be on the Marketing Study Lab podcast. I haven’t got you a card so again, soz about that!

So who is the birthday girl? Catherine is an efficient, self motivated, proactive, dependable VA (Virtual Assistant) who specialises in MailChimp, WordPress and social media management under her own brand – Delegate VA.

Takeaways

- When building any type of mailing list, to engage with your audience you need to focus on not just your idea client and their needs and wants, but also their pain points. What are you helping them with to make their life easier or more manageable? Once you have discovered this you can lead them on a journey to the resolution of that pain point.

- Lead magnets. Use other channels, especially social media as the gateway to gain a following and convert them into subscribers. Try to keep your core audience up-to-date with what is going on and build a reputation for providing good content, content people wont want to miss.

- Once you have a solid mailing list, make sure you are talking to them about relevant, engaging topics (see where all these tips end up – engagement). This doesn't have to be for your entire mailing list, just those the content is relevant to. Make sure you headlines are always interesting (click bait if you like, but for the right reasons) and always respond to any replies, don't leave it to an automation system to do all the work. They are unfriendly, impersonal and, yep you guessed it, not engaging.

Join The Marketing Study Lab Facebook Group

Over the course of this year, I’d like to start to introduce you to a whole host of new (and old) theories, concepts, acronyms and some tips on where to find the best information on Marketing but also to help with your studies a little.

So lets kick this off with reminding you to join the Marketing Study Lab Facebook Group. It’s in its infancy but I intend to create a group that is engaging and informative, so hop over to Facebook and join in!

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksCatherine Gladwyn https://delegateva.co.ukcatherine@delegateva.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/delegateva/ https://www.facebook.com/DelegateVA @DelegateVA: https://twitter.com/DelegateVA 

Books:Catherine Gladwyn – How to be a Virtual Assistant: https://amzn.to/2QR4bx5 

App:Mailchimp:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow, we're now into 2019, which is Marketing Study Lab's second year... so old.

The last episode was on Christmas day and this one is on New Years Day, heart timing Pete, great timing.

What better way to kick off 2019 than to take a look back the Marketing Study Labs two top tips of 2018. A look back, to look forward in a way.

Happy New Year Marketing!

As it's supposed to be a 'quite' time of the year, for friends and family, I thought I'd do what came naturally and publish a podcast on Christmas Day...... Nice one!

So what can I possible have to say. We'll quite a lot actually, or my guests do as I have decided to make this a recap show of my journey into podcasting and some of the amazing guests I've had on already.

In this episode we say hello again to:

Tracey Tait Spencer Waldron PR Smith Dave Chaffey Dr Carl Marci Luke Southern John Espirian

But I'd like to thank EVERYONE who has listened or taken part in any way shape or form in this or any other podcast. I am truly honoured to speak to each and everyone of you and humbled that each and every one of you are listening.

Happy Marketing

I want to get right into introducing our guest who holds a Ph.D, is a Professor, Digital Learning Consultant, Educator Entrepreneurship consultant, speak and blogger. Recently featured in Forbes, Ai Addyson-Zhang has a fascinating story to tell about how social media can be taught…. Using social media as the platform to teach in!

This episode is a belter and blew me away a little.

Takeaways

- So to recap, Social Media Pedagogy (Ped-a-Goge-ee) – Nailed it! is coaching people how to use social media, using social media as the training tool, making it practical and insightful from the start. It’s amazing to hear stories of students saying even this way of learning can be hard which goes to show that sometimes what we think is basic, can actually be quite complicated. 

- Let’s Globalise the classroom! What a great statement and one that may sound impossible, but in reality, isn’t! Using the different platforms practically may be hard to implement in a society that has used the same methods of education for many decades, but if it is the right fit, why aren’t we trying it? I certainly intend to in my workshops, 

- Learn – Do – Teach. Simple, yet effective. Practice what you preach, understand it better than anyone by doing and then pass on your knowledge. Learn – Do – Teach.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksAi Addyson-Zhang aiaddysonzhang@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/aiaddysonzhang/ https://www.facebook.com/AiAddysonZhang/ @aiaddysonzhang - https://twitter.com/aiaddysonzhang https://www.instagram.com/aiaddysonzhang/

Books:Mark Schaefer – Known: https://amzn.to/2BZgYZT Theory:Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences: https://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html

Let's meet Dan Charles, who is the Owner of Be Fair Marketing who doesn’t believe in trying to blind his clients with the ‘dark arts’ of SEO or charging a customer for what is essentially an automated PPC report. Dan is of the opinion that being open and honest is just good business sense.

Takeaways- There are so many unethical practices out there, many leading to poor customer communications and service. Dan explained the following as things to watch out for:

- Ryanair website UX patterns - Fake urgency - Upsells that are automatically added to a shopping cart - The false positives to get you to do something (i.e. click a button’) - Pop-ups that have negative or positive connotations

- Dan highlighted how to create a great PPC strategy: - Create a customer persona (which you can hear more about in episode 30 with Tracey Tait) - Make sure you know a list of ‘negative’ keywords (one’s you don’t want to rank for) and you’ll find, this on top of a persona will make your PPC very targeted - TEST, always test, using A/B testing - Review the big things, then refine the smaller elements - Make sure you have clear and transparent reporting

- And finally, re-marketing – which is targeting those consumers who already know about you. Those that are interested in what you have to offer due to their previous digital actions and using the likes of Facebook and Google to specifically target them with the appropriate creative. Which should in theory, cut down costs as you are targeting those that are already engaged.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksDan Charles – befairmarketing.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/befairmarketingco/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancharles/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/befairmarketing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/befairmarketingco/ Books:How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie: https://amzn.to/2Rd2kUc

App:Clear Focus:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=personal.andreabasso.clearfocus&hl=en_GB Method:(P)RACE Model: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/race-a-practical-framework-to-improve-your-digital-marketing/ (P)RACE Episode: https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/episode-8-the-prace-to-digital-success-dave-chaffey-digital-marketing-guru/ Google Doodle: 20 Years: https://www.google.com/doodles/googles-20th-birthday

I don't like to over promise and under deliver and I don't think I have with yet another special episode. This wasn't supposed to be a special, but as its all about podcasting, I think I got a bit caught up in the whole discussion and that was so easy to do with my guest today, John Lim.

John is an Entrepreneur, no doubt. A TEDx and public speaker, podcast host and author, which includes an adult colouring book! Check it out (links in the show notes as usual) to all the good stuff)

John is the executive producer and host of the podcast series, Moving Forward, which has reached listeners in over 50 countries, where John speaks to entrepreneurs, artists, and influencers, so he is in the perfect position to give us the low-down on podcasting and why it needs to be part of your comms mix.

Takeaways

- Podcasting can be a powerful tool as it allows you to learn and share. If it wasn't for the power of the podcast, I wouldn't have had the pleasure in talking to John and you wouldn't have the honour of listening to him.

Podcasting can also help with brand awareness in many different ways. It can provide proof of knowledge, status, culture, beliefs, word of mouth, passive listening, credibility and also that all important awareness.

- Podcasting can fit into your comms mix at any stage of a customer journey, it can connect you to strangers that may never have heard of you at the top of the funnel, through engaging and developing a relationship of know, like and trust, through to cultivating the customer by providing a call to action in a none intrusive way.

- And remember, the key to a good podcast is the make sure the topic is something you love talking about. Most podcasts don't get past 20 to 30 episodes, so plan it out and make sure you can be consistent and more importantly, loving it!

Top Tip

John was gracious enough to share a top tip of how to maximise your time when you feel you are mega busy and can’t fit anymore into your day!

Do a time audit on every part of your day, do this for a week or two and then look back to see how much time your are apportioning to every element of your life and is this time being used wisely?

In doing this you will start to see gaps where time spent is inefficient and how much time you can devote to your studies… and then plan ahead, get a plan and map out your studies.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksJohn Lim https://www.bemovingforward.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhlim/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/bemovingforward @bemovingforward Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlim0025/ jlim0025 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JLim0025

Books:Corporate Cliches – John Lim, Jen L, Brian B: https://amzn.to/2JD8j1cPrincipals - Ray Dalio: https://amzn.to/2Jzwhu3 

App:Good Reads: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/goodreads-book-reviews/id355833469?mt=8

What is your bedtime ritual? Hopefully it’s not as bad as most peoples? How many hours sleep should you be getting? Do you get them? In this weeks top tip that’s what we’ll be talking about, sleep.

But now its time to introduce our guest, Jono Alderson from Yoast.com, now I have to say at this point the first few minutes there audio isn’t as good as it usually is but we resolve this issue very early on so just stick with it as you really don’t want to miss this one. Jono has over a decade of experience in web development, SEO, analytics, brand and campaign strategy, lead generation, eCRM, conversion rate optimisation and helping companies deliver SEO, content, analytics and brand strategies at an international level.

Jono is also a keynote speaker with a passion that oozes through in everything he does. With this passion itching to come through in this interview I thought I would start by asking Jono, what is your favorite toast condiment?

Takeaways

- Let’s get SEO right. Its more than keywords, we are more advanced than that now. As Jono stated; its technology, marketing, psychology, branding and it’s copywriting. You need to go further than just words…. But the best rule of thumb is….. just don’t be a d*ckhead! Consider your customer and what they search for as at some point in the purchase process they will search!

- It is massively important that we invest time into digital communication channels, including websites. Good is just not…. Good enough anymore, it needs to be exceptional. If the channels you are using to communicate messages aren’t great, you can be your competitors are and that gives them an advantage.

- Jono spoke about being device agnostic and making the point that not everything should be made ‘mobile first’. We should never make assumptions over what hardware customers as using.

- Lead generation today is much more than a contact us form. We need to be solving people’s problems, without being salesy, pushy or demanding. Compelling, useful and interesting content will always win in the long term as it creates an engagement that is more powerful than consistent sales offers, which only serve to drive prices down, with short term, short lived success.

Top Tip – A Good Nights Sleep

What are the affects on getting a really bad night’s sleep. If you have a bad sleep ritual or don’t think you’re getting enough sleep this tip will show you how important it is to get your regular 6, 7, 8  9hours?

Before we find out how many hours you should be getting and provide you with some simple yet effective tips for a better nights kip, the results of poor a sleep pattern can reduce the success you with have within your studies as it can cause:

- Memory issues

- Trouble concentrating

- Mood changes

- Weakened immunity

The National Sleep Foundation suggest that adults should be getting between 7 to 9 hours, so that’s a great start if you are getting in-between this number of hours, but to really to pave the way for better sleep, you can follow these simple yet effective tips:

- Stick to a sleep schedule, always

- Create a relaxing bedtime ritual

- Exercise daily

- Create the ideal temperature, removing all sound and light

- Sleep in comfort

- Try not to drink alcohol and avoid caffeine (anything that can steel sleep from you)

- Turn off electronics before you enter the bedroom

Good night.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy

Brain food, what food can help you with your studies. We’ll find out later, but first, lets find out what being a virtual assistant is all about as we chat to Louisa van Vessem, who is the owner and VA for Workflow Virtual Assistant. Louisa’s mantra is to run straight ahead at those things that put fear into you. Scared of heights? Why not do a skydive? Introverted and don’t like talking to crowds – do a podcast or stand up on stage! That’s why in this episode Louisa talks about Time Terrorists and Money Laundering, oh and also all things VA.

Takeaways

- A Virtual Assistants (VA’s) job can vary massively from admin tasks to web design. They can even be used as a sounding board – so getting the right fit with a client is hugely important for Louisa, which is great to hear as this means all of her clients will be as much of a great fit for her as Louisa is for them, win / win.

- Admin tasks have changed. We are taking on more and more without the increase of any time (we all still have 24 hours in a day), which can lead to mistakes and missed elements as we can be so focussed on other areas, be it in a business or working on our own thing.

What tasks are critical and are your sweet spot and which should be pushed down the pecking order? Consider this when doing your research and studies.

- Take note of Louisa’s tips for that work-life-study balance and how to stay organised:

- Breakdown your tasks into small bites sized chunks

- Consider using an online project management tool such as Asana

- Don't be afraid to ask for help – and that means your tutors and peers

- Set deadline dates and work out what is essential, cutting out the crap

- Take breaks – we’ve cover it in previous episodes, make sure you take heed as it is as important as the hours you are putting in

Top Tip – Brain Food

If you want to optimise your chances of passing a Marketing qualification, nutrition during studying can play a larger part than you think. Keeping healthy isn’t only good for your…. Health, but also your brain power.

Here is a list of those ‘super brain foods’ courtesy of the BBC Good Food:

Wholegrains – For concentration

Oily Fish – Healthy brain function

Blueberries – Boosts short term memory

Tomatoes

Eggs

Blackcurrants – Reduce anxiety and stress

Pumpkin Seeds – Boost your mood

Broccoli – Improve brainpower

Sage – Boost memory

Nuts – Protect brain function

Enjoy.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksLouisa van Vessem: https://workflowva.com LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/workflowva/ @WorkflowVA:https://twitter.com/WorkflowVA Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/WorkflowVA/ Insta:https://www.instagram.com/workflowva/

Asana Project Management: https://asana.com Trello Project Management: https://trello.com

App:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/

Theory:Douglas McGregor X and Y Theory:

Subscribe: Let us do the hard work and send the podcast to you: https://bit.ly/2NZjODA 

Review: Share the love and leave a 5* review from your phone: http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1375904962 

(from anywhere else hit the ‘Write a Review’ button in the Apple Podcasts app or iTunes)

Guest and Episode Links Lucy Mowatt https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymowatt/  https://www.methodmarketing.org/ 

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81 

Intro Writing has never been my strong point, although creativity and imagination are high up there which is part of my own content strategy, but how about you? Where are your strengths and weaknesses in the content genre?

In a world where content really matters, be it driving awareness, gaining attention, educating or even entertaining it is always a good thing to have a process behind you, to keep you on course.

Enter Lucy Mowatt and The content Marketing Method.

Lucy is an experienced content marketing consultant with more than 10 years’ experience working both in-house and agency-side. Working previously as a magazine editor and now with start-ups and big brands helping them to achieve their goals through strategic content marketing activity.

In this episode we cover; - The content Marketing Method: Audit – Strategy – Plan – Delivery – Performance - The best platforms / apps / software to help with developing content - What do most people do wrong when tackling their content plan

But first, as Lucy comes from Norwich, there was only one question I had in mind to kick off our chat – Alan Partridge, discuss?

Watch the episode video: https://youtu.be/Vgf-BLAfEGg 

Takeaways Top Tip Set out your objectives before you do anything in terms of producing content. I would even go one step further and add in all the elements Lucy went on to talk about here such as your audit and strategy.

Favourite Quote Apart from discussing Alan Partridge was when Lucy stated ‘a lot of businesses don’t think about the audience enough’ which is so true. Organisations can become very insular and think that EVERYONE cares about them, when in reality… they don’t. Write for the few that do care.

And Finally, the Most Important Takeaway from this Episode Is that you don’t have to be on EVERYTHING. Choose your channels and use them well. It’s good to experiment and test the waters, but don’t feel you have to be everywhere all the time. Small step. Doing one channel correctly, consistently, will help you so much more than spreading yourself far too thinly, especially if you are a small company – know your limits and the impact you can have within these.

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

Let’s have a conversation with Hannah Thorpe, the MD of white.net, about all things SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – and I must apologise as some of the audio may be a little clicky, but let see how it goes. Hannah is an SEO specialist, covering everything from technical issues to marketing campaigns so Hannah has a lot of experience to share with us. This means Hannah is the perfect person to answer that all important question, do you know anyone that uses the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button on Google?

Takeaways

- Any strategy should have objectives attributed to it, especially digital as there is no excuse to not monitor and learn from the findings

- Using an external agency has many benefits and as Hannah points out they can bring the experience that may not be available internally, experience from other sectors that can be invaluable and possibly create a USP for an organisation. Because of this versatility over different markets, spotting trends is also a key ingredient of outsourcing SEO capabilities.

- When building an online presence, especially your website, try using common sense to start to build your site and the content on it. This will give you a solid foundation to build on… as long as you are always putting the user first….. Always put the user first.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksHannah Thorpe: Hannah@white.net @hannahjthorpe - https://twitter.com/hannahjthorpe www.white.net @whitedotnet - https://twitter.com/whitedotnet

Books:The Human Brand – Chris Malone: https://amzn.to/2vCod5l

App:Citymapper: https://citymapper.com/manchester

We’re talking to Korbinian Lehner, who is a Senior Digital Native for Telekom Deutschland (you may know them better as T-Mobile). Korbinian opens up the world of innovation in a way you may never have considered before and does this through the skills he has learnt and a lot of enthusiasm.

Takeaways- Innovation is crucial to make forward progress, but this must be done in a structured way in order for us to make sense of it all.

- The two digital trends Korbinian will be looking out for as:

- Blockchain and the speed, plus security this software can provide. Conisder moving house and how complex this is, blockchain has the potential to do all this within days if not hours, safely and securely

- AI (Artificial Intelligence), but not in the way we are probably thinking, but using it for the ability to make decisions and from this generate new and better intel

- Social media has the power not only to connect each other, but connect the information we place in it. This combined with the personal touch and emotional context is as empowering as anything, which we sometimes forget

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Links

Korbinian Lehner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/korbinianlehner/ @KorbinianLehner - https://twitter.com/KorbinianLehner

Harvard Referencing: https://my.cim.co.uk/media/34817/harvard-referencing-v3-2016-final.pdf

Books:Speed of Thoughts – Bill Gates: https://amzn.to/2vDfYG7

App:If This, Then That (IFTTT): https://ifttt.com

Theory:The Goat Theory (The Monty Hall Problem): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lb-6rxZxx0

It's a Marketing Study Lab special! Regular programming will resume shortly but for today, enjoy as we talk all things creative!

Yes, the first special, needs a special guest and I am delighted to be accompanied on this episode by Mr. Dave Birss, who amongst some other titles, which we’ll find out about a bit later on is the author of ‘How to Get to Great Ideas?’ a book all about, well, getting great ideas.

Before we get stuck into the innovative world that Dave has create in this book I just want to let you all know that it is out tomorrow, links in the show notes as always, but forget the notes, just go to Amazon, type in Dave Birss and you’ll see it – its yellow and has squiggles on the front.

Once you’ve pre-ordered it, you will be given an access code that will allow you to listen to the rest of this episode in any language you want – so keep a look out for that code, if you cant find it, not to worry, the default language is English / Scottish so you should be fine if you’ve understood the first part of this intro.

Takeaways

- There are two types of thinking; Creative thinking and doing thinking, where some people are better at creativity and others are more doers.

- Innovative thinking can be taught, it’s not something you are born with or without. Dave describes it as the input defining the output – if your creativity input is minimal the how do you expect the output to be any different. The same with any type of system really.

- And speaking of systems, from a business perspective it is said there can be two types. A stifling system where it is all about control and there are layers of fear dominating the hierarchical structure or there is a system of liberation and freethinking.

For more of the creative stuff, get Dave’s book and lets all start to think about getting great ideas!

LinksDave Birss: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davebirss/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/davebirss@davebirss Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davebirss/ @davebirss Book Offer: https://upvir.al/58454/lp58454 Books:How to Get to Great Ideas – Dave Birss: https://amzn.to/2qjtgoSIconic Advantage – Soon Yu and Dave Birss: https://amzn.to/2EUh08I A User Guide to the Creative Mind - https://amzn.to/2Q7YRW3 App:Procreate: https://procreate.art

When entering an exam, did you know that if you can understand the time you have and how it is broken down it can help you maximise the potential to gain the most marks. If not, don’t worry, we’ll be covering it later.

Before we get to all that, let’s talk to John Espirian, a freelance technical copywriter who has the nack to make the complex, simple. Not only that, but he shares a wealth of knowledge at every single touch point, just checkout his website – espirian.co.uk, which is jammed packed with guidance on a whole host of topics, not just copywriting, of which some of these topics and a link to the website can be found in the show notes, so you know John will be bringing the same level of knowledge from these to this eposide.

Go check it out: espirian.co.uk

Takeaways

I told you John was full of hints, tips, guidance and knowledge…. So how do you unpack all of this, hmmmmm. Here are my top takeaways from this chat:

- John Espirian’s 5 fundamentals for starting as a copywriter are:

- Find your niche and don’t be generic

- Make sure you have a web presence (obviously ) – choose one social platform and do it well

- Connect with peers and help each other thrive

- Connect with your ideal client (like, comment and share…. Stuff)

- Invest in yourself and learning what you need to learn

- Write down everything  - Even if it makes no sense, then go back and edit as it’s the editing that can be the hard part. John relates this to baking. You need to leave your copy to prove, before going back to edit it to make sense.

- Always be thinking of the call to action while writing. Why are you writing what you are writing and what is the intent behind this? Is it sales, download, contact? And this can be related to your assignments or exams and writing to make it easy for the examiner to give you marks – see we do provide you value as well as stimulating chats!

Top Tip - Time, is on your side (exam timings)

So let’s get mathematical. Say your exam is 3 hours long and is worth a total of 60 marks. If we look at the July exam there were 5 questions in total all with different levels of marks attributed to them.

Now for the science bit (it may be worth looking at the show notes for this one to make some sense of it all) :

3 hours = 180 minutes

180 / 60 total marks = 3 minutes per mark

We can now work out how long we should spend on each question, so:

If the questions is worth the following marks:

10 marks = 30 minutes

15 marks = 45 minutes

20 marks = 1 hour

If you can worth this out in the first few minutes of any exam then it will pay dividends as you will be able to keep on track and shouldn’t run out of time!

I hope that make some sense.

LinksJohn Espirian: https://espirian.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnespirian/ @espirian - https://twitter.com/espirian

Using Social Media to Get Copywriting Work:https://espirian.co.uk/can-social-media-help-you-get-copywriting-work/ Freelancing: https://espirian.co.uk/freelance-copywriting-work/ Writing Tips:https://espirian.co.uk/10-writing-tips/ Proof Reading Tips:https://espirian.co.uk/top-10-proofreading-tips/

Books:Deep Work – Cal Newport : https://amzn.to/2KpcUD2 Selling the Invisible – Harry Beckwith:

Let’s have a little natter with Darren Goldsby, the Chief Digital Officer for The Jamie Oliver Group. But what you think a Chief Digital Officer does and what they actually do are probably two very different thinks as Darren goes on to explain, it’s a lot more than just a website, clicks and followers.

Takeaways

- Digital touches everything, whether you realise it or not. It is available to effectively help a business grow and develop. This doesn't just mean a website. It can be customer focused, internally focused, process driven, supplier driven, but it is utilising the appropriate levels of technology and data within the business that makes it work

- Use examples to sell your ideas, which Darren has to do when trying to convince the digitally uneducated. And this is what I preach all the time, especially when writing for an assignment. Real life examples can help to back up your statements and produce compelling answers. Darren’s  example of searching for commercial property online is a great one as it sounds so archaic to think that it was done any other way now, but that is the power of the example – proof that something works and these are undeniable truths

- The way people find content has changed massively over recent years and this is now predominantly done via a preferred social platform and perhaps one other app, such as a news app. This is why it’s so important to know your audience and where their attention is.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Links

Darren Goldsby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrengoldsby/ @dmgoldsby - https://twitter.com/dmgoldsby

Books:Good to Great – Jim Collins : https://amzn.to/2OJED4z

App:Wood Puzzle: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/wooden-block-puzzle-game/id1078160821?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addswhilessuffers.binds&hl=en_GB

Theory:Here is a great article from the Harvard Business Review about Old v New Power: https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power

Let’s meet Tea drinking Tracey Tait, who is an Independent Marketing Consultant based in Newcastle, don’t let her accent deceive you, she is definitely based in the North East.

What should make Tracey’s story compelling to you is the fact she has worked for large global organisations as well as SME’s and will be able to give us all a well-rounded view on all things Marketing. Her methods are Simple, effective and time-saving and who doesn’t want that.

Takeaways

- Tracey provided us with the ultimate 6 step guide to building an ideal client / persona / avatar and this is the one and only takeaway I want to focus on as its so important to get this right. So these six steps are:

1 – Demographic (age, gender, marital status, vocation, level of education, etc)

2 – What is going with them? They obviously have a problem that you can solve, what is that? What are their pain points and challenges? And are they the decision maker, if not who is, as these are the people who will have the final say?

3 – Where are these people – where do they congregate, not physically, although it may well be, but more digitally – what websites, blogs, social do they use and who do they follow?

4 – What is there story and remember to have empathy and consider the emotional side as this can be a powerful tool. Thoughts, feelings, fears, desires – all important!

5 – What is the story after purchase. It doesn't end after the sell

6 – The negative persona and avoiding the clients that you don't want to target. It sounds backwards but it can provide so much clarity in who your ideal client actually is.

Thanks Tracey!

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

Links

Tracey Tait: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceytait/ https://www.facebook.com/TranscendYou/ @transcendyou - https://twitter.com/transcendyou

Seth Godin Podcast Akimbo: https://www.akimbo.me

Books:Tribes – Seth Godin: https://amzn.to/2LYQa1s

App:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com

Theory:Here are some articles about the power of Content Marketing: http://www.marketingjournal.org/the-power-of-content-marketing-jon-wuebben/ https://blog.markgrowth.com/20-stats-that-show-the-power-of-content-marketing-in-2018-c2aaa7e1d13a https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/10/stats-invest-content-marketing/

Let's talk to Louise Shanahan, a copywriter for The Copy Prescription, and I love that name as Louise writes within two niche marketplaces – yep - health and the Government.

Louise is also a fitness nerd and a former civil-servant, which helps as she is writing about these two things A LOT!  Go figure, someone who knows an industry, has a passion for it and has gone niche, actually making a living from these things, well I never!!!

Takeaways

- What is your skill, what is your niche? Louise career has been guided, some would say by her personal life but she always utilised this to her advantage, which is now also the niche she is thriving in. From Wooden Spoon to Gym Fanatic – you make your own future, what will yours be?

- But once you have your niche, how do you thrive in this particular community. Well, Louise maximised her knowledge of Government and Health as well a being very relatable, genuine and trustworthy – and video Marketing can prove to be a great platform to do this as long as the message you are conveying is relative and for good

- Copywriting can help persuade and sell, which is basically good marketing fundamentals. Louise tells her clients that they have a duty to have good copy as they will be doing their customers a disservice if they let then click away. If you have a great product or service – you need to use the right platforms along with the right message to stand any chance of surviving.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksLouise Shanahan http://thecopyprescription.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-shanahan-b60b70113/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecopyprescription/

Books:Confidence Game – Maria Konnikova: https://amzn.to/2B47aza

App:Podcast Addict: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.podcastaddict&hl=en_GB

EverNote: https://evernote.com

Today we’re going to chat with someone that knows a thing or two about Global Employer Branding, which may sound familiar as back in episode 23 we chatted to Kim Kunze from Siemens about Employer Branding. Siemens we kind enough to let me not only talk to Kim, but also her colleague Andrea Scheerbaum (apologies about the pronunciation)!

Andrea, who believes her English isn’t up to scratch, well Andrea, I can tell you now if this is poor English, I’m certainly no Englishman! Onto the serious side now and Andrea has had many jobs at Siemens including Global Employer Branding, but her passion firmly lies with PRIDE@siemens, but I won’t steal her thunder as we get to that later on in our chat after we’ve discussed global employer branding, encouraging graduates to participate in activities and how it is important to have a mixture of experience and the right qualifications.

Takeaways

- Be curious as it opens doors. Quite simply, if you don't ask, you don't end up getting. Andrea started by trying to understand the products and services Siemens produced and then developed skills along the way by being inquisitive and passionate. Passion goes a long way as long as its pointed in the right direction, so don't be afraid to say ‘I’ll do that’ or ‘I’ll help with that’ to learn something new or expand your current knowledge. 

- Global Employer Branding is all about people, not product. And through this, values are created and if you can develop the right values, you create a culture where people can thrive, not just survive. But each country is different and needs to be tackled in a project by project basis, but the overall premise is the same – tell stories, huh, funny that, telling stories and engaging does work!

- Siemens knows that if you can get the buy-in from students and graduates they are more likely to succeed and this is achieved through mentoring on the job, high level trainee programs, speed dating events with employees and ‘Siemens Stay’, a forum to discuss the recruitment process.

- When looking for employment take your time to read the job specification and if you feel you can achieve at least 70% of it then it could be a fit for you. The other 30% can be picked up along the way through, yep, asking questions, being curious and a continuous desire to learn. Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License

LinksAndrea Scheerbaum: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-scheerbaum-226151a7/ Siemens: https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home.html Siemens Diversity: https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home/company/sustainability/diversity.html PRIDE@siemens: https://twitter.com/pridesiemens?lang=en Books:The Magic of Cleaning - Magic Cleaning 1: Wie richtiges Aufräumen Ihr Leben verändert: https://amzn.to/2Abdm7M

We need to get back to our interview with Gill Andrews, who is a copywriter and a web consultant placing her in the prime position to discuss all things copy, communications and web design, which we started to do on the previous episode (episode 26). We left Gill discussing why no one cares if you are ‘number 1 in the marketplace’ or an ‘innovate company’, but they do care about how you are going to solve their problems!

Takeaways

- Be careful of new trends and tools that can creep onto your website. Just because it’s new doesn't mean it is right for your audience. Moving parts can be a distraction for users and detract, rather than improve a user experience. 

- It’s not a shame not to know, it’s a shame not to learn – what do you not understand. Any gaps in your marketing knowledge that you may need a little refresh on? Take baby steps, learn the rope and increase your skill set and knowledge.

- Gill went into geek mode for us, describing the future of web design and although some of it may have gone over my head, admittedly, the basic premise is that web design will get easier and easier, yet more sophisticated, which can only be a good thing for the user, the developer and those that aren’t developers but are willing to do it themselves – and this could be the skill that Gill states you should learn that is complimentary to what you already do.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License Links Gill Andrews: https://gillandrews.comhttps://twitter.com/StoriesWithGill https://www.linkedin.com/in/gill-andrews-440488121/ Lemmings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Je6pFueYg Jen Simmons (CSS Grid): https://labs.jensimmons.com Books:Pain Free Process for Writing Your About Page:https://www.enchantingmarketing.com App:Buffer: https://buffer.com Theory:Lift Concept: https://www.widerfunnel.com/the-six-landing-page-conversion-rate-factors/

I would like to introduce you to Gill Andrews, who is a copywriter and a web consultant placing her in the prime position to discuss all things copy, communications and web design – the perfect combo. I must point out though  , yet again my guest has stepped up to the plate and delivered so much value I’ve had to split this chat into two – so this is part 1 of 2!

Takeaways

- I love a good analogy and hearing Gill discuss why copy is so important using a classic game (which for this Gill mentioned a train on a track, where as I would say the absolute classic – Lemmings! (not one for the younger generation that – but take a look at what I mean, link in the show notes). Once you’ve set something in motion it needs to guide people through a journey – which is what good copy does 

- Gill describes tips as harmful as they are all encompassing, whereas she firmly believes that a system or strategy with specific tips included, is a more engaging way to produce copy for a target audience or niche within a marketplace

- When creating a website and writing good online copy, you must start with understanding who your target audience is and keep it simple to start with – i.e. what layout will your audience expect to see on your website – don't make super simple tasks difficult! Once this is done, you need to understand what language your audience will expect to see – will it be technical? Descriptive? Funny? – as this will help them feel comfortable and understand what you are – Gill explains this by using the old – if you met someone at a party and they asked what you do, how and what would you say? Make sure they understand you!

- Oh, and use font size 16px, minimum Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License Links Gill Andrews: https://gillandrews.comhttps://twitter.com/StoriesWithGill https://www.linkedin.com/in/gill-andrews-440488121/ contact@gillandrews.com Lemmings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Je6pFueYg Jen Simmons (CSS Grid): https://labs.jensimmons.com Books:Pain Free Process for Writing Your About Page:https://www.enchantingmarketing.com App:Buffer: https://buffer.com Theory:Lift Concept: https://www.widerfunnel.com/the-six-landing-page-conversion-rate-factors/

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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

Let's turn our attention to our next guest. Zoe Stainsby, the Head of Entertainment at Fuse – their basic principal is to create partnerships and experiences, which anyone can do, right? But these experience need to make an impact and a difference to those that are part of it, through the likes of sports, music and gaming. Fuse have worked with an eclectic mix of top named brands: Starbucks, Levi’s, McDonalds, Channel 4 and even the British Olympic Association. And you know you’re going to get a wealth of information out of your guest when you realize they have provided thought leadership at events such as Cannes Lions, Amsterdam Dance Event, Musexpo, Roundhouse Women In Music and Liverpool SoundCity.

Takeaways

- Zoe’s career started off with learning the basics, from the ground up! But Zoe also understood that academia can also help with career progression and took it upon herself to get a qualification that would help in achieving her ambitions around what she is passionate about, music! But it was so interesting to her that it was the cohort that came along with the qualification that really set Zoe’s passion alight

- There are 4 different trends we all need to look out for in the future of Entertainment Marketing:

1) Delivering value via a purchase funnel through entertainment

2) The rise in Reggaeton (South American Hip-Hop) and the Globalisation of music in general

3) Mutual value partnerships (between brands, other brands and / or artists)

4) The rise or cryptocurrencies within the music industry

5) e-Sports and the convergence of Sports and entertainment

- Finally, and most importantly….. If you are looking to progress within this industry you must work hard and be nice to people! Don’t be afraid to fail, have fun while your doing this and network, build up your network and look to get a mentor – someone that has done what you want to do or is where you want to be. Learn from the best!

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License LinksZoe Stainsby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-stainsby-83706a2a/ zoe.stainsby@fuseint.com Fuse: www.fuseint.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/fuse-uk/ Instagram: @fuseagency Books:Merge – Mark Holden: https://amzn.to/2JK7IJp App:Blinkist: https://www.blinkist.com/

Have you ever eaten dog food?

This week we have a shaggy dog story for you as we talk to Kat Knocker, Head of Product and Customer Experience for tails.com.

It is my pleasure to introduce Kat Knocker, who has worked for some really interesting brand such as Innocent Drinks and graze.com throughout her career, but now Kat is all about keeping her customers in the center of everything tails.com does by creating an unforgettable user experience. Tails.com is an online dog food company with a difference, in that it tailors the right mix of food for each and every individual dog, so who should the be target… the dogs? Or their owners? I’ll let Kat deal with that one. But first I wanted to know, what we all wanted to know – what is the worst dog joke you hear all the time?

Takeaways- You must treat each and every one of your customers as an individual as they expect a personal, VIP experience every time. It isn’t only every dog that is unique, it’s also your customers. A clear customer-led value set is key to the success of tails.com.

- A companies customer experience should be seamless and also delightful! As Kat so eloquently put it, remember back to a great restaurant experience where you felt like you were the only one’s in the place and were amazed by, not just the food, but the entire experience and the things you may not have even noticed. But remember that customer expectations change and it is important to keep up with these trends.

- The only way you know if you have created a good, no, great customer experience, is to be a customer yourself. Be a customer from start to finish, go through each part of the process from the customers point of view, not your internal, rose tinted glasses view. You’ll be able to see what works, what doesn't, the pain points and the areas where opportunities to improve are, along with how you or your customers are actually feeling. And test, test everything. If you don’t, you are never really learning, you are just making a change.

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License LinksKat Knocker (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-knocker-1b085211/ Tails.com: https://tails.com CIM marking formula: http://regions.cim.co.uk/london/home/news/2017-march/studying-how-to-meet-the-examiner-s-expectations/ Books:The Lean Start-Up (Eric Ries): https://amzn.to/2KRzgxY App:Evernote: https://evernote.comSpotify: https://www.spotify.com/uk/Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/ Customer Experience:Fitbit - https://www.fitbit.com/uk/home

Employer Branding is probably one of those Marketing topic that can be forgotten about as we focus on the external and turning prospects into clients and customers, but it is integral to an organisations success.

If not implemented correctly, if at all, it can actually hinder not only the progression and growth of a company financially but also diminish opportunities to attracted the best talent in the future.

So who better to show us the path to successful Employer Branding than Kim Kunze, who had a dream to one day work for Siemens and you know what, she does, as part of the Employer Branding and Social Innovations team, but I’ll let Kim explain more of that wonderful insight into dreaming big!

Takeaways

- Every company uses employer brand regardless of if it being given the care and attention it clearly needs or not. It is everything and everywhere, both online and offline and some may say this is just another word for reputation, but it goes further than that and communicates the identity of the brand – its culture, values and beliefs.

- Employer Value Proposition, EVP for short – is the terminology for who we are as an employer and what the we stands for – notice how I didn't use ‘the company’ there as listening to Kim it is obvious that a successful employer brand is more about the ‘we’ than the ‘company’, which considers the outside as well as inside perspective being - Attractive, true, credible, distinctive and sustainable, which then goes on to form the underlying messages of the communications strategy. But make sure that this EVP is resonating with your audience…. Unless you’ll end up with values attributed to one man…. Santa!

- Kim explained that VR is being used to show what it is like to work for Siemens via their Siemens 360 degrees app (links are in the show notes). Now I know I’m not a huge fan of this technology… yet, this is a great interactive way of engaging with the next generation workforce and being at the forefront of such technology puts the Siemens brand in a different place or viewed differently than it would be if it wasn't using or at least trying new technologies.

And using VR as well in such an inventive way by simply using it to highlight that Siemens is more than just ‘washing machines’ – it’s robots, the London Underground and space - sign me up!

Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-study-lab/ www.facebook.com/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/mktstudylab (@mktstudylab) Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.de Creative Commons License LinksKim Kunze: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-kunze-3b76b5b/ Siemens: https://www.siemens.com/uk/en/home.html Siemens 360°: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/siemens-360/id1226530343?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siemens.futuremakers&hl=en_GB Books:Reinventing Organisations - Frederic Laloux:https://amzn.to/2t81yxb Theory:Holacracy:https://www.holacracy.org