SBBM #8 – How to Build a Community Around Your Business
Martyn Thomas, Founder of Frank Media, a media planning and buying agency shares with us what it means to build a community around your business and how it can have a hugely positive impact on your bottom-line. You’ll also discover what it means to create a ‘tuned-in’ product or service and how to go about it. Oh, and we announce the winners of the personalised copies of Iggy Pintado’s book The Connection Generation…and (yes, there’s more) share with you the iPhone apps that make it all worthwhile. So, put your feet up, turn the phone off and get ready for a does of marketing goodness.
Durration: 34:10
Small Business Big Marketing Podcast
Show Links
Tuned In (the Book) Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs
Tuned In (TKindle Edition) Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs
How to find what people are asking for.
Podcast Transcription
Tim: Lukey, Lukey, Lukey. Welcome back, mate, Episode 8, Small Business Big Marketing.
Luke: Welcome back, Timbo.
Tim: How are you?
Luke: I’m very well, thanks, mate. Yourself?
Tim: Thank you, couldn’t be finer, could not be finer. And what about…our last show, listeners, if we are sounding excited is because on our last show we interviewed, if you haven’t listened to it, the connection expert Iggy Pintado, who’s written a book, and he’s probably one of the more connected people in Australia in terms of online social media type stuff.
Luke: Certainly the traffic that we received to our website post launch of that podcast shows that he is extremely connected.
Tim: Yes. Yes, and in fact we had a couple of warning emails from our host saying what are you doing.
Luke: You’re using up too much bandwidth.
Tim: Yeah. Which is a good problem to have, it’s a bit like tax.
Luke: Sure is.
Tim: It’s like, um, but you know really interesting lesson there, yeah, we had a lot of traffic guys which is great and clearly our listener base is growing but the really interesting lesson there is that that show became quite viral and I just watched in on Twitter where Iggy would tweet out the fact that he’d been interviewed and Twittered the link to it and all of a sudden people in Iggy’s follower…people following Iggy who have themselves, 10, 20, 30, in some cases, 100,000 followers.
Luke: Hundred thousand followers.
Tim: That was 100,000.
Luke: I haven’t got a thousand yet, let alone a hundred thousand.
Tim: And, you know, that was an amazing thing because all of a sudden you’re getting people with that many followers Tweeting our podcast and it just became viral. So that was quite exciting to become viral, I’ve not been viral before…
Luke: No.
Tim: Nor have you.
Luke: Fortunately.
Tim: Yeah, that’s right. So, great, really good lesson there and interesting and thanks, Iggy. So we are going to announce at the end of this show the three winners of Iggy’s signed personalised book.
Luke: Called “The Connection Generation”.
Tim: And then we are going to get straight into an interview.
Luke: Yes, today, Tim, we’re going to be talking to Martyn Thomas from Frank Media.
Tim: We are. Frank Media is a Melbourne media planning and buying agency and Martyn’s a bit of an expert when it comes to making best use of one’s advertising dollars. So he’s going to share a bit of that with us. But he’s also got some great stuff to say about building community around your business.
Luke: Yeah, becoming part of your local community, whether it be virtually or online.
Tim: Yeah. Well virtually is online, Luke.
Luke: Correct. Sorry.
Tim: Virtually online or offline.
Luke: Virtually or in reality.
Tim: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And he shares a bit of stuff about how to get tuned into your customer’s needs and problems and we started off by asking Martyn what’s his thing at the moment.
Luke: That’s right, what’s his thing.
Martyn: Community is my thing at the moment, I’m talking about brand communities. And it was interesting to note that a large international advertising agency in America, DDB, have started a chief community officer, so a CCO.
Tim: I saw that.
Martyn: Yeah, how interesting. And…
Tim: Good job.
Martyn: Very good job. And then…
Tim: So tell us about…community is your thing, I know exactly what you mean, but expand on…
Martyn: So well…
Tim: Expand on community because it’s huge, I think, from a marketing perspective.
Martyn: Yeah, it is. It’s, I mean, we’re all part of some community, whether it be a local community or whether it be an advocate of a brand, which makes us part of a brand community. And I’m a big believer that what’s afforded to us online at the moment is the opportunity to actually corral these communities and make them work and make them interactive and engaging and relevant and up to date. I also believe that as land pressure continues, the breakdown of the family home is going to result in…well there’ll be more and more single dwelling units, so more isolated lonely people, Tokyo style. And I think also therefore the touchy feely community is going to come back. I think that’s a very important aspect. So you’ve got those two together where people can practically be in a community internationally online, that’s fantastic, but also I see this other sort of touchy feely thing because I don’t think the online thing can exist without the other bit. And I’ve got some…and out of that spawns new business ideas, it really does, and one of those came to me the other day…
Tim: Can I just add…
Martyn: Yeah.
Tim: Share that, hold that thought, but I’ve just finished reading a book, and I can’t remember the name of it, but it was this fellow who was trying to sort of future cast as to what it’s going to be like in 2050. And he talked about how medicine is going to do this and transport is going to do this and business is going to do this. If I was to summarise the book after all these amazing ideas from all around the globe and in space and underwater, was that we’re all going to come back to being a village and…
Martyn: Yes.
Tim: …and a community, because we need that reassurance that everything is okay.
Martyn: Yep.
Tim: You know, with petrol prices going up and the way things are going.
Martyn: Yep.
Tim: You know, potentially a big shopping centre, a big, you know, major shopping centre could become obsolete, may be a bit harsh, but a strip shopping centre may see a revival and the online communities and people just looking over their fence and not way way down the road for solutions.
Martyn: Which is…yeah, I wholly agree and yet I don’t know whether it will happen in our generation or in our lifetime but it will happen because you kind of put all the ingredients and look at the macro picture what’s happening out there and there is a big need to put back into the local community. So we are huge advocates of shopping at the local greengrocer or shopping at the local butcher or whatever local whatever. And…
Tim: Whatever.
Martyn: Whatever. And, you know, looking at the notice boards in the local grocer…
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: …or whatever. I love those…
Tim: Love those.
Martyn: …community notice boards.
Tim: Yep.
Martyn: There’s a community notice board in Ormond Road in Elwood and it’s got all sorts of weird stuff on it and then, you know, like a dog for sale or whatever, you know.
Tim: Yep.
Martyn: (5:54).
Tim: Did you buy it?
Martyn: So I see there’s a lot of power that can be harnessed through those sort of forums.
Tim: Okay. So how does…sorry, I know Lukey is busting with a question.
Luke: I don’t want to jump in between you two.
Tim: But I’m excited, I’m excited. How does a small business owner, that’s great, theoretically, absolutely spot on, but how does the small business owner harness this concept of community to get more customers and make more money?
Luke: Can I chip in on that too and just say I think one of the…along the lines of what you’re saying, Tim, is that I think developing critical mass and getting that tipping point online with an online community is very difficult to develop. How do small businesses go about…
Tim: But this is more than online.
Martyn: Well it is. But I don’t think it’s just a challenge for small business. We recently pitched for a large energy company and they asked us what we saw the landscape in 2015, which is not quite 2050 but it’s far enough away to make it half interesting. And they loved our answer which was about communities and how this company could put back into the community by maybe not just building playgrounds but maybe taking sports clubhouses and painting the things. You know, there’s so much you can do. Because if you leave it to local government it’ll just get wrangled and money get wasted. Growing, and this is my new idea sort of…
Tim: Go on, blurt it out. Is this an exclusive?
Martyn: Yes, yes. Community vegetable growing, fruit and vegetable. There’s so much dead land out there, I don’t mean dead in terms of dead dead, but just not being utilised and if you could…if you understood what land can yield, ten square metres can yield enough vegetables for a family of four.
Tim: Farmer Martyn.
Martyn: That’s right. Well that’s it because then we have discussions when I’m with friends about, okay, so come the apocalypse and the village, and we’re in the village, right, what would you do? And I go, well I’d be the farmer and I’d gather the firewood. What would you do? And, you know, my wife would be the potter and she’d make the bowls which we’d all eat from and, you know. You can’t get back to that kind of basics because if I was to…you know, if any of us, I don’t know…
Tim: I’d be the cremator. Sorry.
Martyn: But if we projected like back 100 years, what could I contribute then that I, you know, I can’t build a car, I can’t start a phone…you know what I mean?
Tim: Mmm.
Martyn: So it’s kind of basic what can you do, what can you do to contribute and going back, trying to align that to small business and that sort of need, you just sort of start to see many of the opportunities. So it’s not necessarily starting with a small business idea and then trying to make it retro fit, you kind of understand the background or the foreground that’s before us and then come up with an idea that maybe is right for the times. And maybe some small business ideas, whatever they may be, are just dead in the water before you actually get very far because they’re ill considered.
Luke: All right, we’re just going to pause Martyn there for a sec because we want to have a bit of a chat about his concept of community.
Tim: Lukey, I reckon this community thing is huge and I think it deserves another couple of minutes of our time. And for our listeners I think the question here is really like how can your business use the concept of community to increase sales. Because community, you know, is such a hot topic and I think will continue to be such a hot topic. And I think before we share some ideas with the listeners, Luke…
Luke: Yes.
Tim: I think that just defining community as being both getting involved at a local geographical level, but also getting involved in communities that may not necessarily be like close to home on your doorstep but online, global.
Luke: Yeah, online forums, for example, there’s a business forum here in Australia called “Flying Solo”. They have a big online following.
Tim: They do, Lukey.
Luke: And there’s a lot of people that are always very proactive in their forums.
Tim: And a lot of, yeah, well see that’s a great community of small business owners. And you will definitely find people of a like mind. And that’s the great thing about community…
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: …is that it’s about people of a like mind.
Luke: Yeah. And it’s…just remember it’s not about just receiving information, it’s about giving.
Tim: Give, give, give.
Luke: That’s right.
Tim: Hey, so some other ones, meetup.com, so that’s meetup.com, is a ripper way. What do they say on their website, find a meet up group near you. Have a look at it. We just checked it out for our home town and there’s 23 groups of various communities too you can join straight away. That’s a ripper way of getting into communities.
Luke: Yeah. And there’s a lot of business based communities there too.
Tim: Yep, there are. Podcast, I mean, just simply through Small Business Big Marketing, this podcast that you’re listening to now, one of our aims is to create a community of like minded people.
Luke: Indeed.
Tim: So that’s a great thing and how we make that come to life, stay tuned. There’ll be some ideas coming up over forthcoming episodes as we work it out, listeners.
Luke: Yeah, correct.
Tim: Lukey, what else have you got in terms of community and helping businesses?
Luke: Look, it’s one I’ve mentioned in a previous podcast and that is joining a local sports club.
Tim: Oh, yeah, that’s right, that’s grass roots.
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: Yep.
Luke: You know, if you do have trouble with networking, joining a club is a good one. You meet with people regularly.
Tim: Yep.
Luke: You develop relationships and quite often it invariably leads to business.
Tim: Correct. LinkedIn groups, guys, listeners, if you haven’t started a LinkedIn…if you haven’t got a LinkedIn ID or registration, go and register now because it’s worth it. And when you do register and put your bio there and link to your website and do all that, the next step is to start to join some groups and you can search LinkedIn for groups, no matter what your interest or business, there’s going to be definitely a group for you and that’s a great way of entering existing communities.
Luke: If you’re not sure what LinkedIn is, basically it’s an online professional profile that helps you connect with other people like my little (11:37).
Tim: Lovely, lovely. Straight out of the Oxford Dictionary.
Luke: Correct.
Tim: And two more, why don’t we give them two more, Lukey, Twitter, I just think that is a community. You know, like there is…I feel as though when I go onto my Twitter page and see the direct messages and the mentions coming back to me, I feel as though that I am part of a community and definitely of like minded people. Wonderful way to get feedback, wonderful way to share information and so, and that’s a community of global people, you know, so…
Luke: I think as you found too, Tim, quite often you’ll get very honest feedback.
Tim: What do you mean by that, Luke?
Luke: I think you had some…a few angry people at a Tweet that you did a couple of weeks ago.
Tim: Oh, yes, I was looking for a virtual assistant overseas and I had 18 virtual assistants from Australia give me an absolute caning. So if you’re listening, any VAs out there from Australia, I’m sorry for looking for a really cheap one overseas and I’ll never do it again. And, look, I reckon that’s enough. Last one, we mentioned it before, but Chambers of Commerce.
Luke: Chambers of Commerce. Actually before we do move on, there’s one that you mentioned to me before, Tim, that I wanted to mention that, that is joining someone else’s community. You suggested a bit earlier that, when we were chatting before we started…
Tim: You said we were chatting before, twice.
Luke: About appealing to your accountant’s customers.
Tim: Yeah, yeah.
Luke: Now, she has…she has essentially a community of her customers.
Tim: She has, 60 small business owners.
Luke: Yep. That you want to basically become involved in that community and you figured out a way how to.
Tim: Yeah, yeah, so hosting. I’m going to host a free webinar for my accountant’s clients to share some marketing ideas with them, in the hope that they go, oh, hey, this guy knows what he’s on about, we’ll use his services. So a bit of give to get.
Luke: Correct.
Tim: All right, back to Martyn.
Luke: Back we go.
Tim: I replied to…I commented on one of your blog posts…
Martyn: You did indeed.
Tim: …today. And I love that blog post. And that blog post was about the fact that blind…I’ll sort of paraphrase here, and correct me if I’m wrong, Martyn, but blind marketers pretending that everything is A-okay in consumer land.
Martyn: In consumer land, yep. It struck me over the…I think I start…it was all about, you know, Gaza was happening, Congo had just been pushed off the front pages for some reason, everyone was talking about the great global crash and it was gloom and doom and Australia had just won the cricket and it was like, oh my…you know, or just lost the cricket, whatever it was, you know, it was just like, there was a bucket load going on in the world, we’re losing water, fuel is running out, there’s too much sun, blah, blah, blah, but get an 89, you know, what was it, 2008 car while stocks last. And, you know, stocks are going to last for like forever.
Tim: Yeah, they’re not going anywhere those 2008 models.
Martyn: So what was that about, how stupid are we.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: I mean, you know, so when you start to be spoken to like that on TV, it starts to hurt and then, you know, then there’s always like take the fast food challenge and see how much meat and grease you can get in your gob in 60 seconds, you know. All these things will never go away, well up to a point, but I think any advertiser or client or service that acknowledges the need to be salient and pertinent and understand the times is actually going to have an advantage because they’re going to be appealing to people’s sense of…
Tim: Yep.
Martyn: The fear, discomfort.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: I mean, every day you read the paper or look online or magazines, it’s another step down, it’s getting worse, you know, and if someone’s talking about 2015 before we…it’s like well whatever.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: It’s a frame of mind. I refuse to acknowledge it.
Tim: Yeah, I do too, I do too.
Martyn: And I think that’s the only way to be.
Tim: So you won’t hear any of this on the podcast.
Martyn: No, that’s good.
Tim: But it is, I mean, the marketer and the marketers that recognise this.
Martyn: Yeah.
Tim: I remember one of the key questions on a brief to an advertising agency or design agency was what is the key insight into the person that you’re trying to appeal to and this is the key insight and this is just like gold because if you understand that people are hurting and as a…if you’re customers are hurting, what do they want, well they want a bit of reassurance, a bit of love, a bit of a cuddle, then the brands and the businesses that reach out and offer that somehow through their creativity, their headlines, their product offering…
Martyn: Yep.
Tim: …whatever, will win.
Martyn: Completely. And the clue to that is look at the brands which aren’t. And I’m not here to mention supermarkets, but I could, but they’re not hugely, you know, I mean, you know, they try and do their best but it’s not much fun. And you’ve got something like…I think it’s the Australian dairy farmers or Australian farmers something corporate, it’s like a farmers market. We just started taking that, so they deliver fruit and veg twice a week, grown in Australia, seasonal, that’s interesting and, you know, butter, bread, yoghurt, whatever you want, and it takes the pain out of going to the local super(16:29) which I think, you know, is great for everyone.
Tim: Yep. We’re going to stop Martyn there, Lukey, for one second because he…he touches on this notion and this concept of being tuned into your customers’ needs is a pretty exciting one. And, you know, like the iPod is a classic example of this, you know, a thousand songs in your pocket and Apple got it right, that’s, you know, they tuned right in to what customers wanted, you know. And there is actually a book that I am in the middle of reading called “Tuned In”.
Luke: Fantastic.
Tim: Yeah, I thought you’d be happy about that. And, look, Tuned In is a great book. It actually takes you through a six step process of how to tune into your customers’ needs and it acknowledges that instead of sitting around trying to figure out what product or service to develop next, or business offering to develop next, it actually gives you these six steps that kind of help you recognise what the customer wants and great example they use at the start of the book is there’s these Japanese businessmen, Japanese business warriors, or whatever they call them, these guys who start at 7 a.m. in the morning, finish at 9 p.m. at night, head off for a bowl of noodles, a bottle of Sake and a bit of karaoke and then hop on the last train home and…
Luke: I’ve got a few mates like that.
Tim: That’s right, they’re not even Japanese.
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: But what they do is they hop on the last train home, fall asleep, get to the end of the line, get woken up by the guard to say you’ve got to get out, mate, there’s no more trains and you can’t stay on the train, so they used to go and fall asleep in rice paddies, rice fields and…
Luke: Can’t be too comfortable.
Tim: No, that’s right. Although a pillow…a grain of rice pillow is actually quite nice so, yeah, yeah. But these guys fall asleep so some clever businessman had the idea of creating these little hotels at the end of train lines which allowed these guys to get a toothbrush and a face washer and a bed for the night. And it was a cheap way of…because the other option was to get a taxi back to their home and it was, you know, going to cost hundreds of Yen.
Luke: Hundreds of Yen.
Tim: Yeah. So…
Luke: Yeah, well fantastic idea.
Tim: Yes, it is a good idea. So that’s an example of being tuned in. And so how do you get tuned into your customers’ needs, Luke?
Luke: Well there’s actually a great blog post I read recently by Ann Smarty who’s a very prevalent SEO consultant and she had…she’s got a couple of great tools to actually find where you can…basically see where…see what people are asking for. Find what…
Tim: Give us three.
Luke: One of them is Yahoo! Answers.
Tim: Yep.
Luke: So do a search on Yahoo! Answers, for people asking questions in your field, in your industry.
Tim: So Yahoo! Answers gives people the opportunity to see what questions are being asked in a particular category or business field and…
Luke: Yep. So find out…you can find out what sort of problems people are having and then obviously try and come up with a solution for them.
Tim: Because as marketers, Luke, we are?
Luke: Problem solvers.
Tim: Correct.
Luke: There’s another one called Aardvark. I’m not too familiar with Aardvark, but we’ll put these links up in our show notes. And the last one, one that Tim and I both love is Twitter. There you can search….
Tim: You never know.
Luke: You can do lots of different advanced searches in Twitter and find out what people are asking for and also geographically based as well so…
Tim: Yeah.
Luke: …you can search within your local region to see what people are asking for.
Tim: Yeah. So what we’ll do, we’ll put those links in the show notes, listeners, as well as the link to that book, Tuned In, because it’s actually a really good read, quite inspiring. So back to Martyn.
Luke: Back to Martyn.
Tim: I’ve got two more questions for you, Martyn, and it’s a question that seems to be…I have a point of view on it but I’ll get yours first, should every business in the world have a website?
Martyn: Yeah, without question. I can’t think of an exception. I’m sure I’ll think about it, later tonight, I’ll go, oh, I should have said except that, but I cannot think of the need for…I mean, one of our…another client is a floor cleaning, they do mops and cloths, and I tried to convince them to do a site which is not about their products but about giving to their consumers, which is like tips and tricks on cleaning. So like, you know, ideas passed down from generations on how to get red wine off whatever with salt and bleach and…
Tim: No brainer.
Martyn: No brainer. Well isn’t it just. I mean, and then that becomes the default go to site for, ooh, I’ve got a stain, where do I go, I go there. Just don’t get it.
Tim: Based on the kind of premise that I think marketers have to realise that it’s about giving information these days. It’s no longer about selling…
Martyn: It’s not about taking.
Tim: It’s no longer about the size of the logo.
Martyn: It’s about giving.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: And that’s the difference.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: I mean, you know, you look at what Michelin Tyres do…
Tim: Generation G.
Martyn: Generation G. What Michelin Tyres did 20 or 30 years ago was to come up with a Michelin roadmap which in itself was pretty funky.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: And then, oh my God, they started…they didn’t start them, but they gave a rating to restaurants.
Tim: Yeah.
Martyn: Which, you know, and yet you look at tyres today and it’s all about well we’ve got the radial 165SX, you know, and you’re going as a consumer, not bothered.
Tim: Whatever.
Martyn: Yeah. Not bothered. But if, you know, they start to add value to…well if you’re going to plan a trip from here to Byron Bay and you’ve got two kids and you want to stop off, well this place is probably the least of a bad deal in Goulburn.
Tim: So we’ve answered that question once and for all.
Martyn: We have.
Tim: Every business needs a website.
Martyn: I believe so, I believe so.
Tim: It’d be struggling to find a reason why you shouldn’t have a website and in fact, you know…
Martyn: For sure.
Tim: They don’t have to be onerous. You know, they can just be…
Martyn: No, no.
Tim: …up there and left, or they can be…
Martyn: Well they shouldn’t be onerous.
Tim: No. But they…or they can be regularly updated and…
Martyn: Absolutely.
Tim: …horses for courses. Righto stop there, stop right there, we have once and for all put a stake in the ground and said every business in the world must have a website, Luke.
Luke: Correct. Doesn’t matter if you’re cleaning toilets, you need a website.
Tim: This is exciting stuff. What would the website for a toilet cleaning business look like?
Luke: Uh…
Tim: Well no, no, no, look like actually, what would it have on it? Maybe that’s a question for another day.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: But just to give our listeners some additional kind of stimuli in order to make a website, because it’s all very well to have a website, but making it actually functional and useful is…
Luke: And, yeah, having interesting stuff on there to attract customers.
Tim: Yep, yep.
Luke: Get them finding more out about your product and yourself.
Tim: So, listeners, here are seven things that you could add to your website to make it a really really useful place to go for your prospects and for your customers. Number one is surveys or polls. Ask questions, and these are little plug ins you can get from WordPress or just ask your web developer, but ask a question and develop…develop over time a series of answers to questions that may help you develop a new product or service.
Luke: Yep, absolutely, it’s a good one.
Tim: Number two?
Luke: Number two, how to’s.
Tim: How to’s. Yeah, how to’s are such a powerful kind of question or…no, it’s not a question really, it’s like…
Luke: Well it’s going back to what we’ve been talking about in this podcast so far, it’s about giving something away. So, you know, show people an aspect of your business.
Tim: Yep.
Luke: Show them how to use your product or…
Tim: Yeah.
Luke: …how your service can benefit them.
Tim: Yeah. And you could do that via, you know, little YouTube videos. You could create little videos, you know, video marketing is becoming so much more prevalent these days, because it’s becoming cheaper to do. Everyone is getting video cameras, they’re even on your phone, so…
Luke: It gives it that personal touch too.
Tim: Yep.
Luke: Put, you know, put yourself…put yourself in the video. Introduce yourself, show people that you’re an upstanding person.
Tim: A bit hard because we’ve got…an upstanding person, an upstanding citizen, bit hard, we’ve got great heads for podcasts…
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: …but maybe not great heads for video.
Luke: That’s right.
Tim: But maybe you, the listener, have a much prettier face than us. Number three, way of making your website sing. Useful is having, definitely having a frequently asked questions section. And the best way of doing that is contact all your customers and ask them what questions do you have about my business and about my category and then answer them.
Luke: Yeah. Or just write down the top ten that you get asked when someone calls up.
Tim: All the time, yeah. Yep.
Luke: It’s fantastic for helping people find out more about your business, but it’s also saving you time on the phone answering those questions.
Tim: Yeah, it is, just bump them.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: This is Luke, sorry, I’m not taking that call. It goes straight to my FAQ section of the website. Number four, have an audio or video file downloadable of yourself talking. I just think it personalises your offer, you know, it’s great to have photos and words, but I think if people can see you…
Luke: Absolutely.
Tim: …or hear you, it’s a wonderful thing.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: Lukey, number five?
Luke: Resources. So although you don’t like to point people off to other websites, it’s always good to give them the opportunity to go and find out more.
Tim: Yeah.
Luke: A perfect example is an accountant, you know.
Tim: Yep.
Luke: Pointing them to important pages on the Tax Office’s website…
Tim: The Tax Office, software to use, other sites that are offering useful information that make your website a whole lot more useful. If you are going to have links, guys, have them open up in a separate window or a separate tab so you’re not navigating off your site.
Luke: Yes.
Tim: Yes. Number six additional thing to your website that is going to make it even more useful, blog, if you can be bothered creating ongoing content, blogs are a wonderful way of adding value. And, Lukey, number seven?
Luke: Seven. Testimonials.
Tim: Yeah.
Luke: Some people love them and some people hate them, but it’s always good to have there, you know.
Tim: Yeah.
Luke: Get some feedback from your satisfied customers and put it up on your website.
Tim: We do get a little shiver up our spine, don’t we, when we go to iTunes and see all the customer reviews that we’re getting. So maybe that’s a bit self centred but also it is a wonderful way too for other people to see that, hey, these guys…or your business, is offering some real value and here’s some customers…
Luke: Also, just quickly going back to when we were talking about LinkedIn previously, you can also ask other people on LinkedIn to recommend you as well.
Tim: Oh, you can too, yeah, that’s good too, good for the ego.
Luke: Correct.
Tim: Good for your ego.
Luke: Yep. So…
Tim: Back to Martyn.
Luke: Back to Martyn.
Tim: Martyn, a business book that has inspired you, what is it, have you got one top of mind that sort of you keep going back to?
Martyn: Um, no.
Tim: Yep, good. Good. Been a fairly regular on this segment.
Luke: Yeah. Perhaps we should ask the question before the interview.
Tim: That’s an idea.
Martyn: I remember reading something about from Nicholas Negroponte which I thought was quite interesting. Because again he was definitely a voyeur and headed his “The Pack”. So there are certain writers which I enjoy reading. But a book as such…
Tim: What about…
Martyn: I know Seth of course, you know, you read sort of bits and pieces of his, you know.
Tim: Yeah, yeah.
Martyn: They’re easy to read.
Tim: Easy to read.
Martyn: Yeah.
Tim: So who is Seth is the question. Martyn did mention Seth and he’s probably the most prolific or one of the most prolific marketing authors going around, Luke.
Luke: Yes. I know you’ve got about five of his books on your shelf, Tim.
Tim: I do like him. Seth Godin is who we’re talking about. One of the original…
Luke: Godin? I call him Godin.
Tim: Godin, Godin.
Luke: Whatever.
Tim: He’s the go to guy though…
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: …for kind of just well written easily understood, challenging, stimulating books on marketing and branding and ways of building your business presence and…
Luke: And it’s not theory, it’s all practical stuff.
Tim: Yeah.
Luke: It’s not sort of theory marketing stuff that will send you to sleep, it’s just some good ideas.
Tim: Yeah. And if you go to our website, SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com and click “Resources”, there’s actually a whole lot of Seth Godin books that we’ve actually listed and reviewed, including Tribes which is one of his…that’s actually his most recent. Purple Cow is one of his most famous, I think, which is a great book for novice marketers, I reckon, to learn a really great concept about providing a point of difference.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: He’s also got “Permission Marketing”, Luke, is one of my favourites. Seth Godin’s book on Permission Marketing is…it was written quite a long time ago, in 1999, and it was about this concept of you’ve got to give to get, which is a lot of what we’ve been talking about in our chat with Martyn. And Permission Marketing is just a great book. So if I was going to buy any…actually if I was going to buy any Seth Godin book to start with…
Luke: Permission Marketing?
Tim: Yeah, Permission Marketing or Purple Cow.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: Get them both. They’re pretty cheap. He’s got, “Small Is The New Big”, “The Big Moo”, and then the one that was written about Luke Moulton called, “All Marketers Are Liars”.
Luke: Please.
Tim: Bit harsh. So Seth Godin, that’s who Martyn was referring to when he mentioned Seth. Martyn must be on first name terms with Seth.
Luke: It certainly sounds like it, doesn’t it.
Tim: Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah, Martyn, thanks for coming in, mate.
Luke: Thanks for coming in, Martyn.
Tim: Really appreciate you joining us in at Small Business Big Marketing and kind of…a little bit inspired to think that you may think there’s some kind of longevity or need for it out in the market place, despite the fact that it’s…what we’re doing is not a new idea, we hope we’re doing it better than the others. And with thanks for your input. I know from a listener point of view it will be really really valuable.
Martyn: Good. Oh, it’s a pleasure and thanks for having me.
Tim: Sweat. All right, Lukey, well that has been a ripper discussion with Martyn. So, Martyn, thanks a million for coming in.
Luke: Thanks for coming in, Martyn.
Tim: Very interesting stuff, all around community, brand, communication. So some good stuff there to go on with, listeners. And we are now going to address a question from one of our listeners who has asked us about…clearly knows that we’re iPhone geeks and want to know what our favourite iPhone application is. So hopefully there’s a few listeners out there that do have iPhone applications or actually have an iPhone and are looking for good applications. I would say, Luke, that from me, for mine, iPhone applications that really make my business life a whole lot easier are just things like being able to update your Facebook, being able to update your LinkedIn profile.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: Being able to Twitter from your iPhone.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: Things like eBay, PayPal, those things have been golden for me to be able to just continually do that whilst I’m not near my computer.
Luke: Yep. Well you’ve stolen all the good ones, Tim. But some other ones for me, I actually like…I do a lot…a fair bit of driving, I commute a fair bit, so Voice Memos is a good one, when I come up…think of an idea and I’m driving, I can’t jot it down, so Voice Memos is a good one.
Tim: Yeah, yeah.
Luke: Another one I like, I’m a bit of a Google Analytics nerd, so there’s actually an Analytics app. It’s not that cheap actually, I think it’s five or six bucks.
Tim: Oh well.
Luke: It’s not that cheap for an app but it’s very handy for logging in and seeing your website, Analytics.
Tim: You’re being a bit of a tight arse by saying five or six bucks is expensive…
Luke: Expensive for an iPhone app.
Tim: Yeah, relatively speaking, yeah. So they’re definitely ones that make having an iPhone really worthwhile. And if you want a good game, I’ve got to tell you, Touch Physics is a ripper.
Luke: I’ll have to try that one.
Tim: It’s addictive. And, Lukey, just speaking of iPhone applications…
Luke: Yes.
Tim: …I think either next show or the one after, we’re going to have a guy who has developed and marketed an iPhone application and done pretty well out of it.
Luke: He has done pretty well.
Tim: So that’s coming up, listeners. That’s a really interesting interview of someone who had an idea for an iPhone application, found someone to develop it, found a great way of marketing it.
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: And is now sitting back and smoking a big Cuban on a hammock in, I don’t know, Fiji. Maybe not quite but…
Luke: Not quite.
Tim: No. Okay, last but not least, winners of our competition for leaving an iTunes review for our show…
Luke: Yep.
Tim: …are, and what do they win?
Luke: They’re winning The Connection Generation which was from…written by Iggy Pintado who was…
Tim: A pervious guest.
Luke: …the star of our last show.
Tim: He was a star.
Luke: And he’s been kind enough to give away three of his books.
Tim: So the winners are Nicole Hammet, Jake from Malvern and Nicky Tyler. And, Nicky, we’re not sure whether we should actually give it to you, but we’re going to because you redeemed yourself with your last bit of the comment. The comment was, “Their style of bounce off each other humour is often of the groan variety, but always brings a smile”. So, Nick, redeemed yourself there. Thank you for leaving those comments on iTunes and if you haven’t left a comment on iTunes about our show, please do…
Luke: Please, please do.
Tim: Because it’s good for Luke’s ego. Those three winners, guys, if you could please email us at…
Luke: Questions@SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com.
Tim: And just leave your…give us your postal address that we can send you a signed and personalised copy of the book too.
Luke: Yep.
Tim: That’d be a great thing. And I reckon…is that it, Luke?
Luke: That’s it. But if you have anyone in your area or in your industry that you want us to interview…
Tim: Or in your head.
Luke: In your head.
Tim: But you want us to interview. People who are doing really really really good marketing.
Luke: Yeah.
Tim: We’d love to speak to them and interview them and pick their brain so…
Luke: And share them with everyone else on our podcast.
Tim: Yeah, that’s it. So send that through to questions@big…no, what is it? It’s questions@SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com, that would be the name of our show.
Luke: That’s it.
Tim: Thanks for listening and say hi to your, what, brother and sister? I don’t know. Have a good…
Luke: We’ll catch you next time.
Tim: Yeah, have a good one, see you.
Lovingly transcribed by The Transcription People
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