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224: Marketing 101 for Non-Marketers with Guest Brenda Meller · Imperfect Marketing

• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, kendra Korman, and today I'm really excited to have one of my good friends, brenda Meller, join me.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Brenda has been helping business professionals and job seekers enjoy a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: She's a former corporate marketer turned entrepreneur, national speaker, chief engagement officer at Meller Marketing, author of one of the books I have back here, which is Social Media Pie how to Enjoy a Bigger Slice of LinkedIn.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: She's also the podcast host of Enthusiastically Self-Employed, and I think this is her third trip back here to Imperfect Marketing because she always has just such great information to share.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So tune in and take notes.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome, brenda.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to be back here again.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Kendra, I was looking at my podcast this morning as well, and I think you've been on a few times as well, so it's really nice to exchange the guest seat with each other.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It is, it is, and I love all of the great information and perspective that you're able to give, just for all of you listening and watching.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I am actually a client of Brenda's.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I actually hire her regularly to take a look at my LinkedIn page that of my clients.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: So often we're just too close to our own stuff to really make a difference, and so hiring an expert is very important.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: But let's go ahead and jump into our topic today, which is going to be marketing tips for non marketers.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: A lot of entrepreneurs, we hate the word selling.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Not everybody's been trained in marketing and has a ton of experience in it, like you and I do.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: So what are some marketing tips that that you're giving to non marketers?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: It's interesting the topic here marketing tips for non-marketers.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: We're really talking to people who are looking to shore up their marketing efforts for their business.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Maybe they are self-employed and they've just never put a lot of time and thought and effort into and they have some elements of marketing as a part of their business, but other areas that there are gaps.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And others might be a small business owner and maybe you haven't grown to the size that you can afford hiring somebody to do marketing full time for you.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: But maybe you've hired a consultant here and there to help you out with some different projects and you know, if we think about marketing as a big picture, sometimes it gets a little confusing.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Like, what is marketing?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Is it public relations?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Is it social media?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Is it just my website, my logo?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: But marketing is really the way that we connect with our ideal target audience and it's a combination of all those things the visual elements, the video, the website.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: You know everything, the full package, and in almost think about when we talk about our personal brand.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: You know what people say about us when we're not in the room.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Marketing is really what people say about your business when you're not there to explain it.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: What do they know about your offerings, your services, the benefits and all of those things working with you?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And I think this is going to be a really fun chat, kendra, because you and I both speak the same language and we both have a passion for marketing, so I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to get through the discussion here today.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely excited.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I love that you do is you're consistent, and I think that's one of the things that also plays into your marketing is more than just the visuals and the content, but the consistency in that content, right, I mean, every Sunday you post your events coming up right.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So that consistency shows trustworthiness and builds that know like and trust factor, because you're seeing the same things on a regular basis.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think getting some type of a consistency, some type of plan in place and having that plan roll out throughout the year, it is really one of the keys to marketing.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: And sometimes people are they're dabbling in marketing.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: They're like, okay, I'm going to have in the beginning I'll have this logo and I'll have a website, and they kind of like put something together and we'll come back and finish it off later, and then they realized three or four years later that later never came right.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: They finish off their website or they start to do some social media postings on one network we'll say LinkedIn and then this thing called TikTok sprouts up and they kind of start to dabble over in TikTok and they neglect their LinkedIn for a while, whereas really what we should be doing is taking a step back and thinking about where is our ideal target audience, where can they be found, and then putting together all of our marketing efforts on and it might just be a single platform.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: It might not be spreading ourself too thin.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: So what you're referring to, kendra, is my weekly event posts.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I do this every Sunday on LinkedIn and I pull back the curtain a little bit.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Part of the reason I do this is for me because I need to kind of look at what's coming up with my week, with my month, what are the list of events that will be coming up that I need to plan ahead for, and then I put it on LinkedIn to publicize those events for my audience.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: And it really is to try to get people to attend the event.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: And every week when I do that event post, I put some marketing in it and I explain, I pull back the curtain on the post itself.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Why am I doing this every week?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Because we, as consumers, we need reminders.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And if you know that my every Sunday, brenda Miller does a weekly event post, even if you haven't read my post in a while, you might be thinking what are her upcoming events?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: And you go to my timeline, you go to my activity feed, you find those events.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: So it's almost like a way finding tool similar to a website, and I know you use them in similar strategies with your posts too.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Right, yes, so I definitely do very consistent posting, especially when it comes to the podcast episodes, right?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: So that's that's definitely key.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: My consistency, and where I do most of my focused effort is email, and I know you do that too, but that's definitely where I focus on my consistency.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Every Thursday, you're going to get an email from me if you're on my list, which is very important, because when you're showing up regularly, people again know that they can trust you and that's part of your branding.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it all comes back to you know we're talking.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: You're talking about marketing tips for non marketers.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: If you need to be marketing yourself you know this is something it's kind of like it's built into the term If you want to be marketing, you need to be marketing.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: You need to have a plan for it, you need to have a strategy for it.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: And when I think about email marketing, I think about you automatically.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: You go top of mind for me, and why?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Because you are consistent with mentioning your email tips, with sprinkling out the different resources and events that are related to email marketing, with posting and sharing about email marketing tips from time to time.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: And when there's new laws in place, these new rules that came out with Google and whatnot earlier this year about email, I'm like you're the first person I went to.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I said, Kendra, what do we need to know about this?
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So you might think that your audience is well aware of the products and services and benefits of working with you, but they don't.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: It's your responsibility to remind them, and there's so many messages we're encountering every single day.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: The thing that people fail to realize with email marketing is that if people have opted into your list, they're essentially, they've raised their hand.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, I want to learn more about you, so let's not neglect those hand raisers.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: You know, let's get an email out to them, whether it's weekly or monthly or having some regular cadence.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I do twice a week.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, when I'm in a program launch period, I do even more than that.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: But I give people an opt out from this topic.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: If you're no longer interested in hearing about the recipe, click here and I'll take you off this list.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: But you'll continue to receive my regular email communications and I know that's something that you do as well with a weekly email, and I know that you have that unsubscribe process as well.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Do you do the topic opt out as well, Kendra, or how do you handle that?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, because, especially when I'm going into launch mode, which I'm headed in there very shortly here, I'm going to be sending emails almost daily.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Not everybody wants to hear from me daily.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, you should want to hear from me daily, but if you don't, I get it and if they don't want that topic, they can go ahead and just opt out of those emails but still get the rest of the information, and I think people who are responsible in their email marketing let that happen.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I used to have it at the bottom of the email.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: This year I'm moving it to the top so that it's really easy to find and say if you don't want any of this information, go ahead and hit this button and you'll still get my weekly email, but not the rest of this.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: So it should be interesting to see what happens.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes it easier, Absolutely easier, for them, and I love how you're kind of shaking it up a little bit, moving from the bottom of the email to the top of the email, and I think that's another is a very solid marketing strategy.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Look at what everyone else is doing and do something slightly different, because I think that can help to really differentiate you within your marketing, within your messaging, within all the different platforms that you're using to get those messages out.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: When everyone's doing a certain thing, try to do something slightly different, because it will make people go, oh, that's different.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: That's not something I've typically seen, and especially if it fits within the values that you have for yourself and for your business and I always see you, kendra, as a very helpful, you know, kind of like an insider, and you're willing to share that information with me.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: So when we can create that personality for ourself and for our business with me, so when we can create that personality for ourself and for our business sometimes, you know, doing the zag when everyone else is zigging, it doesn't seem so, it's not so off brand.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: It's like I would expect something like that from Katra, would you agree?
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, Thank you very much for that too.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, and you are the same way.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: So I believe that you've got to give to get.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Um, that goes with a lot of social media things and with email and information.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: There's a ton of value that you can provide to people, and I'm never afraid of providing too much value or too many secrets or too many peeks behind the curtain, Because when someone's going to hire me, it's going to be for to work with them individually, so all right.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So I have a question for you.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: One of the biggest objections that I get to when people start to talk about doing their own marketing is time.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: It's not that they don't want to do it Sometimes.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: It's not that they don't know even know what to do.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: They just don't have enough time.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Their chief cook and bottle washer and everything else in between for their business.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: What do you tell people those non-marketers who are looking to do more marketing about the time?
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we all have 24 hours in a day.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: I wish I had 48.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it might look like I have 48 because I'm really productive, but it's the same 24 we all have.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: You have 24, I have 24.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: It's just how we choose to spend that time.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And when you think about you can use that time almost think about it like an available hour perspective, so I can use that time to go and find more clients and generate more revenue for my business.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Or I can use that time doing marketing activities that maybe I don't enjoy doing, but I know that they're necessary building an email, relaunching my website, redesigning my logo all these other things that we can be doing.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I don't enjoy doing them and it's costing you, whatever your hourly rate is to do them yourself, and then it's also an energy drain on you.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: So think about all the marketing activities that are really required as a part of what you're doing for your business, or necessary as a part of what you're doing for your business, and you can even list them out and say what do I enjoy doing and what do I want to keep doing on my own and what would I prefer not to do myself.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: But maybe I can outsource, and there might even be some items on your list that you could say don't enjoy, don't really need to do them, let's cross them off entirely.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Let's stop posting on TikTok because it's not generating any new leads, and this is what's right.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: So I think, give yourself some permission to take those things off.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: And then that second category of outsourcing, you know, if you don't know where to go, start asking around.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: One thing I like to do, Kendra, for my clients is when they reach out to me and they say I need somebody to help me with this, I say there's two ways you can do it.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: You can go and do a LinkedIn post and say I need help with email marketing.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Who would you recommend?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: You can do a post like that.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: You'll get people swarming you and maybe that's okay, because then you'll get a lot of ideas.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Or I'll say I'll do it for you and I'll do it on my company page on LinkedIn, and then I'll send the post to a few people I know, like Kendra Corman, who work in email marketing, and I'll ask her to comment, and then you can see who these people are.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And sometimes those people will come to me directly.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: They'll come in my inbox, my DMS and they'll say, hey, I see you're looking for somebody for email marketing.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And I'll say, no, it's actually my client.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Could you reply to the post?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Because I'm directing them there and they can look it up.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: But I think we can leverage the power of our online networks to find those resources, Because a lot of times I'll be honest, Kendra people will come to me and they'll say I need help with this SEO, for example and I'll say, well, I don't do that.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And I'll say, well, I don't do that.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: But I know a few people who do Let right now screwed over by a marketing consultant or a marketing agency that promised them you know the moon, for you know usually a significant investment and they don't deliver.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: They over promise and under deliver, and it's, it's frustrating.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Which is why I like that suggestion a lot from you is that if you're looking to outsource, find people that are recommended by others.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Do the crowdsourcing.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I think we were both in a Facebook group not too long ago and someone was looking for a VA.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: We both commented and backed up our stuff and you know so there were multiple people saying the same person.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: That always helps too, especially when they have experience with it.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: So I think crowdsourcing is a great way to find reliable talent and people that aren't going to screw you over, because I find a lot of people do.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the referral is really key there.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: And you know what's interesting is you and I didn't say, hey, let's both tag in Carol Dorsey, she's a VA that we were talking about.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Let's both tag in Carol Dorsey on the post.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: We didn't talk about that, but we have both worked with Carol and we know that Carol has some capacity for her business to take on new clients, so we both put her name in.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: And I think what's interesting is human beings.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: We're not really that different than anyone.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: We look at social proof what are other people saying about this person, or who are the names and the companies that are coming up most often?
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: And another big category of social proof is online reviews, and that should be a part of your marketing effort.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: If you're not a marketer, this should be a part of your marketing effort.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: You should be consciously reaching out and asking for LinkedIn recommendations or asking for people to go on and give you a Google review Google my business or, if you're a location-based service provider, a Yelp review, and there's even video reviews and testimonials and things like that as well.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: But people will do searches for your business Miller Marketing Reviews and they'll look and see what are other people saying about you and I don't know about you, kendra, but when I visit a website, if I'm thinking about doing business with a person, I visit their website and I see a bunch of testimonials and it says Fred from Omaha and Mavita from Detroit and I'm like, are these real people?
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Because it doesn't say their business, it doesn't have their photo.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: These could be made up, but when I see Fred from Topeka and it has a link to his LinkedIn profile and I can see he's given a recommendation and it's public, it gives me that warm feeling like yep, this is legitimate and Fred's a real person, so that social proof feels more legitimate.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Is that the case for you as well?
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: It is, it is.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: It was funny.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I was actually just emailing back and forth with a client today and she was like, okay, I should just save the ones where I'm allowed to say I'm allowed to have their photo and their full name and title in the review for the homepage.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: And I said yes.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I said if you've got something that's really powerful, you can say why you had to hold it back or something along those lines, Cause you know she's working with a lot of people in automotive and well, Ford, Chrysler, GM sometimes don't necessarily let you use their name when you're working with one of their employees and so it makes it a little sticky.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But I'm like, yeah, if you have the photo, the full name, it gives a little bit more street cred and feels a little bit more true.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I guess, for lack of a better term, More believable.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: I think we're more suspect of different things that are out there, because there's AI generated photos now, even nowadays Not even just text anymore, but AI generated photos.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: And you look at a photo and you're like something feels a bit off about this.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: And the same thing, I think, applies when we look at online reviews and testimonials Is this real?
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: We're looking at it from a skeptical point of view.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Until we can find that linkage and sometimes I will do the thing if it's not linked to their profile I'll do a Google search for Fred from Topeka and I'll you know, typing in his first and last name and business name, and I'll see is it a legitimate business?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And you know, sometimes I'll even reach out to them and I'll say if it's someone I know, kendra, I know you've worked with XYZ company.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: I saw that you were on their reviews of their website.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I'm just really curious what did you think of them?
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Is that really factually true?
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Would you recommend them?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: And you, having given them a testimonial, will probably say absolutely, but I want to hear it from you.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I want to make sure that that was a legitimate review that comes across, because I think, consumers, we can be very skeptical about things, and we're in a day and age of information overload, and now these AI generated things that are out there.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: So we want to believe, but we want to make sure that it's truth, right.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: And I think that that's important.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think enough people do that research.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: They want to do that research, but I don't think enough people do it.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I think in part because they don't believe some of the stuff is true, which is something to keep in mind, because they don't believe some of the stuff is true, which is which is, you know, something to keep in mind.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Now, one of the things again that goes back to consistency that I love that you do is you've got a lot of processes for things and you're routinely asking for these things.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: So if someone's looking to save time, you know creating a process around it might be something that they can do.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: So how often should people be asking others for reviews?
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: How easy should they make it for them?
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Because you don't ever want everyone to say, hey, I love working with Brenda, she's really good at LinkedIn and it's like, okay, you sort of want to highlight the different aspects of what you can do and really the difference that you made for them.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: So how do you go about doing that and how often?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to go back to one of my earlier careers.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: I work for a contact center CRM provider and I was in the marketing department there and as part of my job, I had to sit next to the call center agents and listen to their scripts and I realized that at the end of every phone call, when you called into the customer service, at the end of every phone call, they had this segment and they called it the bridge to the future.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: And I'm like what is that?
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: And they said, well, every call, we want to make sure that there's some like what's the next step If the customer has any other questions, where do they go next?
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: So I want to encourage everyone.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: You know, when you ask me the question like how often should you be asking for a testimonial review With every client, you should be asking for that, because the reality of the situation is not every client will give you one, even if they say, oh, yes, I will.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: They'll have the intention, but they won't follow up with it and there may be certain clients that are jumping up and down.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: This was great working with you, brenda.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: You've transformed my LinkedIn presence.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: How can I help you Strike while the iron's hot.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, those are the people you definitely want to request them from, but in a subtle way, you can do this with every client afterwards by creating that bridge to the future as it relates to your reviews process.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Afterwards, by creating that bridge to the future as it relates to your reviews process.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: What I do, kendra, is at the end of every coaching call, I send a post follow-up email.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: A lot of times we're doing these virtual, so here's the recording.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Here's the transcript.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Here's a few resources we discussed.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Let me know if you have any questions, and then it's the PS.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Ps, if you enjoyed working with me, I'd love it if you could share your testimonial publicly.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Here are a few ways, how, and then I give them choices.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: You can go on LinkedIn, and here's the link to do so.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: You can go on Trustpilot here's the link to do so.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: You can go on Google reviews whatever and what I find is that some people are more comfortable going on Google than they are on LinkedIn, because they're not on LinkedIn all the time, or maybe they don't want it tied to their LinkedIn profile just yet, because they're a job seeker and they're working while looking, so there might be something at play there, or maybe they're a heavier user of Yelp, or maybe they are a bigger proponent of Trustpilot over Google.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: So I give them choices, and the last one being or you can do all of the above, copy and paste in every site and use the same, and very rarely do people do that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: But if I give them in the PS the bridge to the future, like here's how to give the review and I give them some options, it does increase the likelihood that they will use it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: And, by the way, quick plug for Trustpilot, you can sign up for a free account and there's a way that you can put.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: You create a system where you can create a BCC email so when you send that post follow-up email one week later they'll get an automated email from Trustpilot saying one week ago you worked with Camilla Marketing.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: How have your results been so far?
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Give her a review.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: So it gives them some time to reflect upon and think about it, because those people that said at this time yes, I'd love to give you a review, and then they get busy, they get sidetracked A week later.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Well, that's right, I was supposed to do that.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: So the reminder is kind of integrated and built in is really brilliant.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: The reminders are key.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, people are busy.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I get over 150 emails a day, easy right, and then I have to take some action on a lot of them.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Some of them are delete.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Some of them it's like oh yes, I want to leave Brenda a review.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I actually was just messaging someone congratulations on their job in LinkedIn and when I hit the message button, the message before it was from 2018, when he asked for a LinkedIn recommendation.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: And I was like oops, I don't think I did that one.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: There wasn't a reminder either, and it was like I was probably busy you know, so it's yeah, it's really interesting how we can, we can forget, because, it's you know, our worlds are all about us, right?
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah absolutely.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know we're talking today about marketing tips for non-marketers and you know I'm going to start that.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: If you haven't ever done this before, do like a marketing audit, like just scan of everything that you have and think about where does your logo and business name appear, you know where are all the places that people can find you, and then start kind of listing out all the the you know maybe the works in progress that you have or potential projects and things you want to, maybe customer reviews as a part of that.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: But maybe email marketing is something that you're not actively doing.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: By the way, you should be doing email marketing.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Hopefully you're listening to Kendra and all the advice she has, but so often, kendra, I approach people working with them on their LinkedIn and they are small business owners or coaches and we talk about you know, some of the challenges they're having with getting new clients and we're getting into, you know, discussions about their marketing and I always ask the question well, how big is your list right now, your email list?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Well, you know I have like 200.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, how are you growing it?
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Well, people kind of stumble upon it or they might click on my join my email list button and I always say this and you'll love this I say I'm going to be frank with you.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Nobody wants to join your email list, nobody wants to be on another email list, but they will want to subscribe to your VIP list to get LinkedIn tips from you, or they may be interested in downloading your free LinkedIn for Coaches checklist, which, by the way, opts you into the email list.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: So you should be putting something of value out there in exchange of getting their email.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And then the next thing is okay, now what, you've got them in your list.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: So how are you communicating with those 200 people?
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: How often are you emailing?
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I was emailing them for a while, then I got busy and I haven't done anything.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: So then it's just like let's just start from today and don't start with an email that says and how often do you get these?
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: I know it's been a while since you've heard from me.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Nobody cares, just jump right back into it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Hey, it's July, it's a new month.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Today's email is going to be about focusing on growing your list or whatever the topic is.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Here it is, and then someplace in those emails maybe not every email, but occasionally you should be putting that bridge to the future.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, if you found this tip helpful, here are some ways of working with me.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I offer one-to-one LinkedIn coaching.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: You can hire me to train your team on LinkedIn.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: You can enroll in one of my online programs or click here to schedule a discovery call with me.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Let's not be shy because, again, those are people who have raised their hands.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I want to learn more about you, I want to learn from you, and they may potentially become clients for you, but a lot of us will neglect that.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: They feel guilty.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Sales feels icky to them, but they've opted into your list.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, they're essentially at your door, knocking on your door.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Let's invite them in, right?
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: So my email list, combined with my podcast, is my number one source of business.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: So my podcast is my number one lead generator for my email list, because I'm always sharing valuable information and people want to hear about what's coming out next, whether they're on social media or whether they've been able to get to podcasts or not, it makes a difference.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: People do.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I've gotten replies to emails that have nothing to do with the email, saying hey, kendra, I've been meaning to reach out to you about this.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: It's got nothing to do with what I wrote about.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I was just top of mind because I showed up in their inbox.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It's got nothing to do with what I wrote about.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I was just top of mind because I showed up in their inbox and that's just so powerful.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and not too long ago I did an introductory email.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I was inspired by another, Brenda, Brenda Cadman, who sends out emails regularly about Canva Canva tips and resources and highly recommend if you're not already following her check her out, especially if you're a Canva user.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: But she did a hey, I haven't done one of these in a while, so I want to tell you about me.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: And she talked about her background and her family and her dogs and some other things, her favorite TV shows, et cetera.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: And there was nothing salesy in the email at all.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: It was nothing really to do with Canva, it was just about her.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: And then she said reply back and tell me something about you.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: And I said this is brilliant.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: And I commented on something in hers that we had in common and I added something in there as well and I said, with your permission, I want to do this in my email.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: I've never done one of these before, like these personal, and I got so many dozens and dozens of responses back from people saying this was interesting, and I even had a few people say I'm going to do this.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Do you mind if I bought?
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I'm like, feel free, but I borrowed it from Brenda, Feel free to refer it forward, else in our businesses either is commoditized or is going to be commoditized shortly.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Right, because I think everything fills up so fast.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: The one thing that's not commoditized and replaceable is relationships.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: That's good marketing.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: It's all about relationships, right.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: It's building that know, like and trust factor and it's spending time on those relationships.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: That's why influencer marketing is so popular because brands don't want to spend the time building the relationships that the influencers have with their followers.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: That's why they're willing to pay for that, which is just crazy, right, so you?
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: can tap into them and get access to their networks as well, and I think that's another marketing tip for non-marketers.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: It reminds me of and you and I do this all the time.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Naturally, we are always tagging each other into posts, we are forwarding leads and referrals to each other, we're inviting each other on our shows.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: You and I both have, I think, something that's really important if you want to be successful at marketing.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: We have an abundance mentality.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: There's more than enough work to go around for all of us, and actually by supporting one another, we create more opportunities for the other person as well as for ourselves.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: So I want to encourage all of your listeners, if you're not already doing this, think about people whose services are either similar and maybe even identical to yours, or complementary, and there's some things that Kendra and I do that have some overlap, and there's some things that we do that are entirely different, and our areas of specialty go much deeper into one another's category.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: And even you can find people like I connect with LinkedIn coaches from all around the world, and there's really there's no one else like me in Metro Detroit that's exactly doing what I do.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: There are some people that do LinkedIn plus resume or they do some LinkedIn, but it's part of personal branding and I want to encourage you to not be shy about bringing those folks into your network, connecting with them, interacting with them, making friends with them, bringing them on your podcast, just like Kendra's doing, because it's actually a really powerful marketing technique.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: What's going to happen after this show airs is I'm going to share it with my network, which is helping Kendra to get more visibility, and that's part of the reason you book the podcast guests.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: That you do is because you want to extend the reach of your podcast into new listeners, new audiences that can be overlap and complimentary.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Right, and I think that's an addition.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: You do a really good job of the blend of interviews and the solo tips, and I think over the past year I've heard you do more of the solo shows.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Is that fair to say?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: So I actually do.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Every Tuesday is a solo and every Thursday is an interview, which is interesting, but I think, depending on how busy you are, it depends on which ones you're tuning into, because the Tuesday ones are 15 minutes or less and then the interview episodes are usually around 30 minutes in length, so this one, this one's going to be a little bit longer, but, um, they always are, cause we just have such a great conversation and just such helpful information, I think, for for all of listeners and viewers.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Um, before I ask you my last question and get everything going, you have a program right, a membership program for people that are looking for support with marketing, can you?
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about that.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: It's interesting because I've been thinking about this in the back of my mind for a while.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: I have some different online programs.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: I offer one-to-one coaching, I do team training and the programs people kind of come in, they go through the program, we have a year of coaching and then we're done, and I wanted to have something that was more on an ongoing basis, and I come from a corporate marketing background and marketing will always be like a part of what I am and who I do.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: What I do and who I am, I should say.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: But I wanted to do something, not just a single focus on LinkedIn, but broader into marketing.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: And the name of my business is Meller Marketing, which was created really as an alliteration and it was an add to the degree in the field that I came through.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: And so I decided when I launched my membership program, I decided to flip the name Meller Marketing and call it Marketing with a S, so that's the name of the program.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: I launched it in January to founding members and you can have a monthly membership or an annual membership, and what we do in the program is we focus on marketing.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: So every month we have two live virtual sessions.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: One is a masterclass.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: So, for example, we recently did a masterclass on.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: We did a marketing audit masterclass like how do you do an audit of all of your marketing resources, where should you be spending your time, et cetera.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Next month we're focusing on how do you promote products and services through LinkedIn, so we are going to be getting into some LinkedIn topics as well.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: So we always do one educational area of focus.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: And then the second session is a VIP office hours for members only and it's a bit of an ask me anything or just collaborate with and do some group ideation with the other group members and it's a smaller group cohort, so you get a chance to talk to everyone.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: And then I'm also building a resource library.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: So when you join you get access to the new sessions moving forward, but you also get access to the history as well, and I've broken it into four categories.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: I should know these off the top of my head.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: I'll send them to you afterwards, but it's beginner marketing strategy.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: I think we have an analytics and then like what's next?
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: So different categories of the topics go into each of the sections of the membership program.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: But it's honestly, for me it's a lot of fun because I don't even realize that, kendra.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: For me it's a lot of fun because I don't even realize that.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Kendra, when you said you have a lot of processes and a lot of systems, I do, but I don't think about it.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: It's just it comes natural to me like to have these things and I started realizing there's a way that I can share this information with other people and it's really helping them and it's helping to supercharge their marketing effort, so it's a win-win.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: I love doing what I'm doing and sharing my knowledge, and my members are really having a great time and they're helping to shape the program.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: So I'm looking forward to the next launch, which will be this summer.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Awesome, so we'll have links to it in the show notes, so be sure to check it out Again.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Brenda always has an amazing amount of information that is of value to share, so definitely definitely check that out.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: So thank you again so much for coming on.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: I have one last question that I ask all of my guests and it's interesting because the ones that I've had on a couple of times definitely always give me a different answer every time they're on.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: But the show is called Imperfect Marketing, because marketing is anything but a perfect science.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: What has been your biggest marketing lesson learned?
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I will say that we will all have mistakes when it comes to marketing, but I want you to lean into them and embrace them as learning experiences.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: So don't be afraid to try something new.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Try it and if it doesn't work, if it fails, well like.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: What do we learn from it?
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: What can we do differently next time as we go forward with it?
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: But marketing can be intimidating, it can feel time consuming, it can be not at the top of your priority list, but the more you do marketing, the better and better that you'll get at it and the more that you really do understand that those mistakes are really learning experiences along the way.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Marketing is definitely not a perfect science.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: So, again, testing and experimentation are key.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: The biggest thing when you're testing and experimenting is to make sure that you're waiting long enough to to to decide really is it not working right?
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: I find so many people give up before they've really given it a chance.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: How long do you recommend people give take a chance on it?
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: I think it depends on the type of initiative and thing that you're doing.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: So when we think about what is our purchase cycle, I think that's something you want to keep in mind.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: Like, how long would it take someone from first hearing about you to typically converting to become a customer?
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Is that a week?
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Is it a month?
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Is it three months?
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: It might be a longer sales cycle that you go through in that.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: So I think sometimes when we try different marketing initiatives, we were like well, I posted on LinkedIn for a week and I got nothing out of it.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: You know that doesn't even match up with your purchase cycle.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Like, give it.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Give at least the same timeframe as you would a purchase cycle, if not a portion of that time.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Like, give it some longer time to figure out if things work.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: And also, I'm gonna go back to ask an expert If you're going onto a new platform or launching an email campaign and you're not sure, how long do I need to try this before I start seeing some prospects converting to leads, converting to clients reach out to someone like Kendra and say how long should it take from an email perspective?
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: And sometimes it's not just the timing element, it's the content of the email itself.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: It's what are you putting out there, the only sales messages for you delivering, and then you're getting a lot of opt-outs and unsubscribes, right?
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Or are you delivering value?
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: That's keeping them in building trust for longer, that's converting them to a client?
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: So don't be afraid to reach out and ask an expert for help, but I think sometimes we need to give it longer timeframe than we think we need.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for tuning in.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you, brenda, for joining me again on imperfect marketing.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: If you learned anything today which I am confident that everybody did, because we can all use these reminders, it would really help me out if you would rate and subscribe wherever you're listening or watching, and be sure to check the notes.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Connect with Brenda, take a look at Marketing with Meller and other ways that you can work with Brenda.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: She is a wealth of information for LinkedIn and beyond.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Have a great rest of your day.