The Digital Marketing Connection Between Content Creators, Entrepreneurs, and Small Businesses

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Speaker 1: When it comes to digital marketing, what is the

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connection between content creators, entrepreneurs and

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small businesses? I'm going to cover that topic in depth and

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give you some of my advice from my upcoming book in this next

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episode of the Digital Marketing Coach Podcast.

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Speaker 2: Hey everybody.

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Speaker 1: This is Neil Schaefer , your digital marketing coach,

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and welcome to my podcast. We are now in the month of March.

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Because my background is in B2B sales, I always look at things

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quarterly, as my bonuses were normally tied to quarterly sales

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performance. We are now in the third part of Q1. I hope that

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you have been able to achieve a lot of what you plan to begin at

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the beginning of the year. As you know, I have been really

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focused on my book and actually this is the first time with my

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book that I'm targeting a specific audience. I'm sort of

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niching down in some ways, and I want to talk about that and how

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it relates to really everything that I teach in this podcast

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and everywhere. Before I get to that topic, which I already

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teased you about in that teaser before the intro, I do want to

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cover my AI tool of the week. This week I want to talk and, by

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the way, I want to apologize because it looks like I covered

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the same tool two weeks in a row which was Adobe Express.

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Obviously, I love Adobe Express a lot, so I think that came out,

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but today I want to talk about an AI tool that you've probably

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heard me talk about on this podcast. It is a tool called

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Phrase. You can go to neilshapercom. It is an

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affiliate link but it does come with benefits and you can check

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it out. What Phrase does is based on your keyword. It will

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go out and look at the current real-time Google search results.

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I think it takes about the top 20 results. Then it basically

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uses natural language processing and semantic analysis to try to

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grasp of those top 20 results, what are the keywords, the

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content, themes that is the commonality as to why these

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posts are ranking so high in Google. That is just incredibly

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invaluable information. Normally , if I was going to write a blog

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post, I would go out and I want to make sure that I have my

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basis covered. I don't necessarily write about

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everything that I see out there on the internet because you see

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outdated information, incorrect information or I just have a

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different perspective than what some other people may be

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blogging about. But that analysis allows me to make sure

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that my blog post is on track, that when people are searching

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for that keyword, there is a defined search intent and there

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are topics that I need to make sure that I cover. That is why I

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do not publish a blog post and I even have my guest bloggers. I

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can create a page for them in my phrase account and they can

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access it for free. In other words, you could hire a writer

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or have someone on your team or have multiple people collaborate

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over the same blog post in phrase and allow them to reach

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the maximum efficiency for SEO optimization. That is the way

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that I use phrase. It also has its own AI content writer. It

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also integrates, I believe, with Google Search Console, google

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Analytics. It has a lot of bells and whistles. I really just

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focus on that semantic SEO aspect and I use it not just for

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new blog posts but actually to optimize old blog posts.

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Currently, 25% of my blog posts are republished versions of

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blogs that were published at least one, sometimes two, three,

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four, five years ago that I am updating Once again.

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Neilshapercom slash phrase F-R-A-S-C. I hope you'll check

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it out if you have a need for that type of tool. I want to say

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it's more, I suppose, machine learning than specific AI, but

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it does have that AI content writing feature as well that is

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embedded inside it. It will check to see if you have content

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that's very similar to what's already out there on the

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Internet and then with one click you can actually rephrase that

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title or heading so that it is uniquely your. That is a cool

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way of leveraging that AI functionality inside this SEO

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tool, alrighty. So today I want to talk about this topic of

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entrepreneurs, content creators, small businesses and the

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commonality between the three. And I talk about this because

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when I was writing my book which man? I finally got the first

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cover comp that I actually liked . So the cover is coming

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together. That literally becomes the face of the book and

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obviously, when I announced the book, it'll be through that

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cover. So it's coming. I know I keep teasing it out, but it is

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coming. But when I started writing the book, I realized

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that I didn't want to serve big brands with big budgets and lots

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of resources, because that's never really what my consulting

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has been about, or my blogging, or when I am training or

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educating. I realized that my strength is really in helping

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those with limited resources best leverage digital content

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influence or social media marketing, Very similar to I'm

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sort of engaging with my own audience, with myself, right,

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because I am also that way and that's always been this

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perspective that I've had. And when I look at the business that

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I am bringing in, it is more from small and medium sized

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business and startups than it is from large brands. Not to say,

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I don't get business from large brands, but I do feel that large

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brands tend to work with larger agencies and New York Times

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bestselling authors. So it is just the reality of what it is.

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Now, for those of you that have heard me talk about this before,

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I am like the unnitched person. I have sort of niched up from

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beginning with LinkedIn, going to social media marketing,

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somewhat of a niche with influencer marketing, and now

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I'm really covering all of digital marketing. But within it

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I realized what big brands are looking for and what smaller

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businesses are looking for are very different and I really want

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to hone in on that smaller market, in which it's actually a

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huge market, right, probably 99% of businesses are small

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businesses, startups, what have you? So that's why, when you see

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the subtitle of the new book, it will be focused on that sort

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of smaller business entrepreneur market. Now what's really

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fascinating is I talk to a lot of content creators. I'm a

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content creator myself. As an author, I am one of the oldest

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content creators, because it's not just visual content, it's

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textual content as well. Even podcasters are content creators

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and recently going to Vid Summit in the fall of last year and

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then PodFest early this year, I realized the missing piece of

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content creators that a lot of people that I follow are talking

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a lot about and I am talking a lot about and I know that some

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of you might be content creators is the fact that you are

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entrepreneurs. You are businesses. Right, I am a

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business and therefore, when someone reaches out to me and

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says, nio, I'd love to be interviewed on your podcast, I

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am lending them my platform, I am lending them the trust that I

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have built up with you and therefore I have to think like a

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business. What is the business benefit to them? What is the

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business benefit to me? Or a company who says out to me we'd

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love if you featured our tool on your blog. Well, once again,

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I'm lending my SEO juice, my platform, to a company. What is

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in it for me? I am a business. I need to pay my bills, I need to

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pay my own health insurance, I need to send my kids to school,

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right? So I think that for the content creators that are

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listening, if you think like a business, you are less likely to

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undercut and undervalue what you provide. Content is the

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currency for everything I talk about and people are just at an

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advantage. It is what we do for a living if we are content

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creators versus businesses that are trying to get better at this

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or want to tap into your influence, whether it be in

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social media, in podcasting or on your website. So when you

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think like a business, it also helps you say you know what is

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my time spent if I'm a podcaster . We'll take that. For example,

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is it worth it for me to not only have to conceptualize I

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think that's a word this podcast episode and actually record it

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and rerecord it and then edit it and then promote it? It is a

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lot of work. What are the pieces there that I can outsource? I

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am a business. There is no way, if I want to generate a million

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dollars in revenue, there is no way that I can be in full

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control of every single piece of my business. So when you think

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about it that way, you begin to see where you add strategic

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value and where you can outsource to experience

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professionals around the world that offer value in what they do

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. That can free up your time for more strategic things. So

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thinking like an entrepreneur gives you those two advantages.

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It allows you to build the business. It also allows you to

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be more important or place more importance on your precious time

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, which is the most important asset that you have, as well as

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when others wanna collaborate with you, and the more out there

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you are as a content creator, the more you'll see those come

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your way. You'll wanna be very careful about protecting your

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business, your community as well as your reputation, right? So I

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think that what's missing in the content creator pieces is

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that thinking like a business especially the outsourcing piece

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, I think, is huge and it's something that every content

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creator has to consider early on , as well as all these other

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things I talked about. So, this book that I'm writing, obviously

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it's offering digital marketing advice. So, even if you are a

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podcaster, well, what is your product? How are you generating

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business revenue? Do you have multiple streams of income? Do

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you have different business units? I consider every stream

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of income that I have a separate business unit. What is the

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profitability plan for each of those business units? And

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therefore, you need to use digital marketing, just like any

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other business needs to use digital marketing, right? So

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that's the content creator. If that's you, now we have the

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entrepreneur. Now the entrepreneur might be a small

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business owner, might be a startup owner, might be a

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content creator, but entrepreneurs obviously have to

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promote what they're doing. They have to promote their

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businesses, and I guess we can sort of put entrepreneurs in

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small business and small business owners in one bucket.

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Now the commonality is they get, they need to do digital

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marketing. They might not understand the content creation

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piece, and what becomes really important and this is a topic of

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another book that I'm very, very early working on is the

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concept of personal branding. How do a lot of small businesses

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or entrepreneurs get out there? How do you create content? How

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do you gain visibility? Often it has to be done through a person

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. Often the person is the entrepreneur or the small

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business owner. Now, for those entrepreneurs, small business

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owners that can get out there like a content creator, this is

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the ideal situation, and I think of my brother Tersera Wines.

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He's a maker of wine in Santa Barbara County. Oh, rome

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varietals. For those that are interested, he recently is doing

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Pinot Noir as well, great Cabernet Franc, montserrat.

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Anyway, I won't go into all the different great varieties, but

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if you're ever in the area, he does have a wine tasting room in

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Los Alivos, california. But just a great example and I talk

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about my brother on this podcast sometimes, cause it is a great

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example of a small business owner who owns a winery and he

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goes to wine tasting dinners and he is the face of his brand. He

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doesn't have his picture on the bottle, but it is his

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personality that when people come to the tasting room he

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could talk hours and hours about wine in an engaging way and it

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is his personality that is selling the wine when people

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touch him physically, right, or see him on social media. So that

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is the thing. It is the people, it is the people inside your

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company that can create that emotional touch. And if it is

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not the business owner, I don't know who better it can be. So

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this sort of taps into employee advocacy or employee influencers

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. So if the business owner doesn't want to become the face

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of the business, doesn't want to be out there in social media,

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well, who can it be? Sometimes it's the community manager,

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right. Sometimes it is the lead tech person, sometimes it's the

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intern. But I do believe and I get asked this a lot, neil how

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can, if recently, in my use of the extension class, the first

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week sort of introducing influencer marketing and the

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overwhelming majority of my students are actually from

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France on an executive MBA certification class and they

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were saying well, neil, if the algorithms seem to favor people

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for a variety of reasons, I mean , what can businesses do? And

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it's like businesses can try to humanize their content, but at

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the end of the day, it's a logo. The best way to humanize your

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content is to actually have a human present your content and

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to have a human face of your brand, and that human is always

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out there on social media and is building emotional connections,

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building friends and, in that way, is building business, and I

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think that is the missing link. When I look at I talked about

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the missing ingredients of content creators being

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successful. Now I look at the entrepreneurs and small business

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owners and small businesses and they are missing that important

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ingredient. So when you put the two together, you know the

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original subtitle of this book that I'm writing was you know

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what content creators can learn from entrepreneurs, what

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entrepreneurs can learn from content creators and what big

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brands can learn from both of them, and that is really the the

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concept that I wanted to share with you. So, no matter which

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bucket you're in, I Think that you have work to do and I'm

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hoping this new book will give you direction. I really want to

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continue this conversation. If you want to get more, you know,

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advice based on what I'm talking about here, I would love to

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hear from you. You always have an open invitation to email me.

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Say, neil, I listen to your podcast episode. I had a

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question. I need some advice. Obviously, I do have my digital

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first mastermind community, which is a paid community, which

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I am looking at opening up to new members. But I am also

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looking at building more of like a patreon topic community where

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I come in once a month I answer your questions and It'll be for

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basically like one or two cups of coffee a month. So if that is

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something that interests you, that's like Neil, I'm not ready

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for your mastermind community, but I'd love, just once a month,

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to be able to tap into it to and ask me anything, to be able

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to get answers to my questions. I'd love to hear from you. So

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once again, it's Neil at Neil Schaefercom. You should know I

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am the real Neil, so it's spelled N-E-A-L and Schaefer is

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S-C-H-A-F-F-E-R. I really want to do my best to turn this into

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a two-way conversation. So I'd love to hear from you, but if

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not, I get it right. A lot of podcast listeners might be more

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introvert. Maybe you're not as active on social media what have

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you? And I love the podcast listening experience as well,

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and I often don't reach out to podcast house, but I'll tell you

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. Recently I've been listening to the creative pen podcast,

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which is for authors, writers, and I'm looking for advice in

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self publishing, and I did reach out to Joanna and she replied

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back today and you know, just a wealth of information, advice.

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So I want to. I really respect that and it inspired me to say

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the same thing to you. So feel free to reach out to me. If not,

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I get it. No worries, I, as always, I can see the numbers.

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So I am really appreciative for everybody that subscribes to

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this podcast, wherever you are, every review, every time you

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share this in social media. Thank you so much, man. You know

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I hear some other podcasters go Well, I'm only gonna do it to

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episode 400 or 500, but there is so much to talk about and the

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space continues to evolve and I think when I launch the book,

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there's just gonna be a lot more , a lot more things to talk

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about and a lot more development . So Next week I am going to be

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talking on episode number 359, have a very special interview

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with someone that is gonna talk about how marketing Automation

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can exponentially level up your digital creator or small

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business. You'll notice the content creator, the small

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business and I was looking for people to interview Visa v, my

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upcoming book, because I have a separate chapter on marketing

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automation. Marketing automation is killer. The smaller your

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business, the more important it is for you to have, so I'm

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really excited about a dedicated episode on that. Obviously,

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you'll have to make sure you're subscribed. This is going to

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drop on Wednesday, march 13th, so be in the lookout for that.

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But until then, this is your digital marketing coach, neil

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Schaefer, signing off.

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Speaker 2: You've been listening to your digital marketing coach

00:17:31
. Questions, comments, requests, links. Go to

00:17:37
podcastneilschaefercom get the show notes to this and 200 plus

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podcast episodes and Neil Schaefercom To tap in to the 400

00:17:47
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00:17:50
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00:17:54
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00:17:57
business needs a little helping hand. See you next time on your

00:18:02
digital marketing coach.