My guest on the show this week is Lindsay Phillips.
We talk about content marketing, business planning and some great productivity tips, including how to beat your inbox.
Welcome to episode 156 of the Marketing and Finance Podcast.
What you’ll hear about in this episode
- Why outsourcing is good for business
- What Lyndsay’s definition of content marketing is
- Lyndsay’s process for onboarding new clients
- Why businesses need to get the basics right
- Good and bad business experiences
- How to deal with your inbox
Who is Lyndsay Phillips?
Lyndsay’s a content marketing expert who helps businesses to grow. She decided to be her own boss when she had children, and set up Smooth Sailing, providing virtual assistant support.
As the business grew, she realised she loved the social media aspect more than the admin tasks. To scale, Lyndsay niched into content marketing and found not only was she more passionate about her work, but she gained more clients as well.
Her niche audience is solopreneurs or people with a small team, who want to grow quickly but are limited by time and knowledge and want expert support.
Summary of our chat
Lyndsay feels that business owners need to focus on what they do best and to take advantage of outsourcing. Don’t do it yourself, because your time is valuable. Get someone else to do the work, such as creating content, and edit it afterwards to make sure it’s on-brand.
She says people often think content marketing is about blogs and social media, but her definition is: “You have ideas, knowledge and expertise in your head, and content marketing is how you share that knowledge with your prospects and audience.” The medium and frequency vary from business to business.
Clients come to her when they know they’re overwhelmed and need help, but they don’t know what they can outsource or what their goals are. Lyndsay asks them who their audience is, where they hang out, their pain points and how the client can help solve their problems.
People don’t know where to start with growing their businesses, so they often don’t do anything. It’s ok not to know! Look at what your competitors are doing, or ask clients what they want. It’s important to test and tweak your plan until it’s right.
Lyndsay says she’s done well with her podcast, which has extended her reach and exposure. It’s brought more business and she’s also seen as an expert in her field. She learned from creating unsuccessful lead magnets, by adapting her content to give her audience what they really want.
Your inbox is not an archive, a filing system or your to-do list. Instead, think of it as a junction where you deal with the email within a few hours, or take the useful information and add it to your project management system.
That way, all the important information is in one place, with a due date for completion. And batch the time you spend in your inbox – don’t reply to emails as they come in, but deal with them at a set time.
Respond to all the emails relating to one client, and make sure other tasks for them are done at the same time. Giving yourself time for each client makes you more productive and focused.
The One Thing She’d Like Listeners to Take Away
Get a grip on your inbox and have systems and procedures in place – this is how Lyndsay has scaled her business. Have templates for regular tasks, so you can be consistent and things don’t slip through the cracks.
The Product Lyndsay Loves
Lyndsay describes herself as a ‘tools geek’ and is a fan of repuropose.io, an automated system which sends a Facebook Live video to linked pages and groups. It also adds the video to YouTube, strips the audio for use in podcasts, repurposing one piece of content in multiple ways.
Recommended Books
The 12 Week Year, by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington made Lyndsay think about what she does in a day, her goals and the steps to take to achieve them. The book encourages you to take action, to stay motivated and to acknowledge your achievements.
Lyndsay also recommends the book “The Battle for Your Email Inbox”, by Robby Slaughter.
Links and Contact Details
- Visit Lindsay’s website: www.smoothbusinessgrowth.com
- Connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn
- Follow Lindsay on Twitter
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