#24 How to create a brand your customers will fall in love with by creating content that’s totally on brand with Peggy Worrel from Marketing Your Brand

SUBSCRIBE NOW ITUNES | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

• How to create a brand your customers will love – it’s not just about creating a logo
• How to create content that’s totally on brand 
• How to go into sales season while making a profit and keeping your sanity 
• The tips Peggy uses to stay organised and focussed
• The importance of focussing on charming your community with your story

Where to find Peggy, and the books and podcasts she talks about on the show:

Podcasts

Mamamia – No Filter

Guilty Feminist

Future Women Leadership Series

 

Get Sales Ready Checklist

Marketing Your Brand Referenced Blogs

Where to find her

Website – https://marketingyourbrand.com.au/ 

Instagram – http://instagram.com/marketing.your.brand

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/marketingyourbrand/ 

Transcript

Dahna

Hi, and welcome to the bright minds of e-commerce podcast. I’m Donna founder of Bright Red Marketing. Your e-commerce advertising specialists. Today. We’re here with Peggy, from Marketing Your Brand. Peggy is the founder of Marketing Your Brand, a strategic marketing consultancy, and go to resource hub for small business owners as an expert brand and marketing strategist for e-commerce and service-based brands. Peggy works closely with a diverse mix of clients through both a strategic and done for you service and an educational approach to empower brands with the skills to build a brand their customers will love and market their business with ease. In today’s episode, she says how to create a brand your customers will fall in love with. How to create content that’s totally on brand and how to go into sales season while making a profit and keeping your sanity. So let’s get into it. Welcome to episode 24. 

Today we are here with Peggy, from Marketing Your Brand. Welcome Peggy.

Peggy

Hi, thanks for having me.

Dahna

It’s so good to have you on. So, tell us a little bit about yourself and how Marketing Your Brand came to be.

Peggy

So, hi, I’m Peggy, the founder of Marketing Your Brand. I go to destination for future focus founders who want to create successful websites and brands that customers love. So we work with clients one on one in the consultancy, and we also provide educational resources online in the, a way of workshops and blog, free blog tips and reading. We’re all about websites, brands, and content. So our online marketing consultations website and brand development and promotional copywriting is our specialty. We help get your brand and website right.  So that when it’s time to place ads you’ll have no problems converting sales. 

Dahna

Fantastic.

So basically, what you do is to help people build really good brands, correct? 

Peggy 

Yeah. 

Dahna

So, for those listening, because branding is one of those things that everyone’s sort of knows what it means, but they don’t really – what is a brand?

Peggy

Okay. So it’s a little complex to explain because there’s a lot of misconceptions out there about what it is and what it isn’t. So people who get confused about the actual meaning of what a brand is, are generally thinking of branding in terms of just the brand design. And they don’t think about all the other things that encompass a brand, such as website presence, marketing campaigns, your storefront, or store locations, your social media, customer service, and interaction, your company, and working culture, your promotional messaging, slogans, and taglines, or how your pricing actually affects your product and the value that it sets, or the fact that a brand is your personality. And, and it’s also related to your performance and valued outcomes. So it’s a lot, you have to kind of think of having a brand as an overarching umbrella to everything else you do. And a good way to explain it…. If we think of a scenario when we are, when I’m trying to explain it to people, is it’s this way, right… 

So, imagine a world when you’re shopping every day out there, where there are no brands, none. There’s no brand values. It’s, it wouldn’t be pretty for startups, especially, especially for small businesses, right? Because the reality would be, if there were no brands and there was no power behind having a brand, we’d only be shopping in areas or sites such as Amazon and Alibaba where shopping decisions would be based on the lowest price or whoever had the greatest reviews, right? 

None of that feeling or emotion or that understanding or that connection would be there if there were no brands. So, brands give value, otherwise they’re not a brand and it’s a process really. You can’t just come start a business one day and be like, well, I’m going to have a brand today and I’m going to use my logo. And this is all I need. It’s, it’s actually 

Dahna

It’d be nice if it was that easy

Peggy

It would be great. You know, I be out of a job, but it would be great. So you have to start from building a brand from the core foundations of what it is, so that underlying messaging, understanding your customer and how you can actually relate and connect with them. So, yeah, it’s not that easy to understand, but once you get to know that absolutely everything you do from how you price your products, to how you interact with customers, to what they’re seeing and what they’re understanding is your brand.  And I’m going to quote a guru now, if you have heard of this before, you’ll know, but Jeff Bezos, who is the, who is the, the Amazon founder, but he had a really good quote to say, and it’s something that I think can really resonate with people. So, he says that your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room. So another way to think about that, if you are, you know, trying to think about it more simply is if your brand was a person, how would you describe them? That in itself is the brand. It’s not just your logo. 

There you go. 

Dahna

Fantastic. 

So, given your explanation of a brand, I think I know the answer to this question, but how important is it for brands to build a strong brand?

Peggy

So if you want to succeed online, you need a strong brand. Not only does having the brand bring more meaning and authenticity to your products and services, but it gives your customers something to bond to and form relationships with. So it helps build recognition, awareness makes you stand out from all your competitors. It can easily boost trust and credibility, your customer loyalty. So if people are purchasing from you, the brand’s going to make them want to come back and purchase again. It’s great. Well, it goes a long way, especially in social media land … to create tribes or like get that real fan base happening for your business. So if you can figure out how to make the brand work for you, half your work is done before your customer even gets to your product description and gets to read it, or like it could, your brand could be the reason why they’re reading your product description in the first place and adding to cart. So it’s a strong incentive for your customers to understand your brand and use it when they’re purchasing from you. Yeah.

Dahna

Fantastic. So we like to keep things practical. So for those people listening, what are the kind of best tips or strategies like, how do you actually create one of, of these brands? Obviously, it’s more than just, you know, making the logo, but what are the kind of things that you can do to actually create that brand?

Peggy

That’s a huge question. 

Dahna

Yes. We have five minutes

Peggy

Starting a brand. Well, you’d need the fundamentals. So you can’t deny that brands are huge. You can’t deny that their future growth, they will be the future growth of your business, right? Because we’re all heading that way now. The market is so saturated with so many products out there. We’re in a global market. We’re not just competing I mean, we’re in Australia right now, but we’re not just competing with other Australian brands or small businesses. Like there are, there are over 2 million small business in Australia alone.  You’ve got 31 million small businesses in the USA, and that’s not even including the medium or larger size companies that you’re competing with. So, uh, you have to find a way to connect and resonate with your customer and stand out from the crowd. And that’s how you basically need to start your brand off with that foundational thinking of what they want, what you can give them, how you can give them value and why they should come to you. That’s basically how I would start that one.

Dahna

Cool. I like it. So obviously we are about to head into peak sales season. What are some of the bigger challenges for a brand when it comes to competing with, you know, the global market in these kind of really highly competitive times?

Peggy

So the biggest issue that I find with clients coming to me at the moment, and this is not just at the end of year, this is during all sales seasons. So you’ve got a million of them. There’s like, End of Financial Year, there’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, there’s Christmas, there’s Easter, there’s Spring sales. There’s closing down sales – like there’s a whole heap of sales, right? It feels like every two weeks, if you go out to the shops or online, there’s some form of sale going on.  Like, I don’t even think, yeah, it would be like endless sales. So the main issue that I see or the biggest one is that small businesses need to stay profitable and make a profit that counts during sales seasons. So whether you are of the mindset of … you’re getting caught up in the big business hype of extreme sales, and don’t get me wrong.

There’s a definite pressure to succeed during this, these mega sales and times of year. But you need to take into account if you are actually going to make a profit and if it’s going to value and be a benefit to you. 

So for example, a lot of small businesses, when they have sales, they just go straight to a discount. Don’t even think about their profit margins. They’re like, oh my competitors doing a 40% off sale. I need to do one two. And what happens is a lot of the time, if you haven’t thought this through, you end up filling these sale orders, you get all excited and you’re like, I’ve sold out. It’s great. But you don’t think about the overwhelm that comes with packing the orders, the burnout. So you, yeah. You don’t think that the overwhelm that comes the packing orders, the burnout, doing all the work and some actual clients that have come to me have basically said, I have been killing myself with staff, paying staff and everything only to be making $10 to $20 an hour.

And I said to them, what are you doing that for? What are you doing it just to pump out the orders to appear like you’re selling? So you can’t give into the hype of sales, right? You’ve gotta consider your profit margins and what they would be at, whether you match those 30, 40, or 50% off sales.

 The other thing is constantly having sales…. And this is a huge thing for a lot of small businesses. So what you don’t want to do by having too many sales is cheapen your brand with the extreme discounts. So you want to remember and come back to what your community actually values. You’ve gotta cater to all the different types of customers cause not everyone cares about a sale. Yes, it’s great. It’s beneficial, but they’re not actually going to purchase from you based on only having a sale. They’re going to evaluate all your other brand strategies, all your pricing, what it means, what value they’re getting and all that sort of thing.

So preparing for the sale time is a huge tip that I can offer small businesses. If you don’t want to compete with the mega discounts during sales seasons, and you want to succeed on your own terms. I have three tips for small businesses, especially if they want to compete in this sort of peak sales time of year or any sale time of year, basically.  And if you don’t want to have a mega discount, so that 30, 40% off sale, the three tips I would offer to you is 

One – Prepare your brand strategy in advance of the sale times. So well in advance. So you can start now. You should have probably started a couple weeks ago but start now and keep yourself future focused. So if you haven’t already raised the bar of your brand messaging across the board, not just with your copy, but with your visuals, your testimony, your graphics on your website, across all your marketing channels, go back, do a refresh, have a look at what you are saying and what type of brand strategies you have in place and get the messaging right

You can never start too early. And it’s a great thing to do at any time of the year, cuz a lot of people set their messages and then they forget about it, right? So you need to keep them fresh, reevaluate them and plan to be future focused in all of your messaging. And I have clients that actually will do this for the entire year in advance. Like not very complex messaging, but they kind of go, okay, these are our messages that we want to promote across the year. These are the sale times we’re going to have, and they go through like a checklist. So start ahead in events, that’s tip one, 

Tip number two would be focus on charming your community with your story. And we talk about stories and brand stories in a sense where you want to get across your values, what benefits you have.

So not your product features. That’s not part of your story. That’s just an added extra thing. You can talk about to sell, to sell things. You want to get deep into your values and your benefits. And when I say charm your community, I don’t just mean on social media because we all know that’s a roller coaster ride right now. Take a step back and look at it is right. Take a step back and look at your overall brand picture across everything, your website, your email communications, the customer experience you have and the customer journey.  So how they hear about you, when they come to you, all that sort of fun stuff, and then look at all the touch points your customers are going to get along the way, everything you’ve gotta take a complete step back, take off the ‘I’m a business owner’ veil put on the ‘I’m a customer’ hat.

How am I going to see this? How am I going to see them? What am I going to understand from this, this webpage or this graphic or this social media post? That’s talking about how their dog inspired them on the weekend. Like take, take a step back, evaluate everything. And that’s how you can actually make your own community better … with your branding. And you’ll convert them a lot easier that way. 

So Tip number three would be, get clear on a profitable offer. Do not condition your customers to wait for sales. It’s a huge long-term mistake that can actually be the demises of your business in the future in like six months or a year or whatever it is.  Because then you get known in the eyes of the consumer that you are having constant sales, oh, I’m not going to buy this. I’m just going to wait for a sale.

They’re not going to sell out. They’re going to go on sale.

So focus on having your customer, understand what you do and what your value is, and then put it in a profitable offer. So when I say profitable offer, before you offer another cheap sale strategy … as a small business, reevaluate your costings and profit margins. A  lot of people aren’t actually too familiar with what their profit margins are. So this is a really important one. Before you do any kind of sales strategy. So know your profit margins alongside your customer cost of conversion, or if you don’t know what that is, your customer’s total value from when they first purchase your, their first product with you, to how they found you to when they purchase, like go through the user, the usage life of your product or service, right from the start to the finish, what’s the customer’s total value to you. 

Dahna

And we call that the customer lifetime value, which might be a bit more familiar to some of our listeners too 

Peggy

That’s right. So plan your sales strategies for the next year in advance, consider alternative sale options. You don’t have to use the mega sale discounts. There are many out there. So there are businesses out there who have never gone on sale. They’ve used added incentives based on the value of their average customer, right? The lifetime value such as just off the top of my head, you could use limited edition products, gifted services, or the golden incentive, which everyone loves and which we all know is actually not free, but free shipping is something that will bring the customer over the add to cart line. So we, we all know that free shipping isn’t free. It’s just actually embedded into your stings, which it should be.  You want to hope so I’ll be having a talking to someone if they’re not.  And yeah, so incentives still work. It doesn’t have to be the mega sales. You don’t have to rely on sales period sell out because you got smarter with pricing strategies. If anyone is stuck on alternative sale options or discounts, I’ve got a great blog article online about it to give you some ideas. I tend to hear that a lot, you know, from clients that are like, I’m tired of having these sales, no one ever understands. And I’m like, I understand here, read this blog. So yeah, that’s my top three tips for basically how you can combat sales seasons.

Dahna

Fantastic. I think that’s so true. Especially on the, the pricing. I mean, there are some brands out there that I literally will not buy from unless they’re on sale because they’re on sale every second week. 

Peggy

Um, yeah. And so, and you know, 

Dahna

Hopefully that’s just their model and they’re still profitable at that time. But seeing how many businesses are closing at the moment, you just never quite know whether they’re just full and prey.

Peggy

Yeah. See, I tend to think that those businesses that constantly go on sale are the bigger businesses that have the higher profit margins. So they can actually discount them for small businesses, especially startups. And when you’re putting all that energy into your business and you know, you’re building a website and you’re getting really passionate and you care about what you’re selling, you don’t have those profit margins. They’re very, very small, especially in startups. If you have any profit margins, you know, it’s at the startup phase, a lot of businesses are trying to cut, cover their, of the, the setup. So, yeah,

Dahna

Exactly. And I suppose that comes down to where and why having a, a brand is so important. If you’re not going to be able to compete on price and you’re not competing with the big chains on their big discount weekends, you’ve gotta have that reason for people to buy from you, maybe at a, a higher cost, but people are happy to do that when they really love a brand.

Peggy

Yeah, that’s right. And the other thing is a lot of, uh, clients, especially that I’m talking about now, sorry, insider knowledge. A lot of them get sucked in to when people are posting about these sales on social media. Like they are competing…. Cause you obviously, as a business, you know who your competitors are, you follow them and all that sort of thing. And they’re like, oh, such and such is on sale. I need to be on sale too. And then they use social media as this like sales competition. So it just gets outta control, 

Dahna

Which at the end of the day is a fight to the bottom. And that’s not why any of us got into business.

Peggy

That’s right.

Dahna

So considering what you just said about how much content there is around there, we are in a world where there is just so much content for consumption, you know, locally, globally, all of those sorts of things. What kind of things can a brand do to stand out and attract their ideal audience in such a competitive market? Just for attention. 

Peggy

Yeah. Well, well it’s a bit of a role, isn’t it? So I’ve got another three tips for you. 

Dahna

We like Three tips.

Peggy

I like, I like the power of three.

Dahna

They also make great sound bites if you summarise them too.

Peggy

So my top three tips for you would be to first sell the concept, not just the, of product or service.  

So forget about being the best or the cheapest or the fastest shipping competitor right now. It’s just an added benefit, right? Take a step back and get crystal clear on what you stand for and sell that. So for example, I’ve got a beautiful client of mine … produces amazing roll-on essential oils. I mean, I love it because the smell is just heavenly, like aromatherapy I’m there. I’m always stressed out. I need it, bring it on.  So it’s a great aid to de-stress and it keeps you focused during a long workday, right? The roll-ons, the roll-on essential oils. 

But what she was stuck on is what types of photos to put on her sight, new a business. She doesn’t have an idea and we’re dealing with scents, especially, and in anyone who’s in perfume, more beauty will understand this. It’s quite hard to express just how amazing the smell can really be through just photos, right? I mean, when they invent a computer where we can actually smell things and look into, look

Dahna

Still waiting for scratch and sniff screens,

That that would be my revolutionary. That would be our pocket extreme. 

Peggy

So in this sort of scenario, you want to think about showcasing the usage situations, the where, and how you would expect your customer to be using the product or where they might see the product sitting or how it might make them feel. So what I recommended is she could use photos like at work, you’re in your office, there’s like an office shot and you’ve got your little roll-on essential oil on the side and you look stressed and you’ve got a little video happening where your boss is annoying you and you just want to calm down. You can just roll on your essential oils and breathe it in. Or before bed. You’ve had a hard day. You just want to put on an eye mask and relax and lay down and just unwind, right? So usage scenarios that paint a visual description of the emotive ideas and will help sell the concept of your product or service.

So for people who dunno what emotive is, it’s an industry speak. I always try to correct myself when I’m talking in industry words. So for those who don’t understand what emotive means, it’s when us marketers are trying to express or describe intense feelings or thoughts through messages or visual ways. 

Dahna

Yeah. 

Peggy

Number two would be to evaluate the messages you’re putting out there. Does it align with what you offer your brand, your benefits, what the end customer’s goals will be? So a quick example. So for a quick example of that would be, if you were a jeweller, you had a jewellery line and your messaging is ‘buy this diamond necklace and you will look and feel good’. Then you should showcase your customers…. real people wearing the necklace, enjoying the finer details of life, smiling and living the lifestyle of a diamond wearer. So you could do that in photos or videos that showcase fine dining in a restaurant, happily smiling while you’re playing with your kids outside your gorgeous home, like paint that picture.

And you’d be really surprised at how many clients come to me with basic product shots. And then it’s like, they’re like, oh, I’ve got this product. It’s great. I’ve got this little set up flat lay mock product shop. And they’re like, I’m going to sell out. It’s going to be great. It’s going to create buzz. And you’re like, no, because product shop isn’t going to sell it. Isn’t going to provide that message to your customer. 

And then probably my third tip, which I don’t want to discount it, but it’s quite an important thing … is to figure out what the missing link is. Every business has one from the big businesses to startups. Everyone has a missing link. Where there’s one or two. And every time I find it, like when a new client comes to me, they’re always shocked cuz they’re like, oh, it’s been there under my nose this whole time and I never saw it. 

So you want to get clear on your point of difference, the usage and benefits of the products and services and is the brand imagery appearing cheap, not reflecting your high value price tag of your products. And in a way you want to see if you can evaluate the type of customers you are getting based on the missing link, right? That’s a good way to find out. So for example, if I, once a while back, I once had a customer come to me and she’d launched a Shopify store and she was getting terrible Google reviews and her pricing, I would say was a little bit above average and she would get these reviews and they were like, oh, this I’m not going to name anything, any names, but this product is so expensive and it’s just not working for me. I can’t believe it. Don’t waste your money on buying from this store. 

And so I was reviewing her Shopify site and I’m like, okay, your pricing is above average. Your imagery is very below average. You’ve gotta get that brand message right. This is, is your missing link. You are not justifying the price of your product with the value that you’re giving. There’s no connection visually and at your price point.  So we switched up her brand image, had it align. And let me tell you, she could literally pinpoint from the moment she updated her images across her website, into her brand messaging.  And when she had found, when we found that missing link, she had great sales, no problem. She had the right kind of customers. No one was complaining on her testimonials on Google reviews. It was great. So there’s always that missing link. And it’s always an afterthought because you’re like, oh, there’s a problem in my business, but I don’t know what it is. Take the time to find it or hire someone that can help you find it

Dahna

Always helpful. No, I love those. I think that’s fantastic. You even got me thinking

Peggy

I’m good at making people think

Dahna

I like it. I hope everyone listening is thinking too.

Peggy

Yeah. So that would be my three tips.

Dahna

Brilliant. Obviously, you talk a lot about kind of building relationships and things. Is there any kind of strategies that you find really work well in building that connection and relationship with customers, especially in that online space? Like is it all in social media? Like have you got any kind of, yeah. What are your, your tips around that?

Peggy

Building a connection with your customer. All right. I’ve got something, I’ve got something. It’s the best thing you can do. And it’s completely groundbreaking. Are you ready? Pace yourself, listen up, perk up your ears. What you want to do is help your customer fall in love. And I tell my clients to play cupid, use your visuals and your storytelling in that emotive way. And you need to get clear on your brand strategy and put it out there. And if you haven’t got a brand strategy, find a strategy, align with it, make it your own. The worst thing I see small businesses and marketers, professional marketers do is not having a brand strategy or the right even brand content ideas for their brand to put out there on socials or email or whatever channels you’re using. 

So they just talk about selling. So the concept of … this product gives you this feature ‘come by now’. Or my example of this is how my dog inspired me on the weekend. No joke. I’ve seen it multiple times. If I see dog post about someone selling something and they’re like, oh, my dog loves this. And this is how he inspired me. I will like pull my hair out. So

Dahna

Everyone’s like logging into their Instagram scheduler and deleting

Peggy

Stop posting about your dogs unless you have a dog account. 

So paint a purposeful brand story. Stop wasting time on the filler content. We all know it doesn’t work unless you’re going to be posting….. And we’re talking about social media here, unless you’re going to be posting two or three times a day, filler content just doesn’t work. And there’s this constant battle of putting content out there.  And you know, you’ve got the two-way street thinking.  You’ve got one set of rules where people are like, it’s good enough. Just get out there. And then you’ve got another set of rules where they’re like, oh no, it needs to be perfect. And you overanalyze it and you overthink it. 

You’ve gotta find that middle ground is what I tell everyone. So find your brand story, create your content with your brand story and strategy in mind and get it right.

Don’t under think it don’t overthink it. Focus on what is going to actually make it. And then you want to think about, of what kind of brand you are, right? So if you’re creating content, you need to know whether your brand itself is going to be aligned with an inspirational brand. Are you focusing on education? Are you fun focused? Are you eco conscious? Like there’s so many different sorts of brand stands you can take … the list can go on forever. But you need to pick a brand stance, create the right content for it. And a lot of people are like, yeah, Peggy, all my clients are like, yeah, Peggy, we know, we know, but what is it actually going to do? Like, why am I creating this airy-fairy brand story? Like what is playing Cupid going to do for me? And I’m just like, you’ve gotta see it in a way where, what you’re putting out there is putting the message of your brand across in all of the brand umbrella elements.

And you’ve gotta look at the bigger picture. So a, a good example. I can give everyone and I’m … a lot of people should know, this brand would be Go To Skincare. Hello, Zoe foster Blake. How’s it going? 

Dahna

Um, hopefully she’s listening..

Peggy

I’m using you as a case study, but Go To Skincare. They use tactical campaigns to build their community through their brand. If you follow them, you’ll start to pick up on it. Now that I’m saying this, their content focuses on creating that diehard, loyal customer who aligns with their values and appreciates the power of skin education. So an educational stance is definitely their go to and the effortlessly creating fear of missing out, which ultimately means people can’t help, but fall in love with them. I want their staff. And then you might say, okay, yeah, let’s go to skincare, whatever. It’s a big brand of celebrity backing.

So here’s a more local example, a relatable example, if you will, on the Gold Coast, Bower Estate. So this is also for some service providers out there. You might enjoy this one Bower Estate. They are breathtaking destination, wedding and events venue on the Gold Coast Hinterland … But their brand…. So I love them, but their brand is what I’m highlighting is the brand is so ingrained in their customer touchpoint that they live and breed their values. And I’m talking about all touchpoints from the start of the customer journey…. When they first inquire on their website to their actual business practices, they’re the most human centered business I’ve had the pleasure of having as a client… So I can share this with you.  

And they bring that into their brand story. They’re involved in so much more than just creating magical weddings and events. You know, their service offering, and product offering is just wedding and events, but it’s not.  It’s a lot more, there’s a lot more that goes behind it. Their projects encompass eco-conscious principles through Bush regeneration, beekeeping, agriculture, wildlife conservation, like it goes on. 

And it’s part of the good brand that they’ve established. So they even offer things like farm to plate dining to support their local community. There’s a whole heap of great ways embedded into their brand and into their client experience. And even just as a visitor, if you go and you visit their grounds, or whenever they have an event, you’ll walk around, you’ll chat to the staff there and you will fall in love with them because they position themselves in a way that appeals to their market. And it sets their brand apart from other event venues and wedding venues. So playing that Cupid role and having your customer fall in love is probably the core, like the crux of why having a brand is important for standing out and making that connection and building those relationships with customers.

Dahna

That is amazing. Very, very helpful. Thank you very much. And I am going to have to go stalk all of the Instagram accounts.

Peggy

You’ll just be like, oh my gosh, she’s so right.

Dahna

Fantastic. Before we wrap up, is there anything you think we’ve missed that we should still cover?

Peggy

I think, I think

Dahna

A right words of wisdom to share. Otherwise we’ll get into our final questions.

Peggy

There is one thing if people do want to actually get ready for sales,  like say you’ve evaluated everything, you’ve got your sales strategy in place. I could, I have a little checklist that they could use if they want to.

Dahna

Is it a short checklist or do we want to link it in the show notes?

Peggy

We’ll link it in the show notes. That’s fine. 

Dahna

We’ll link it In the show notes. All righty. You’ve obviously been in business and in the business world for a while. So do you have any strategy or habits that you use each day to help you stay on track?

Peggy

Yes. So to stay on track, I look at the bigger picture goals.  So, and I’m going to laugh as I say this, cuz this is, is slightly hypocritical of me, but we all, we all do it.

Dahna

Do as I say, not as I do. Yeah.

Peggy

I kind of focus on the five-year plan. So where I want my business to be in five years, what goals I want to have at that five-year mark. And I just try and set them out in that way. You don’t have to be, if I could recommend anything to anyone, it would be, you don’t have to be really firm on those goals, but kind of have a good understanding of …. great I’m a startup. This is where I’m at, but where do I see myself in five, you know, 1, 2, 5, 10 year’s time have that future goal. So

Dahna

What does that look like for you day to day?

Peggy

Ah, day

Dahna

Today, it would be a good day and a bad day. Cause we like to be real here

Peggy

On a good day. I would follow my little task list of things to do that I had set for myself probably at the start of the week. And then on a bad day, I’ve realised I’ve not achieved any of those things on my list. 

Dahna

Fantastic.

But yeah, we, we like to keep it real. We like to keep it real. Yeah.

Peggy

Keep, keep it real, you know, everything with a grain of salt,

Dahna

That’s it. That’s it. Do you have a favourite business book?

Peggy

So at the moment, I haven’t really had time for reading books, but I have got on order because I’ve been sucked in by the hype and everyone talking about it, the book Profit First. So that’s in the mail. I’ll let you know.

Dahna

Honestly, that book changed my business.

Peggy

Oh, did it? It’s it seems to be everywhere at the moment. Everyone’s talking about it.

Dahna

Many, many podcast guests have mentioned it and I do rave on about it a lot because I don’t know that I would’ve survived COVID without it, to be honest.

Peggy

Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay.

Dahna

Well I’ll uh, game changer. Um, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Do you have a favourite podcast?

Peggy

Uh, yes. I have a few. I’m a pod, a big podcaster. I think that everyone can learn a thing or two from the experience of other business owners. So definitely Bright Minds of E-Commerce. Yes. I actually … to be honest, I actually do recommend your podcast to my clients that are just starting up. Cause you’ve got some really great tips on here. 

Dahna

Oh thanks. 

Peggy 

And because I work so deeply in the whole business realm and entrepreneurship, I’m a big fan of letting go after hours. So I like to, this is going to be so cheesy to say, but I like to indulge in the social and culture podcast. So I’m, I’m really enjoying Mama Mia Out Loud and No Filter. And for when I want a bit of standup comedy, I also listen to The Guilty Feminist. She’s hilarious. Fantastic. And when I have, you know, my thinking cap on and I really want to change the world, I’ll listen to Future Women Leadership Series for all the corporate gals out there. You might like that one. Yeah. They’re my, probably my three or four that I would …

Dahna

I love that question. Cuz we get everything from like crime podcasts to standup comedy. Like it, it makes me happy. And if people want to contact you, what’s the best way for them to learn more about what you do and get in touch?

Peggy

Yeah. So to learn more about the ways we can support you or our upcoming workshops and action-based resources, just visit marketingyourbrand.com.au. 

If you’d like to read more about how customers are bonding to brands or get some ideas for the sales pricing alternatives. I was talking about …pop on the ‘learn’ tab on the website and look at the Marketing Spotlight blog. There’s quite a few blog articles there that have quite a good few tips to share.

Dahna

We might get a couple of the blogs that you, um, spoke about specifically in this episode and actually put them in show notes and things. So it’s a bit easy for people to find as well. Yeah. But yes, definitely go hunting through her blog. Cause she’s got some great articles.

Peggy

Thanks. I have a question for you. Go for it. I’m going to put you on the spot now.

Dahna

No one ever asks me questions. I like it.

Peggy

As you are an ads expert, what is your or one most important business tip? You want to scream from the rooftop to everyone to hear?

Dahna

Oh Man,

Test everything, test everything. Look, it’s so hard. We have so many people that come to us and they’re like, oh I ran this one ad with one audience and one picture, and I don’t know why I didn’t work … or they’ll have, you know, a couple of different things and they turn it off and then try something else. You’ve really gotta have a, a good testing structure in place so that you know, what’s working and what’s not. And then you can kind of look at that data and make decisions on what’s happening, moving forward. 

Otherwise you just end up running around in circles and you never know which way is up. So the, the one thing I would do and suggest everyone does is test everything.

Peggy

I couldn’t agree with you more.

Dahna

Thanks for Asking. 

Peggy

Oh I have I have; I have another one for you. Would you like another one? A personal question. I’m a big, I’m a big believer in advocating for your own mental health. Actually as a, you know, all the stress that our small business owners face, we tend to get burnt out a lot. So what do you do to unwind? Oh,

Dahna

I go to the beach. The beach is my happy place.

Peggy

Yeah.

Love it. 

Dahna

The beach is my happy place and thankfully only 15 minutes away.

Peggy

I know. How great is it to be on the Gold Coast?

Dahna

Yes. The, the Gold Coast life is, is definitely fantastic for my mental health.

Peggy

I used to live in Brisbane. We used to drive like an hour and a half to just go to the beach. I think I’m just like, oh, I put all that traffic that we have to sit through. It was like crazy me from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, like two hours of traffic just to get here on a Saturday morning. 

Dahna

Everyone’s thinking the same thing. Everyone wants to get to the beach.

Peggy

Fabulous. Well, thank you so much for having me. I really thank

Dahna

For being with us. It was absolute pleasure having you, so thank you very much. 

Peggy

Very welcome.

Dahna

Thank you for listening to the 24th episode of the bright minds of most podcast. Don’t forget. We load all of the links and show notes onto our website. 

You can find everything at brightredmarketing.com.au/episode24. The link will also be in the episode description. 

Thanks so much for listening.