00:00:05:08 - 00:00:20:06
Speaker 1
Welcome to Content catalyst. I'm Deb Szabo. I'm a marketing strategist and video coach, and I help people get clear on their messaging, provide them with tools and techniques to get more visible using content marketing and video so they make more money.
00:00:20:06 - 00:00:28:02
Speaker 1
And when I first started my career, I worked in radio advertising, helped businesses promote themselves using radio ads and promotions.
00:00:28:04 - 00:00:52:12
Speaker 1
And if you're a small business in the early 90s, you'd have to spend thousands, if not tens of thousands to promote your business. And here's what I've learned. It was a high risk for small businesses because for them to outlay $5,000, let's say, that would get you say, a two week campaign of ads. And there was no guarantee for a return on investment.
00:00:52:13 - 00:00:57:23
Speaker 1
It was a really high risk activity to do, because essentially you needed to have an,
00:00:57:23 - 00:01:05:04
Speaker 1
an opening, for example, a grand opening or a really hot offer, like a 50% off or a clearance to really,
00:01:05:04 - 00:01:16:08
Speaker 1
see a return and impact for your money and the reason why I say that is because often the ads alone needed more support with other promotions.
00:01:16:10 - 00:01:47:11
Speaker 1
So, for example, you might do an OBE, which is an hour outside broadcast, where they would broadcast from your location or they would send the promotional vehicles around, do live crosses. live reads from the announcers, which would add thousands of dollars more to that initial campaign. Now, if you were a small business and they wanted you to advertise continuously and consistently, then they might offer, say, a brand awareness campaign, and that might cost you 1 or $2000 to do that.
00:01:47:13 - 00:01:59:05
Speaker 1
However, they would most likely be concentrated with, your campaign schedule would be filled, would be killer ads. And so they weren't put into peak times generally.
00:01:59:05 - 00:02:01:25
Speaker 1
and I guess it was, you know, position. So you could
00:02:01:25 - 00:02:02:28
Speaker 1
stay top of mind.
00:02:02:28 - 00:02:19:13
Speaker 1
The risk is it was difficult to measure those brand awareness campaigns because not everyone would walk into your store going, hey, I, you know, heard you on a radio ad, unless you were offering a specific product or service, at a hot offer, essentially.
00:02:19:16 - 00:02:35:03
Speaker 1
So then it comes down to in traditional advertising, there was also a pecking order as well. So you had TV was at the top of the game because it was visual. It offered audio and text. So, you know, you might be spending 10 to 20 K on that campaign
00:02:35:03 - 00:02:47:01
Speaker 1
to run. And then if you want to get radio, which was only audio, you'd be spending, say, another five grand to print to put out, you know, a sizable ad in the newspaper was another three grand, at least.
00:02:47:03 - 00:03:10:00
Speaker 1
So then all of a sudden you've clocked up, you know, 15, 20 grand to do, one campaign for the month if you wanted to use, three different, platforms or touch points to reach your audience. And we knew even back then that you needed to use them collectively together to maximize the impact that you would have on your promotion.
00:03:10:03 - 00:03:30:27
Speaker 1
Now, if you were in a capacity. So that's a regional center. But if you were in a capital city, you could expect to easily pay 20 times more for that same campaign, especially when it came to TV. So if we hop in the old Delorean and head to 2024, we fast forward to the digital age. What are our options now?
00:03:31:02 - 00:04:03:04
Speaker 1
Well, you can go for paid ads still, and you can use all of those, same traditional, advertising mediums. And these days, you know, you spend tens of to hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, but now you can also promote your business for free. Now, I'm not against advertising. Absolutely not. I think it's a really great way to drive leads and, make a big impact, if you've got the advertising budget.
00:04:03:04 - 00:04:24:13
Speaker 1
But if you don't, then I now and I'll go back to I'm not against advertising, but if you are going to spend these days, you know, most of us will boost Facebook ad or Instagram ad, but if you are going to pay for Facebook ads and things, then you need to have a strong organic presence for your ads to be really successful.
00:04:24:16 - 00:04:50:22
Speaker 1
So here are ten ways to promote your business for free. And as business owners have the power to do this at any time that we like. So number one, social media, that's the first thing that always comes to mind and still blows me away that I can make a video any time I like and share it anytime, anywhere and reach anyone in the world.
00:04:51:00 - 00:05:15:28
Speaker 1
So if you think of social media, you know you've got your usual suspects Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, whatever. Number two is Google, and this is probably one of the most under utilized resources that we have to use for free and one of the most powerful. So if you don't have a Google My Business page, even as a service provider, I highly recommend that you set up your Google Business page.
00:05:16:04 - 00:05:39:18
Speaker 1
If you don't regularly push out content to your Google page, then make sure that you've got a schedule of, for example, that you can schedule in your content to go out there or put it in your diary. if you've got an event, for example, make sure that it goes into Google events. because when people are searching for things to do in your area, you know, this is where you're going to come up.
00:05:39:20 - 00:06:07:15
Speaker 1
So really look at how you can optimize your Google profile, because it really does matter with your discoverability. Number three is email marketing. Now one of the things with social media is that we don't own lists and we don't own the people that are our followers. And if for any reason you get shadow banned or your account gets shut down or hacked or anything, you might have ten, 30,000 100,000 followers.
00:06:07:21 - 00:06:27:21
Speaker 1
They're all gone and you've lost access to communicate with them. So having an email list helps to protect you from that, that you can still communicate with your database, if anything happens and you can control the message in there as well, where a lot of, you know, censorship goes on with a lot of platforms as well.
00:06:27:24 - 00:06:49:28
Speaker 1
So email marketing, especially if you're like an alcohol brand, you know, like you can't, you have to there's a lot of strict, control around what you can and can't promote online with, say, if you're a winery. So an email list will really help you to, communicate what you do with your audience. The other one is blogs.
00:06:49:28 - 00:07:29:21
Speaker 1
Now, blogs is one of those things. And I've had a love hate relationship with over the years because I never really saw it as much, much impact, you know, initially. But the more and more that we go down the rabbit hole of how online discoverability is changing, especially with what's coming with Google and their generative AI, search features, is that we, needing to make sure that we have our blogs on our website about the topics and services that we offer, because more and more it's affecting our discoverability when people are searching certain things.
00:07:29:23 - 00:08:00:00
Speaker 1
And I use, perplexity AI instead of ChatGPT because when you have the pro version of chat, perplexity, you also get ChatGPT included in it as well. So I essentially use both. However, whenever I search something or look up something basically with perplexity, it'll scan live websites, it'll scan YouTube videos, it'll scan blogs, it'll scan everything to deliver the information that you're asking for.
00:08:00:02 - 00:08:30:10
Speaker 1
And unlike ChatGPT, by the way, which will work on a data set from 2021, so just be aware of that. So perplexity is pulling information from live websites. And if you have got blogs on there with good keywords in there, it will help drive traffic to your website. And I have been monitoring my blog, information of where I'm getting leads, of who's watching my blogs, and it's really, really interesting to see where that traffic is coming from and what's driving them to there.
00:08:30:12 - 00:08:49:14
Speaker 1
So definitely think about a blog strategy if you're not doing one regularly now, podcast I started my podcast last year, and I put it off for so long because I thought it would take extra work for me to do, and I was like, I don't have the time if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right and and all the things.
00:08:49:14 - 00:09:11:23
Speaker 1
But what I found is when I actually did do my podcast, it actually helped me create all of my other content so much easier, because I was much more focused on my long form messaging and my topics, and it helped me to repurpose it and push it out to everywhere else as well. So a podcast again will also help with, especially show notes.
00:09:11:23 - 00:09:31:23
Speaker 1
Make sure they're optimized with keywords, because that's how people will find you as well. And I can't tell you how many clients and people that I talk to that say they get so many leads from their podcast. And I definitely think that as, a free way to promote your business, it's definitely worth investing. Investing your time into to create a podcast.
00:09:31:23 - 00:10:03:23
Speaker 1
Because while everyone does have a podcast, it seems these days it's the consistency that will, keep you, I guess, evolving and growing because a lot of people will start a podcast. But the numbers of, people actually continuing after, I think it's like the first five podcasts or whatever, they drop off significantly. So if you start a podcast and you continue with your podcast, it might be a slow burn to start with.
00:10:03:26 - 00:10:28:23
Speaker 1
But what I'm going to emphasize with it, even if you're getting 30 downloads or ten downloads, there are ten people that are spending half an hour with you and never take that for granted. And again, it comes back to social media. People go, I've only got 200 followers. And I'm like, if you had 200 people standing outside your business right now going, hi, how happy would you be?
00:10:28:24 - 00:10:57:17
Speaker 1
I'd be over the moon. And that's how I look at everything. Instagram follower that I have is they're all my potential like audience and I want to nurture that community. So podcast is very much the same thing is that those people have invested good time out of their day to listen to what you've got to say. So it is a really powerful tool, as I've discovered, and it helps to also, share my other, content marketing as well.
00:10:57:19 - 00:11:37:02
Speaker 1
Number six is YouTube. Oh my god. Like if I thought 20 years ago, 30 years ago that I could have my own TV channel, it would just blow my mind. And that's exactly what YouTube is. It's your own TV channel. Like, you can literally create your own content and have people interact, advertise, promote, collaborate, interview, showcase, demonstrate, explain everything on YouTube.
00:11:37:04 - 00:12:01:05
Speaker 1
And it just again, it still blows my mind that we have such an incredible resource that we can use for free. And I think and all it takes is air time in order to create that. YouTube is one of because it's linked to Google, owned by Google. This is probably going to be one of the biggest things that'll change in the near future.
00:12:01:07 - 00:12:10:16
Speaker 1
with businesses discoverability. And that's why I do always recommend to think about having a long form, video content strategy,
00:12:10:16 - 00:12:12:15
Speaker 1
Okay. So number seven is articles.
00:12:12:15 - 00:12:13:02
Speaker 1
write
00:12:13:02 - 00:12:20:15
Speaker 1
a white paper or add, information from your blog or whatever and share it across different mediums to get published.
00:12:20:21 - 00:12:55:14
Speaker 1
And that's free. Number eight is direct messages. It is a free way to promote your business. Direct messages. You can jump in and communicate with your audience via direct message and send them an audio message. You can send them a text message and you can send them a video. Now this also applies to emails as well. So often, like if I'm doing a webinar or anything like that, I will send the people who have registered an email video to say, hey, thanks so much for watching.
00:12:55:14 - 00:13:25:10
Speaker 1
Here's the replay if you got any questions, here's the, you know, offer or whatever. So Direct Messages is a really powerful way for you to communicate with your audience for free as well. And that is such a really powerful way to convert as well. So number nine is website. Now I know we might paved for, you know, a provider to host our website, but I still want to remind you that it is a free resource for you to promote your business.
00:13:25:12 - 00:13:54:15
Speaker 1
And if you don't have offers on your website, your social profiles on your website, about you on your website, then these are the things that you need to go in and fix up and and update and check. And I know I do this myself. So like I'll go in and I'll go, oh that links broken or I need to update that landing page with this information or I need to add that social media handle on onto the the links down below, because this is your most powerful resource to convert business.
00:13:54:17 - 00:14:16:25
Speaker 1
And if you don't have all your things on there, I was on a website tosh yesterday and I heard a podcast. I went to that person's website and they just had their book on there and I'm like, but what else? apart from your book, what else? Because you've I just heard their podcast saying, have they had a course and all the things.
00:14:16:28 - 00:14:49:15
Speaker 1
There was nothing on there. So if I didn't want to buy their book, there was no other way for me to engage with that person. So I really do bring this up of going have a think about, what's on your website, do an audit. And it's really good to get somebody with fresh eyes to go through your website, check your products, check your links, and if you had to go and stand on the street corner and and so what you do or open a physical shop, a brick and mortar shop, it will cost you thousands of dollars to do it where your website is free.
00:14:49:16 - 00:15:08:17
Speaker 1
Apart from the hosting cost, of course, but essentially you can put offers out there, you can inform people, you can put videos on there, you can put your blogs on there, you can put your podcast on there. You can host everything on your website. And such a powerful tool for us to convert business. so that's number nine.
00:15:08:17 - 00:15:36:27
Speaker 1
And number ten of ways to promote your business for free is live streaming events. And I think that this is from my experience working with businesses and also my own business. Live streaming events is one of the most powerful ways for you to build engagement with your audience. Because Live Streams allows people to ask questions in real time, it enables people to respond to you.
00:15:36:27 - 00:15:56:11
Speaker 1
It's a great way to engage with other collaborators if you want to interview them. It's a great way to showcase what you're doing as well. So live streaming events is such a powerful way that you can promote your business for free. And I and the other thing I want to say about all these ten things is that you can do every single one of them using your phone.
00:15:56:13 - 00:16:15:08
Speaker 1
So even updating your website, they can do it from your phone these days, even, you know, if you want to add something into Google, you can do it yourself from your phone. if you want to send somebody a direct message, you can do it from your phone. If I want to write out a blog, I can even sit on my notes and, dictate it using my phone.
00:16:15:11 - 00:16:36:18
Speaker 1
So all of these methods are available for you to tap in to using your phone. Obviously, it's going to make it easier if you're doing certain things on your computer, but why I highlight that is because you can create a video on your phone. You can create, an email on your phone. You can do everything from your phone, and it's all for free for you to use.
00:16:36:21 - 00:17:09:14
Speaker 1
So I want to break down a little bit further social media, because each platform has different promotional methods where we can reach our audience, whether they're new or existing. So let's look at Instagram for starters. So Instagram, you know, whether you have a big following or not, it's how we use it because Instagram has, different ways on how you can communicate with new followers or sorry, potential followers and then their existing followers to engage with them and build community.
00:17:09:14 - 00:17:29:21
Speaker 1
So let's look at reels. Reels are a video essentially with it. it's about a minute and a half you can share now. Reels are perfect for you to reach new audiences, so if you look into your insights, you can see when you post a video, it'll show you the amount of new followers versus existing that have watched lives.
00:17:29:28 - 00:17:55:14
Speaker 1
Live. Streaming is another really powerful way for you to engage with your audience. Stories. So stories only lasts for 24 hours, and stories I try and use pretty much every day now with stories. This is what you use to engage with your current followers. So a lot of people go, I want new followers and I want new followers and they get new followers and then they just don't talk to them.
00:17:55:16 - 00:18:27:13
Speaker 1
So sharing stories is a great way to interact and build community and build conversation. And it's unscripted. It's more relaxed, it's more informal, you can be more personal. I tend to talk so much differently in stories than I do in lives. sorry, in reels, for example. So I do encourage you, especially if you're not used to talking on camera and you want to practice talking on camera to, start with stories, posts, post, is a, you know, single image essentially.
00:18:27:15 - 00:18:55:16
Speaker 1
And that's good to reinforce what your message is in your lives and reels and carousels are really good to also help with that. extending the life and reinforcing your message. And, I don't generally find I get a lot of new followers from carousels. It's more my existing audience. So if I've got a workshop coming up, for example, a content marketing workshop coming up, I'll share a real I'll share a story, I'll share a live.
00:18:55:19 - 00:19:16:13
Speaker 1
But then I'll also put the details in a post in a carousel with more details, and it just helps to support my messaging and maximize what I'm doing in Instagram. And then of course, you've got DMs. DMs are really powerful way to have conversations as well. And then there's broadcast channels. Broadcast channels are great for people that have got bigger followers.
00:19:16:15 - 00:19:44:05
Speaker 1
Then you've got Facebook, so you've got everything that I just said there, and you've also got, community with Facebook groups. And I think that Facebook groups are a really powerful way, to build an audience and connection and, and community. TikTok. Now you can actually do up to 30 minute videos on TikTok. Now. They are, I think, quietly just going for YouTube market.
00:19:44:05 - 00:20:18:27
Speaker 1
They are one of the biggest search engines behind YouTube. I think when it comes to, searching information and researching information, I know that sometimes I was talking to someone yesterday about this and one person had sort of scoffed about Tik Tok and the other person had went, no, no, don't underwrite it. There's actually a lot of older people on there now, and 100% agree what used to be, you know, a 13 year old's playground, essentially of dancing reels, now becomes a really powerful platform for you to reach a large amount of audience.
00:20:19:00 - 00:20:40:15
Speaker 1
There are a lot of people that have, you know, catapulted their businesses using TikTok because they have this incredible reach into the content I find is different on TikTok than on Instagram. TikTok is definitely ahead of the trend game. And, yeah, so think about your strategy with TikTok. If that's something that you want to go around.
00:20:40:15 - 00:21:00:19
Speaker 1
I still play around with it. I still share videos and see what works and what doesn't. the other one is you've got threads and you've got X now threads are linked to Instagram, the owned by meta. So you can now in Instagram share content not only to Facebook, but you can actually opt to push it out to the threads as well, which I find is really helpful.
00:21:00:19 - 00:21:25:25
Speaker 1
Okay, next one YouTube shorts. So it's a great way to re purpose your longform content and shorts. getting a lot of traction and attention with YouTube. They are pushing out shorts as well for followers. LinkedIn. So I love LinkedIn because you can share posts. You can create live streaming events. Newsletter. I, you know, created a newsletter on LinkedIn.
00:21:25:25 - 00:21:43:22
Speaker 1
And, I get a really good, result out of LinkedIn newsletter. So when you create an article in news in your newsletter, then you can share it as a post out to everybody as well. So definitely think about setting up a newsletter for that, as in, if you haven't already.
00:21:43:22 - 00:21:53:19
Speaker 1
in a world where there are so many options to promote our business for free, using our phone in our pocket, the question begs, why aren't we?
00:21:53:22 - 00:22:00:15
Speaker 1
Why aren't we utilizing all of these opportunities for us to promote our business for free?
00:22:00:15 - 00:22:02:00
Speaker 1
I guess
00:22:02:00 - 00:22:19:14
Speaker 1
working in with my business, for example, I have a lot of people that come to me and they're like, I just don't know what to talk about. I run out of ideas. I don't know what content to actually make. the other problem is that people go, I just I'm not getting impact with the content that I'm making.
00:22:19:14 - 00:22:45:25
Speaker 1
I don't know how to make it so it actually resonates with people, or I seem to spend a lot of time making content with no results. and a lot of the time it's because their messaging isn't clear. A lot of the time they're selling the, features of their product or service rather than the benefits. And that's kind of like a car sales person saying, this car has an engine and four wheels and you're like, great.
00:22:46:00 - 00:23:10:17
Speaker 1
Of course it does. as opposed to saying, this car will take your family of five plus the two dogs and tow a caravan to your, favorite holiday destination. That's the benefits. Okay, so the other reason why people don't, turn up and use, you know, these ten ways to promote their business for free is because they're not confident showing up.
00:23:10:19 - 00:23:33:27
Speaker 1
They're not confident with the tech and they're not confident talking on camera. And there's a real big fear of judgment. And I talk about this inside content careless with which is my membership. And this month we're talking about this very subjective personal branding and talking on camera. And it's we we have this fear of criticism. We have this fear of judgment.
00:23:33:29 - 00:23:56:19
Speaker 1
And, you know, I I'm not judging anyone for that either. It's that if you didn't grow up with a phone in your hand like my son has, it's like it's a really intimidating thing to do. So I teach people ways on how to show up. When you're not confident, I teach you how to, create content that resonates with your audience.
00:23:56:19 - 00:24:34:11
Speaker 1
Because of that, I, I saw people and I work with people all the time for this reason, and that's why I became a video coach as well, because not only, you know, it's one thing to know marketing, but it's also another where it's another thing to actually communicate it. And what I love about video is that it is such a powerful way to communicate with your audience and share what you do, apart from standing in front of somebody, like standing in front of somebody is the fastest way to build, that familiar reality, understanding of what you do and and converse and relate.
00:24:34:14 - 00:24:55:19
Speaker 1
The second next thing is video and and everything. I've told you today, you can use video in all of those things. Okay. So you can use video in your blog. So you can use video in your podcast. You can use video in your direct messages. You can use video on social media. You can use video in your email marketing.
00:24:55:22 - 00:25:19:23
Speaker 1
And I encourage you to use video in all of those ways to promote your business for free. Because the more you use video, the easier it is for people to understand what you do and build a relationship with you and, essentially buy from you. And this is why it became a mission of mine to help, people to do that.
00:25:19:23 - 00:25:48:17
Speaker 1
Because over the years, I've spoken with thousands of businesses, and I'm always blown away that, they've just got so many amazing stories to share. And how they help people is like what they do and how they help people. And I'm like, it's only people could know this if if only people could understand what you do and you're like it, that can be life changing for somebody when you share what you do and you're like, yeah, but I'm a tour guide.
00:25:48:17 - 00:26:14:20
Speaker 1
How does that change someone's life? And I'm like, if you're a tour guide and you're taking someone around on a tour and they make the love of their life while they're on that tour, that's life changing. They might move to that destination. That's life changing for someone. If you're a life coach and you know you have a different technique than other people, that they've tried ten people before and it takes just you to get them to stop procrastinating.
00:26:14:27 - 00:26:35:00
Speaker 1
And then they change their job. And when they change their job, they're much happier. And they buy a house that's life changing for someone, your winery. And you go, well, how does that change someone's life? And it's like, because that's where memories are made. You know, someone goes there to celebrate the milestone birthday, the 40th birthday, or they got engaged there.
00:26:35:02 - 00:27:06:22
Speaker 1
That is life changing for someone, because that is a memory that will always stay close to their heart. So somebody needs to hear what you have to do. And that's why I'm really passionate about being able to use all these ways to share your message and definitely use video when that as well. And I guess it comes down to many of us dabble with sharing a Facebook post, or we send an email once a month and we just, especially when a lot of people do this, like, you know, don't send an email for ages and then they'll send an email when they've got something to sell.
00:27:06:25 - 00:27:29:06
Speaker 1
And rather than adding value all the time. But, we don't really get results when we do this. And, and that's often why people just stop. They just like on to spend all day editing for reel for Instagram. And they've got hardly any views. Have you ever noticed? Right. Is it when you don't put a lot of thought into a video, when you share it on Instagram, it would just go nuts.
00:27:29:06 - 00:27:54:21
Speaker 1
And then the one that you've spent half a day filming and editing and doing all the things and you're like, I got 20 views great. And and it's it's yeah, that's frustrating. I'm going to say for sure. But this is where I say, don't give up. When you get to that point, what it means is that you probably haven't got a strategy or a plan.
00:27:54:24 - 00:28:15:03
Speaker 1
And I see a lot of people that they outsource their social media to Vas, for example, and that's great, except they don't know who you are audiences and they don't know your business goals, so they can go in and they can create a Canva trial, and they can schedule it in the scheduler and share it to Facebook and LinkedIn and whatever.
00:28:15:06 - 00:28:40:26
Speaker 1
But this is why your social media isn't landing or your content is landing. And you know they can create blogs for you. They can create emails for you. It's fantastic what Vas can do. However, if we're not giving them a strategy and then if we're not doing the strategy ourself and then handing them the plan on, you know, the system, then you're, likely going to fail in getting the results that you need.
00:28:40:29 - 00:29:03:19
Speaker 1
So when it comes to and I know, I've, I know I've gone through this exercise and and also just to add is that when you do try something, doing once is not doing something, once is not an experiment. Okay. So this is where you go. I've tried making videos and it doesn't work. And it's like, but how? What did you actually try?
00:29:03:21 - 00:29:29:02
Speaker 1
So it really takes a moment to stop and really look at what you actually did and review, debrief what you did in your activities. And and that'll give you a bit of a clearer picture in it as well. And there's one mistake that I see so many businesses make of why it doesn't work for you and why it takes so long, as well as because they are promoting their business without a strategy and a plan.
00:29:29:02 - 00:30:02:12
Speaker 1
And that's why I was just saying is that they're not clear on what to make, how to make it, or where to share it. the messaging isn't clear. And then they, they basically spend time selling features. not the benefits, not the transformation. They're not clearly communicating their uniqueness of how they help someone else. So when you add in the mix of technology and it's like, being stop, it's too hard, I'll go and create a Canva tile posted on Facebook, run an ad to it, tick the box.
00:30:02:12 - 00:30:05:04
Speaker 1
Next, put your hand up. If you've ever done that.
00:30:05:04 - 00:30:26:12
Speaker 1
So promoting your business is free using the ways that I've shared with you today. But it does take some time. And if you do want to futureproof your business because how you get discovered is changing, make no mistake about it, there are big changes coming online of how we get discovered.
00:30:26:14 - 00:30:56:11
Speaker 1
Then you need to firstly allocate some time a week, a month or whatever to actually make content marketing. Now, if you already do this, you need to look at how you spend your time, your systems and your resources so you can shortcut that. However, if you're not and you go, I don't have time. If you do not schedule time in your diary, you will never have time for me.
00:30:56:11 - 00:31:24:10
Speaker 1
I do this Monday afternoons. Content catalyst is my membership and my Mondays are Marketing Mondays. So we get in, we do our masterclass or our work room, and then after that I then go and do my own marketing for my own business as well. And often that's what happens with us. Content marketing. Marketing in general just gets pushed to the back seat because when we've got a business to run, it's the last thing that is a priority for us.
00:31:24:10 - 00:31:49:11
Speaker 1
Generally. However, I want you to think of content marketing now like you had a cafe and you sell coffee and that's your cash cow. And if you do not have coffee beans in the coffee machine, you can't sell anything that's how important content marketing needs to be in in your business these days. So I look, I'm I'm guilty of this.
00:31:49:11 - 00:32:03:22
Speaker 1
It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting here recording a podcast, but I want to get this done. And I know the value when I get this done of how much impact it can have, for my business. And so the other person listening to the podcast.
00:32:03:22 - 00:32:31:04
Speaker 1
And the other thing is because I know that if I spend the afternoon doing this podcast and I'm recording it, I'm, you know, recording it on video, this will produce a week's worth of solid content that I can share ten different ways that I spoke to you about today, actually more because I will repurpose it and get different snippets from things, but it will also continue to work for me
00:32:31:05 - 00:32:53:07
Speaker 1
years down the track. So it's not what you do, it's how you do it. And when it comes to promoting your business online, here's what I've learned on how to optimize your time to spend creating content and distributing it. Okay, so I start with one here. Video. And that's a long form video. And that's what I'm recording right now.
00:32:53:10 - 00:33:16:08
Speaker 1
Now, one of the things I want to share with you when you do create this one video, it has to be quality. And this came up recently in discussions I was having in my business group. Is it quality or quantity when it comes to making content? And I think it's both. So this video has to be quality and it has to be what your audience is searching for.
00:33:16:08 - 00:33:41:23
Speaker 1
What are their problems? What are their challenges? What are their aspirations? You need to address that point, and it needs to correspond with the services or products that you offer. Okay, you need to solve that problem. And this is why YouTube videos can make people money years down the track is because they've made good quality, evergreen content that people are searching, and they'll always come back and look up, and that's why it still makes them money.
00:33:41:26 - 00:34:20:15
Speaker 1
Okay, so when I create one long form hero video, I will then repurpose it into 15 different pieces of content marketing. All roads of that pieces of content marketing leads back to roam. My website. Now this can take, you know, like I said, the afternoon for me to sit down, I outline my, my video. I record it, and then I can create my blogs and my newsletter and my, podcast and my social media clips and my story content.
00:34:20:15 - 00:34:23:21
Speaker 1
But it all stems from one topic that I create.
00:34:23:21 - 00:34:31:07
Speaker 1
So as I mentioned, when you are creating that quality piece of content, you need to look at what what problems are you solving.
00:34:31:07 - 00:34:33:16
Speaker 1
It's what people are searching for essentially.
00:34:33:16 - 00:35:00:23
Speaker 1
So why start with One Hero video? Well, not only is it an efficient way to spread your message across different touchpoints, and I'm going to get to that in a second. It will also help you fast track the buy a journey, and they'll help you fast track the buy journey by building your credibility, showing your expertise, especially when you use video because you can demonstrate what you do and it helps to keep you relevant and build your brand awareness.
00:35:00:25 - 00:35:18:24
Speaker 1
So I think about like, if we don't hear about your favorite bar or restaurant for ages and then somebody says, where should we go? You like, should I, we should go there. But I haven't heard about them for ages. I wonder if they're still in business. So this is why sharing content consistently helps keep your brand relevant.
00:35:18:24 - 00:35:37:25
Speaker 1
It helps create familiarity and likability. And I don't know if you ever met somebody in person that you've followed for a long time. And then when you actually meet them in person, it's like, oh my God, I feel like I already know you already. There's that real ease of conversation, and that's because they've gotten to know you online.
00:35:37:27 - 00:36:04:09
Speaker 1
my favorite is it creates conversation and it nurtures your community. And this leads to generating leads, website traffic and and inevitably sales. So let's talk about touch points. Touch points refer to any instance where a potential customer interacts with your brand. And these interactions can be through various channels and formats. And it can be both online and in-person.
00:36:04:16 - 00:36:37:05
Speaker 1
Now Google did research on this, and they did extensive research on this on the modern buyer journey. And they came up with what's called the 7 11 4 rule. And basically this is the modern customer buying journey to turn a stranger into a buyer. They essentially need to experience seven hours of an interaction with a brand across 11 different touchpoints in four separate locations before making a purchase decision.
00:36:37:08 - 00:37:02:29
Speaker 1
So let's look at what this would be like, and we'll break down how someone can spend seven hours consuming your content online. For example, might look like. So if you created a podcast, you'd need to create three 20 minute podcasts, 50 reels, and let's say they were on average 30s each. You'd need to you need to share three blogs.
00:37:02:29 - 00:37:33:03
Speaker 1
And let's say they spent about ten minutes reading through your blog, webinars. Let's say you did a webinar for, you know, 60 minutes for newsletters in your emails. They can, you know, scan that takes about five minutes to scan or ten minutes social media posts you'd have to share. And this is just a single image, you know, post 240 of those and then, a video podcast so you could share like for those 30 minutes.
00:37:33:05 - 00:38:09:27
Speaker 1
And that would equate to seven hours of them consuming your content. That sounds like a lot, right? However, when you break down that 711 four rule, if you did what I just said before in under a month of you creating One Hero video and breaking it up and repurposing it across the different platforms that I said you would hit that in under a month, you would hit that seven hours of a stranger to a buyer in under a month.
00:38:10:00 - 00:38:30:11
Speaker 1
And I think that's a really powerful thing. So I theme each of my month. So I have content categories, for example. And each month I have a different thing. So this month for example is personal branding where last month was about tech. So I would look at four topics that hot topics that people are researching. What are their needs.
00:38:30:11 - 00:38:48:18
Speaker 1
Again I'll go and research that. And that might be how to use ChatGPT or AI. It might be, what tech do you need to use to create video podcasts? It might be how to edit them and create short snippets. So you'd look at for hot topics under that category,
00:38:48:18 - 00:38:59:14
Speaker 1
then you would record that video, break it down into the 15 pieces of content marketing, but you would use AI to help you break that down as an assistant.
00:38:59:16 - 00:39:20:16
Speaker 1
So I use perplexity AI to help me then repurpose the outline, because I always write an outline before I write this, before I record this video, I write a complete outline of what I want to talk about. I then take the transcription of this podcast. I pop it through the, perplexity. It'll write my show notes, my time chapters.
00:39:20:18 - 00:39:47:02
Speaker 1
it'll give me a blog outline. Now, I've already pretty much written my blog anyway, but, I use it as an assistant. It can help me write my newsletter and then using AI in the programs that I use, for example, StreamYard. But I use Premiere Pro, but I can use it in StreamYard as well. And Riverside, whatever you're recording, I can then create three different, video snippets, which I can then push out on social media.
00:39:47:05 - 00:40:15:05
Speaker 1
I can again, like I said, with the show notes, I can create a blog with it. So once you have the principles and the workflow and the system, having that one hero video makes it so much easier to be able to hit those seven, 11, four rules. So those 11 touch points can be across, say your website, online, a recommendation, a webinar.
00:40:15:07 - 00:40:39:21
Speaker 1
They go to, different social media. They got an email from you. Then they say it in stories. So this is how when you share it across the different platforms, that message helps that message and supports that message. And then you've been telling that same story all week, and then it's that one Instagram reel that you post that goes, oh yeah, I need to make that.
00:40:39:21 - 00:40:44:28
Speaker 1
I need to do that. I need to book that. So this is how they all work together.
00:40:44:28 - 00:41:06:20
Speaker 1
if you, you know, doing all the things, but sometimes that, you know, people don't buy from me. And this is why I say this rule works based on the proviso that the information that you are giving is valuable based on your audience and based on their needs at the time.
00:41:06:22 - 00:41:27:16
Speaker 1
Because if you're not sharing valuable information that people need to know about, then it's a waste of time recording a video for the sake of a video. And this is where I see a lot of people make that mistake. They don't have a format to the content that they video they creating. Okay, so this is why researching and knowing how to research your topic is so, so important.
00:41:27:16 - 00:41:56:24
Speaker 1
So that's number one. You've got to make sure that whatever you're spending, you know, half an hour recording a podcast doing or ten minutes recording, I don't care how long it is, is that it's what people are actually looking up. So if they're not in the market for your product at the time, then if you are sharing valuable information and I do this, I follow people, you know, for a year or two before I actually buy something because I don't have in the need at the time.
00:41:56:24 - 00:42:19:07
Speaker 1
However, if somebody I know needs that, it's a no brainer for me to recommend them and refer them. And that's the power of content marketing, is that I may not need it. But being consistently present in people's orbit helps to increase your word of mouth recommendations.
00:42:19:07 - 00:42:26:16
Speaker 1
So content marketing helps you get discovered. Video and keywords in your written format is vital.
00:42:26:18 - 00:42:51:03
Speaker 1
these days, to futureproof your business because as I mentioned, like when I look up perplexity for example it and Google. So when you look up Google these days, it will show videos like the number, you know, the next thing down from the actual search and any sponsored posts, their videos. So this is why having a video strategy is part of your content marketing is so, so important.
00:42:51:05 - 00:43:11:00
Speaker 1
and look, you know, again, I hear you say on the guide 15 piece of content, I can barely even just do a few reels awake or a few posts, but if you don't know who you're, you know, talking to or you're not resonating with your audience and you don't know what topics to talk about, you don't have the time and you don't know about the tech and how to use it.
00:43:11:00 - 00:43:32:10
Speaker 1
This is why you need a content marketing strategy, because everything I'm telling you here today is free to promote your business. It just needs the investment of your time. And if you don't have a lot of time, you know, then you need to work efficiently. And for example, I often do a lot of live streams when I don't have time to sit and edit a real on Instagram for whatever.
00:43:32:12 - 00:43:35:18
Speaker 1
and I actually get really good results at a live videos.
00:43:35:18 - 00:43:53:15
Speaker 1
it's, it's again, having that format in that system of how to use the shortcuts, have the systems in AI to help you do that. Now, many people make the mistake, as I mentioned before, is that they think, right, I can't do social media, I need to outsource it, and then they get a VA.
00:43:53:17 - 00:44:17:18
Speaker 1
And I've just gone through this process because I'm screening, Vas at the moment to be able to offer this service as well. And they know how to go into Canva, some of them, and they can basic edit a Canva video, but they're not you and they don't know your business goals, and they don't know your ideal customer like you.
00:44:17:18 - 00:44:40:13
Speaker 1
And the problems that they face. Okay, so this is why you need to be involved in that process to create the marketing strategy and the plan. When you do that, the system and the workflow, then you can actually get that and hand it to your team. You can hand it to a VA, you can hand it to somebody who says they can do social media, but don't expect them to create that.
00:44:40:13 - 00:45:05:22
Speaker 1
That is is something that you have to do if you want results, if you actually want to get, the investment for the time because you're still the golden goose, you still need to turn up to do the video. You still need to turn up to record the podcast. but once you do that, it's you should be able to press record and then be able to hand it on because you've got to run your business.
00:45:05:22 - 00:45:30:09
Speaker 1
So go off and do that. Now, the other thing that I also come up in, one of my business groups in recently is the conversation of, oh, I need some content pillars. And I looked it up on YouTube and it said to create some educational, some inspirational, entertaining content. Now I want to just say that this is an angle or an approach.
00:45:30:12 - 00:45:53:24
Speaker 1
That's the format and how you deliver your topic. That's not a strategy. Okay, so I can talk about, microphones, for example. And I'm like, if you need a microphone for your podcast, here's how to so I can have an approach of being educational. I can be inspirational going check out this podcast. Mike. It sounds so much better than this.
00:45:53:24 - 00:46:16:19
Speaker 1
Mike. So I want to inspire you to upgrade your microphone or I can entertain you. And I could create something funny about this microphone and how I use it in things. Okay, so this is the approach of how you create content, not the actual strategy itself. And each business has solutions that target different customers. This is why you need to be there to go.
00:46:16:19 - 00:46:36:21
Speaker 1
All right. Well this is the core offer. And this is you know, and I go and I do this because I create content marketing strategies for a lot of businesses. And the often what they'll do is they'll use, to they'll use it wording language that's to high level. And what you have to do is then break it down.
00:46:36:21 - 00:47:04:11
Speaker 1
So for example, life coach might say, all right, well, this person, the the input, you know, they've been procrastinating. Great. How do they procrastinate? What are some of the examples of procrastination. What does it look like? They struggle. They scroll on TikTok. They, you know, lie in bed for, you know, all day, whatever that is. So then we get really needy gritty to what are their pain points and what are they struggling with.
00:47:04:11 - 00:47:26:14
Speaker 1
And we paint that picture, which is what I call a vivid story. So we literally visualize and we put like a little cap on. So we're in that person's headspace and we understand what they're struggling with or what they aspiring for. Okay. So yeah, this is when we get to that point, we want to use the jargon that our customers speak.
00:47:26:14 - 00:47:46:07
Speaker 1
We want to understand the thoughts that run through their heads. And that's when you can create impact. We want to know the shortcuts. We want to know how to use AI to, you know, make our lives easier because there's some great AI that like editing, for example, that used to take hours to do anything I can do in minutes now.
00:47:46:09 - 00:48:09:19
Speaker 1
Okay. So, if you want more help on how to do this, I'm actually hosting a content marketing workshop in, on the 9th of July in the Hunter Valley. It's an in-person workshop. And the idea behind this workshop is, so you actually walk away with a strategy and a plan in your hand because so many people, you know, I do it myself.
00:48:09:19 - 00:48:32:02
Speaker 1
I work, attend masterclasses or things, and I learn, but I never do. So this is only limited to ten people. And I kept it really small and intimate because I want you to be able to, you know, have the focus and the attention to get this done. and then we sit down over lunch and we, you know, connect with the people there because I think connection is really important these days.
00:48:32:02 - 00:48:50:10
Speaker 1
And that's why for me, I'm going to be doing a lot more in-person events coming up for the rest of the year. And then once you know that, then you can create the plan and then you can hand it to Ava, then you can hand it to your team or your agency or whoever. But you need to be doing the strategy part yourself.
00:48:50:10 - 00:49:06:12
Speaker 1
once you do that, yeah, you feel so much more confident on knowing that you've got a game plan that you can outsource confidently as well. So the details are in the show notes. If you do want to come to the content marketing workshop, there are only a handful tickets left, at the time of recording this.
00:49:06:18 - 00:49:15:09
Speaker 1
So I hope this episode has been helpful. And if it has, please leave me a review or share it with somebody else that might get some value out of this,
00:49:15:09 - 00:49:16:19
Speaker 1
the details are in the show notes.
00:49:16:19 - 00:49:23:08
Speaker 1
And until next episode, happy promoting.
