THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER PODCAST with Rachel Klaver

I’m incredible thankful we now live in a world where pursuing a life where you can support yourself with your art and creativity is now a completely viable idea. When my mum was young, and she was a potter, it was the times of co-ops and you felt like you were on the edges. When I was younger it was still very much seen as a side gig and you had to be pretty sure of yourself to really commit to it...

The human brain is hardwired for story over facts. This is the secret of all conspiracy theorists, politicians and cult leaders since forever. If you can tell a story, you can change a mind. Now I’m now suggesting that you listen to this podcast and go off to start your own cult! But I do want you to think about how you craft stories for your business, that help you attract your ideal clients, and...

I’m not a fan of nitty gritty action lists, but I do love mapping out a plan. I’m extremely goal orientated, and always want to know my “why” before I commit to anything. If the goal is juicy enough I’ll work incredibly hard to reach it.   I also love the idea of being a little more whimsical with my planning, although if I’m completely honest, I’m not sur...

There are no guarantees in life except when it comes to this: once we use up time, we can’t get it back. For small business owners, trying to fit marketing into an already full on week, it’s easy to understand why marketing gets pushed to the bottom of the list. A lot of us don’t enjoy it, we can get freaked out by all the things we need to do, and quite frankly, it’s hard...

This is not my normal type of podcast! I wanted to share with you some of my new book Be a Spider, Build a Web: Sticky Content Marketing for Small Businesses. And I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a podcast that’s just the author reading out a chapter - but I did ask my incredible Facebook community if they thought it was ok, and they said yes - so here we go! This podcast is m...

How one piece of content a week can become your content strategy saviour   One of the most common questions I get around marketing is on how to create content that works.    I’m going to be completely honest and say that like anything, creating content consistently comes down to habits. It’s a habit you grow, just like the morning workout habit, the “how you make your coffee&rdqu...

Let me say at the outset that if I didn't have my book coming out in the next few weeks, I’d be using any extra time to apply everything I learned in this podcast to our own business. In fact the first thing I did after completing the interview with our guest today was book in a planning meeting with Rod (my business partner/husband and our systems guy) to make sure we make it happen.   Toda...

A month ago I got a mystery package in the mail. A colleague had sent me a surprise gift to say thankyou for a referral. It was a box of beautifully packaged dehydrated fruit from a company called Little Beauties.   The packages looked gorgeous, and the fruit inside tasted the same. I wanted to find out more about why this Nelson company had chosen the Feijoa, a fruit known for its short season, a...

It’s official! I’ve now been hosting the MAP IT Marketing podcast for a year. Which is no mean feat for an ADHD business owner who suffers from shiny object syndrome and is intolerant to boredom. I’m still loving it, and see it as an integral part of my week.   Because I love podcasting, and what it’s done for me and our business, I wanted to share with you what I’ve...

If there’s a short cut to success in marketing and sales I want to take it. Like you I’m a time poor business owner, who needs to make sure my time is used wisely. Sometimes that means I take a week of posting social media content, and I create longer-lasting content instead. Of course in a perfect world I’d keep going with social media, but this is about real talk, and sometimes...

“Before we start work you need to see this video” she said. My client Shelly Davies and I were about to start work for the day, but first, she wanted me to see the video version of Caroline May’s bio “Switchblade Lemonade.” (I’ve linked to it in the podcast notes) Caroline is creative writer, brand developer, the author of Bio Like Beyoncé, and the owner...

Samir Harith is not your typical accountant. In his commitment to help small businesses understand accountancy Sam creates cartoons and writes blogs in plain language to help small business owners feel confident when it comes to finances. Sam built his business around helping small business owners, using a percentage of sales model to allow his clients to get strategic business and financial advic...

I had a seriously bad attitude to selling when I first started out in business. When I thought of sales people I thought “slimy” Imaging my horror when I discovered I would have to sell to get clients!   I’m now the primary sales person of our business, and can’t imagine not ever having that role. I now love connecting with people, helping them (and me) work out if we&rsquo...

Need help with converting sales from your marketing leads? Chris James is the person to help you.  With all the focus on marketing, it’s easy to forget exactly why we’re putting in all this effort. For eCommerce the key is to have a strong converting website to help people buy products. A converting website is also super important for Service Based business, but equally important is yo...

Should you put your pricing on your website as a service provider business? Won’t it turn people off?  Expert copywriter Hayley Maxwell focuses on helping coaches, and other service-based business owners write copy that converts on their websites. Hayley Maxwell is a brand clarity, messaging coach, copywriter, ferocious ice cream eater, and leopard print lover… (and not necessarily in...

Tik Tok can be an incredible timesucker. It can also be incredible for your business. We often suggest the addition to Tik tok to our clients, especially those who sell products, or those wanting to build a personal brand.  Part of Tik tok’s charm is its ability to help you quickly learn what content works, and what doesn’t. The video content you make is easily sharable or can be publi...

Yes it’s true. Email marketing can make a dramatic difference to your sales with an e-commerce business. But if you think sending out a monthly email to everyone on your list is going to get you the results you deserve, then this podcast will help you change your mind.   I’m thrilled to have team member, and fellow marketing strategist at Identify, Tracey Smith with us today. Tracey sp...

SEO. We all know we need it, but many of us don’t know what it is exactly, and how we make it all happen. (We also know many people spam us with SEO warnings and offers in our inbox all the time, promising big things if we pay them money to fix it - but that’s another matter entirely! Please do feel free to ignore them!) Marketing strategist Ben Male loves SEO. Almost as much as he lov...

With the internet getting noisier and noisier, the quest to get people’s attention is getting harder and harder. We now have three seconds to help people make the call - slow and take a look, or move right along. What we need is a hook.  Join your MAP IT Marketing host Rachel Klaver as she explains what a hook is, why we need it, and what the three core types of hooks are. She’ll then...

Hashtags are used on every social media platform, but the queen of hashtags has got to be Instagram. But they’ve been getting a bad rap recently and it’s either using none, use five, use eight-twelve, or use all thirty.  My first relationship with hashtags with on Twitter. I was never really one to use them as they were designed-  as search tools and a way to file information. Instead,...

BONUS: Social Media update, 8th February 2022 with Sarah Galbraith The social media landscape is constantly changing. And it’s hard to keep up In 2021 Sarah Galbraith from The Social Approach, and I started to regular fortnightly lives on Instagram to talk through what we had learned, what we had tested, what we thought didn’t apply to Kiwi and Australian businesses, and what we discar...

If there’s one thing you can be assured of, about all else, it’s that digital marketing is in a constant state of change. While I guess many of us were all hoping the introduction of IOS14 this time last year was going to come and do its worst, then everything would settle down again, it looks like the truth is anything but.   However many ecommerce businesses are still seeing spectacu...

Is writing a marketing strategy is on your to-do list this year? Or are you wanting to refresh your current strategy? Maybe you’re thinking of getting a marketing strategist to help you write a strategy and action plan. If any of those apply to you, this episode is for you. While us small business owners don’t need to spend weeks writing a strategy, the more information we put into the...

If your idea of Pinterest is just a tool to use when planning a wedding, birthday party or renovation, you may be missing out on its potential. Yes it is still a popular place to do all of this, and become exposed to every type of product, but it can be used for almost any type of business.  If we see it as a massive search engine, you can see it can become a huge traffic source for your website....

Pinterest is often a completely undervalued part of small businesses digital marketing plans. But with over 450 million monthly active users, 60% of them being women, it's the perfect platform to use to build presence, help people find you and create links back to your website.    Tracey Hancock wanted to use Pinterest to do just that. She’s a coach who developed the “Living Well&rdquo...