Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther.
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're talking about self promotion versus marketing. What is the difference going? Interesting question. Well, this is not a dictionary definition. For me, self promotion is "look at me, look at me, look at me". What do you think?
Fine.
But it's those people who are just like, "oh, over here, over here. I have the answer. I know the best thing. I know what I'm talking about."
I think people like Christine Gritmon would call that personal branding, though, because you're intentionally influencing people as an individual rather than as a company or as an organisation.
Okay. But would it not be better to say, "in my opinion", rather than "I know the best answer"? Would that not be.
It's horses for courses. Some people want somebody who is overtly confident of themselves and their abilities. And there are people out there that really are that damn good.
We know that. And obviously, you mentioned Christine Gritmon. I mean, she is that good. You and I are from the United Kingdom.
Yes.
And we are not good at self promoting. Let's just be honest here. The Brits are very...
Self deprecating.
That's the word. There's always somebody else out there who could probably do it better than us. We're not the most forward people in the world. No, I'm sure it's changing. The younger generations, I'm sure, are more self-confident and self promoting than we are.
I know we're going off tangent here, but I think you're wrong. I think because all of us are under a microscope so much more now at much earlier age that they're less liberated than we are in many ways.
Really? Oh, that's scary. I feel very sorry for the future generations, especially of those Brits, and the Irish, who are not allowed to get above themselves.
Amen to that,
Because the Irish mammies are very much "get you off your high horse now". Cultural differences people. But it is one of those things that we probably fight in our heads about. You know, whenever we're writing content for our platforms and for our audience, do we promote ourselves properly? Do we market ourselves properly?
It's a weird sort of story of fear and trepidation for many of us. It's so much easier to write about somebody else. As a journalist, I do that frequently. I write about other people all the time. When I'm going to other events that I'm covering for Irish tech News and I engage with the Speaker, I watch something workshop or a panel, let's say, and I give my opinion on what they've discussed. But I also, obviously the whole point of me being there is to make sure that they are put across in a fashion that is suitable to their standing. And so that wouldn't be self marketing, but they could then use what I've written as a way of advocating how good they are.
Yeah. Because it's always easier to see it from someone else's point of view. You know, so it is like if we were to write each other's bios, it would be completely different to writing them ourselves.
I think we should do that. Let's do that as an exercise after this recording. Let's do that.
I was going to say, especially as women, but maybe men are in the same boat and just aren't as forward about putting themselves out there and saying what they're good at. Maybe it's across the board. Who knows?
Again, I think the new man, the new men, they are so much more in touch with their emotions and feelings, and they're less inhibited as well.
Yeah, possibly. But at the end of the day, whether you are promoting yourself or marketing yourself, you should always think about your audience, what's in it for them and not be just "buy my book because my book is the best". You know, it should be "buy my book because it will help you with this problem". Yeah?
So highlight the best qualities by showcasing your experience and what makes you unique. What is your USP fundamentally?
Yeah. Well, obviously your USP is that you're you and everybody's different. That's your number one USP is that nobody else is Melanie Boylan or Esther Lawson. Nobody else can see things the way you see them or see things the way I see them. And Melanie and I can also differ on so many things.
Yeah. We do have two different sides of how we look at ourselves. When it comes to marketing myself, I find it extremely difficult. Not because I'm not very good at it or I'm obviously quite good at what I do. Wouldn't still be in business for nine years. But talking about myself, I find exceptionally difficult. And so I revert to my testimonials an awful lot. Yeah.
And I think, too, there's an aspect of that where we come back to the age old tale of the cobbler's children. The Cobblers children have the worst shod shoes. Why not? Because the cobbler can't do it. Just doesn't have time to do it. His kids aren't paying them to do their shoes. They're being done. Everybody else is paying them to do their shoes. So it's the same with marketing. We could be promoting and saying, oh, we at IPA Group I don't think there's been a post going out organically in a really long time. I couldn't tell you how long, you know, because we're so busy working on all our content for our clients. So ours get pushed to the very bottom. I'm sure you could do an investigation and you could go and look at all our social media and there'll be stuff going out, but it won't be anything really new or even testimonials and sharing those. So it's something that we sort of can end up pushing to the back of the line because we're so busy doing other things. But what happens when the clients run out and then you have to start your own promotion and your own marketing all over again.
That's when the marketing kicks in. Because in my opinion, marketing is business development. So self marketing or personal branding is talking about what you can deliver, whereas marketing, I'm sure I've started a bit of a conversation now, but marketing I would see as more business development because we have to stay in touch with those quieter moments. They do happen. And working on your business is as fundamental as working in your business.
That is very true. And I hold my hands up and say, we do not set aside enough time and effort to work on our business. I'm holding my hands up. If you don't believe me, you can ask Melanie. I literally help my hands up and it's something that we need to set aside time for. I have scheduled time in my calendar to write blogs. When is the last time I wrote a blog? I have no idea, but the time is blocked off in my calendar for me to write a blog every week and every week without fail every week comes up. Yeah, every week.
Wow.
In my calendar for every week. And every week something else comes up. So you need to make these things a priority, guys. And I mean, I know it's at the minute as it's "do as I say, not as I do", but I promise I will get better at it.
Do you remember this was actually a conversation that was brought up a couple of weeks ago while back now by Lucy Hall in Digital Women. And she was saying, when was the last time you put up an organic post? And the conversation in that thread was really epic. And I think the majority of us only tend to put up organic posts when we're at something. If I was at an event and I was like, oh, look, I've met and this is what I've learnt, especially tweets, that would be obviously live tweeting is the way to go. But you can also put organic posts up on Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere, Pinterest, Etsy, when you're actually at an event. And because so many people haven't been at an event, I think organic posting has just gone by the by.
Yeah, but I also think LinkedIn is more a place to go in and do them organically. Even when you're not at events, you know, it's more of a go in and tell a story in LinkedIn. I wouldn't do that on my Facebook page. On my Facebook page. Probably in a group, if I ran a group, you go in and you tell a story and that and "this is what happened and this is how I solved the problem". And this is the moral of the story, but you don't tend to do it so much on your Facebook page. Obviously, it all depends on what you're selling. There's a friend of ours who has got together with a larger company and they're doing stuff to help the Ukrainian kids that are coming over to Ireland. Obviously, that's the story for the newspaper, not just social media, but it's one of those things that you could tell the story anywhere. Whereas, I don't know, there just seems to be a shift from Facebook. For me, Facebook is now all about, I don't know, gossip.
It really depends on who your audience is, doesn't it? One of my largest audiences would be 35 to 45 year old women. And although they're on other platforms, I'd find them mostly active on Facebook first. I'm not saying I don't get engagement anywhere else. I do. But that's where I would get engagement first and foremost. And whether it's paid or organic posts. But that's why it's so important to constantly look and reassess every couple of months. It's worth going back and having your analytics to see, like your Google Analytics. That's a great one. Because in your Google Analytics, you can see where your referrals came from. Did people come from a tweet or was it an article you wrote or a podcast? And you can pick that all up completely free in Google Analytics if you know where to look.
Exactly. It is important to always be marketing. Yeah, right. I use that word very carefully rather than promoting. Promoting to me is more ads and sales.
Yeah. But I see that as conversion and marketing is a sales funnel, it's a living, breathing being.
It is. And it has to evolve with each as you go down through the funnel and you can't just be what's the first bit of my brain has gone?
Awareness.
Awareness. It can't just be about awareness in your marketing. You do have to have the conversions, and you do have to have considerations, consideration, and everything. Personally, I won't go out shouting about myself. I let Melanie do that.
See, this is what we should do. Okay? You and I should make an agreement that I'll promote you and you promote me. Sound good?
Sounds brilliant. Yeah. I'm all for that. All for that. I will go and rewrite your Bio now, and I will nominate you for all the awards that are coming up, because I think you're brilliant and things like that that at the end of the day, could get you more business as well. I've been nominated for XYZ.
Yeah. I mean, we've talked about spreading the love across all different sorts of platforms. And just for those people who are listening, saying it's, say it back. I would do that for you as well. Okay? Ten fold.
Yes, we would totally do for you.
But when it comes down to self promotion and marketing, it's so difficult to step out of your own uncomfortable zone and push yourself because there's an element of you thinking, "well, am I offering false promises here? Am I capable of doing this even after nine years?"
It's like we talked about a couple of weeks ago in our.
Impostor syndrome.
Imposter syndrome. I'm sorry, guys. My brain is completely fried on a Monday morning. Yeah. What we talked about in our impostor syndrome, one where we sort of
You need a coffee IV, don't you?
I really do. But at the end of the day, nobody knows you or your business better than you. Maybe it's time that you start getting the confidence, even if you don't publish it. Just start writing down places, obviously, corporate responsibility, like we talked about in another podcast, write it on a Word document, in your laptop, or on a recycled piece of paper. When you listen to that episode, you'll understand what we're talking about. To be able to go down and say, this is what I do really well and this is what I love to do and why I love to do it. And that, too, then will help with your mission and your vision and your statements and everything else will start to flow from that. So what I'm going to do after this episode and it's really given me a kick. What I'm going to do is I'm going to sit down and take my hour a week that I have set aside for blogging and I will work on my business.
I think it's time we did. Yeah, I think it's time we did. And it's important that we all keep each other accountable as part of our self marketing and our self promotion. Because at the end of the day, whether you're a corporate or whether you're a sole trader, there's going to be one or maybe a couple of people responsible for doing it. And somebody has to take ownership of it. Somebody has to. Being truly honest with your capabilities and what you offer your audience is so important. This is the beginning of the customer journey which we've covered previously as well. Take a big hit of accountability to all our listeners out here today. We are putting it out there publicly that we're going to be doing it,
And we'd love to hear from you. Let us know. Send us a message. Send us an email on how you're getting on or what it is that you need a bit more accountability with. And we'll happily go and give you a good kick out of love, obviously. But, yeah, if you are struggling with "I don't know what I'm good at, I don't know where to start", that's what Melanie and I do for a living as well, is to sit down and figure out your strengths, your weaknesses, and how at the end of the day, Melanie and I are marketers and we're good at marketing other people
So much better than ourselves.
Yeah, so much better, but normal as well. Do reach out to us. We say it every week. Do reach out to us and send us a message. Let us know how you're getting on. Let us know if anything that we say on today's podcast or any of them resonates with you and we love to hear of your success stories as well.
We enjoy a good conflab with our listeners. We do get some fairly regular emails and messages from people now, which is pretty cool. So you're welcome to contact us.
Yeah, on that note, guys, that's us for today. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing. Until then. Bye bye. Bye.
Bye.