Online Marketing & Communications Podcast

Released February 2, 2018 Episode 217 I ran an Adwords experiment for the photography business I run as part of Moondog. The full story in this week's show.  Moondog Photography Connect with me @jonbuscall on twitter or moondogmarketing.com/contact

The first Moondog Marketing podcast of the new year starts with a look at Squarespace, the do-it-yourself website builder platform. After years and years of working with Wordpress, I decided to give Squarespace a try for a photography project I've been working on after I had little time to manage plugin and security updates for the Wordpress site we were using. I'm a huge fan of Wordpress and it's the platform we've been using to build websites for well over ten years. At times, however, Wordpress is not ideal: it requires quite a bit of maintenance to ensure everything is running smoothly and safely. As I was looking to update some galleries on Moondog Photography I stumbled across some sample sites using Squarespace. I was so taken by the way the site's were displaying images, I signed up for a free trial and took Squarespace for a trial. For full show notes, visit moondogmarketing.com/216  

Recorded December 14, 2017 Episode 215 Fantastic, gorgeous, eye-catching onbrand images will become more and more important in 2018. Content marketing is no longer just about first class writing: content is about creating a powerful experience online now and blurry, poorly composed images simply don't cut it in today's content flow. Yes, video is going to be even more important for those companies that have bigger budgets. But for the rest of us, who rely on photos to bring our blog posts and social media updates to life, photography is going to be more important than ever.  This weeks episode is a call-to-action, a prediction that businesses that don't invest more in photography will suffer in what is becoming an increasingly competitive marketing space.  Show notes: moondogmarketing.com/215 Feedback: moondogmarketing.com/contact OR @jonbuscall

Recorded November 29, 2017 This week's show starts off with a bit of a rant at Black Friday emails but the focus of the show is on how to get effectively creative with your content. So often customers talk to us about how they struggle to come up with content. For all the game plans we make for them and kick-off editorial calendars to get them working with content marketing, they get to a point where they struggle to be creative. This has a lot to do with the fact that often the people who are required to create content in-house aren't always creatives. This is because a lot of businesses turn the creative work over to staff as an additional part of their job. For full show notes, please visit: moondogmarketing.com/214 Feedback @jonbuscall 

Episode 213 Released November 13, 2017 Bernhard Schroeder guests the show this week to talk millennials and branding.  Bernhard ("Bernie") became a marketing expert working with Fortune 500 companies and went on to co-found a global integrated marketing agency with 65 offices worldwide, 10,000 employees and $1.2 billion in revenue. Currently, he is Director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Programs at San Diego State University where he oversees all of the centers undergraduate and graduate experiential programs. An incredibly engaging speaker, Bernie talks at length about the challenges facing millennials in marketing, and how many businesses still don't fully understanding the role branding plays business success.  For show notes, visit www.moondogmarketing.com/213  

Released November 6, 2017, Episode 212.    I've been obsessed lately with the dearth of good content being created by brands. Particularly SMBs working in the b2b space.  Although we all know how important a great website is, time and time again we're talking with businesses who just don't know what to publish online. Or forget to publish anything other than the occasional status update.  In this week's episode of the show, I go on a bit of a rant about why you need to put web development and design plans aside for a few months if you're not doing enough with your content, review your content strategy and then start creating more quality content.  This episode isn't an all encompassing How To show; it's a passionate reminder that without content, all your website is is a nice looking exterior.  To subscribe to the Moondog newsletter, go along to moondogmarketing.com/subscribe For feedback, please reach out to me on Twitter or contact me directly.     

Episode #211     Certified Duck Tape marketing consultant Mark Z. Fortune is the guest on this week's show. Co-author of the awarding winning, Amazon best-seller The Small Business Owner's Guide to Local Lead Generation, Mark shares insights into the ways in which small businesses can be more successful with their marketing in todays noisy content marketing space. In this week's show you'll get inspiration and information about how to fine tune your strategic approach to marketing the need to overcome your fear what pitfalls to avoid and how to make the most out of local marketing. For full show notes, please visit: www.moondogmarketing.com/211

Episode 210 Released October 23, 2017 Karen Leland joins me on the show for a lively discussion on the benefits of brand mapping, and so much more! For full show notes, please visit: moondogmarketing.com/210

Episode 209 Released October 10, 2017 Johnathan Grzybowski comes on the show to talk about the power of influencer marketing. For full shownotes, please visit: moondogmarketing.com/209

Episode 208 Released September 29, 2017 Mike Russell from Music Radio Creative visits the show (again) to talk about live streaming!  For full shownotes, please visit: moondogmarketing.com/208  

Recorded in the Dog House Studio at Moondog Marketing, September 8, 2017 Episode 207 MarketingProfs recently published the results of a study where they, together with Ascend2, looked at what kind of content functions best as part of the lead generation process. It was quite a surprise as they found that Research Papers were top, closely followed by video. Blogs were way down there followed by lowly infographics.  On this show I discuss the ramifications of this for small businesses.  @jonbuscall

Recorded August 28, 2017 A lot of small businesses that we work with have Wordpress websites; however, because solo entrepreneur's or SMBs don't have a lot of resources, many skimp on security and back ups.  This has got me thinking whether Wordpress is the right solution for their website.  As data security becomes a bigger issue, and a company's web presence imperative to their reputation online, I get frustrated when I see businesses not ensuring that their Wordpress is kept up to date. Plugins and core files remain not update and that presents a considerable risk.  That's why I am increasingly coming around to the opinion that I think smaller businesses without the time, inclination or resources to keep a site secure and running, should look to solutions like Squarespace.  Also on this podcast:  Bear Writer - www.bear-writer.com Feedback @jonbuscall Websites www.moondogmarketing.com | www.moondog.photography    

Recorded in the Dog House Studio, Sweden. Episode 205.     This week, I spoke with David Feinman, CEO and Co-Founder of Viral Ideas Marketing, about how businesses can use video as part of their social media marketing mix. David started Viral Ideas back in 2015 along with Zach Medina. Since then, the pair have built an innovative small agency specialising in videos that tell a story. They have produced truly unique videos for a variety of clients to help them build both their customer bases and revenue. (When I say "unique," that's not just marketing speak: just check out their video for the Philadelphia Zombie Run!) If you're struggling to market to those notoriously-impossible-to-market-to millennials, David's insights will be music to your ears. During our discussion, David stressed the strength of video and shared a number of tips about how to get the best leverage. In particular, David emphasized the importance of creating video for "mobile first." As digital video consumption continues to grow

Released August 7, 2017 and recorded in the Dog House Studio, Täby, Sweden.    I talk to Colin Gray, The Podcast Host, who has built a business out of podcasting. His latest venture is The Podcast Host Academy, which sets out to teach newbies how to podcast successfully.  With a background in education and audio, Colin brings a very pedagogical approach to all things podcasting and this episode will give you insight into:  the biggest barrier to podcast the essential things to have in place before hitting publish on your first episode the best place to invest your money (and, no, it's not expensive recording equipment!) the most powerful way to stand out in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market and much, much more.  All the links mentioned in the show are to be found over at moondogmarketing.com/204

Recorded in the Dog House Studio, Sweden July 28, 2017 Episode 203   On today's show Lucy, a four month old basset, joins woofs Digby and Tia in the studio. Whilst Lucy and Co snore away I look at three things that caught my interest this week: Instagram Plugin updates and Pop-ups.   Instagram As reported in the Liverpool Echo, Laura Worthington, from Laura's Little Bakery was asked to produce a free cake for a contestant on UK tv show Love Island . Laura received a message from a member of Malin Andersson's management team requesting a FREE cake in exchange for social media exposure. The message from Touch Management to Laura, reads: "Hey! I hope you're well and having a great week. "Sorry for the random DM but my client, Love Island's Malin Andersson, was wondering whether you might have time to make a cake for her boyfriend's birthday this weekend? "She was after a chocolate cake, bigger the better with 26 on it? "In exchange she will post a few pics on her social media tagging your brand - she

Recorded June 30, 2017 Episode 202 To celebrate the 10th birthday of the iPhone, this week's episode looks at mobile marketing. Is your digital marketing doing enough to work on what for many is their first screen? Does your website look good on mobile ? Does it load quickly ? Do your forms convert ? Are you taking enough time to focus on communicating effectively on mobile platforms? www.moondogmarketing.com/202  

Episode 201 Recorded in the Dog House Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.  Released June 26, 2017 This week, for episode 201 of the Moondog Marketing Podcast, I spoke with Gray MacKenzie. Gray is the owner of inbound marketing agency GuavaBox and co-founder of DoInbound, a project and process management tool specifically for marketing agencies. He's also the force behind the Inbound Agency Journey, a podcast I've personally enjoyed very much as of late. After my time at the Fifteen Seconds conference, I was especially eager to hear Gray's thoughts on inbound marketing. What is its status now, in mid-2017? What could your business be missing out on?  When Gray and his business partner, Andrew, were in college, they spearheaded an effort to highlight their university's new lacrosse program. Gray built the website and Andrew led the social media campaign which brought legitimacy to the program in terms of both recruitment and recognition. The two business majors found this to be an eye-opening experience a

Released June 19, 2017 Recorded in the Dog House Studio, Sweden.   Last week I had the privilege to attend and speak at the Fifteen Seconds conference in Graz, Austria. With four stages and three or four thousand young, thoughtful, and engaged people, the event was a veritable tidal wave of information and ideas. I'm excited to share my thoughts and feedback with you on the podcast this week. The list of attendees included huge companies and brands like Red Bull, Facebook, GQ, the Economist, BBC, and Getty Images. Not one to let this get to my head, I saw this quite simply as a chance to talk about the creative power of podcasting. Both as an individual and as a business, podcasting has played a central role in my journey through life. Through my podcasts, I've really found a way of connecting with the world. I'm not Red Bull or the Washington Post and frankly? I don't want to be! But I've come to a good place, with a huge global community of people who listen and actively engage. The beauty of podc

Released June 6, 2017. Recorded in the Dog House Studio, Täby, Sweden.  Episode 199. Phew!   Lately, small businesses are having a love affair with the idea of membership sites. I say "the idea" because oftentimes, implementing this platform successfully has more hurdles than expected. A lot of people get excited about one or two aspects and don't truly think through the sales funnel. Based on Australia's east coast, wedding and portrait photographer Andrew Hellmich runs the premium membership podcast PhotoBizX. I think of his podcast as an absolute must-listen, and not just because of the photography aspect. In fact, it's one of the best examples I've seen of a premium membership podcast. Have you been dancing around the idea for a while, but you're not sure where to start? Or maybe you worry about the risks involved. Either way, this is the podcast for you.A Unique Journey Only four years ago, Andrew dreamed of having a hundred subscribers. Today, he's fast approaching ten times that. So how

Episode 198 Recorded at the Dog House Studio, Stockholm. The hyperbole surrounding e-commerce vs. brick and mortar stores has been impossible to ignore lately. Think pieces sound the alarms for the "death" of this or that industry or physical good. LinkedIn features reams of articles about the Retail Apocalypse, and it's easy to see why. Major retail players like Sears and Macy's have shuttered long standing stores and declared bankruptcy. How much truth resides in all this hand-wringing? What lies at the nexus of e-commerce and brick and mortar?   To get to the bottom of it, I spoke with Brian Gracon, author of Meconomics 101. Brian has spent over twenty years helping clients — ranging from the small and local to national and international behemoths such as Walmart and Citibank — improve their business results. During that time he's consulted on marketing and training strategies, as well as helped clients develop the skills to execute those procedures. He allowed me to pick his brain on the best method