SBBM #24: 10 Marketing Nuggets to Help Grow your Business (Part #1)

SBBM #24 – 10 Marketing Nuggets to Help Grow Your Business (Part #1)

Ms Evancich:  This is the Small Business Big Marketing show with Tim Reid and Luke Moulton.  This show is lovingly put together for small business owners by small business owners to get practical ideas about attracting more customers more often.  So, if you’re serious about building your business strap in for the ride.  Now, here’s your hosts, Tim and Luke.

Tim:  Lukey, Lukey, Lukey.  How are you, Dad?

Luke:  Very well, Timbo.  Yourself?

Tim:  Very good, thank you.  Good morning, listeners.  This is the morning for us.  Good morning and welcome back to Small Business Big Marketing.

Luke:  Dot com.

Tim:  Dot com.  The show where we hope to inspire by within five years, Luke, every small business owner in the world.

Luke:  Five years, Timbo?

Tim:  Well, I mean, I said in the world …

Luke:  What were you doing five years …

Tim:  … I didn’t say …

Luke:  What were you doing five years ago?

Tim:  Yeah, good question.  Establishing a business.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  Establishing a business.  My business is about six years old.

Luke:  Yeah, I was trying to think.

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  I remember when you walked … walked through the doors when I was working at (0:59) I had my own web development business and you said, “Lukey, build me a website.”

Tim:  Did I?  Goodness me, that was a long time ago.

Luke:  And I don’t want to pay anything for it.

Tim:  It feels … yeah, yeah.  Yeah, that’d be right.  Yeah.  Yeah.  No, look, I … it’s been a long ride really.

Luke:  Yeah, yep.

Tim:  Can’t believe it’s six years.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  But anyway I didn’t come here to reflect on my …

Luke:  No.

Tim:  … business building acumen.

Luke:  Timbo …

Tim:  How are you, mate?

Luke:  I’m …

Tim:  How’s Isabella?

Luke:  She is doing beautifully.  She is … she’s sleeping quite well.  All these … all the horror stories that every bloke has delighted …

Tim:  Not true.

Luke:  … in sharing with me, so far, touch wood …

Tim:  All lies.

Luke:  … she’s been pretty good.  In saying that, my wife has been fantastic.

Tim:  Lovely.

Luke:  Given that I drove about, well I spend a couple of hours in the car a day.

Tim:  You do.

Luke:  So she … I think she wants to make sure I get home okay.

Tim:  Now, Lukey, you told me a very very interesting story.  So your wife rings you yesterday and says what?

Luke:  Well I … I was on my way home and I had rang … rang my wife Kim and said, “Anything you want me to pick up?” and she’s gone, “No, no, we’re all good.  By the way, I’ve ordered you an iPad.”

Tim:  There it is.

Luke:  What a beautiful woman.

Tim:  That is love.

Luke:  And …

Tim:  That is love right there.

Luke:  And funnily enough I’d just before I’d spoken to her I’d actually sneakily purchased one.

Tim:  Is sneakily a word?

Luke:  It is now.

Tim:  Yeah, okay.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  So … so there you go.  Your wife Kim …

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  … expresses her love, her deepest love for you by buying you an … ordering you an iPad.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  She rings … or you ring her, she tells you that and you’ve actually got one sitting … sitting … what, sitting in the baby seat in the back?

Luke:  Correct.

Tim:  Strapped in?

Luke:  Correct.  So she had to quickly go back onto Apple’s website and cancel.

Tim:  Wow.  And now interestingly, that’s … that’s interesting.  I’m looking at your iPad right now and you seem to hold the same opinion as me that it’s a … it’s a lovely object of desire.

Luke:  Yeah.  I’m … I’m trying to … I’m determined to turn it into a productivity tool but so far I’ve failed miserably.

Tim:  Well, yeah.  Yes.  I … I can’t … yeah, we couldn’t force it into being a productivity tool right this minute.

Luke:  No.

Tim:  But we do love it, we’re both sitting here, listeners, with our iPads.  We have our show notes on our iPad.  Lukey is showing me some amazing apps.  Pinball.  Angry birds.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Yeah.  So, look, there is a way to go, isn’t there?  But still I’m not disappointed I got one.  And it’s got me blogging again which I’m excited about.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Because I find that being able to sit in a cafe and write a blog is much more creative for me than it is sitting at a laptop in the office writing a blog.

Luke:  Yeah, it’s … it’s just … it’s a lot less formal.  You know, you can feel like you can … you can sit on the … sit on the couch and not …

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  … be isolated.

Tim:  Correct.

Luke:  I mean, even … even with the family around.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah.

Luke:  Sort of it’s a … it’s a convenient tool.  It’s certainly great for social media.  I’ve got Twitter open right now as we speak.

Tim:  You’re clever.  Look at you.  (3:57).  Hey, Lukey, just a big big shout out to our favourite listeners, which is all of them.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  Because Small Business Big Marketing continues to do really good things on iTunes and although that’s great for our egos it is really appreciated that the listeners have decided to continue to download it at a feverish rate and leave so much feedback.  And that feedback not only helps us stay at the top of iTunes but it actually helps us know what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong.

Luke:  Yeah, we’ve had … we’ve had quite a few …

Tim:  We have.

Luke:  … listener feedback in questions over the last …

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  … last month.

Tim:  Ripper questions too.  Really really good stuff.

Luke:  Yeah.  And we … we might do an episode … basically an episode dedicated to those …

Tim:  Next ep.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  Next episode …

Luke:  Next episode.

Tim:  … is listener questions.  So, listeners, if you want to get one in before we do that episode in a week’s time or so, then send it to questions@SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com and just put your question and maybe a link to your website so we can get a sense of exactly what it is you do.  Now, Lukey.

Luke:  Timbo.

Tim:  This is an exciting show because today we’re not going to interview anyone.

Luke:  No.

Tim:  We are going to share with our listeners ten marketing nuggets to get them instant interaction.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  So ten marketing nuggets to get you, the small business owner, instant interaction.  So what does instant interaction mean?  It just means something you can do right now, once the show’s finished, although feel free to pause at any of the ten points that we share with you if they excite you enough, to get you interacting with your prospects and clients on a more regular, more … what’s the word?  Authentic basis.

Luke:  Yeah, yeah.

Tim:  Yeah?

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  So let’s get into number one, mate.  Number one, that would have to be mine.  We’ve got our names here … we’ve got our name against each one on our little iPad.  Number one is Tim’s.  Now, number one Formspring.

Luke:  Formspring.

Tim:  Lukey.

Luke:  Tim.

Tim:  Yeah, I’m a big …

Luke:  You’ve been raving about Formspring and I’ve got to be honest.

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  I really haven’t looked into it much, so …

Tim:  At all?

Luke:  Oh, I’ve had a quick look.

Tim:  Okay.

Luke:  So tell us?

Tim:  Tell, okay.  So Formspring, Formspring.me, M-E.  And if you want to check out our Formspring, which Luke hasn’t contributed to at all, it’s Formspring.me/sbbm for Small Business Big Marketing.  Now, I have no idea why it is called Formspring but it’s basically a website where if you setup a free account people can come and ask you questions of which you then provide the answer.  And over the course of time your Formspring profile builds up.  And for me, and for us, it’s going … it’s going to be a great way of people asking questions of us which we can give instant answers to.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  And you could say, oh, well you can do that on Twitter or Facebook or whatever, but, yeah, absolutely you can, but this is a dedicated question answering format.

Luke:  Okay.

Tim:  Yeah.  So I really like it.  When you answer the question … and, you know, you can ask questions anonymously or you can ask questions, you know, with your name and email and all that type of stuff.  Once you answer the question it then heads out back through Twitter and Facebook.  And I just really like it as a value-add to your prospects, as a real way of interacting with your prospects that maybe wasn’t there before.  And it’s very very instant.  If anyone knows why it’s called Formspring please let me know, because it’s doing my head in.

Luke:  Sounds awesome.

Tim:  Yeah.  And so it’s Formspring.me and you can check us out.  We’ll put a link in the show notes to that.  I suggest you as a small business owner get a Formspring page because it’s going to allow … and then put it out on your Twitter and your Facebook and your LinkedIn and any other social media you have, even your … if you happen to advertise I wouldn’t hesitate by putting a Formspring profile in your … in your advertising or your direct mail and say, hey, if you’ve got a question that you’d like to ask anonymously or whatever …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … then come on over and … and I’ll feed you back an answer.

Luke:  Cool.  Good one.

Tim:  Number two, Lukey.  Number two.

Luke:  Number two.

Tim:  Of our ten marketing nuggets …

Luke:  Oh, I like this one, Timbo.

Tim:  … to get you some instant interaction.  What have you got?

Luke:  Schedule Tweets.

Tim:  Controversial.  Controversial.

Luke:  Now, Timbo, I know you’ve done it.

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  I certainly do it myself.

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  You … this is particular important, I think, for people that are operating in multiple time zones.

Tim:  Oh.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  If you want a global audience.

Luke:  If … if you have a … if you have a global audience or you want to try and attract a global audience …

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  … scheduling Tweets for other countries time zones is … is a pretty cool thing to do because …

Tim:  Yeah, yeah.

Luke:  And you can also appear that you’re working 24 hours a day.

Tim:  Oh, yeah, but I don’t reckon that … yes, yeah, possibly, but …

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  What I like about it is the fact and I … yes, we do have a global audience so scheduling Tweets is important to us so we know that there’s stuff going out when we’re punching a few zeds.  But I also like it because the reality is you’re not in front of your computer …

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  … all day …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … being able to Tweet.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  When I first started doing it about a year ago scheduling some Tweets I did think it would … it defeated the purpose.  But now it just allows me to start conversations when I’m not there, it allows me to share information …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … when I’m not there.  And what it does is then if I get back after a day’s work, there might have been four or five Tweets that have gone out and people will have got … some people might have re-Tweeted them, some people might have responded to them and then I start the conversation, you know.

Luke:  The thing about social media, and particularly Twitter, and Facebook, is regularity.  I think you’ve always got to try and be regular and consistent to …

Tim:  Absolutely.

Luke:  … to keep the conversation with your audience.

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  To keep it happening.  And a good … a good twit … a good twit.

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  A good tip, you know, if you’re struggling for things to Tweet about is, you know, go through … if you’ve got an FAQ on your website or you’ve written some articles on your website …

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  … go through and pick … pick out, you know, a dozen or so short tips.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah.

Luke:  And schedule them into Twitter.  And one of the good ones, I think you use it, Timbo, so do I, is Hootsuite.

Tim:  Hootsuite.  Yeah, once again … oh, actually I can figure out where that name came from because Twitter, Owl.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  Hoot.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  Yeah, strange.  Hootsuite I think is the only Twitter client that I found that allows you to schedule.

Luke:  There’s another one called CoTweet.

Tim:  CoTweet.

Luke:  Which is a bit more advanced.  It actually lets teams Tweet and use the same account.

Tim:  Right.  What I’ll … I’ll let you into another secret, Lukey, and listeners, is that, yes, scheduling Tweets is a good thing.  I also … if I think I’ve … if I’ve got a little bit of a gem of a Tweet, maybe a little marketing tip or an idea or a link or something, I’ll Tweet it immediately, I’ll cut and paste it into another Tweet and maybe send it a couple of weeks down the track.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Because sharing it just once often means not everyone … well clearly not everyone’s going to see it.  So it gives … it give the opportunity for people to see it.

Luke:  Yes, that’s something I do with Flippa too.  I actually … I actually repeat it within 12 hours, because that’s when obviously …

Tim:  Oh, yeah, yeah, global.

Luke:  … the audience global … global audience, all that sort of stuff.

Tim:  Lovely work, Lukey.  There’s a whole lot we could … we … we should do … we should find a Twitter expert.  Although I reckon we could answer enough questions on Twitter but it is, it’s still growing.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  You know, we … if you listened to some of our early shows 12 months ago we really hammered Twitter.  I think we’ve pulled back a bit.  But it’s still there, it’s growing strong and been a very useful business tool, certainly for my business.

Luke:  So another string to the bow, Timbo.

Tim:  And I … Lukey, you’ve got your own personal Twitter account, I’ve got mine, but we do have a Small Business Big Marketing Twitter account which has been a little bit dormant.  Only because we’ve kind of been doing our own but I think what we will be doing is sending out more Tweets …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … through that as well as our own accounts.  So that’s … the Twitter handle for that is therealsbbm.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Okay, number three in our top marketing nuggets to get you some instant interaction.

Luke:  And it’s one of yours, Timbo.

Tim:  Yeah, I do like this.  Book into a course, Lukey.  You can never ever stop learning.  Did I say earning?  You certainly can’t … don’t stop earning.

Luke:  No, no, you said learning.

Tim:  At … did I?  Okay.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  Well never stop learning.  We talked about this in a previous show just recently where, you know, as small business owners we can get so caught up in the day to day doing of our business that we often forget to educate ourselves.  And just from a pure marketing point of view the world continues to change at a rapid pace.  Point number one in this show we talked about Formspring.  You know, what was Formspring six months ago?  It might have been there.  I don’t know, it might have been a beta version of something.  Now it’s there, it’s real and the marketing world’s changed.  You cannot stop learning and so I would suggest, listeners, go and book yourself into a course, whether it be a one hour course, a webinar, a full day or a two day intensive, Luke.

Luke:  Two day marketing intensive, Timbo.

Tim:  Two day marketing intensive, what a great idea.  We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  But you can’t, you know, you cannot stop learning.  And, you know, I think more and more too, we mentioned webinars, do webinars.  Webinars are such gold.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  You know, for an hour you might pay, you might pay 50 bucks, you might pay less.  Some are free, you know.  But, you know, 50 bucks to listen to an expert on a particular topic I think is gold, you know.  So that’s … that’s a … that’s a bit of a no brainer.

Luke:  And I certainly know, Timbo, you’ve quite often picked up business.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Well absolutely.  I mean, you … I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking at going to some kind of training or some kind of course and seeing it as a … as a networking opportunity.

Luke:  Yeah, definitely.

Tim:  Absolutely not.  I mean, you’re full … they’re full of likeminded people there.  And particularly in the type of courses we’re talking about where clearly it’s going to be around some aspect of marketing.  There’s going to be people there who you’re going to connect with.  I went to a three day course earlier this year or late last year, I can’t remember, but I made a number of contacts there.  And … and have subsequently done business with them.  But also shared knowledge.

Luke:  Yeah, yeah.

Tim:  It’s been fantastic.  Lukey, we’re going to pause there and talk about the intensive.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  The Small Business Big Marketing two day intensive at Caulfield Racecourse in August.  The news is that we are, I am, going to be dropping the price significantly.

Luke:  Timbo.

Tim:  Yes, there it is, you heard it first on Small Business Big Marketing.

Luke:  Dot com.

Tim:  Dot com.  You’re going to ask why I did that.

Luke:  Timbo, why’d you do that?

Tim:  Great question, Lukey.  There is three things.  And this is in absolute transparency.  And for all those listening who have booked, yes, you will see 50% of your money refunded.

Luke:  50%.

Tim:  Well, no, no.

Luke:  No.

Tim:  That’s not true.

Luke:  No, not 50%.

Tim:  100%.  We’re cutting the price by 50%.  You’ll get 100% of your money refunded.  Because …

Luke:  No, it’s not.  Anyway, go on.

Tim:  Is that right?

Luke:  No.

Tim:  What’s right?

Luke:  If you say they get 100% of their money returned …

Tim:  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke:  … they get it all back.

Tim:  Yeah, that’s right.

Luke:  They’re coming for free, Timbo.

Tim:  Geez.  I tell you what, numbers was never my thing.  And it’s still not.  So, okay, so here’s the thing.  I got the price wrong.  Yeah.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Absolutely got the price wrong.  As you said to me before we turned the microphone on, often we think we’re our audience and as much as we like to think well we are, we’re small business owners and we’re people who understand the small business market, what I found is the people who were booking and who were enquiring were medium sized businesses.  And that’s great.  You know, can’t … you know, nothing wrong with that, we love medium size businesses.  We’re here to help small to medium size businesses.  But we want to see more small businesses …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … at the intensive.  And it just … they just weren’t coming along.  They were baulking at the price.  Despite the fact that I thought the price was fairly reasonable, particularly given the amount of quality free bonus we were giving away.  Okay.  But that’s life.  I got it wrong.  And I think there was also an element of greed.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  Where I thought, you know what, gee, if I get that many people at that number then, gee, you know, here we go, everyone’s a winner.  But … and I was just so excited about getting the intensive up I didn’t put enough thought into it.  Because part of the intensive for me, and for Small Business Big Marketing, is it’s … it’s a … it’s a large part of where we want to take this brand.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  You know, to be able to run multiple intensives throughout the year is, you know, certainly from my point of view, really fundamental …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … to the next five year plan.  Anyway.  So got the price wrong.  Weren’t seeing enough small businesses and solopreneurs booking.  And so we’ve dropped the price 50%.  All the value remains unchanged.  So there is still about just under five grand’s worth of free bonuses.  There is still a June 30 early bird offer and the price does go up by another … by 500 bucks it goes up after June 30.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  So really enough of that.  But I think there was learning there, (a) I wanted to tell … share that with our audience and tell them to get in there.  If you’re a small business owner the price is now just so accessible.  The reason I’m not saying what the price is I really do want you to go to SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com and click on the Intensive button and find out all about it.  Because if I just say the price alone you won’t see the value and that’s really important.

Luke:  Yep, go and check it out.

Tim:  That was a bit of honesty there, wasn’t it, Luke?

Luke:  It was, yes, very refreshing, Timbo.

Tim:  (17:24).

Luke:  No, no.  It’s … I think it’s always good to be transparent.

Tim:  You just said I’m a liar.

Luke:  No, not …

Tim:  Yes, you did.

Luke:  No, no, no.  No.

Tim:  Look me in the eye.

Luke:  No, Timbo.

Tim:  Okay, lovely.

Luke:  Not at all.

Tim:  Lovely.

Luke:  Okay, next one.

Tim:  Did you blow wave your hair today?

Luke:  No.  There’s a little bit of product there.

Tim:  There is a little bit of product.

Luke:  Not unlike yourself, Tim.

Tim:  No, true.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  True.  At least I shaved.

Luke:  At least I’ve got … and at least I’ve got more hair than you.

Tim:  Lukey, number four, what have you got?

Luke:  Be active in forums.

Tim:  Yeah.  Ripper.

Luke:  Certainly … certainly something I’ve been trying to do recently for Small Business Big Marketing is go and spend a bit of time in flying solo forum.  Certainly with … with Flippa as well I spend probably at least a minimum 20 minutes to half an hour checking out forums where I know that our audience are hanging out.  And, you know, it’s … it’s a good way to find out what your audience wants.

Tim:  Yeah.  Cheap research.

Luke:  Very cheap research.  And also interact with your audience and help them, answer questions and become the expert.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah.

Luke:  And another bonus is that quite often it’s good for SEO.  In most forums you can … you can drop a link back to your site …

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  … in your signature, you can add a signature.

Tim:  So does … does that … does that make it a back link?

Luke:  It makes it a back link.

Tim:  Yeah, that’s important.  So what’s a back link, Lukey, for those …

Luke:  Oh, it’s a link on another site that links back to your website.

Tim:  And who loves those?

Luke:  Google loves those.

Tim:  Google do love those.  So that’s … gee, cheap research.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Cheap marketing.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Cheap way to get back links.  Adds value to your site.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  How do you find forums?

Luke:  There are a number of certainly top 100 forum lists.  Off the top of my head I don’t know but we’ll drop it into the show notes.

Tim:  So if you were to key in, like let’s say you were an accountant.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Would you just key in accountant forums Australia and …

Luke:  Yeah, you might.  Not sure that there’s a lot of people hanging around discussing tax law, but …

Tim:  Oh, rubbish.  I reckon that’s not … I reckon that’s a bit harsh.  Say sorry to all the accountants listening.

Luke:  Sorry, accountants.

Tim:  Thank you.

Luke:  Photography is a good one.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah.

Luke:  So if you’re a professional photographer …

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  … there … there are truckloads of photography forums with amateur photographers.

Tim:  Or asking about, you know, how do I get shutter speed right or how do I get …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  What’s the best camera for night time …

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  … or …

Luke:  So …

Tim:  So it’s about responding and adding value.

Luke:  Correct.  Basic thing you can do is type in the particular topic you’re interested in to Google, followed by forum.  So photography forums, for example.  And perhaps if you want to be country specific, you know, photography forums Australia, for example.

Tim:  Yeah, okay.  That’s a great one.  And we are going to have a forum one day soon.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  True.

Luke:  Hopefully a couple of weeks off actually.

Tim:  I thought you were going to say no.  Is it really that …

Luke:  No.

Tim:  Is it pretty close?

Luke:  It is pretty close.

Tim:  My goodness.

Luke:  And …

Tim:  All right.

Luke:  I just want to also have a … do a bit of a shout out here to someone who’s helping us …

Tim:  Oh, yeah.

Luke:  … with that and that’s Charlie Leetham.  Charlie is helping us out with some WordPress stuff and she’s done a …

Tim:  Lovely work, Charlie.

Luke:  If you want to check out Charlie, ask Charlie Leetham and Leetham is spelt L-E-E-T-H-A-M.com.

Tim:  I love Charlie as a girl’s name.

Luke:  It is quite a nice …

Tim:  It’s a great name.

Luke:  … girl’s name.

Tim:  It’s actually a good name, girl’s name, boy’s name, dog’s name.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  Sorry to all those Charlie’s who aren’t dogs but.

Luke:  Your dog’s name is Charlie.

Tim:  Oh, it is too.  I didn’t even think of that.  How funny.  Hey, Lukey, I like that one.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Tip number five, ask for referrals.

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  I cannot  … I’ve just started, talking of webinars just before, I’m running a webinar on referral marketing.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Because I believe that it is one of the most underdone aspects for a small business marketing strategy, yeah.  And I believe … the reason I believe … let me share some statistics, I saw some statistics the other day.  They’re American statistics and they are from marketing officers of small to medium businesses and they, 54% of them, and there was about two and a half thousand interviewed, 54% of them said that most of their leads come from referrals, right.  54%, most of their leads come from referrals.  Next question was, “Where are you going to put your money in the next 12 months in order to generate your business in order to generate enquiry?”  In the top 15 list of answers, referral marketing did not exist.  Yeah.  So how did that work?  And my theory is people don’t know how to go about referral marketing.

Luke:  Yeah, yep.

Tim:  They kind of … when someone kinds in, you know, word of mouth, “Hey, you should” … oh, we get lots of referrals from word of mouth but that’s like crossing your fingers and hope that they come in, there’s not a … there’s not a strategy in place.  So I think get a referral marketing strategy.  Start asking for referrals.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Asking friends, colleagues, clients, hey, you know, do you like what we’re doing?  Who would you … could you refer us to a couple of people?

Luke:  The way … the way I used to do it when I had … when I had a web development business …

Tim:  Did you have a web development business?

Luke:  Yes.

Tim:  I didn’t know that.

Luke:  Yeah, yeah.  You should remember I developed a couple of websites for you, Timbo.

Tim:  That’s right.

Luke:  We actually used to put on a client day twice a year and …

Tim:  You were very good at that.

Luke:  And we’d take them to a winery.  Usually involved alcohol.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke:  But it doesn’t have to.

Tim:  Yeah.

Luke:  And we’d basically shout them a good time and then hopefully, I mean apart from saying, “Thanks everyone for coming.  We hope that you remember us …

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  … when you’re speaking to others.”  Didn’t try to sell them anything on the day.

Tim:  Yeah, I was critical of those.  Because I reckon … I was very very … I thought the stuff that you did, like I remember doing a cooking class at the Victoria Market with you guys.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  You had bus winery tours, sailing days.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  You really did do it very well.  My criticism, and I think I might have even said it to you way back then, was why not ask … where’s the ask?  Where is the ask?

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  It’s business.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  You know.  Take your family out for a nice sail on the bay and don’t ask for anything but this is business.  And I just think … and, you know, listeners, feel free to email us in if you think I’m wrong here but …

Luke:  Questions@SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com.

Tim:  Thank you.  But, you know, like I just don’t think there’s anything wrong with the ask.  And maybe you’re scared of the answer.  Maybe you’re scared someone will say …

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  … no.

Luke:  No.

Tim:  I’m not going to refer you.  But that’s not going to happen.

Luke:  No.

Tim:  That’s not going to happen.  I just think … and in terms of a referral marketing strategy, implementing one, we’ve done a previous interview the head of SendOutCards, Kody Bateman.  SendOutCards is a wonderful way of asking for referrals.  You can actually setup, and I have a strategy that I share on this webinar that I run, which is about actually a six month plan where you send a fun card, you send … you send a card asking for a referral the next month, the next month you send a thank you card, thanks for your business.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  Next month you ask for a referral.  And you can spread that over six months, 12 months, whatever it is, but that is an automated campaign that goes out to everyone you know, so there’s a huge amount of leverage and you’ve got a referral strategy.  And it, you know, it costs peanuts.

Luke:  A dollar a card.

Tim:  A dollar a card.  So, yeah, cheap stuff.  Referral marketing, Lukey.

Luke:  They really should have an iPad app.

Tim:  It is … I am told SendOutCards are … they do have one.  It’s in … well it’s not even in development, it’s developed, it’s being beta tested.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  I know someone who’s seen it.  Plus an iPad app.  But I’m not allowed to say either of those things because I … it is in development.  And, you know, that will be amazing to be able …

Luke:  What better way …

Tim:  … to act on a prompting.

Luke:  … to act on a prompting.

Tim:  Correct.

Luke:  Guys, we did say ten, didn’t we, Timbo?

Tim:  Lukey, what are you going to do to our listeners?

Luke:  But, look, we actually got to the end of this podcast and ended up … we decided we thought we might turn it into two shows because there’s a lot of info here.

Tim:  There is.

Luke:  So …

Tim:  There is.

Luke:  … we’re going to pause at five.

Tim:  Yep.

Luke:  So make sure you have subscribed to iTunes and you’ll be able to pick up the next five next week, Timbo.

Tim:  Yeah, yeah.  And also … well five or more, Luke?

Luke:  Well …

Tim:  Five or more, who knows.  But the thing is there was a lot of stuff there that we just shared.

Luke:  Yep.

Tim:  And I think too given that it was a really … one of the more practical shows that we’ve done, although I hope all our shows are practical, is take one of those five gems, or nuggets, as we called them, listeners, and go and implement one.

Luke:  Yeah.

Tim:  Okay.  Hopefully it was good listening.  But the listening … there’s no magic in listening.  There’s magic in doing.  So …

Luke:  Correct.

Tim:  So choose one and go and do it.  And if it works, can you tell us about it?

Luke:  Yeah, please do.

Tim:  We’d love that.  So up until …

Luke:  Question …

Tim:  … until next time.

Luke:  Questions@SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com if you want to ask us a question or send us some feedback and tell us how it went.

Tim:  You started to talk quietly and then you built into a crescendo then.  It was quite nice.

Luke:  Yeah, I can actually …

Tim:  Very (26:12).

Luke:  Yeah, anyway.

Tim:  So …

Luke:  We’ll catch you next time with the …

Tim:  We will.

Luke:  … next five or maybe more …

Tim:  Lovely listeners …

Luke:  … tips.

Tim:  And don’t forget to go and book into the intensive which has had an incredible incredible price drop, Luke, just for our small business listeners.

Luke:  Indeed.

Tim:  Correct.

Luke:  Catch you later.

Tim:  Seeya.

Luke:  Bye.

Ms Evancich:  You’ve just come that little bit closer to getting your business booming thanks to the Small Business Big Marketing show with Tim Reid and Luke Moulton.  Please keep in mind that the information, opinions and ideas expressed in this show are those of the hosts and interviewees and theirs alone and they don’t necessarily reflect those of their past, current or future employers.

End of Podcast.