The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you byEsther of IPA Group bringing premier online promotion to your business.
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today we're talking about the most underrated marketing skill. What do you think it is?
Most underrated marketing skill, I think is probably planning a head.
That is one. Most people just fly by the seat of their pantsand just go with whatever they feel like doing in the moment or whatever ishappening in the world. Which isn't always bad I have to say. Because a fewthings scheduled out for the next week and some major event happens like we'veseen recently. The last couple of years have taught us that we have to be moreflexible as well. Then if you have everything scheduled out, then you mighthave to go and do some readjustments. But yes, definitely planning and knowingwho your audience is in that sense and what you want to tell them, then that'sdefinitely not something that a lot of people do. What else would you say?
What about you? What do you think is the most underrated marketingskill?
I think listening. Social listening. Okay, so we've gotsocial media and it's more "me, me, me" than social, and it'sdefinitely not a lot of listening going on. So, you know, there's so manydifferent platforms that people are now able to have. It's not just the onesthat we started off with 15 years ago or even earlier than that, if you canremember that far back. We can. But when people go on, and especially ifthey're talking about a company, they might not be talking to the companyitself. They might be explaining something that they would like to see thatcompany do. If the company doesn't listen or have something that's trackingthese things, like, you can set up Google Alerts, that if people are talkingabout your business.
Yes, what I did long before I had any other platform, GoogleAlerts is by far the easiest way, but you have to set up an alert for eachthing you want to listen to.
Yes, it is very easy to listen, but not a lot of people aredoing it. What else?
I don't think people appreciate fully just how good emailmarketing is. In fact, I know for a fact that they don't, because when I speakto new clients that I manage, you know, doing mentoring or one-to-one training,I wanted to talk to you about social media. And I thought it's an element, it'sa platform of online marketing. And I know there was this for-roar about GDPR afew years back and how much damage it did to people's email lists, but it'sstill a significant tool and it's just not used enough.
Yeah, and I would add on to that it's not used well by themajority of people who are using it.
Yeah.
So you can go back, guys, and listen, we have an episodewith Rob and Kennedy who are email marketing experts, and I highly recommendgoing back and listening to that episode.
They were amazing.
because they know their stuff and do reach out to them ifyou have any issues with what to write, how to write. It like I get an emailevery day from them and I open it every day because it's funny and it's alwayseducational, entertaining, you know, the perfect way to send an email. So goand learn from them and get your emails right, and then people will want toopen your emails. Another thing I would say would be, and I mentioned at thestart, adaptability, being able to shift, I'm not going to say the pivot word,but being able to move with the times. Right? So like I said, there's loads andloads of platforms now that before weren't there? And people are shifting fromone platform to another. They're leaving the main platforms. The majority ofones are leaving from Facebook, Instagram, etc. And going on to the newer ones,like TikTok. So, are you there? Are you following your audience? Do you knowwhere they are now? Are they still where you found them? Do you need to adaptand change to market to them in the new platform or in a different way?
Yeah, it's worth doing a SWOT every now and then just to seeif you're following your audience, keeping up with opportunities, you'reunderstanding what your weaknesses are, and keep an eye on your threats aswell. But there's one other thing that I'd like to mention, horribly underratedand horribly underused, Google Business Profile.
So that's what I'm going to put on your epitaph. "LovedGoogle Business Profile" (formerly known as Google My Business). Yes, goon.
It's free. It's easy to use, it's a bit of a beast,actually, when you get into it. There's so much versatility. You can usevideos, you can use photos, you can use gifs, you can share stories, blogs,there's messaging throughout, just not enough people use it.
Yeah. And leading on to that, maps. Google Maps.
Google Maps.
So that people can find you, especially if you're a physicalbusiness and know you're opening hours.
And it goes on your website, doesn't it?
It does. So all these things and they're free. Okay, so freerelatively, because you do have to spend time doing them and setting them up.Once you have Maps set up, then you could basically leave it until a BankHoliday is coming up and you can usually let them know, log in and say, I willbe closed over Christmas with a few months in advance, so you don't even have toleave it until the last minute. So, yeah, definitely things to be thinkingabout there, guys. Then I would say that another one is empathy. So you'relistening to your clients, you're listening to what's going on in the worldaround you, but are you reacting to it in an empathetic way? Okay. Doesn't meanthat you have to state your point on everything that's going on in the world.There are too many things going on and you don't want to get political either,really, unless that's what your profile is all about. But if you can'tempathise with your clients or your audience, then you're missing out on that.Just bear it in mind.
I think storytelling is horribly underutilised as well. Ithink most people spend a huge amount of their time just banging on about theirproduct or their service. And okay, maybe they do remember to tell the storyabout their product or their service, but I think there's so much more thatthey can talk about without being too personal. If your audience is parents,then talk about the stuff that's affecting parents around that time. So itcould be special days of the year, like Valentine's or Halloween or Mother'sDay or anything like that. And storytelling doesn't have to be, you know, yousaying where you went in a holiday and what you had for dinner. It doesn't haveto be like that at all. But it's being more conversant with your customer.
Yeah, definitely. And again, Rob and Kennedy are really goodat that. They are, because they just take something that happened in everydaylife, it could be making up a cup of tea, and they turn it around as to howthat leads into them helping people with their email marketing. So you couldtake something as banal and run with it. I mean, yeah, kids are sick today, sojust thought it'd drop you an email or who else has been in this boat? When XYZhappens, you start a conversation, which is what a lot of social media ismissing and a lot of marketing is missing.
Bravo.
Right? Because if you don't have the conversation and it's aone way conversation, then there's going to be no interaction, no engagement,no sales, which is what we need at the end of the marketing. Marketing isn'tsales and sales isn't marketing. But you can't have one without the other. Okay?So when you get your messaging right and your storytelling right, and you'relistening and you're adapting and you're going with where your audience is,which is where your SWOT analysis comes in, you will see a massive improvementin your marketing.
And I know I can't believe I'm saying this, but I still feelit is a very underrated thing to do. And this will make you laugh. Video. Ijust don't think enough people are using video.
Have you been on TikTok recently? Everybody's using video.
But they're not, because not everybody's on TikTok.Everybody thinks everybody's on TikTok, but they're not. They're really not.And it's still a much younger audience. All these creators are on TikTok. Mostof them don't spend their time creating content for any other platform. So Ithink we should try and get a bit more creative doing videos on differentplatforms.
Yeah, it's funny you say that, because I was actuallywatching a TikTok the other day from Andy from ContentCal, and he had done atest over three different platforms: Instagram Reels, LinkedIn and TikTok. Andhe put the video up on all three and measured the engagement and measured thereach on all of them. It's very interesting. I won't tell you the answers. Iwill link it to the bottom so that you can go and take a look at it yourself,but it might surprise you. So what you have to do, guys, is put some of thesewe're not saying that you have to go and do every single one of these marketingskills. Most of them, most of you probably already have, okay? They'relistening to us. They're obviously listening, right? So go and find the onethat you're weakest on and focus on that for the next month and let us know howit has improved your marketing and how it has improved your engagement and yourreach. Okay? That's what we want to know. We want you to put this into action.We want you to adapt and improve your marketing skills. And that's why you'rehere. That's why you're listening to us today. So, any final words, Melanie?
No.
And on that note, we'll see you next week. Bye bye.