Good content connects.
It empowers, educates, entertains. It inspires, instructs, impels.
But just producing it and perfecting it are not enough. Even the best content will be robbed of the opportunity to do these things if it’s not delivered to the right person(s), at the right time, in the right way.
You need a strategy, or your good work will not perform as intended.
Marketing Without the Marketing (Podcast)
The purpose of this podcast is to show you how to promote yourself or your business without being pushy and aggressive. No fluff – just real practitioner strategies from someone who uses content strategy every day in serving clients.
I’ve never seen marketing be taught in such a useful, clear, and vulnerable way.
Emerson Student (Anonymous)
Building Your Author Platform: Creating a Pathway to Purchase
he purpose of this online course is to provide a strategic overview about using your website, your blog, social media, and a sound email strategy to find new readers and guide them down a pathway to purchase.
Michael is so creative. It helps to have a fellow writer who understands the creative process and its challenges. He’s all about the nuances, which is important to me. He makes my work better and have greater reach. What more could you ask for in a strategic partner?
Wendy Leeds, Author
Recent Episodes
Marketing Without the Marketing is for small business owners and freelancers of all types (including authors, writers, and other creatives). It’s about how to build an online audience without all the “icky” marketing. It’s a much more ethical, “soft touch” approach.
Creativity Is a Business Imperative
You can draw people in with your creativity. Or you can repel them with annoying ads. We have a choice, and my strong belief is that the storytellers and artists will win, while the aggressors and interruptors will lose. Let’s commit to making every interaction with your audience either educate, inspire, enlighten, or entertain.
The New Customer Relationship
Customers expect more now, which presents an opportunity for small businesses to surpass their larger competitors. Let’s look at what it takes to earn a customer in this new environment, the evolving criteria of a sales transaction, and what makes a customer loyal now.
The New Marketing and Sales
Ethical marketing is not an oxymoron. Respectful, soft-touch marketing not only feels better, but in light of today’s consumer behavior, it’s also more effective too. But it requires a mindset shift, and that we unlearn some of the “conventional wisdom” about marketing.
The New Business Mindset
Why does business need to be a ruthless, zero-sum game? It doesn’t. You can still be successful by being nice – and in point of fact, I think that you can be even more successful if you unlearn some of the awful lessons that the corporate world teaches.
SEO: A Different Approach
SEO is one of the most important factors in any marketing strategy, so it’s worth the effort to learn the basics. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and anyone can learn it. Episode 133 is an introduction to my approach to SEO, and the start of a new series to teach you all the nuances of a good, sound SEO strategy.
Build, Connect, Optimize: The Three Stages of Good Marketing
A solid marketing plan has three stages, depending on the growth cycle of the business. In the season finale of Marketing Without the Marketing, I take a look back at the past year and how this has influenced my most recent projects.
Continue Reading Build, Connect, Optimize: The Three Stages of Good Marketing
The One Word That Diminishes Your Work
People don’t mean to diminish your work, but that’s exactly what they are doing when they use this one insidious little word. It undervalues your expertise and experience by making it sound simple – as a way to sell you on doing something, paying you less than you’re worth, or not paying you at all.
The Internet Is One Big Rickroll Now
The promise of the Internet has been ruined by advertising. There is no article you can read, video you can view, or social feed you can scroll through without being interrupted by some advertiser’s desperate attempt to steal your attention. Every time I experience this, I feel like I’ve been Rickrolled.
Ethical Marketing Is Not an Oxymoron
Aggressive marketing tactics might have been effective in the past, but today’s consumers are more savvy. They see right through the lies, deception, and whitewashing. Ethical marketing is the only way to set yourself apart – to treat your customers with respect.
Be a Part of the Community You Serve
Participation is a signal. When you are a part of the community that you aim to serve, it shows that you’re invested. That it’s important to you. That you care. Not only is it a way to develop trust, but it can also help you see emerging trends in your sector.
We Need Marketing More Than Ever
If we want to make change in the world, our best ideas need to be expressed with clarity, empathy, and a genuine desire to form a real connection.
Empathy, Energy, and Ethics
A self-audit is not a bad thing to do, whether you are starting a business, freelancing, or seeking a job.
Finding Your Media Fit
Your “media fit” is at the intersection of 1) what you can produce and 2) where your audience congregates. Given that, what’s the best platform for you and your brand?
Stop Mimicking What Marketers Do
How will we get our good ideas across if we are turning people off in the way we present ourselves to the world? Are we inadvertently giving people the wrong impression?
The Ambient Awareness Test
There’s one question you can ask to find out if your messaging is getting through. I call this The Ambient Awareness Test.
LinkedIn Is a Tough Scroll
Scroll through LinkedIn, and it’s cringe after cringe. A never-ending stack of performative, self-aggrandizing humble brags. It’s done in earnest, I’m sure. But in expressing our genuine excitement, is it coming off the wrong way? Let’s audit my feed.
The Digital Representation of You (Episode 200)
I describe my work as creating “The Digital Representation of You.” In 200 episodes of this podcast, in my client work, and my new project, Consider the Source, I am rooting for your best ideas to make a positive impact on the world.
Continue Reading The Digital Representation of You (Episode 200)
I Love Your Blog Post
My blog can’t be this great, can it? If I were to listen to the lies of scammers, I might start to believe that my blog is a must-read. I sincerely doubt that’s true though.
Right to a Response
When someone sends you an unsolicited email, do you owe them a response?
Read Me Out…?
Contemplating the future of this podcast. Should I keep going or would you rather just “Read Me Out?” Give a listen and let me know. The song is available in all streaming platforms.