Marketing: 15 Content Ideas in 15 minutes, September 2021

(00:04):
Hi everybody. It’s me, Nicola Jayne Little from Mint Business Club and our lovely Michelle Rose from Michelle Rose marketing. And we are here to do 15 content ideas, give or take in 15 minutes, give or take. It’s just so joyous to be back doing this with you. We’ve had a little bit of a summer break.
(00:25):
So why don’t we start off with on the 1st of September world Alzheimer’s month. It’s the whole month and it could be that it’s relevant to you. It could be that you’re raising charity, that your business supports people with Alzheimer’s. Yeah, there’s a lot of things in there. And I think if you can do something around the whole month, it’s a, it’s a really good one to show how sort of corporate and how sort of socially responsible your business is as well maybe. And a lot of us are touched by it really personally,
(01:00):
That’s it. My Granny had Alzheimer’s and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life. So I definitely think a nod to all of our grandparents, our parents or people we have loved. It’s just a really cool thing. And the thing is with that is you could do at any time in the month that you felt cause it’s the whole month. So we’ll find the hashtag and make sure we use the proper hashtag as well. So that was the first and that kicks us off in September. What did you have as your choice next?
(01:23):
Well, next we’ll go on to something much lighter. And the fourth has got some fantastic ones. keep me right with the titles but we’ve got beard day. We’ve got have an extra slice of dessert and extra helping of dessert day.
(01:40):
I don’t care what it sounds like it’s amazing!
(01:44):
Technically it’s eat an extra dessert day, but basically it’s just more cake and pudding.
(01:50):
Isn’t there a cake one as well on that day?
(01:52):
I don’t know. I think we’ve got, we’ve got bacon day, extra dessert and we’ve got world beard day. So what I’m seeing is all you chaps or anybody who does have, to be a fair, you know, midlife woman and we can start that conversation about the hair. No, let’s not! So world beard day with your bacon and cake all in one. And you’ve got your bacon on your cake. Come on, maple syrup and bacon. And I mean, I can say so many things, but what I see is my brother with food in his beard.
(02:25):
Okay. Can I just for those people who watch from across the country? Cause I know we do have a lot of viewers, is it baking day (b a k i n g) or bacon?
(02:39):
Bacon, it’s extra dessert, which could be baking. But if what you’re telling me is my Geordie accent cannot let us distinguish between bacon as in like, oink oink pig, or baking that’s fair Michelle. Thanks for that.
(02:54):
I just think the fact that it’s, what is it even, international bacon day, and I’m talking about bacon and oink oink and you’re talking about whipping up a cake, right? I mean like how many discussions about language communications and my Geordie accent, frankly, can we get out of this?
(03:15):
Exactly. Should we move on to
(03:19):
Let’s let’s let’s speed up!
(03:21):
Let’s not be late for the fifth because the fifth is late for something day.
(03:27):
Yeah. Be late for something day, I think we all come from lateness with different viewpoints. being late terrifies me, so I’m always extra, super early. My lovely business partner, Paul can’t be on time to save his life to be fair. So we all have a viewpoint on being late for something. Do we not? Especially small businesses.
(03:47):
Yeah. It’s a nice conversation starter and I, and it would be one for me, it would bring up sort of how late are you for your marketing? And then that brings in sort of time management and your goal setting and all of those sorts of things. So that’s a really interesting one. And I like sometimes content can just be a quick question and you don’t, even for that one, you don’t have to say it’s, you know, be late for something day. Just ask the question. How do you feel about being late or blah, blah, blah. Use it as conversation starters.
(04:17):
Also on that day, we’ve got international day of charity. So harks back a little bit to sort of Alzheimer’s and what do you do? Who do you support? What are you doing? What support would you like?
(04:31):
Yeah. I mean, you know, what charity is close to your heart and why? And this comes into content behind the scenes and getting to know you as the business owner, you’re a small business owner. People want to resonate with you and know about you. You know? So I think the charities that we choose to support are sort of very personal you know. We support a couple of charities in Mint and are very proud to. And, but those choices, those choices say something about us and our journeys because we often support charities that are very, very personal.
(05:02):
Definitely. It might be a nice one to write a blog about why you support that charity and get it out there and you’re right. It gives, it gives people something to come back to. And also at some point, if people are Googling charity, maybe even gives them some, you know, social media use and all of those sorts of things. So that’s a, that’s a, that’s a lovely one.
(05:21):
I’m just going to just check on spec. Do you know the date of the Great North Run? Because if you watch it in the UK, you’ll know that the Great North Run has changed routes for the first time ever. It’s in September, but the great north run is about charity, charity, charity, isn’t it? The amount of money raised for charity through the Great North Run, Oh, it’s just extraordinary.
(05:42):
Yeah, it’s sort of, I would say to me, it’s obviously we’ve got the London marathon and the Great North Run’s a half marathon, but it’s the second biggest road race in the UK and England, certainly. But I would say in the UK in terms of charity and the people that come and the stories that are raised in it could just be on, you know, on charity day. You’re there, crowds should be allowed at this years Great North Run, our spectators, you might Instagram story from it, you know, tag the charities of the runners you see, go past, allow your content to be creative. Some of it is going to be preplanned strategic, but now with stories and you know, these other sort of instant forms of connection, you can be a bit more sort of impulsive and, and, and in the moment, absolutely,
(06:31):
Totally. Before we finish this broadcast, I’m going to flick around and find out what date the Great North Run is. I’ll talk and I’ll find out, right? So let’s move on a little bit to the 6th of September, because fight procrastination day, I’ve chosen that.
(06:46):
I, don’t know what you mean. What’s that word? I don’t understand that word!
(06:50):
I do not know a day and you’re exactly the same in training, especially when we’re delivering our marketing training, that procrastination doesn’t come up as a topic or as a thing for the reason for not doing it. But I can’t do this. I can’t do that. I’m not good enough. I couldn’t possibly do a live video or record like this. We procrastinate so much in the small business and self-employed world that we hold ourselves back in a way that is just unfathomable, you know, and we all do it. And it’s always the jobs we don’t like, and sometimes the jobs that we really, really like, but we just don’t feel competent. I think if you are watching this and you run a small business, you will have procrastinated to the point that you’ve driven yourself nuts at some point. So an open conversation about that from which ever angle you want to come from, you know, procrastinating about procrastination, right? There is something to talk about that, and it’s massive in the small business community.
(07:47):
And if I put another spin on it as well, if you feel that this one resonates with you, but you feel, I don’t feel comfortable interviewing people or writing a blog or going live on my Facebook page or in my group, or it, you know, maybe I bake cakes or it’s not relevant to my audience. It would be, you know, totally sort of on a tangent. But if it resonates to you as a small business owner, then look up the hashtag, see what conversations you can get involved and see what other content is out there that you could share. So a lot of the ideas, and I do say this every month that some of the ideas you might not want to create something new, but it doesn’t mean they don’t give you an end for sort of a, for conversations to get involved with. And often then you follow new people, they go and have a nosey and see what you do. You, you, you get some new followers back. So that can be just a nice way of extending your reach beyond your normal. Yeah.
(08:46):
And remember when we’re procrastinating and scrolling around trying to pretend to work, and we’re not, you know, when you’re doing this kind of hashtag research, it’s legitimate work, it’s legitimate, it’s legitimate research for your business to see what people are doing with hashtags, how they’re writing the content, not to compare yourself because that would also upset. But you know, if you procrastinate and do it in a very positive way where you can still learn for your business. So I just think Michelle’s right. There’s so many things that you look for and search for and it’s not just always about raising your profile right now. It’s about finding new stuff out when you’re using these days. It’s about finding stuff out as well as about sharing, which is why we keep recording these videos. Because sometimes you’re just so a stuck, but you think, oh, do you know what? That day, that thing, that procrastination, which day is that one again? Okay. So moving on, where did you go next?
(09:41):
We were thinking that we might mention,
(09:47):
Can we just explain, we’re recording this at eight O’clock in the morning.
(09:49):
I can’t get my words out, on the eighth is international
(09:55):
Yes. It’s international literacy day, for all the ones to get tongue tied on. And we wanted to mention it because there’s sometimes days, that can be very specific to your industry. So I know in Mint Nic, you’ve got some tutors, you’ve got some people who help people sort of study better. You’ve got writers and copywriters, proofreaders. So you know, you might listen to me and Nic speak for the whole year and not find lots that you resonate with. And then boom, you get one like this and suddenly you’ve got a blog out of it. You’ve got a facebook post out of it. You can interview people. And one idea suddenly gives you, you know, you, you might do seven interviews and they lead up to the eighth, and then you release something on the eighth as a, as a roundup, just, you know, random ideas. But it shows that some of these days actually can be very specific for your business as well.
(10:53):
And let’s face it. Most people are writing something at some point in their business. So that literacy comes in all of our lives. And don’t get too hung up on that. Don’t get too hung up on, given baking and bacon, don’t get too hung up on literacy as long as you social media. And then people go, I cannot write a blog because my English isn’t good enough. This is a big done, not perfect. I would rather you get your content out there, not perfect, but rather than not done at all.
(11:23):
Yeah. And brilliant, the best game in the world is taking a national tabloid newspaper, who should know better and finding all the mistakes, which there’s just thousands, isn’t there. I mean, that’s, that’s a real procrastination there. Getting one of the papers and going through them, right. I’m going to take us to, I think, national day of encouragement on the 12th.
(11:44):
Honestly, like if there’s anything that our community, mine or yours or our wider Northeast community, the community we’ve got in Consett, County Durham, all we do is encourage each other. You know, we might be not very good at bigging ourselves up, but by God we are really, really, really good at encouraging each other. And it’s just one of the best things about our community, the support and that encouragement. And we encourage ourselves on that day and, and coach ourselves to be better or different or whatever you need to do. But surely encouraging our colleagues and our friends and supporting their small businesses on national day of encouragement. I mean, I love it.
(12:27):
And I’m not generally a big fan of the, you know, like tag yourself or tag a business, but this, these sorts of threads, but it might be really nice for this cause actually tag someone who’s encouraged you or tag someone and give them words of encouragement. Or this is a one where you take it offline and you send like a little handwritten note or a tiny little like, like tiny little gift that costs 50p in the post to say to someone, you know like, you know, look at you rocking it this year or something like that.
(12:59):
Cynically, then the people that you’ve sent that stuff to will pick it up and share it, which gets you exposure. But you’re not doing it for that, but it does sometimes happen. But yeah, just remember if these ideas spark something off that could be used offline because our marketing is on and offline then go for it and let us know what other ideas you come up with to encourage us to keep going with this well into 2022,
(13:28):
Oh, I’ll be encouraging you and chasing you around the block.
(13:34):
Well, 13th is a special day because it’s Mint Business Club’s first face to face taster event for nonmembers who want to find out more about us, but very specifically want to work on their business for that morning. And, you know, cause you’re always involved with them. You train on them with us, you encourage, encourage people on them. And I, to be honest, I think I’ll probably just cry all morning because I’ve gotten a new group of people together in a room face-to-face. New businesses, you know, after everything we’ve been through.
(14:02):
I mean like, you know what I’m going to be like, but I can’t wait. So if you’re in the Northeast of England or you want to travel, however, far, there is an event on the 13th. It is the Mint Business Club taster morning. And it’s in a beautiful venue called the Woodman’s Arms up in Whickham, just off the A1. And I cannot wait cause it’s one of our best moments where you bring new people together. You encourage them to work on their own business. And yeah, I’m super stoked about that. If you’re watching outside the Northeast, there will be some zoom ones this year, but it’s just a really big day for us.
(14:36):
Yeah. It’s just, and I just wanted to put it in there cause, cause why not? This is us recording our stuff. Why shouldn’t our days be as special and this is the point of days. We are giving you loads of ideas in case you’re stuck. But the stuff that you do as your awareness days, so building that into your marketing, not the day before you’re at an event, by the way, with plenty of preparation and time to build up anticipation for whatever you’re doing. I mean, our taster, we’ve been planning that for three months, we always have about a three month lead time. So these awareness days are great for different content and, but don’t be shy of pushing your own stuff. As Michelle always says, we need to sell as well.
(15:14):
Yeah. And that’s what awareness days and awareness of your business, and the days that are special to your business.
(15:21):
Just sell. You’re allowed to sell, I know no one wants a sell, sell, sell business, but you know what? 80/20 would be my golden rule. 80% chatty, conversational, supportive, informative, plus 20% sell. So go out there and do it.
(15:37):
I’ll just take a little moment if I may just to say, it sounds like one of your children is strangling one of your other children in the background. I’m going to guess that, that actually, what time are we? Oh, eight o’clock and the are having a fun time, but just in case anybody’s worried in Michelle’s beautiful, beautiful pack, three kids, by the way, are not killing themselves.
(15:58):
Can we just we’ll just skip what was on 15 and we’ll just go straight to the sixteenth. Cause it’s working parents day and I work, I’ve just heard my husband go, shh. And I work from home. My beautiful office that you can see behind me. It’s my conservatory, which is attached to my living room. My middle child is currently up against the door. So working parents out there, all working parents, but especially working parents from home, I’ve got you on the 16th of September.
(16:36):
It’s just hilarious, cause all could hear is [screeching]. And I’m thinking, oh no, they’re killing each other and it’s literally working parents day!
(16:46):
Yeah, it is, it’s straight into working parents day, this is like just my life, just trying to balance it.
(16:51):
This is the truth. And people like the way we deliver Michelle, because we tell the truth and it is the truth and it is, you know, running a business is pretty hard work, right? And, and stuff happens like, you know, it’s, This is the truth of what it’s like.
(17:08):
And I feel a lot that, you know, we’ve just talked about 80/20 rule, but I often feel that I am 70% or 60% parent, 10% Michelle, what’s that 30%. I don’t know whatever the percentage is. I cannot count, but you know, like I get, in a way, so little time to work, even though I’m meant to work, you know? Well over part time towards full-time and this, this, this, the juggle is real. I’ve talked about this, the parent and work juggle is real and everyone has a, has a juggle. And you know, there’ll be a day that sort of references your juggle when it is your juggle, stand up encourage, support. And if you want to have a twist, have, I mean, me and Nic do a thing called a positive purge. Have a twist about it, say the things that annoy you, you will, but just don’t come over just twisty, you know? Yeah. But it’s this, this, this is so much in that which is a nice lead into the 19th. I believe it is. Is it wife appreciation day?
(18:13):
And talking like a pirate, not so private. And Kieron, if you’re listening in the background wife appreciation day for Michelle, for you, it’s the19th.
(18:22):
Let’s just quickly move on.
(18:24):
Let’s just move on. Kieran’s like, what? pardon me?
(18:28):
The 25th is I love this one. National one hit wonder day. So if break into, Chickity China, the Chinese chicken, You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin’, Watching X-Files with no lights on, I won’t keep going. But most of you would go that’s One Week by Barenaked Ladies. They were a one hit wonder they weren’t. Nic’s choking in the background,
(18:55):
Oh my goodness.
(18:56):
They’re a much more successful band. My favourite band. But so if I tagged them on national one hit wonder day I’m not lately to get a response, but if you love a band that had a one hit wonder, like tag them on that day, you might get a retweet or share whatever. And why not put yourself on a Reel singing the song, give everyone a heart attack.
(19:19):
Can we just swftly move on from this with two days left with I’m going to pick, I’m going to what, which days. You’ve just completely lost me. So I’m going to go with the 26th cause it’s the European day of languages. I’ll actually be in Barcelona.
(19:37):
Oh my goodness. Oh, how fantastic
(19:42):
For the first time since forever. So for those of you watching who don’t know me, I work to go on holiday. That is one of my huge whys. I’m and I’m very, very blessed to have got my business to the point that I can do that. And why should I not? So on world languages day, I will, I will not be speaking any Spanish or Catalonian at all, but I will be drinking sangria and probably eating those lovely little like rolly things. What are they? Croquetes. We’re doing that. We’re doing that on the 26th.
(20:11):
And just to bring this to a tidy conclusion, because I’ve still got to find out when the run is on. I think we’ve got well, the 29th between your world heart day and your world’s coffee day. I mean, drink too much coffee, get a bad heart or not whatever, but I think you need the coffee for international podcast day on the 30th. And I would like to hand over to you about podcasting because you’re podcasting massive fan. How would you attack that one?
(20:38):
Well, I think it’s it’s a good one to share if you so like me, I could ask people to share their favourite podcast, share the podcaster, share their favourite episode. You could, it could just be a reminder of people and I could do the other. I could do my, sort of my favourite podcasts of 2021.
(21:03):
So someone has just actually got in touch with me today and asked me if I wanted to be an affiliate for their brand because they stumbled across my like top things of 2020. And you know, you create posts like these, but they have a longevity and they lead to other things. So there’s a, there’s a lot of things that you could do on social media. And if you have a podcast that you love and it a smaller podcast then ask if they want to be interviewed by you with, for fun, you know, go wild, see, see, see what works for, you know, for your business.
(21:36):
And you want to have fun with it. Then you want to try it. It’s essentially what we’re doing. We could audio this and put it out as an audio feed and it would become a, a podcast. So if people are wondering what they are. It’s, it’s like independent radio shows, but you, your production values can be a lot simpler and people just like listening to them because it allows you to have such a niche of topics that you wouldn’t necessarily get on a, you know, on a, on a national radio station. So podcasts, podcasts are great ways to learn and, you know, and, and, and just listen for relaxation as well.
(22:18):
Absolutely. So coming back to it on national day of encouragement day, which is the 12th, that’s also the Great North Run, how much beautiful stuff and how much, I mean, I used to watch the Great North Run when I was a kid at the end of my Granny’s street, because everybody ran by my Granny’s street and the encouragement from the folks of Shields from Newcastle all the way through is just absolutely extraordinary. So just in case, you’re wondering, and you can build the charity stuff into it during the Great North Run. And if you are, have an awesome time, cause it’s like the best thing and it’s in the Northeast and we’re dead proud of it. So I think that’ll do it. Unless you’ve got anything else you’d like to add.
(22:54):
I think we should. I think we started on a high, we hit a high, we hit a different sort of high and I think we just need to end now for September.
(23:03):
Beautiful September. We can’t wait for September, actually I think, you know, for Mint and for us and our wider community, we’re gonna be ramping it up, kicking some significant backsides about getting ourselves to Christmas and the last quarter of the year just being absolutely awesome. And if, if you haven’t had enough of us by now, which are truly hope you haven’t, Let’s Talk About Marketing,
Michelle and I deliver it, have written it. It’s a funder training course. So people who live in the
Northeast unfortunately not for those in Durham and Teesside because it is our ERDF funded. And if you want to come on a four week marketing training course for those throughout September, throughout October, possibly one more this year.
(23:46):
It is this much fun and you will learn shed loads and you will be exhausted also, but your, your appreciation for yourselves and your marketing will go through the roof. So if you’ve watched this, drop us a line, nicola@mintbusinessclub.co.uk. And we’ll get you a place.
(24:06):
See the boiling of the loft, we’re melting in the loft. Michelle. It’s definitely time to go.