Celebrating Episode 400: Your Business Marketing Questions Answered

[00:00:00] Andréa Jones: It feels so fricking surreal to say this, but welcome to episode 400 of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. What I cannot believe, I've done 400 episodes and this episode's gonna be a little bit different because of that. I've got some voicemails that y'all sent into my hotline, which I loved so much. I'm gonna play those and then I'm also gonna answer some of the.

[00:00:22] Andréa Jones: Big burning questions. I'm hearing time and time again from small business owners and those who are trying to figure out what the heck [00:00:30] is going on in marketing right now. That and more in today's episode. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the All-In-One podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this ride here show.

[00:00:43] Andréa Jones: I use it to edit not only the audio and the video, it is like chef's kiss magical making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their magic AI clips, their little. AI robot in the background pulls out the most [00:01:00] impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself, resizes them for social media.

[00:01:06] Andréa Jones: So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you wanna get on the Riverside train, check it out today. The links in the show notes, and make sure to use my code, Drea, DREA at checkout to get 15% off your membership.[00:01:30]

[00:01:30] Andréa Jones: Before we get into these questions, I have to give a big, big gratitude moment, one to Jemmie. Jemmie is like, so amazing y'all. She does my full podcast, not just editing the audio and video and getting it out there so y'all peoples can see it. She also does the social media content using our sponsor Riverside.

[00:01:54] Andréa Jones: And not only that, but she's like my strategic partner, which when it comes to this, one of my most listened to [00:02:00] episodes. The one on rage bait that got picked up by like BB, C and twice and CBC, um, that was because Jemmie suggested it as an episode. So shout out to Jemmie for helping with me with this podcast since 2019.

[00:02:14] Andréa Jones: So basically since its birth, 'cause this podcast launched in 2018. So I have to give a huge, huge shout out to Demi and then also to you, my listeners. The podcast would not be possible without you. I keep doing it because of you, [00:02:30] and I'm so grateful that you choose to spend this time. You could choose to listen to any podcast and you chose mine.

[00:02:36] Andréa Jones: So thank you. Thank you so much. okay, so like I said in the intro, this is gonna be a mixture of listener questions that were sent in through my, um, hotline. And then also, I got some questions that I get all the time that I'm going to answer in this episode. But one thing I know for sure is when we listen to these questions, [00:03:00] even if it's not directly related to us, we like soak in some new energy.

[00:03:05] Andréa Jones: And if I could get like a little woo woo for a second. We like, receive the information that we need to receive in that moment. So even if none of these questions directly relate to you in your business, they relate to you in your business. Okay? So, let's start with the first question. This one comes in from Toni.

[00:03:24] Toni: Hey Andrea, it's Toni Jakes Tyler. Um, it's been a long time. I hope you're [00:03:30] doing well. So my question is. What piece of advice would you give to someone who is looking to start a podcast now that you have been doing this for several years and you are getting ready to record episode 400? Yay. Um, you have so much knowledge to share.

[00:03:49] Toni: So specifically around podcasts, what piece of advice would you share?

[00:03:54] Andréa Jones: Yes. I love this question because podcasts are still one of the, one of the most intimate [00:04:00] forms of marketing. I like it because the way that you consume podcasts, um, can be audio, it could be video, it could be a very immersive experience where you're just listening to the podcast and say driving or something like that.

[00:04:13] Andréa Jones: Or it can be very, interactive. Like for me, I tend to take the podcast with me while I'm doing chores and laundry and cleaning up after my two kids and all that stuff. So, that being said, if someone were starting a podcast today, I would say create a video first podcast. I know nobody wants to [00:04:30] hear this, nobody wants to hear this, but a lot of platforms are turning to video.

[00:04:35] Andréa Jones: Spotify podcasts now can be video and Apple Podcasts just recently announced that they're focusing on video podcasts. So in order to play the game of getting your podcast discovered, okay. I will say video, video, video, and post that on YouTube, because YouTube is still one of the largest search engines in the world.

[00:04:56] Andréa Jones: Okay? It goes Google, YouTube, and then [00:05:00] TikTok is making it run for its money. All right? So video first. You can do audio only, but I generally only recommend that if you have an existing audience. So if you have a community, uh, a large community already, let's say on social media, and you're looking for a way to create intimacy with that audience or that community, podcasting could be the way to go.

[00:05:18] Andréa Jones: But if you don't have an existing audience or community. Video first, and you can do some creative things with video, okay? It doesn't have to be you on screen all the time or something like that. Like you, you use [00:05:30] your creativity, right? Video first and focus on search platforms like YouTube and playing the algorithms game inside of Spotify and Apple Podcasts. That's the first piece of advice.

[00:05:40] Andréa Jones: Second piece of advice is if you are starting today, find your angle, find your hook, find your niche, and you may need to try a few different things before you land on it. I find that podcasts that have a little something different about them or a unique perspective or unique angle tend to survive longer than those are like that, and like another podcast about marketing or [00:06:00] another podcast about business, for instance.

[00:06:02] Andréa Jones: So my podcast, I started off as social media in general, but what I found is my people are busy, right? Y'all need something where it's like, okay, tell me what I need to do right now. Don't tell me like everything that's possible. Okay? So find a unique angle for that. And then the third thing is create as you

[00:06:21] Andréa Jones: create at a frequency that you can maintain. So I talk about this a lot. Consistency all day long. However, you get to decide what that is. And even [00:06:30] artists, the big artists take like your Beyonces, your Taylor Swifts, they produce a lot of content, yes, but they also take a lot of breaks. So, you can do a seasonal podcast, so maybe you have 10 to 12 episodes, then you take a break.

[00:06:43] Andréa Jones: You could do a monthly podcast episode. You could do every other week. You could do weekly. You could do twice a week. You get to decide how you wanna design your podcast, but that's the route I would go. Good luck, Toni. I hope that helps. All right, so I'm gonna intersperse these voicemails with some questions that I hear [00:07:00] all the time.

[00:07:01] Andréa Jones: The first one is, how do I know if I need a new marketing strategy or if I'm just bored? Okay. I keep getting this question a lot right now. Am I bored or do I need to refresh my strategy? And I think this comes from being a business owner. When you nail down a system that works, your content's getting engagement, it's getting clicks, you can create content in a system.

[00:07:24] Andréa Jones: You're, you know, teaching, you're, you find lists work, B-roll works for you. [00:07:30] Um, we get bored and we wanna like burn it down and create something new. This is just part of being in business. And so what I recommend is do not create a new marketing strategy from scratch without looking at the data first, because what you feel like, doesn't matter. Sorry.

[00:07:48] Andréa Jones: If it feels like it's not working, we're gonna look at the numbers. Okay, friends. We're gonna say, how much is it not working? Are we not growing our audience? Are we not growing our conversions? Is [00:08:00] engagement down? and how does that relate to social media at large? I can tell you right now, engagement is down across the board.

[00:08:06] Andréa Jones: So creating a new strategy isn't gonna necessarily get you more engagement. That being said, y'all know I'm a huge fan of experimentation. We do a lot of experiments inside of the Mindful Marketing Lab. For example, in April, we're doing a no pressure post party, where we're gonna try to post every day in April.

[00:08:22] Andréa Jones: No pressure. Okay? Um, I'm doing it. I encourage you to do it as well. This is an experiment. I'm not trying to post every [00:08:30] day, all day for 12 months. That would be exhausting. I'm just taking 30 days to test out a strategy because I also feel like my marketing isn't working as effectively as I'd like it to.

[00:08:44] Andréa Jones: I'm taking that experiment, which is a contained amount of time with a specific outcome that I'm looking for, engagement specifically for me, and then I'm gonna take the information from that experiment and layer it into my current strategy. [00:09:00] And I'm also gonna teach y'all about it as well. Uh. Share my findings, if you will.

[00:09:04] Andréa Jones: Okay. Small period of time. Very focused experiment for data and then I'll change my strategy. Okay? So don't change your strategy 'cause, 'cause you are bored. Change your strategy 'cause it's not working for you. And in fact, the best strategies are boring. They're boring. They're boring. Um, my clients who rinse and repeat get the best results because they're not attached to the outcome.

[00:09:28] Andréa Jones: They're attached to the system and the [00:09:30] process. Okay? They don't take it personally if a post flops or if a post does bad, because they look at the general consensus, they look at the overall patterns, and then they move from there. All right, next voicemail. I love this one from Amanda.

[00:09:44] Andréa Jones: Let's listen to it.

[00:09:45] Amanda: Hey, Andrea, Amanda here. My question is about the shift in content creation and marketing for businesses where you are trying to show the personal side [00:10:00] and that you, there's a person behind the brand and that everything isn't shiny and perfect. And that that's especially good right now with all of the AI generated content and that kind of thing.

[00:10:14] Amanda: But my question about that is how do you do that? If you are a perfectionist and you know, you take things really personally, because I know on the internet it can be really harsh and everyone has something [00:10:30] to say and to comment on your posts and on your business and on how things look. And so how do you

[00:10:37] Amanda: balance that the, the personal side and yet all of the sort of negativity that can come with that.

[00:10:46] Andréa Jones: Yeah. I'm gonna start off right off the bat and say the internet can literally be the bottom of a trash can. Like, some of the people on the internet make the experience so repulsive that I fully [00:11:00] understand if and when you need to set your boundaries, exit, take a break, do whatever you need to do to protect yourself, first and foremost, because marketing on the internet is not the only way to market your business.

[00:11:13] Andréa Jones: I'm gonna say this again. Marketing on the internet is not the only way to market your business. Me personally, I find it way easier than going in person. Okay. I get nervous, I get the armpit sweats. It's not for me. So I choose my hard, and my hard level is the [00:11:30] internet. Now, with the internet comes the vitriol of the comment section.

[00:11:35] Andréa Jones: So I do this by creating boundaries for myself. Um, if it's just me managing my account, which it mostly is right now, I will only check my business accounts certain times a day during the workday. I don't have notifications turned on, generally speaking for my business accounts because I can accidentally see a comment that will derail my entire day.

[00:11:56] Andréa Jones: I don't know what is going on YouTube right now and TikTok, but [00:12:00] y'all don't like my voice. Every time I release an episode, I get some haters in the comments. Not every episode, but some haters in the comments that literally tell me to go unalive myself because they don't like the sound of my voice. I don't understand.

[00:12:11] Andréa Jones: Go listen to another podcast. Okay. At this point, unfortunately, I'm used to it. You kind of have to get thick skin a little bit when it comes to that and recognize that that person's going through their own life ish. It has nothing to do with me. Okay? However, putting yourself on the internet is exposing yourself to potentially those comments.

[00:12:29] Andréa Jones: [00:12:30] So protect your peace by creating boundaries. No notifications is mine. I also do not post information that can be used against me, in the court of law. No, just kidding. Um, I try to be very careful with the information I post. So, for example, y'all will never see my kids on the internet. I used to post one picture a year.

[00:12:49] Andréa Jones: I'm not doing that anymore 'cause there are creepy people on these internet streets. And while I love watching other people's children on the internet and kids are cute. I love it. It's adorable. I. [00:13:00] And my kids are adorable, and I know they would be internet famous 'cause they're too cute.

[00:13:04] Andréa Jones: Okay? And then there the creeps will become creeping out. I don't want that for me. So I don't post my kids on the internet. I rarely talk about my personal life on the internet. Very rarely, because I don't need your opinion. I'll talk about my personal life with my friends, with my real life peoples. The internet doesn't need to know the information, but I do make it personalized.

[00:13:24] Andréa Jones: Okay? So for me, I tend to share about, places I've been. Uh, one of [00:13:30] my videos that did okay recently was me talking about a pizza that I ate at a restaurant, but y'all didn't see who was filming the video. Okay? And we don't have to talk about that. That's not the information you need. I just talked about how I discovered this amazing pizza through a referral, and I related that to marketing.

[00:13:47] Andréa Jones: Okay? So yes. You can be personalized in your content, but you don't have to be personal to the place where, you know, people will kind of say what they're [00:14:00] gonna say about that and know that people are gonna find something to say anyways. so I like to have those like off limits. Like I don't talk about my family that much.

[00:14:08] Andréa Jones: I don't talk, if I travel, y'all won't know till I'm back, like, visibility doesn't mean you have to have endless amount of accessibility to you. You get to decide how visible you want to be. And for me, I keep it focused on work pretty much. And then I have anecdotal stories that make me personalized, but not too personal.[00:14:30]

[00:14:30] Andréa Jones: Hope that helps. Okay. Uh, question that I often get, that I wanna kind of talk about a little bit in relation to this is this idea of like, what to focus on in your marketing, especially if you have limited amount of time. And I'm gonna say this right now with kindness, as much as I can, y'all are doing too much.

[00:14:49] Andréa Jones: Okay? Focus. If you have three hours a week, we're gonna split this three ways. One, create your core central piece of content, your signature content, this is what I call it. Two, [00:15:00] leverage that content, redistribute it. So let's say you have a podcast. Now we're creating assets from that podcast to redistribute it.

[00:15:07] Andréa Jones: And then three, we're going to then nurture and relationship build with people so that they can go listen to the podcast and see the redistribution of it all. Okay? We're gonna prioritize creating assets that have a shelf life that are bendable. That are watchable, that people can evergreen watch anytime.

[00:15:26] Andréa Jones: We're gonna repurpose that as much as possible and help it be [00:15:30] discoverable and then we're gonna build a community around that. Okay? Three hours a week, if those are the three hours you have, that's what I suggest spending it on.

[00:15:38] Andréa Jones: Alright, last voicemail will end with, comes from Nikki.

[00:15:41] Nikki: Hey Drea, it's Nikki here and my question for you is all about the next level of marketing. I feel like a lot of the conversations the people around me are having is like, what's like a good marketing thing I'm doing right now and it's things like, you know, have a piece of signature content [00:16:00] like your podcast or focus on one platform, you know?

[00:16:04] Nikki: So I'm like, what is the next level? Like what is the seven and eight figure marketing plan. What is the next big thing when you wanna get out of foundational marketing? What does that next phase look like? Yes. Because Nikki wants to go make some more money this year.

[00:16:25] Andréa Jones: I love that. Yes, Nikki. Okay. I wanna make money too.

[00:16:28] Andréa Jones: So there are two things. This [00:16:30] actually lends really well to Toni's question and Amanda's question. Y'all planned this out great. Um, thank you so much. But, okay. First thing is community is everything. Big companies, big brands, are kind of combating this evolution of AI through creating community and community experiences, which is part two.

[00:16:50] Andréa Jones: So first, community, human led elements to the marketing is gonna be key. This is why I talk a lot about in-person. Networking and [00:17:00] events are making a comeback because we're craving the opposite of Ai. We love it. It helps expedite things. It helps keep things on track. It helps us be better people and, and, and

[00:17:13] Andréa Jones: because we can do more with Ai, it actually opens up more time to be human. So the humanness of it all, that's what the big brands are trying to focus on. But the second piece of this is key community-led experiences. Experiences are key [00:17:30] here, and experiences that are memorable and not bland at all. So how I'm doing this is,

[00:17:35] Andréa Jones: actually, in some of my work with Uncommon Marketing Agency, we are focusing on gamified marketing experiences, both digitally and in person so that we can create something that is a little bit different. For example, y'all saw our advent calendar over the holidays. Y'all went goo goo gaga over that. It was so fun to create and it was so fun to [00:18:00] participate in.

[00:18:00] Andréa Jones: And so this is the distinctive point that's going to be a make or break moment for some of our favorite online businesses. If they don't start creating unique experiences that are perhaps gamified or collaborative or interesting in some way, I. Oftentimes leveraging ai, they're going to be behind, right?

[00:18:20] Andréa Jones: So I can't talk too much about how I'm doing this on Uncommon yet because we're still rolling out some of these new offers, but it's so freaking fun y'all, to [00:18:30] create experiences that are interesting, that are games that are fun, that don't just feel like, oh, I'm, you know, checking off tick boxes in a quiz, but you're actually playing something.

[00:18:41] Andréa Jones: and we're gonna see that embedded into many different areas of marketing. Lead magnets are gonna become gamified experiences. Course material is gonna become gamified experiences. We're already seeing this with the rise of platforms like Skool. Social media posts are going to become gamified. Uh, we're already seeing this with the latest Instagram [00:19:00] test, where you can choose what Instagram video you wanna watch, what Instagram reel you wanna watch.

[00:19:04] Andréa Jones: It feels like you're on a choose your own adventure. All of these things are going to be embedded in the humanness of it all and into community. So they're all community building tools, but I believe the future of marketing is going to be fun again.

[00:19:17] Andréa Jones: Oh my gosh. Speaking of how fun was this episode? Thank you all so much for celebrating episode four hundred with me.

[00:19:23] Andréa Jones: I wanna do more of these. Um, let me know if you want me to do more of these episodes where I answer [00:19:30] questions. Hit me up on Instagram. I'm at onlinedrea, I love a good voice note moment. Also, just, you know, I like the congrats of it all that I'm seeing. I also hit 12 years in business this month too, which just feels, ah, chef's kiss perfect.

[00:19:43] Andréa Jones: So yes, thank you so much for being on episode 400 with me. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast so far. There is more to come, I promise. I'm so excited about what the future of this podcast is, and it's all because of your support. So thank you, thank [00:20:00] you, thank you, and I will see you back with another episode soon, next week.

[00:20:04] Andréa Jones: That's all for today. Bye for now.