Marmalade Pod

Last week we talked about User-Generated Content. This week we’re covering influencer marketing and how the two differ.

UGC is where you get a third-party user to create video/images for your products marketing. You provide an outline of what you’d like covered and you get the video back to post as your own company’s content… like it’s a customer review.

Influencer marketing is where an influencer of some kind gets your products and showcases them to their audience and they influence them to look into them/buy them. If their idol likes it and wears it, then they might too. Influencers can be famous celebrities, YouTubers, Authority figures.

User generated content in social media is on the rise in the UK. You’ll have probably seen it in your feed without even knowing.

So, what is it and why is it important for you to know about it as a small business owner?

It’s a form of social media content, generally in video form that’s created by ‘users’ and shared on the brands social media channels as a customer review.

It can be a paid for service or a free gifted collaboration.

UGC can help newly formed companies to quickly add an element of social proof and credibility. For example, if you’re launching a new product that has no pre-existing customer reviews, it can be a great starting point.

We’d love to hear if you’d tried UGC, or want to know how to get started.

Content marketing is in a word B R O A D.

In this week’s podcast we focus in on ‘Video’ and why it should be a core part of your content marketing strategy.

So, why is video so important?

· It’s the preferred medium by the majority audience

· It gets the attention

· It hits people on an emotional level

· And the list goes on…

… and they’re great to use for a number of different types of posts, like behind the scenes, events, how to videos, vlogs, customer reviews, webinars, LIVE’s.

You don’t need fancy video equipment to create videos, maybe start with your smartphone or look at Canva. Canva provide thousands of stock video for you to use and you can drop on your text & logo

Otherwise known as CSR

It’s not just for big companies, we can all get involved, and it’s never been easier.

We both get involved in different way’s, to name a few:

🍊Create free social media infographics for a local community cafe

🍊Give away free marketing time

🍊Volunteer for charities

So, do you any CSR as a small business owner?

Maybe you do and don’t even know it!

If not here are a few ideas to get started:

· Firstly, listen to our podcast 

· Try and collaborate with a local cause that aligns with your values

· Get in touch to see how you can help

· Make it part of your 2023 plan

We hope you’ve enjoyed our podcast. We’d love it if you, our listeners, would tell us the topics you’d like us to cover

🍊🎙 In November we started to see the big brands' Christmas Ads trickle through onto our TV screens and you’ve probably had a belly full of them by now!

Do you have a favourite one or two? What is it that you like about these certain ads?

For us, our firm favourite is the much-talked-about John Lewis advert. Their agency has got the messaging right this year. It’s a family comes first message, with a harsh reality fact of how many children are in the care system.

No massive spread of food, and they haven’t thrown a massive guilt bomb of Christmas gift-giving down our throats, which makes a refreshing change. 🎙🍊

🍊🎙 We get it, winter isn’t the best time and people's moods dip as the nights draw in.

However, when you’re the face of your own company you have to rely on yourself to keep your spirits up, keep work flowing, get out there networking and so on.

But how do you keep your chin up?

We talk through our tips, a few of which are listed below:

🍊Switch off the depressing news

🍊Network and get out of the office/house

🍊Take regular breaks and switch off all your notifications

🍊Go out for a daily walk, get away from your screens and get some fresh air

We’d love to hear if you have other coping mechanisms maybe listening to our weekly podcast is one of them! 🎙🍊

🍊🎙 For anyone who works alone you’ll understand the rollercoaster of a journey it is.

One minute you’re really busy thinking it’s amazing, then you have a few knocks and you’re considering looking for a ‘proper job’, then next you like the flexibility of having a day off without asking someone’s permission then the next day you’re unsure how you’re going to pay your bills.

Keeping all the plates spinning, while keeping your customers happy, whilst prospecting, and networking is a whole lot more enjoyable when your momentum is high.

So how do we do this when we work for ourselves?

Well, we talk about how we do it, so pop the kettle on and have a listen 🎙🍊

Are you still going at it strong or have you started winding down now for the festive break?

We’ve heard it too many times to count on one hand… we’ll look at this early next year.

It might be our offering isn’t a priority or is it what everyone is saying at the moment as they can’t think about next year – just yet!

With the economy as it is business owners might be more froogle with their business buying decisions than normal. But just make sure the decisions are right for the business.

🍊Get ahead for 2023 now while everyone around you is at a standstill

🍊Aim high and don’t forget your goals

🍊Create a mood board and focus on it

Being visible is all about showing up in your business.

There is a way of showing up without feeling like you’re showing off.

As no one likes a show-off!

By showing the real you, whether it’s in photos, audio, or video it helps speed up the know, like and trust. As your audience get to know and (hopefully) like you quicker. How can they start to do this without seeing and hearing the real you.

This is also the only way you can stand out from your competition.

Today we are talking about why it’s a good idea to set time aside to create your content.

Content batching is an efficient way to create valuable and engaging content for your audience.

By doing it in bulk it not only saves you time in the long run, but you’ll find you’ll get so much more done in such a short space of time, the flow of your posts will be better and it’ll start t become second nature to you making it easier and easier every month.

Our tips for successful content batching:

🍊Do it t the best time of the day for you and your concentration – first thing/last thing?

🍊Have the month’s goals and objectives in mind before you start.

🍊Switch everything off, WhatsApp groups, email, turn your phone volume down etc

🍊Class it as essential business 'me' time

This is a good content creation hack to keep up your sleeve.

All you need is a good memory and at the end of the day, think to yourself What Went Well today.

Over the course of a week, you will hopefully have at least one good post and if that’s the case use it as a what went well this week post and get it on your socials on Friday.

It’s called conversational content.

On the 9th of September Google had just completed rolling out a new update.

The new update rewards content where visitors feel they’ve had a good experience.

But how does it know? It’s early days but we are assuming from other articles, that the Google bots identify content that gives little or no value and assumes the balance is helpful content.

So, what can you do to make sure Google favours your website:

🍊Start demonstrating you have first-hand experience of what you do and prove it

🍊Show your depth of knowledge in blogs, copy, vlogs, videos etc.

🍊 Create content for your human audience to get value from

🍊Don’t skirt around summarising what help you COULD give, be generous and give it

We’ve said it for a long time now and this just backs up what we’ve been saying is right, be helpful. To be interesting you need to be interested.

Today’s podcast encompasses the entire set of Octobers podcasts into one as we talk about full circle marketing.

A full-circle digital marketing approach is when you strategise, plan and consistently implement a cohesive brand philosophy and voice across all customer-facing touchpoints, including social, email marketing and automation, website design etc.

Taking this approach will ensure that, wherever someone may find you, they will experience a consistent, trustworthy, and mutually beneficial relationship with your brand.

Today we are talking about nurturing email sequences.

So, when someone has subscribed to your newsletter or download what do you send next?

In our eyes, it’s a short series of friendly emails, that keep you and your business front of mind, upsell and connect on a deeper level.

The benefits of an engaging short email sequence are:

🍊Nurture your leads into paying customers

🍊Build brand awareness and loyalty

🍊Keep subscribers updated with related products and services

Today we are talking about lead magnets and downloads, as we all want leads, right?

Social media and other online marketing communications CAN and DO bring in leads, the easiest way is via a lead magnet.

A lead magnet is a free resource that attracts potential customers to click on.

In our minds, it’s the perfect way to collect quality leads from your social media posts, monthly newsletters… 😉

The 4 Elements of an Irresistible Lead Magnet

🍊Well designed

🍊Speaks to your audience’s struggles

🍊Gives them an easy win

🍊Make it specific

So, grab a brew and have a listen – and let us know if there are any areas you’d like us to cover. Drop a comment below or send either Lisa or Me a DM.

Feeling a bit low, frazzled and out of kilter and can’t quite put your finger on it?

In today’s podcast, we talk about how we are feeling and how we try and run a business whilst being on the human rollercoaster of life!

Whether it’s the start of SAD, seasonal affective disorder or what some people call Autumn Anxiety or it could be you’re just knackered and have worked so hard all year round to try and make ends meet.

All we can say is, we hear you and don’t be too hard on yourself

🍊Give yourself a break, make a brew and pop our podcast on

🍊Celebrate your small wins

🍊 Get out into the fresh air and switch off your phone (after you’ve listened to the podcast!)

🍊Run a bath and have an early night

In today’s podcast we thought it would be good to talk about helpful software, websites, apps you name it, that we, as small business owners use and could be without.

It might be because they are cutting edge, time-saving, cost-saving or simply just make our business life that bit easier.

We discuss software that helps with:

🍊Book-keeping,

🍊Design,

🍊Scheduling social media posts,

🍊Organising plans / lists,

🍊Video editing

The list goes on…

Because we are Yorkshire, we like to get our monies worth, and if it’s free then that’s even better.

Do you have a piece of ‘go-to’ software that you couldn’t be without? If so, please share and comment below what it is, we’d love to try it and maybe it’ll pop up in one of our future podcasts.

Grab a brew and have a listen – and let us know if there are any areas you’d like us to cover

Today we are talking about why it’s necessary to outsource certain tasks within your business.

As two small business owners, we understand how hard it can be to let go. However, in order to move forward and grow your business you need to manage your time, work out where your efforts are best spent and outsource a few jobs along the way.

We talk about the types of tasks we outsource within our businesses and also our personal life.

Stop trying to do everything. You’ll only spread yourself too thin.

Start by popping the kettle on, grabbing a brew and sitting down for 5 and listen to our podcast 👇

Please let us know if our podcast sparks any ideas of topics that have been niggling you and we’ll be sure to cover them.

Today we are talking about how to stay on track and keep your focus.

How do you zone in, switch everything else around you off and knuckle down?

There are so many work-related distractions, whether it’s a

🍊Constant flow of social media notifications,

🍊A WhatsApp messaging group,

🍊Your Google calendar gives you a 30-minute alert to the start of a zoom call…

It’s never-ending and it’s actually harder than it sounds.

Hopefully, the tips we personally use and cover in today's podcast will help.

So, grab a brew and have a listen – and let us know if there are any areas you’d like us to cover.

In our first newly launched Marmalade Pod we thought we’d take a leaf out of our own book and talk about why a September reset might be just what you need.

If back-to-school vibes on top of a very slow business month are sapping your energy and confidence, don’t worry. You’re in good company.

A lot of business owners press reset in September. It’s nothing new:

It’s where you can:

🍊Focus on the last quarter of the year,

🍊Revamp your routine

🍊Get your sh*t together, whether that be, your accounts, desk, sleep, fitness, or diet.

🍊Check you’re on track for any end-of-year goals

Grab a brew and have a listen – and let us know if there are any areas you’d like us to cover.

The lovely Becky has gone on to other things because she's had an exciting opportunity. And to save you all from me rambling on about subjects all the time on my own. I’d like to introduce you to another fantastic connection of mine, the lovely Lisa, (she'll tell you all about herself in a minute) is going to join me on the podcast.

it's still about building your brand, making your brand stick, and getting your customers to stick around. But this time it's going to have a little bit more of a slant on social media and marketing content, which is Lisa's area of expertise.

Grab a brew and have a listen to what’s coming up in season 2 of Marmalade Pod.

If there is anything you would like us to cover in business, branding, marketing, content, social media or something else drop us a comment below

Today we are discussing networking, which is something that we've done a lot of over the years.

Can you remember the first-ever networking event that you went to? For Clare, it was a Chamber of Commerce networking event. “It was quite big if I remember rightly and I was absolutely scared to death, I can remember going into the room and seeing all these people and pretty much putting myself in a corner and standing with my back against the wall, hiding behind my business partner, who was about a foot shorter than me. It’s something I don't think I'll ever forget, but it's also often something that brings a smile to mind now, because if anybody that does know me, I'm quite a confident person. Walking into a room where I don't know anybody. ”

And for Becky, it was also a chamber meeting, probably about eight years ago now. “I didn't really have an understanding of what networking was. I didn't really have an understanding of what networking was.

I just understood. It was something that he kind of had to do in business to find more business. I walked into this room and everybody seemed to know what they were doing and everybody knew everybody else. So I thought, right, I'm, I'm gonna approach this. Like it's a friend's wedding. And I walked straight into the middle of the room. I found what I would describe as you know when you were at a wedding and there was a drunk aunt on the dance floor. Yeah. I found the business version of the drunk aunt and I was like, right, you are the person I am going to speak to.”

In business, We don't celebrate all that much unless it's something like a really big milestone, for example. Yeah. It's, it's quite strange really when you think about isn't it, there are so many things we could celebrate in this next. Um, I mean, you know, there's the obvious one's companies being no in a year, five years, 10 years, 15 years, 50 years.

In today's episode, we are talking about how your business needs to have two sides to it, the side that makes it amazing for your customer and the side that makes it simple for you as a business owner.

And you really need to make sure that you've got them both, right. So as much as you need to focus on your customers, giving them an amazing experience and ensuring that you deliver everything that you promise, you also need to make sure that as a business, it's as easy as possible to deliver. And that you have things in processes within your business that also give you some time back. So you don't get swamped by delivering customer expectations.

Today we are talking about welcoming new customers into your business. Whether that's just a friendly welcome or a full onboarding program. Creating the first impression can only ever be done once. And when you bring in a new customer, and even if you've wowed them all the way through the sales process, this is the point where they really get to know you and your business and experience what you've sold to them for the first time. So getting it right can make or break a future relationship.

For us both, as customers, we like to feel listened to and understood so we bring that through into the way we serve our customers.

In this episode, we are discussing touchpoints and automation within your business, which is quite on topic for us now, because we've been both doing a lot of work on customer journeys, systems, and automation. Mapping out and knowing what your customer touchpoints are from the awareness stage right through to the delivery of your product or service is one of the key areas you can differentiate your business from your competitors.

You can also use automation along the journey to help keep things consistent and make the experience a smooth one for your customers.

Today we are talking all about building trust. It’s much easier to build trust when you're face to face with somebody for example if you're at a networking event, or you're meeting in person. Your expressions and body language are easier to read in person and you get a feeling too – like those occasions when you strike up a conversation and feel like you’ve known someone for years.

However, many of our first impressions are made online either through emails, websites, social media, or zoom calls. Video is a brilliant tool to help build trust, your audience will be watching you and getting to know you, so you are building trust without knowing it. Much like TV characters we watch, and we feel like we know them – we either warm to them or dislike them.

Hello, welcome to the latest episode of marmalade pod. Today we are talking about mindset, which is important for every business owner. We think it's just as important for general wellbeing.

Sometimes, you have to shift your mindset. Sometimes something negative happens and impacts quickly and we've got to re-centre just as quickly. Clare “I like to use a technique of asking the question of myself, will it matter in five minutes? will it matter in five hours, will it matter in five days, the longer the period that the annoyance will matter, the more time I will give it to get my head back square on. If it's not going to matter in five minutes, then all it gets.

Becky “This really helps me… I ask myself when I get frustrated. Is it shit? Or is it compost? If it’s just shit. There's nothing I can do about it. If it's compost, it's something that I can grow from, how can I look at this differently? How can I make this into something positive? This simple question helps me to reframe it.

Today, we are going to be discussing packaging offers. We think it's something that we all do in business. And equally, we all struggle because there are a lot of things to consider. And you've got to look at it from multiple different viewpoints, not just what's best for your business and what you think is best, but also how people are going to react and ultimately will it make it easier for your customers to buy from you.

Take the well-known takeaway – there's always an upsell – Do you want to go large? It’s how you position things. And it's about what it is you do, how can you package it and present it, how much you're going to charge for it? Who was it for? Who's your ideal customer, and all those things have got to line up? So that they benefit your business. But do they offer value to your potential customer?

Welcome to the latest edition of marmalade pod. In this episode, we're talking about planning - the bit that we both get a bit geeky about when a plan comes together.

So, what is your go-to when you're planning something? How do you start? Clare likes to doodle and draw “I suppose that’s the creative designer in me, I also like post-it notes – they are great for moving things around and help with organisation”. Becky likes an overall view and her go-to is a whiteboard because you can remove things and add things, however, the problem with a whiteboard for detailed planning is you have to take pictures of it to keep it – because it's going to disappear.

Welcome to the latest edition of marmalade pod today, we are talking about all things to do with decision making, which is a big part of every business.

Sometimes things are easy, and sometimes they're complex. And you have to look at things from different angles. It flows through every level of business and personal life. And we have often approach decision-making very differently in our personal lives to how we do in our businesses.

In our personal lives, things are often quite black and white, and we make decisions quite quickly such as what are we having for dinner or where are we going on holiday. Whereas in our businesses, not only does the decision-making process need to be a little more structured because of the impact it has, but often those decisions carry a lot more weight.

This week, we're talking about awareness, the first stage in customer journey and a big part of brand building.

Awareness does pretty much what it says on the tin, you are trying to make as many people as possible, aware of you, your band, your company, your offering, and how you can help them. From a brand point of view, awareness is building the brand, because you're constantly building the brand and building more awareness, I would say that the key brand elements of awareness are your positioning and differentiation.

It's about identifying where your ideal customers are, where they're hanging out, are there particular publications that they read? Or they're going to certain events? What are they engaging with other part of certain groups, and then looking at how you can best communicate to them to get your message across and to grow their awareness.

Today we're going to talk about branding and content, or how your content can help you build your brand.

Content is anything that you create and put out into the world in the form of marketing, information, or communication. It could be an email, it could be a video, signage, a leaflet or even a podcast, like we're doing now. It can be a data sheet. It can be instructions, that could be announcing a sale or launching a new product.

Everything comes back to the strategy. So, think about what you are you doing? Why are you doing it and who you're doing it for? You can then apply that to a content plan. You could theme your conte too for a week, a month, or a quarter, having that theme, and a campaign makes it easier for you to create content.

What's the difference between your audience and a customer?

Simply put your audience is people that know about you, who you are, what you do, and how you can help them your objective is to attract an audience and cultivate them - building a relationship with them that will turn them into customers.

For example, if you create an amazing blog article, and that blog article is all about ‘why a customer journey is important and how it will help a business’. That's valuable content that you might want to turn into a video or some social media posts or an email campaign.

To get maximum use for your content you need to tweak the way that the message is put across. The content may be the same, but the messaging and the language used to convey needs to be slightly different. Because with your customers, you're talking on a much more personal level because you're building a different type of relationship.

Today we're going to talk about brand identity. Brand identity is the most well-known form of branding because it includes the logo, and the logo is the most prominent form of a brand. It's what a lot of people think a brand is. But as we already knew, and we're going to uncover in lots of these episodes, that branding is much, much more than just a logo.

Brand identity is as you thought, branding, and strategy was your logo, your colours, your fonts, your uniforms, your signage of vehicles, it's the environment you create in your office, whether you have people coming into it with staff or customers, you have a sharp or you have a website and online presence, your social media, every tangible element that carries your company name is part of your brand identity, but it's also the people. And this is often relative to personal branding too, because as people, we have our own identities.

In this episode we are going to be talking about brand strategy. Becky: “I had never looked at a complete brand strategy. I think like a lot of business owners. I scratched the surface, and I had a basic understanding of what I might need to include.”

Many businesses owner their brand is built on logos, colours, fonts and how you use them – they are part of your brand identity. Your branding starts with and is underpinned by your brand strategy.

One of the common mistakes people make when they think about branding, or building a brand is they think about the visual aspects. The things that are tangible that you can see. Whereas a brand strategy, a bit like a business strategy, is not tangible. Think of an iceberg. The biggest part of the iceberg, the most powerful and forceful part of the iceberg is underneath the water, we don't see it. The tangible things are the bit that's above the water. This is the same for branding, the strategy is the powerful force that drives the tangible parts of the brand.

Hi, and welcome to the latest episode of the marmalade pod. In this episode, we're going to be talking about the customer journey. Customer Journey is an interesting thing. It's something that affects every business, it's not something every business takes a lot of time to consider. Sometimes it's very organic, in the way that it's put together, or the times, it's more strategic and more planned out. Yeah, lots to get into. Definitely. So what would you say are reasons why you start looking at customer journey with your customers? Or why do people start thinking about it? Usually, it's because they're looking to either increase their profits, or change their business, or they just want to offer a new service or increase retention, there's usually something very business-driven behind it. So the customer journey itself spans multiple areas.

In this episode, we are talking about all things brand. 

Well, you've recently gone through a rebranding exercise because your business had a change in direction slightly, but definitely a development of service and what your offering was. And in your strategy, that we talked about in the last episode, you'd got some need to reposition things and have a new identity, do you want to tell us a little bit more about the thought process behind why you did what you did? 

We'd had a rebrand a few years before. But it didn't really meet what we were doing. It was quite masculine looking, it was very tech-inspired. And it was from a colour perspective, it was what you expect to see in the world of tech, it was blacks and blues and greens and, and very kind of standard, and we wanted something completely different. And originally, we thought about the logo, do we just need a new logo, after meeting yourself learning more about the brand, I realised that a logo wasn't going to cut it, it needed to be deeper because I really wanted to make Unimax 2.0, as I was calling it at the time, a huge success. We focused on multiple different offerings, not just the one. And because our business has been so established, it needed to run deep when we made those changes.

This is your next installment of the marmalade pod. Today we're going to talk about strategy and planning. It's an interesting topic for us, given that we plan everything. We've always got post-it notes, highlighters, and all sorts of things. But today, we're going to be focusing a little bit more on strategic planning, and why that is important for your business as a whole. And equally for independent parts of your business, such as your branding, your marketing, your sales, your service, and how your customers interact with you.

A brand strategy is one of the first elements of building a brand, if you don't have a strategy and a plan that aligns with your business plan, then how do you know it's working?

How do you know it's the right thing to attract your ideal customer? Your Ideal customer is something that we're going to touch on in a different episode, but where the how does the strategy impact things from the customer journey? 

Hi, it's Clare from Make a brew. And Becky from Unimax Solutions. And we are delighted to introduce ourselves today because we're working together on this podcast. What's it called? …Marmalade pod! And what's it about? We're here to help your brand stick and your customers stick around.

We are so excited to be working on this collaboration project. We both have a similar outlook and approach to putting customers first, helping people build their business through their journeys and strategies.

We've both worked for each other, and we're customers of each other. And it's this is all about how we can bring our expert knowledge together to go through the different aspects of the customer journey and branding and all the different intricacies to have some interesting conversations and there'll be some guests on from time to time in different areas.