What it’s really like to grow your business with IG Reels, with Abi Sea

What it’s really like to grow your business with IG Reels, with Abi Sea

by | 22 Jun, 2022 | Podcast, Season 7

Today’s guest is the wonderful Abi Sea, long term friend of the podcast and returning guest.

Our conversation today has been all about growing an audience with Instagram Reels, but maybe a little different than the conversation you’re expecting.

We talked about the imperfections of our approaches to Reels, the things we find challenging and the ways we’ve worked to overcome them. We also talk, in a pretty unfiltered way, about how much we both DON’T want to go viral on Instagram – although we’re very curious to hear from you if that’s a goal of yours!

Abi’s my only guest on today’s episode, so settle in for a cosy conversation between two Instagram-loving, real-life marketers for a warts-and-all conversation about growing an audience with Instagram Reels. I can’t wait for you to hear it!

Listen to "104 - What it's really like to grow your business with IG Reels, with Abi Sea" on Spreaker.

Connect with Abi and The Launch Lifeline

The Launch Lifeline on Instagram

    Using Instagram Reels to get more followers

    It doesn’t have to be all about maximising growth and going viral! Instagram have designed the game, but you can choose your character, and play by your own rules. Abi and I talked about

    • How she figured out what was blocking her from getting involved in making Reels regularly
    • How she overcame those roadblocks and started consistently making and sharing new videos
    • Where her ideas come from
    • How she gets around Instagram’s annoying bugs with text and captions
    • Keeping your strategy flexible and giving yourself downtime when you need it
    • Why going viral might be overrated
    • How decide for yourself what Insights and data matter when measuring your own success

    Click the podcast player above to listen in to this fabulous conversation.

    Resources

    Abi mentioned a lot of her favourite Instagrammers to follow:

    Plus here are a few more she sent through afterwards:

    More Podcasts about Reels:

    Start seeing results from Instagram Reels (17 mins)

    4 easy steps to Instagram Reels (22 mins)

    How to get started with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, with Digital Gearbox and Serious Readers

    How to get started with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, with Digital Gearbox and Serious Readers

    by | 2 Jun, 2022 | Podcast, Season 7

    Today we are talking about Pay Per Click advertising as part of our ongoing series about strategies from growing your audience online.

    My guests today are Becky and Michael, from Digital Gearbox, and Josh from Serious Readers, and I’m really looking forward to diving into those conversations.

    If you’re on the fence about running ads, or trying to work out how to get started, our first two guests, Becky and Michael, should be able to help. Beck is the Managing Director, and Michael is the Creative Director, of a specialist ad agency called Digital Gearbox. They help their clients place ads on Google and on social media, and they have loads of tips and advice to share.

    Following on from those expert insights from Michael and Becky, I wanted to share a different perspective, from the business side of things. Of course it’s all well and good hearing about ad strategy from experts, but it also helps to hear how that’s worked out for people on the ground, and to look at a bit of a case study.

    To help me out with that, I spoke to Josh Smith from Serious Readers. He’s the head of their marketing team and was responsible for running their initial ads, and for their partnerships with ad agencies in the past. They’re now working with Digital Gearbox, so you’ll hear a little bit from him about how that is, and how he went about finding an ad agency to work with who met his specific criteria.

    Listen to "103 - How to get started with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, with Digital Gearbox and Serious Readers" on Spreaker.

    Connect with Digital Gearbox

    Digital Gearbox website

    Digital Gearbox on Instagram

    Digital Gearbox on LinkedIn

    The PPC Burrito Podcast

      Starting with PPC ads, with or without agency support

      • What types of companies have the most success with advertising
      • The two types of goals you can have with your advertising
      • How to measure the success of your campaign
      • What’s the minimum budget you need to start working with a PPC agency
      • What quick-and-easy campaigns you can start running yourself

      Want to hear all the details? Click the podcast player above to listen in.

      Resources

      Free Account Audit from Digital Gearbox

      Podcast about the Awareness Journey: 5 steps to understand your customer’s problems (and how you can help)

      Katie’s interview on the PPC Burrito podcast: Mental Health in Digital Marketing

      Connect with Serious Readers

      Serious Readers website

      Josh Smith on LinkedIn

      What it’s like to run PPC ads for a small, product-focussed business

      • How a business can transition from print-focussed to digital marketing
      • How to choose ad placements (print and digital) based on your audience profiles
      • What to do if your website isn’t a great place to send ad traffic
      • Top tips for making the most of your limitted time and budget
      • How to avoid getting totally overwhelmed
      • How to find a good ad agency to work with

      Click the podcast player above to hear all the Josh and I had to talk about.

      Resources

      An example of an off-site landing page used by Serious Readers

      Unbounce – a tool for building your own off-site landing pages

      Marketing Automation and Audience Growth, with Automation Ninjas and The R&D Community

      Marketing Automation and Audience Growth, with Automation Ninjas and The R&D Community

      by | 17 May, 2022 | Podcast, Season 7

      Today I’m chatting with an expert and a business owner on the subject of Marketing Automation, and how that can help you capture an audience early on, and set you up for forming good audience relations in the long term.

      Our first guest is Kenda Macdonald, from Automation Ninjas. Kenda is an expert in behavioural marketing, and helps her clients use marketing automation at all stages of the customer journey, from first contact through to client onboarding.

      Our second guest for today’s episode is Richard Edwards, who’s the founder of The R&D Community, which is a training academy and support service for accountants and specialist tax consultants doing R&D claims. Don’t worry if that’s not something you know much about – we don’t really talk about R&D claims, we talk about marketing! Particularly LinkedIn and list building, which are very important subjects.

      Listen to "102 - Marketing Automation and Audience Growth, with Automation Ninjas and The R&D Community" on Spreaker.

      Connect with Automation Ninjas

      Automation Ninjas on Instagram

      Automation Ninjas website

      Kenda on Twitter

      Kenda on LinkedIn

      How to make the most of your email list when starting a business

      Kenda and I talked about:

      • What to do first to set yourself up for success with email marketing
      • How to write a great email newsletter
      • The most important automations to set up first
      • The easiest kind of lead magnet to make for a new business
      • What are onboarding and welcome series, and how to make them

      Great Newsletter Examples:

      [Blog] What should every welcome email series contain?

      Try Marketing Automation on Convertkit

      There are loads of different platforms you can use for your initial email list and then for marketing automation. People seem to default to Mailchimp, but I actually find that the way it’s set up is a little confusing to use, once you get to the automation stage.

      Instead I always recommend ConvertKit. As I mentioned earlier, the automations are really easy to use, and it’s also easy to design and send your newsletter emails, and keep track of who’s on your list. 

      I love it so much that I’ve actually joined their affiliate programme. If you sign up through the button below I get a commission on your subscription for the first 2 years, and it won’t cost you anything extra.

      And of course, if ConverKit is not the right platform for you right now, there’s no obligation – it’s just an option there if it would be helpful for you.

      Start now

      Connect with The R&D Community

      The R&D Community website (yes, it went live before the episode came out!)

      Richard on LinkedIn

      How to build an audience by blogging on LinkedIn

      With Richard I talked about:

      • Where he found his initial customer group to develop the right product
      • How he used his email newsletter to strengthen early connections
      • The right (and wrong!) way to write on LinkedIn
      • Why marketing automation is the right strategy for his new business
      • The impact he’s hoping to have on the R&D industry.

      If you want to hear all the details, click the player above to listen in.

       

      Audience Growth through Partnerships, with Bad Dinosaur and trundl

      Audience Growth through Partnerships, with Bad Dinosaur and trundl

      by | 26 Apr, 2022 | Podcast, Season 7

      Today we’re chatting about using Partnerships to help you build an audience when your business is brand new in the early stages.

      First up I’m going to speak to Tina Clark, the marketing manager at an app development agency called Bad Dinosaur. Although a lot of her role is to market the agency itself, she also supports their clients with marketing strategy.

      Our next guests are Hilary Mines and Tess Caven, from the new start up trundl. trundl is a non-competitive activity motivator app, which encourages people to go outside and get some exercise, and offers charity donations as motivation. Hil is the original founder and Tess is the strategy and marketing director.

      In my conversations today we touch on a few different techniques for developing your brand as a new business, and for developing your audience along with it. Partnerships are a great way to do this on a shoe string budget, and that’s where a lot of our focus is today.

      Listen to "Audience Growth through Partnerships, with Bad Dinosaur and trundl" on Spreaker.

      Connect with Bad Dinosaur

      Bad Dinosaur on Instagram

      The Bad Dinosaur website

      Bad Dinosaur on LinkedIn

      How to build a brand and an audience for a new business or start up

      Tina and I talked about:

      • The most important thing to remember about marketing a start up
      • How to design around your customer personas
      • Planning your end-to-end customer experience
      • Why you have to TELL EVERYONE about your idea
      • The importance of having people try out your product before launching
      • How to include feedback from your testers in your marketing

      Click the player above to hear all the brilliant juicy nuggets we discussed. 

      Connect with trundl

      trundl on Instagram

      The trundl website

      Hilary Mines on LinkedIn

      Tess Caven on LinkedIn

      How to find partnerships and grow a unique brand

      With Hil and Tess I talked about:

      • Where the idea for trundl came from
      • Why building an audience early was crucial
      • The impact of co-creating a product with your audience
      • How they’re promoting their new app on social media
      • The challenge of marketing on a shoestring budget.

      Click the player above to hear all that we discussed. The lovely photo of Hil and Tess was taken by Jinny of Jin Designs.

      Where are they now?

      Where are they now?

      by | 14 Apr, 2022 | Podcast, Season 7

      It’s episode 100! The Whin Big podcast is now 2 and a half years old, so it seemed like a celebration is in order!

      This week’s episode features 3 of our earliest guests from the beginning of the Whin Big podcast – Marc, Claire and Laura. I caught up with each of them in turn to find out what they’ve been up to over the last few years.

      Listen to "100 - Where are they now?" on Spreaker.

      First, we hear from Marc Keys, who originally joined me for episode 7 of the podcast. Marc is a strength coach and has his own gym in Leith in Edinburgh.

      Marc’s website: castironstrength.com

      Marc’s Instagram: @castironstrength

      Listen to episode 7 with Marc

      Our next returning guest is Claire Watson. Claire is a photographer and works mostly with small businesses, doing headshots, branding and event photography. She is also developing a social enterprise to support neurodiverse children to engage with education. She first joined me on episode 5, and she’s back again with some updates.

      Claire’s website: clairewatson.co.uk

      Claire on LinkedIn

      Listen to episode 3 with Claire

      Our final guest for today is the wonderful Laura Westring. Laura and I met when she attended one of her early speechwriting workshops in 2019, and her original interview, in episode 1, was incredibly insightful. Laura’s goals and ambitions have been upturned by the pandemic, so it was exciting to hear what she’s achieved in the last 2 and a half years, and what she’s thinking about now.

      Laura’s website: westringwrites.com

      Laura on Linkedin

      Listen to episode 1 with Laura

      Thanks for joining me for this celebration of our 100th episode, and if you’ve been here since the beginning, then thanks for sticking around!

      For the rest of the season I’ll be chatting to a mix of marketing experts and small business owners to bring you the insider knowledge on marketing strategies for growing your audience online. We’ll cover everything from SEO to affiliate marketing and compare free and paid strategies, so you can find the ones that work for you.

      In our next episode (Wed 27 April) I’m chatting to Tina, the marketing manager at an app design agency called Bad Dinosaur. We talked about different strategies for building an audience really early, before your product or service is actually for sale. I also spoke to Tess and Hilary, who are building an activity app called Trundle, about how some of these strategies have worked for them in practise.

      See you then!