It’s time for another episode of Funny Business with Australia’s best selling marketing author, Andrew Griffiths aka Griffo, and me, Timbo Reid. This time round, we get really stuck into big marketing questions like how to create a virtual marketing team, and how to know when it’s the right time to start your business. There’s more marketing tips than you could poke a bunch of bananas at!
Griffo and I also chew the fat over how businesses that are losing their touch can regain connections with their customer base and make positive impressions on their bottom line. PLUS, I introduce our brand new sponsor, 99designs, and an awesome offer from them exclusively for Small Business Big Marketing listeners. Let’s get started!
In this session of Small Business Big Marketing, you’ll discover:
- What made me cry tears of both sadness and joy in the last week.
- Why it is essential for any business website owner to never lost sight of WHY they have a website in the first place, and what it needs to do.
- How outsourcing marketing work can give you the space to experiment with your business.
- Why it is important that business owners should never assume that people know their business exists.
- The power of getting to know your customers – talk to them, and listen to their needs.
- How you can source your own virtual marketing team.
- Why it is important to invest in marketing today for the success of your business tomorrow.
- All about knowing when it is the right time to revamp your website.
- The importance of ensuring that your business changes with the market – don’t let it stagnate.
- Why you need to have criteria in place to know when you can give away business freebies and when it just won’t work.
Episode Timeline
- 3.45 Can’t catch a break with online marketing? Get it SORTED with Netregistry.
- 9.00 Time management and the power of creating your own virtual marketing team.
- 12.00 Ways to find great, affordable experts who can be part of your virtual marketing team.
- 14.00 Introducing our new sponsor – 99designs! Head to 99designs.com/sbbm for a free 99designs Power Pack.
- 17.30 The ways that outsourcing can allow you to experiment with your marketing and try things out without commiting to vast amounts of spending.
- 20.00 Figuring out the reasons why a business that was previously successful might lose its touch.
- 25.00 Knowing your customers and spending time with them – the cornerstone of grassroots marketing.
- 30.30 Launching websites – how can you know when is the right time? And how can you be sure your website is what you want it to be?
- 41.30 The importance of producing helpful, relevant content on a regular basis (for both Google and your customers).
- 42.00 All about work freebies and putting criteria in place to assess when you can commit to giving freebies and when it doesn’t make sense.
- 49.00 Consistency versus inconsistency in business. How to be familiar but also add new elements to a business.
Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode
- 99designs special offer for listeners – Follow the link for a 99designs Power Package
- Andrew Griffiths official website
- Netregistry answers your marketing questions for free
- The Small Business Big Marketing online community
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Over to you!
Let us know YOUR key takeaways from this episode by leaving a comment below. I personally read and respond to every comment!
Grab My 10 Marketing
15 thoughts on “201- Get more done with less, freebies, how to avoid being unsuccessful … plus a bunch of marketing tips!”
Good stuff guys. I get asked to coffee all the time for free consults for other service businesses (tradies) for ideas on their marketing. Unless they could be an industry partner where I can get referrals, I’ve started to turn them down.
On the topic of changing things up, I think we as business owners get tired of our marketing way faster than our customers do. We see it everyday, and they don’t. Of course, I am not talking about a website that is 5 years old and out dated. I do see those too. I think the bigger issue for small business is getting your message right, and then keeping everything consistent. Too many small businesses are all over the place, or worse, have no idea of message. I’ve just recently come into the light thanks to Timbo!
Anyway, good show guys. Keep sharing the love!
Really awesome show because of the very serious discussion about how to know when to upgrade a website. I personally rely on google analytics a lot to help clients in determining whether their existing website is doing the job that they expect. Analytics data like bounce rate and pages per session are often helpful for knowing if your website is being a good or bad salesperson (meaning, is your website scaring people away by giving a bad first impression?) Just today we found for a client however that simply updating the header area would be a way to help visitors understand more about the services offered and to help encourage engagement and action. So if a business doesn’t have the $$ to spend on a whole new site, it can still be helpful to look at whether smaller, more affordable updates could do the trick.
We also rely on another site we built for our own goals of measuring an additional, crucial piece of data to evaluate if any website is a good or bad salesperson. This data is in the form of real visitor answers to very targeted questions, which we’re able to collect quickly and affordably using US-based microworkers. Check out http://www.ismywebsitegood.com/FND to see this system (its still in beta so excuse the looks.)
Thanks Steve. You make some good points. We can’t manage what we don’t measure.
Message is everything, Nick. Well, nearly everything! It’s too easy to focus on the medium – that’s the fun stuff. But crafting a message that resonates with your best mates is critical. Just hard, though! Having a great writer on your virtual marketing team is a great start. Regarding getting tired of our marketing before anyone else? Totally agree. I recall my days in advertising when a new marketing manager would start on the client’s side, and would want to change everything – more to make their mark, than because it was broken! Often a waste of time, and money.
Hello Timbo,
I’ve just finished redoing my website (which still needs some work) and I would like to know which 4 or 5 small business websites you think score 10 out of 10. -Mark form Dago Dairy (pronounced Dargo).
Warning: your podcasts are addictive!
Thanks Mark! Your question re websites is quite broad as it depends on what they’re scoring 10/10 for. There’s plenty of great websites out there – but I think the key factor is the good ones offer the user a great experience and are full of helpful content.
See we can be serious, even though the conversation is funny business. It’s a big topic, one that need discussion. Thanks for the info re http://www.ismywebsitegood.com. Cheers – Andrew
Yep, respect your time, protect your time! Thanks for the feedback – I love doing funny business – a great way to share ideas and have a chat with the Prince of Podcasting!!!
And the queen of book writing ;0)
Hi Timbo,
I am pretty sure this was the one I was listening too. You guys were looking for a word for Continuos Improvement, the only one I can think of is Kaizen which is a Japanese word meaning the same. Someone once told me there is no word in the English language to describe Continuos Improvement as you can see it stuck with me.
In the last few months you have really taken this show to a whole new level.
Well Done!
Thanks Michael. I’ve been practising kazien! Appreciate you following up. Look out for the next few months, more kaizen to come ;0)
I like to think of us as the Samurai’s of the Small Business world………without the pony tails! Love Kaizen, a big fan and advocate.
Loved this episode! I’m so glad you’re still doing Funny Business, you guys make an awesome team. My fav Timbo quote this episode was: “”Here we go, the word ‘Guru'” haha 🙂 To pick up on one of Andrew’s points – it’s not just free stuff people sometimes deliver a service poorly on. Have you ever used a 2 for 1 meal voucher at a restaurant for example, where you get second rate service because you’re using one of their vouchers – which is the whole reason you’re choosing their place over eating/drinking elsewhere. People need to deliver discounted services with excellence as well.
Great point, Rosie. If you commit to doing something, then you do it at 100%.
Great episode – we provide local virtual marketing teams for tradies and field service businesses – we do everything from SEO/blog writing/social media/newsletters etc.
Its a new concept for tradies in particular but they are really starting to love the difference outsourcing and virtual teams can make to their business.
Allows them to grow their business while they work less without breaking the bank!