Marketing Meanders: The Marketing Podcast for Marketers and Small Business Owners

Well, it's been a long summer, and we have been very busy either working hard, or playing hard, hence the lack of episodes! We apologise for this absence and decided to make it up to our dear listeners by providing you with a two-parter on getting back to basics in marketing. This week we discuss what the basics of marketing planning are, and where we should be focussing after a period of upheaval...

It's part two of our conversation on branding. This week we discuss thinking of brand as a person, why we shouldn't over complicate our brand and how can subverting a brand help with a campaign? We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please share Tweet us at  @meanderspod  message us on  Facebook  or email  meanderspod@gmail.com . See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-...

This week we are looking at brand and branding. What is a brand? Who owns the brand? How is brand manifested, and can you control it? Listen to these questions and many more in part one! We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please share Tweet us at  @meanderspod  message us on  Facebook  or email  meanderspod@gmail.com . See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out info...

We pick up the conversation about Sales and Marketing teams with Nick Hughes, Director of Dynamic Coach Group. This time we discuss whether marketing and sales teams can complete the feedback loop to help each other delivery on the joint strategy? Nick also explores the Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, and we ask whether sales and marketing will morph into one some time soon? We'd...

This week we were delighted to talk with Nick Hughes, Director of Dynamic Coach Group. Nick has a wide range of experience in the sales arena, and through his current businesses he is intimately involved with helping people and processes to improve, delivering better performance.  We explored the evergreen topic of the relationship between marketing and sales with Nick.  Do marketing and sales tea...

After a long half term break, Marketing Meanders returns with part two of our practice and culture conversation. This time we explore these questions and more besides: How can you stop a practice that is influencing your culture in a negative way? Can dysfunctional practices thrive in a positive organisational culture, are there warning signs? How do training and systems support good practice and...

Do you know if your marketing practice is being shaped by the culture of your company, and team, is this a problem? Are you developing a culture or sub-culture from the way you operate? Can one change the other and vice versa? See what we have to say about this, and let us know what you think too! We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please share Tweet us at  @meanderspo...

If you had to describe what marketing is in a just a few words what would they be? Would one of them be 'help'? Perhaps as we pursue our campaigns, relentlessly driving greater efficiencies, achieving greater ROI, engagement and conversion; we should focus on helping our audiences. Have a listen and see if you agree... We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please share Tw...

Many marketers don't train as marketers when they set out. Most of us complete formal degrees in a multiplicity of fields, it is only after we become marketers that we spend time, and money on specific training. Diplomas, Masters, specialist training courses, online education and executive education all provide options for us to enhance our abilities and skill base. However, how much training do y...

Should you spend a little more time analysing and sharing your failures, as much as your successes? We all know that we learn through 'failing', but how deep do you, or your team go to examine why something failed, or is failing? Adopting and embedding more widely a culture of examining failure in a constructive way is perhaps something to consider? We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts...

In part two of this episode we tackle questions like: What are the similarities between lead nurture and networking? How much can you know about leads in your audience who are outside of your conversion funnel? What are the benefits to getting everyone round the table to recreate a highly simplified model of your lead conversion process? We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one,...

What are the main elements that make up your lead conversion? We tackle the four elements we think are the most important, People, Processes, Systems and Trust. We examine the ways in which these elements interact, and how each can impede your lead conversion strategies. Small competition - count the number of analogies that we bring into this conversation. Ever lasting glory to the winner! We'd l...

If you could have more time or more budget which would it be? Why do we struggle to ever have enough time to carry out our work and how can we find more time? What difference can this make to our marketing activities? Sam shares a few thoughts on this in our Mini Meander. His poll worked out at 77% to 23% by the way, have a listen to find out what this means! We'd love to hear your experiences and...

It's part two of videos! This time we touch on neuro marketing and the calls to action we can use in your videos after we have provoked certain emotions in media. Should you follow the crowd with your video or be different, and how can you be? How is media creation the very frontier of the art and the science of marketing? We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please shar...

We're back after a little Easter break! This time it's videos. Why do we use videos? Why don't we use videos? How do we plan creating them? How can they be edited and what are the skills of the editor? Do we understand how and where to use them? Do we know the format to use? What is the shelf life of our video? So many questions, that's why this is another two parter, and we're going to interview...

We continue the conversation about when marketing strategies and campaigns end, how you can plan their lifecycles and how do you learn from these cycles? Specifically in part two we consider Knowing your sales cycle, product and audience Understanding your conversion funnels When to stop testing and implement lessons learnt Should you follow a process in your marketing like this - end point, revie...

Do you start more than you stop your marketing campaigns and strategy? When does marketing strategy end? Have you defined measurable intervals and review points, or in constant evolution? How organic should your strategy be? We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please share Tweet us at  @meanderspod  message us on  Facebook  or email  meanderspod@gmail.com . See acast.co...

How can you be original in your campaigns, is it as important as we think to help 'cut through' to our audiences? Where do we need to focus our efforts in order to stand out in our campaigns? Where does testing come into this, and knowing your audience? We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this one, so please share Tweet us at @meanderspod message us on  Facebook  or email  meandersp...

We continue the exploration of marketing skills required by the next generation of marketers with Dave Heywood  from Bovill and OX7 Partners. This time we focus on the skills you ask for, and look for at interview, the responsibility of managers to help nurture new skills in their teams and playing the long game with skills. If you'd like to join the conversation you can find us on Twitter @meande...

We are joined once again by the splendid Dave Heywood  from Bovill and OX7 Partners, to discuss the skills new marketers need. What are the most important skills for new marketers to develop? Where do they acquire these skills, from training or on the job? Has the advent of ever improved marketing technology changed the skills required or marketers? Is the generalist marketer skill set dead? Are y...

We continue the discussion around 'it depends' in so many aspects of marketing. In particular we consider: Do your reports give you meaningful insights? Are your marketing campaigns really performing how you need it to? Is something that worked really well for someone else, bound to work for you? Have a listen to part one here . Let us know what you think contact us @meanderspod on  Twitter  and ...

Do you ever get pieces of advice from marketing articles and videos telling you to 'do this and watch the success roll in'? Are there times when you apply a model for achieving your marketing goals but it doesn't seem to work out the way it's supposed to? Have you often entertained the idea of trying out a new strategy but your resources don't meet ambitions? This episode is all about, perhaps an...

In this Mini Meander Sam considers the two types of people you come across when considering the cost benefit analysis of launching an idea. The 'cost' people perhaps put up too many hurdles to actually getting their vision in action, whilst the 'benefit' people perhaps charge in too quickly and risk making more mistakes. How can having a plan help to unite these two personality types, and help bri...

In part two of our discussion into the relationship between sales teams and marketing teams Dave tells a true story of a trade show nightmare which demonstrates the damage that be caused when this crucial relationship isn't working well.   We also explore the incremental, everyday ways to work at optimising the sales and marketing team relationship, and examine what role leadership plays in harmon...

The relationships between sales and marketing teams can be rather turbulent at times, they can also be pretty well functioning. However, as a sales person, or a marketing person, you've probably experienced at least some tension between these disciplines in the past, but why? We try to uncover why issues can flare up, what are the barriers that can lead to dysfunctional relationships, and most imp...