Marketing Nuggets with Gabriella Ferenczi

In this podcast episode, linguist and communications consultant Eloise Leeson joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss linguistics and marketing, and how using the power of words can help us connect with the kind of clients we want to work with. Eloise explains how words have a direct influence on our sales and marketing efforts. She talks about sociolects and the power of linguistic mirroring as an example and explains how we can bond with others and forge empathy through language and words. She shares why active listening should be the backdrop of any marketing effort, and why marketing on assumption makes potential clients feel like commodities. As she puts it: Assuming anything about anybody is a really dangerous game to play because it says 'I know you better than you know yourself'. Assumptions degrade people. The solution? Active listening - as Eloise explains. We also talk about 'clever, academic style writing' and why we need to stop glorifying academic language as the be-all and end-all. Eloise then mentions how our subconscious drives our conscious language and why we want to be aware of the words our customers use consciously as well as subconsciously. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who want to learn more about how to forge connections with potential clients through language and words. To find out more about Eloise and her work, visit https://www.olimcomms.com/ The book Eloise mentions in the show is Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, Paul Sallaway joins Gabriella Ferenczi to talk about the key ingredient that will help you turn more website visitors into customers: CTA or Call to Action. Paul is an educational consultant and founder of BabelTEQ, a company that offers independent online language teachers the sales funnel tools they need to grow and manage their business. In our conversation, we talk about why having a website is just like having a business card. Just because it's nice it won't mean that it will bring you any business. We talk about sales which - according to Paul, is no longer about persuasion. He defines sales as a process of facilitating next steps. Paul then explains in layman terms what a call to action aka CTA is and why it's so important to get it right. As he puts it: building a funnel is all about building a relationship with our website visitors. It's about moving people through the customer journey, and building up the know-like-trust factor. It shouldn't feel salesy. On the contrary. If we're the right fit for them, they'll want to get in touch. It should just feel natural. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who want to understand more about making their website more customer-focused and easy-to-navigate. To find out more about Paul and his work, visit the following links: https://www.babelteq.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-sallaway-96307a1ba/ https://twitter.com/BabelTeq Paul's blog that we mention in the podcast is this: https://www.babelteq.com/get-more-esl-students-calls-to-action/ To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, Connor Kane joins Gabriella Ferenczi to talk about the power of clear and effective communication and the principle of keeping things simple when it comes to website design and copy. Connor is a language coach based in the US. He shares advice and strategies for effective language learning on his blog at www.usinglanguages.com. He is a lifelong language learner and enthusiast currently working on his German. He has a professional marketing background in web design and strategy has just launched his very own language training business. In our conversation, we cover a wide range of marketing topics such as why it's difficult to charge a higher price for your services if all you have is an Instagram page. He shares some valuable tips about what to pay attention to when you DIY your website to make sure that you convey the value that you can bring to the table for your customer. We talk about letters, fonts, colours and design and how we can nail the right balance. Connor also explains why it's so important to listen to our clients and the words they use when they talk about the challenges they have as it relates to our language services. As he puts it: Using the language, the words and phrases of our customers is a lot more powerful than using our words as it resonates 100%. Help them imagine a world where their problems don't exist anymore - and make sure you use their words to show you really understand them. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who want to understand more about the power of simple but effective copy and design. To find out more about Connor and his work, visit the following links: Website: www.usinglanguages.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connorfkane/ To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, holistic brand designer and digital marketing strategist Kriszti Nagy joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss the tricks of online marketing, with a special focus on SEO - aka Search Engine Optimisation. Kriszti explains why we should all think about user experience whenever we're doing anything on our website, eg. writing a blog, or optimising some web pages. Her message: Always be optimising. Not only for Google but first and foremost, for our clients. She shares why we need to think about Google or other search engines as our partners. And why we should always strive to understand more about how our target audience finds our website, and once they do land on our website, what we can do to make sure they enjoy using it. We also talk about spending money on ads and where many of us can go wrong about it. And towards the end of the conversation, Kriszti offers some very practical advice on what sort of blogs we can create to bring more of our target audience into our own online universe so we can then turn them into paying clients. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who want to understand more about the basic principles of how to create Google and customer friendly web content.  To find out more about Kriszti and her work, visit the following links: Tea Shirt®: https://tea-shirt.co.uk - award-winning, eco-friendly teas. Her Facebook Group for creative women achieving accelerated growth on Shopify, soon launching a group coaching program:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/breakthroughbrigade To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, email marketing expert Adrian Savage joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss all things email marketing. Adrian explains why and how open rates matter, why authentication of your email marketing tools is crucial, and how you can nurture your reputation as an email marketer to increase the likelihood of your emails landing in people's inboxes rather than the dreaded spam or even promotion folder. He shares why 'unsubscribes' can actually be a good thing, why it's important to only send emails to people who've opened your emails recently, and why you don't want your emails to look too pretty. We also talk about how much is too much or too little in terms of content, how often we should send emails to our subscribers, and Adrian also mentions why social links in your email marketing are a big no-no. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who want to grow their email list, build trust and nurture the relationship with their prospects through email marketing. To find out more about Adrian and his work, visit the following links: Company Website: https://deliverabilitydashboard.com/ The RACE Method Checklist: https://deliverabilitydashboard.com/checklist-fb/ Email Health Check: https://emailhealthcheck.net/ To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, Stirling Austin joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss why our language skills should be treated as valuable business assets that we can productise in many different ways. He demonstrates how a multilingual website can help us to widen our business offering.    Stirling kicks off by sharing his background story of reinventions. Bilingual French/English, Stirling has managed, bought, sold, acquired, merged, restructured and turned around businesses in the UK, France, and Europe and Germany, started and developed four companies and two business units from scratch and completed a number of successful assignments as an Interim Manager.   Then, after a spell as a professional musician, he established Pixel Executive and started up in web design.   He talks about the right kind of business mindset and points out the difference between 'being a translator' and 'running a business, using translation skills'.   As he puts it: 'If you're a translator, you're way more than 'just' a translator. You're in the business of translation.'   We then discuss multilingual websites. Stirling shares what he thinks about DIY-ing our website as opposed to having it designed by a professional.  And we go into the nitty-gritty of plugins that can enhance the functionality of our website. Stirling shares what plugins he thinks should be banished, and which ones can be of good use when it comes to creating a multilingual website.   He then talks about why you don't want to be a generalist and what he considers to be the single most important marketing skill to hone in on to find more clients online.   Tune in to find out more.   A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who are thinking about growing their business by offering different services as part of their product portfolio.   To find out more about Stirling and his work, visit https://pixelexecutive.com/   To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online  

In this week’s podcast, Bryn Bonino joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss the power of meaningful online connections, what guest blogging actually is, and why the right mindset is crucial to marketing success. In the interview, we talk about Bryn's story from being a language specialist to running her own marketing and branding consultancy Backstory First. We discuss what prompted her to start Make A Leap, a website where she interviews language educators who made the leap from language teacher to entrepreneur. Bryn then goes on to share how she developed and nurtured her online network of connections and how she started to write for other websites. She explains how guest blogging helps you gain web traffic, get in front of your audience, and boost your SEO ranking in a cost-effective way. As she puts it: "Guest blogging is great because I don't have to tell people how good I am and why they should listen to me. It lets other people do that for me, and I just share what they've written." We then go on to talk about the challenges of marketing ourselves as introverts, and why mindset is crucial for language business success. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who consider themselves introverts and struggle to show up consistently when it comes to marketing their language business. To find out more about Bryn and her work, visit https://backstoryfirst.com/ To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, Timea Kadar joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss marketing, storytelling, and the challenges of writing for our business. Timea is a marketing consultant at the award-winning Francis Cooper Marketing Consultancy. She has been in marketing for over 20 years, and she was involved in thousands of successful marketing campaigns. She organises sell-out events like the Marketing Megahits Festival which is an annual marketing extravaganza in the online space. She regularly runs LinkedIn challenges to help people get leads and business through LinkedIn. Timea recently launched her 'YourStory Programme' to help business owners and entrepreneurs to communicate their USP on social media and in their pitches. In the interview, we talk about Timea's story from the corporate world to running her own marketing consultancy in London.  We discuss copywriting and why it is that we find it especially challenging to write about ourselves and our business. Timea then goes on to share why storytelling in business has received such hype these days but why it really is so powerful. Hint: It’s unique. (Nobody else has your stories.) And she gives us some brilliant prompts that can help us discover our own stories. As she puts it: 'You don’t have to say how you stand out. The story will show it.' Just follow the prompts she mentions and you'll end up with a treasure trove of content that you can share with your audience. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for language professionals who find it challenging to come up with new content to market their language business. To find out more about Timea and her work, visit https://franciscooper.com/ To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In this week’s podcast, Nathalie Danon joins Gabriella Ferenczi to discuss marketing, business, delegating vs outsourcing, and why resilience and a vivid imagination are vital skills when it comes to marketing our language business. Nathalie Danon is an award-winning language entrepreneur, business coach and mentor for language professionals.  In this interview, she shares how she grew from being a language teacher to establishing The Vici Language Academy in Berkshire.  She talks about what marketing channels they use to advertise their services at the academy. She talks honestly about successful marketing campaigns that worked well. And she also opens up about some marketing failures which provided valuable lessons. Nathalie then shares her recipe as to how she decides which tasks she delegates to a marketing agency or someone on her team, and which ones she prefers to keep to herself. And she explains why marketing without a solid business strategy is just a waste of time and money. Tune in to find out more. A must-watch, must-listen episode for all language professionals who work freelance and run their language business. To find out more about Nathalie, visit https://www.nathaliedanon.co.uk/ To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

An opt-in offer is a valuable, relevant freebie that you offer your website visitors in exchange for their contact information.  A great freebie can do a lot of things for you. It establishes trust and goodwill with your new subscriber. It demonstrates that you care about your customer and that you understand them and their values, their world view.  A great email opt-in offer also gives your subscriber a no-risk way to experience you and what you can potentially offer, so they can get a feel for your tone, your vibe, and your professionalism. It can generate interest and desire to buy your paid offerings. Tune in for more and learn how to decide what to offer as a freebie to your website visitors. To learn about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

When Google decides which websites to show to people on the search result page, they use algorithms to measure the quality of the website and the webpages. Tune in to learn some easy-to-implement tips that will make sure Google will like your website and show it to people. To learn about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. In nutshell, this is the practice of growing your website’s visibility to make sure that search engines like Google will display your site, as high up on the search results page as possible - and here's the deal - without you paying a penny. Tune in to find out more on why SEO matters and what you can do to make sure your website is Google-friendly. To learn about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

Many fellow language professionals are opposed to marketing. They think it is something pushy or scammy. I get it. But the kind of marketing I like is very different. Tune in to find out how I reframed these limiting beliefs and how I feel about modern, online marketing today. To learn about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

Graphic design is key to building a professional brand. Being consistent in your marketing collateral allows your brand to be easily recognisable. It tells potential customers what you’re all about — and whether you’re the right fit for them. You can spot cheap design from miles. And you certainly don't want to look cheap. It just doesn't send out the right message. But then how do you show up consistently, professionally, without spending a lot of money on original graphic design, and without spending hours on end on platforms like Canva? In this marketing nugget, I explain just that. Tune in to learn more. To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

Words are powerful. They can inspire people to take action.  I firmly believe that knowing how to write words that make people want to connect, to get in touch is on of the most important marketing skills we need to learn and master as freelance language professionals. In this marketing nugget, I shed light on two mistakes I see colleagues making in this field. Two mistakes that are easy to avoid - if we are aware of them. Tune in to learn more. To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

Paid advertising - you might say that it's just way too complicated, too techy. You might say that there are agencies who specialise in doing paid ad campaigns for you. Why would you want to learn how to do it yourself? Well, you always have 2 options: 1. Hire it out 2. Learn this skill and pay yourself for life. Even if you'd prefer to hire it out, wouldn't it make sense to know at least the basics, so you can ask the right questions when it comes to deciding who to hire it out to? So you are not scammed and sold something you really don't need. For that, it helps if you understand the basics. The best thing: it's not rocket science. Tune in to learn more. To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

In 2010, social media was a fun place to be. In 2021, it's massively overcrowded. It's increasingly difficult to stand out, to make our voice heard without spending money, without paid advertising. Here's how I approach social media for my language business, and what you should consider when deciding which platforms to use, making sure managing social media won't get in the way of running your business. To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online And for the social links mentioned in the episode, visit https://linktr.ee/gabriella.ferenczi

An email list is one of the most valuable assets in any online business. Email Marketing is a super powerful tool that you can use to stay in touch with your existing clients and also with your potential clients. And it's so much more than just the ability to send email.  To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online

These days, people buy online. People search online. People gather information online. Therefore, as a language service provider, you HAVE TO be online. And show up for people who need you most. To find out more about the host Gabriella Ferenczi and Thrive Online, visit www.gabriellaferenczi.com/thrive-online