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Understanding Business Optimisation – a conversation with Britpreneur Seb Brantigan
21 Plays15 days ago
Seb Brantigan is a business optimisation expert, co-founder of marketing services company DBSS digital, and the author of Social Marketing Success.
International clients have referred to him as the Britpreneur.
In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds, Seb explains to host Michael Millward, how the principles of business optimisation, using technology and automation to reduced the wasted time, and increase revenue and profits can be applied to any business or not-for-profit situation.
They focus their discussion on how Seb has demonstrated this in his book Social Marketing Success.
Seb explains his four-stage process for successfully using social media as a marketing tool.
They cover a wide range of subjects including:
- The nature of the internet
- The different platforms
- Using data to fine tune marketing activities
- Understanding your customer
- How to build trust on line
More information about Seb Brantigan and Michael Millward is available at abeceder.
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Transcript
Introduction to Independent Minds Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
on zencastr Hello and welcome to the Independent Minds, a series of conversations between Abysseedah and people who think outside the box about how work works, with the aim of creating better workplace experiences for everyone.
00:00:22
Speaker
I am your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida. Today, my guest, Independent Mind, is Seb Brantigan. He is a business optimization specialist.
00:00:35
Speaker
As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, the Independent Minds is made on Zencastr.
Simplifying Podcast Creation with Zencastr
00:00:42
Speaker
Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform on which you can create your podcast in one place and then distribute it to the major platforms like Spotify, Apple, and Google.
00:00:53
Speaker
It really does make creating content so easy. If you would like to try podcasting with Zencastr, visit zencastr.com forward slash pricing and use my offer code, Abysseedah.
00:01:06
Speaker
Now that I've told you how wonderful Zencastr is for creating podcasts, We should make one, one that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
00:01:19
Speaker
Very importantly, in this episode of The Independent Minds, we won't be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.
Seb Brantigan's Expertise and Passion
00:01:28
Speaker
Today, my guest, Independent Mind, who I met on Matchmaker.fm, is Seb Brantigan.
00:01:35
Speaker
He is a business optimisation specialist. who can show you how to increase your time, revenue and profits using technology and automation. Seb is from Ipswich in the east of England, a place I have never visited.
00:01:50
Speaker
But if I was going to visit, a good place to book my travel would be the Ultimate Travel Club. It is where I get trade prices on flights and hotels. You'll find a link and membership discount code in the description.
00:02:04
Speaker
Hello Seb. Hey Michael, thanks so much for having me. Please could we start by you telling us a little bit about Seb Gratigan? Absolutely, yeah. So so as as you already mentioned, I'm business optimisation specialist. I've been doing that for close to 10 years now. I've been running it from hometown of Ipswich, although I do work nationwide with um a variety of different businesses.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's always been a passion of mine. I've As I say, we're doing it a long time. My main motivation behind it is we're all very busy and we will have a limited amount of time. I always work with all kinds of business owners to show them how they can buy their time back free.
00:02:43
Speaker
Variety of strategies. You've also written a book, though, haven't you, on all of this? What's the book called?
The P-I-M-P Formula and Marketing Strategies
00:02:48
Speaker
Yes. So the book is called Social Marketing Success. I share with you my proven four step guide to getting more leads, clients and sales using social media.
00:02:58
Speaker
Before we get into the book, I've heard that you're known as the Britpreneur. What is Britpreneur and why do people refer to you as a Britpreneur?
00:03:09
Speaker
When I first started my business, I was working with a lot of clients out in the United States and one of them referred to me as the Britpreneur and it's something that always stuck with me. But really a Britpreneur essentially is anyone who, so a UK-based business,
00:03:27
Speaker
So a British-based business entrepreneur becomes a Britopreneur. suppose if you're exporting, made in Britain, sold around the world. Now, the book that you have written, Social Marketing Success, and tell us about these four key points that are the they key factors of the book.
00:03:46
Speaker
To sum it up, so it's what I call my P-I-M-P book. formula So that's the four step system. So P stands for proposition, which is effectively what do you do and and what do you offer and getting clear on that.
00:04:03
Speaker
I stands for interest or interesting content. So social media, of course, is all about creating content. So we have to create content that is interesting and compelling. and People find valuable and they want to share with others.
00:04:16
Speaker
M stands for the mindset and specifically the mindset of your audience or your potential clients. Creating content is based around your potential clients. So if we have to get clear on their mindset, so we can create content that they'd like to see and find useful.
00:04:33
Speaker
And the last P is promotion, which is all about once we have the strategy clear and we're clear on what we're doing, the promotion is how do we actually execute that? How do we create content? And what's the promotion strategy behind it as well.
00:04:48
Speaker
This is very much focused on social media. If you were wanting to use the same approach in other forms of marketing, you could as well, I suppose. But this your approach is is very much focused on social media.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's social media and more recently marketing automation, such as email marketing. That being said, email marketing automation is a little bit more technical, but a lot of the principles that the I have learned and i teach within the social media aspect, a lot of those can actually be carried over, as you've suggested, to other forms of communication.
00:05:25
Speaker
WhatsApp, for example, is a form of social media, and that's really becoming popular, not just in our everyday lives for people, ah personal use, but also for business use as well. But those are, I say that to say, those are examples of what I'm teaching within my book.
00:05:41
Speaker
ah That can be applied to to any platform. It's different than some platforms to others. So there's a little tweaking involved. But as ah as a general rule, having a a framework of any kind, doesn't matter if it's this framework or something else, is a great way to run your social media or run your marketing business as a whole in a very organized way.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yes. I suppose with the wide range of social media platforms, is it better to select the platform where your clients or potential clients are most likely to be or and so focus? Or is it also better to have some form of presence on every platform?
00:06:21
Speaker
It's a really good question. So it is definitely good to have a presence on all of the popular platforms. Of course, it's you to have the presence on the platforms where your audience is most likely to be.
00:06:32
Speaker
So what I recommend as a general thing is get yourself set up on um all of the key major platforms. By that, I mean platforms that ah have over 100 million users or more.
00:06:44
Speaker
But that's not to say at the same time that you have to post daily on all 10 or so of these platforms. So say, for example, you're sending out Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and and YouTube.
00:06:55
Speaker
But you know your audience is predominantly on Facebook and possibly Instagram. You'll make Facebook and Instagram your priority platform where you're posting and most active most regularly.
00:07:06
Speaker
But it's it's good to have a presence on all of those key platforms. But again, you don't want to spread yourself too thinly. So the question, of course, is how do you know where my ideal audience is?
00:07:17
Speaker
It's going to be a little bit of testing and knowing which platform is getting the most response. So I'm very data driven. And through social media, you you'll be able to see when you start creating content, what kind of statistics am I getting from that?
00:07:31
Speaker
Such as if I create content for every day for 30 days, how many people are reading it, engaging it, clicking it, joining your email list, you know, just knowing those key metrics, those numbers that will tell you, or the market will tell you who's responding to your content the most and on which platform.
00:07:49
Speaker
In some ways, I suppose you can think of the internet as being
Audience Engagement and Content Alignment
00:07:53
Speaker
broadcasting. There are millions of people using social media. Like you said, the main ones have at least 100 million subscribers. thats That's right. If you go into one of those, you are likely to have the opportunity to market what it is that you have to sell to 100 million people.
00:08:12
Speaker
But not every one of those 100 million people is going to be interested in what it is that you are having what you want to sell. So it's identifying where your customers are most likely to be and then fine-tuning all the time, looking using the data to help you focus the content that you are using in order to target the right type of people. And that's when I suppose it becomes narrowcasting.
00:08:42
Speaker
The more data you have, the more you can automate things, the more you'll know what content to create and you narrow down the 100 million subscribers down increasingly to the people who are more likely to be your customers.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yes, that's exactly That's a really good way to sum it up. It becomes even more crucial as there's there's basically two types of social media marketing. One of them is what call organic marketing, which is where you're not paying to advertise and it's free marketing.
00:09:14
Speaker
Then there's also paid social media marketing, where obviously you are paying and you can get quicker results and get that data quicker. One isn't necessarily better than the other. Of course, there's the pros and cons for for each of them, but both of them will be able to tell you the data and and tell you, as as you said, who who you should focus on and out of that big chunk of of an audience, who's who's actually interested and who's engaging with what you're saying. And a bit of it is, as I said, it's going to be a bit of a test.
00:09:46
Speaker
So a lot of people get disheartened with social media when they start posting for a week and they don't get any results, actually have got a result. you've You've got the data, and the data is really key.
00:09:57
Speaker
So say, for example, you posted for a week and you're able to tell through platforms like LinkedIn that in that week you had 500 people view your your content and nobody engaged.
00:10:08
Speaker
That's actually in a way a good thing because you figured out what doesn't work. So then you can again test something new and and when eventually you will find something that does work and you can double down on what was working, what was getting people engaged and talking. When you say you've posted a piece of content and 500 people have have looked at that content, but nobody's engaged with you, nobody's come back to you as a result of reading or watching or listening to the content that you have posted.
00:10:38
Speaker
is the expectation that the piece of content that you post will generate immediate response from the viewer listener reader or is this something that is like a it's a slow burn do they need to see your name your brand your message more often in order to get to know like and trust you before they make the they press that button to contact you Yeah, definitely. So there's there's an aspect of ah knowing, liking and trusting you. So and within that example I gave where if no one interacts with your content that first time, if someone sees it and doesn't like like it or comment or share, that also doesn't mean that you've done something wrong necessarily, because sometimes it might take someone...
00:11:26
Speaker
multiple exposures to get to that next step if we're comparing it to say sales process it might take between 8 to 13 exposures through all kinds of different communication methods for someone to make that buying decision so we've got to factor that in with social media as well sometimes it is a bit of a waiting game and of course by collecting the data that allows us to not be doing as much guessing because it is definitely trying to do guesswork all the time is frustrating and that's what people get frustrated with and that's why I think people do ah give up too quickly.
00:12:03
Speaker
And of course, some of it as well as knowing your audience. So it could be that you're doing great amazing content but just to the wrong people and you know you don't want to be selling steak to vegetarian no that's right so it's it's also a case of are you in the right platform the right place are you so for example with facebook you've got facebook groups and within some of these groups are your audio audience you know are you posting content there versus on your own personal profile where you only have 12 friends. So those are little things to to look at as well. So it's not always just the one thing to look at. There's multiple things you need to test and tweak and track. But eventually when you do get closer to that result, then you'll be able to, because you've been tracking, see what's working and spot a bit of a trend as well.
00:12:50
Speaker
I can see how what you're saying fits in with the four point. It's like you've got to understand what it is that you're trying to do, what problem you're trying to solve before you start telling other people what problem you're trying to solve and why your solution is better to and than anybody else's. That's defining your proposition, making sure that you know who who needs to hear about your solution to the the problem, who wants to listen.
00:13:20
Speaker
to your proposition about your solution. And then we get onto the issue of of the content itself, making sure that it's interesting content. As a somebody who's been producing content for a long time now,
00:13:36
Speaker
and I look at our data for Abbasidra and our various different websites, I can see that if I'm writing about something which is very current and in the news and being discussed by politicians, I am going to get a much higher level of interest than if I stick simply to the thing that, no, this is my message, this is my message.
00:14:00
Speaker
There's a ah value in linking or or reflecting what is happening outside of your own business bubble and having an opinion on things or positioning your solution against something.
00:14:17
Speaker
And I don't mean against as in opposition, I just mean alongside something that is happening in the wider media. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, they go back to the framework that I've shared, that's really something just to get you almost like a leg up into creating content because sometimes you can go outside of that formula as well. So for example, and where I talked about interesting content, now that's mostly relates to ah something relating to your business or some some of the services, products that you might offer.
00:14:51
Speaker
But we all know that a picture of your son or daughter is going to get more likes and comments than you talking about your business. So we also have to almost look at that framework. And sometimes we can bend the rules a little bit depending. Again, this is from knowing, looking at the data and and tracking what's going on as well to get an idea of and what people are engaging with as well.
00:15:12
Speaker
The alt text that you put in about an image that you use will impact the level of interest that image gets. And then having the article or the content ah that's connected to that image is also something that you've got to think of. And what is it that people like to see images of?
00:15:34
Speaker
How can I connect that with the message that it is that I want to communicate to people? No point in putting a picture of a kitten alongside ah an article content that has no connection to cats.
00:15:48
Speaker
Yeah, I 100% agree. yeah there's There's always got to be ah way that you, I suppose, pay it off in terms of if you were to post a picture of your pet or something like that, a way that you would connect it back to and your business, your offer. So it you know does take a bit of thinking and creativity behind it. So it yeah, as exactly as you said, it can't just be um random, but it yeah, you've got to be able to connect it back and link it back to thing else. Because the other thing you don't want to do is you don't want to send people to a dead end. So if you did upload a you know picture of you at the beach or or whatever it is, and you didn't really add
00:16:28
Speaker
any kind of context behind that or any and additional depth, then, you know, yes, it might get quite a bit of engagement, but that will then not actually lead to the results you want, which of course on social media as business owners is to generate leads and potential clients. The actual aim eventually is to get them off social media in a way that ah someone is on social media, they're seeing your content, they're engaging with you,
00:16:54
Speaker
But we need to actually get them off social media at the point where they're interested in taking the next logical step, ah such as becoming a client of yours or purchasing your products or services. That's a very important point, getting clients off social media and and how to do that. And we'll probably come back another time and and have much more of a conversation about that.
00:17:14
Speaker
But listening to you talk about the the animals, images, etc. made me think of Karl Lagerfeld and his cat. and how the cat created ah social media following and has become a star in in its own right.
00:17:32
Speaker
And then i was thinking about organizations where I see on their website that they have a dog that is the chief happiness officer for the the organization i was and looking at a pr company in london that had a staffordshire bull terrier who was their chief hr officer and if yeah the stories about the dog has to meet all the various different people who are going to be working in the organization If the dog doesn't like them, then they don't get the job. And that is the dog in their office. And all this is that the dog has a role within the organization.
00:18:05
Speaker
And you can create a character and stories ah around the animal that then reflect upon what is happening in your organization. It becomes a story that is linked to the organization, but has the the dog type image, which will attract people's attention as well.
00:18:24
Speaker
ah Yeah, I really like that example and I've i've seen that on quite a few different company websites and if you have a similar places is and it's a great way to make your business seem more personable as well you know gone are the days of people wanting to work with a big large ah corporate company you know people nowadays would rather even as business owners and you're doing say b2b marketing you're still dealing with real people and as i mentioned before you don't always want to be talking about business all the time sometimes of course you do but there are times where you want to bring in that personal side as well because people want to hear
00:19:01
Speaker
both things if you give them too much of the personal side then you you're actually not driving them back to the thing that you want to drive them back to which is working with you in some capacity so having that balance of the two i think you if you get that right you can really create some magic behind your social media and your content creation, no matter what platform you use.
Personal Stories in Social Media
00:19:21
Speaker
If you look at any accountancy website, you have information which says that they're good accountants. You'd expect that. Every accountant is going to tell you that they're good. That's fantastic. Then it's as the human side of the organization. The fact that the staff are celebrating a success, the staff are supporting something in the community, have raised some money for something, have taken in school children on work experience have done all the different things that give the organization ah character and show what they are like beyond the task that they complete is going to add strength to your social media content and lead to higher levels of engagement oh yeah 100 it it really is it's it's about
00:20:11
Speaker
you know, again, connecting with your audio audience and and what they what they're looking for. again, gathering that data is is is the best way to do it. And of course, it's, you know, spotting but what's happening in in the marketplace and also current affairs as well.
00:20:27
Speaker
One of my clients, for example, they're in a property education type industry. And so they noticed that, for example, cost of living crisis, well, obviously now it's been happening for some time, but um when that started happening, they were creating content around that and then ways that someone could,
00:20:46
Speaker
get into property in order to alleviate that. And they were using that as a way to create content because that's what people were, you know, that's what some people's people's minds and effectively piggybacking off current trends. and And again, what people are are talking about is is really key.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah, so it's like there's social media, you need social content, you need relevant, timely content, you need some potentially controversial content.
00:21:16
Speaker
But it all comes back to these four different elements of the content. It's like working out your proposition. Like you say, the client of yours who's in the property education business, their their proposition is to help people manage through tough financial times by helping them use property as a way to improve and increase their income.
00:21:44
Speaker
That sounds like a fairly strong proposition to me. you know, you've got what you do, the problem that you solve for other people, That's a that's a ah good proposition.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. It really is. And it's it's about, again, knowing what people are looking for and you know getting really deep into the mind of of your prospect or of your potential buyer.
00:22:07
Speaker
And that's an exercise always give to someone that I'm working with as a client um is get clear on. Obviously, they have an idea of who they're looking to target and approach with their with their offer and their proposition.
00:22:21
Speaker
But I always make them do the exercise of what's the type of things that keeps this person up at night. What are the sort of worries and concerns? Because again, these are things you can create content around.
00:22:34
Speaker
And if you sat down and you listed out you know, 10 things that they're worried about right now, then, you know, from those 10 things, you'll be able to create, you know, ton of content because you could, over 30 day periods, you could create three bits of content around one of these concerns or worries that they have or pain points in order to attract those right people as well and speak to those people you're looking to reach. Yes.
00:22:59
Speaker
Which means that you when you're doing that, you're creating that interesting content that you mentioned. And the interesting content comes from, as you just said, understanding your own proposition, how that helps people.
00:23:12
Speaker
And then when you say, yeah what is keeping people awake at night, that's understanding the mindset of the individual, which then leads them to look for the type of content that you have created, because they're looking for the answers to the questions that are keeping them awake at night.
00:23:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's that's exactly it. And it's about you know speaking to those concerns and and and worries. And of course, not just doing that, but you know how can your product or service help and you know what's the benefit of the benefit?
00:23:43
Speaker
And this goes into another another side note, which is more to do with writing good copy relating to ah marketing in general, but it's it's about what's your audience struggling with?
00:23:56
Speaker
What is that struggle creating for them? You know, let's say they're not making enough money. If they're not making enough money, what what's the impact on their life for them? um And then how does your product or service alleviate that that issue as well?
00:24:10
Speaker
And, you know, something that I've noticed as well, it's kind of going back to our point we made earlier, is as you're writing a lot of this content, even if people are not initially liking or commenting or sharing over time they are reading a lot of this content information so um and you're really building that goodwill and that you're nurturing that audience so by the time you do actually have a conversation with them they feel like they've known you like your whole life but actually you've just written in-depth content that really speaks to them and it piques their interest and
00:24:42
Speaker
then it's it's just a way of really connecting with them.
Social Media Efficiency and Final Insights
00:24:46
Speaker
And this is the concept of buying your time back and because you're doing on social media as ah as a public network.
00:24:53
Speaker
Multiple people can read it at the same time instead of you having to do this process one to one or at a networking event or however else you would normally do it. there's anything wrong with that.
00:25:05
Speaker
It's just you have a way to reach multiple people a lot easier with with social media, hence the principle of of buying your time back and where that comes in as well. I have the feeling, you know, Seb, that we've we've scratched the surface of of this. It sounds very string very straightforward, very logical when you've got an acronym.
00:25:26
Speaker
and you can sort of put everything into action. But there is much more to learn about this than we can cover in the time that we have. And it really is makes it worth reading the book.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yes, so the book is called Social Marketing Success. Which is available from all of the usual book retailers. And we'll put some links in the description to those. But...
00:25:52
Speaker
You know, so thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with me. It's been really interesting. We've certainly created a very interesting episode of The Independent Minds. Thank you very much.
00:26:05
Speaker
Absolutely. No, it's been great spending time with you. And thank you so much, Michael. And yeah, as i say, it's been great to be on the show. And yeah, it really love the work that you're doing on the show as well.
00:26:16
Speaker
Thank you very much. I am Michael Millward, Managing Director of Abbasida. And I have been having a conversation with the independent mind, Seb Brantigan.
00:26:27
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us at abbasida.co.uk. There is a link in the description. I must remember to thank the team at matchmaker.fm for introducing me to Seb Brantigan.
00:26:40
Speaker
If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests, or if like Seb, you have something very interesting to say, matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made.
00:26:52
Speaker
There is a link to matchmaker.fm and an offer code in the description. get the feeling that that that description is content which is a good proposition, has interesting content, is understanding and mindset and is being promoted as i speak.
00:27:08
Speaker
So we're fulfilling Seb's four points there. One of the best ways to stay healthy is to know the risks early. That is why we recommend the health tests provided by York Test, especially the annual health test.
00:27:23
Speaker
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00:27:34
Speaker
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00:27:51
Speaker
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00:28:06
Speaker
If you have liked this episode of The Independent Minds, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure that you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe.
00:28:20
Speaker
Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think. All that remains for me to say is a big thank you to you for listening, and until the next episode of The Independent Minds, goodbye.