Learning how to do marketing

Before I start with my update for the week, I want to apologise for any damage to retinas caused by the visual abuse that is my video call background. Shout out to Jo for calling it (you know who you are). The combo of daisy hoody, cat wallpaper, jungle chair and graffiti giraffe is probably a bit much. I'll add it to my list of things to do that I'll never do.

Anyway, I've made a point of planning this week with lots of tasks that I really enjoy. No rubbish admin, just things that will drive progress. I'm off to Scotland on Sunday for a viewing of a property that I hope will kick start one of my new ventures (sneak peak of the name, Cassidilly). So I wanted to make sure the week running up to that was fun, as I'm a bit nervous in case the property is a stretch too far in terms of redevelopment work needed. I had a dream last night that someone (bloody HMRC) told me that my tax calculations had been wrong after selling Molzi and I owed another ￡500k. I woke up feeling devastated that the Cassidilly project would have to be paused. I love those split seconds when you realise it wasn't real.

Bit of a ramble so far, lets try to get back on track.

I've got some great client meetings. I'm loving the process of working with other super ambitious entrepreneurs. There is always a unique energy that I thrive on in these conversations. The consulting/advisory business actually doesn't even launch officially until 1st Nov but I'm very proud to announced that we're actually already at capacity for the coming months. We really want to make sure we don't spread ourselves too thin and ensure we do a great job for our clients. More details about that project soon.

But the thing I'm having most fun with at the moment is FounderON. It was launched as a basic blog and I've been overwhelmed by the feedback and interest so far. As the traffic to the site increases, I have the opportunity to do a much better job of actually capitalising on it. Not in terms of charging for the content. I think anyone that's read it will agree that's probably a bad business plan. But more about encouraging email subscriptions so that I can continue to grow traffic and viewers without having to rely on good old Linkedin. We've all been in Linkedin jail before, right?

I am really starting at 'idiots guide to marketing' level. Which is odd considering I used to run a marketing agency. But starting to think about the users journey through the site, making sure they know who I am if they've come through from a Google search, and making it clear why there is value in subscribing to the newsletter. I love logic, and process, and scaling. It feels like this project gives me all of those things. I can let the content be the creative element, but behind the scenes I am working on user journeys, cross pollination with my Linkedin newsletter and trying to figure out what my actual goals are for the site, i.e what I should class as a conversion at this stage.

I tested running some Linkedin Thought Leader ads and the impact on site traffic and Linkedin following was significant for the amount of spend I tested with. But unless I know what I'm trying to achieve from the site, I can't work out whether the ads were a success or not. Anyone in the marketing game will be thinking how simple this all is, but I'm loving the fact that it's new to me and I'm learning. I'm excited to get to a stage where I can ramp up ad spend and see a real value to the business. For now though, I'm just playing around with things and seeing what works.

You have a short window to view the FounderON site in it's current form, before it's consigned to the history books and replaced with the worlds most efficient customer email capturing machine.

https://www.founderon.com - quick while there's still time.

(Cheeky bit of cross pollination, see)

Be sure to subscribe to this Linkedin newsletter to see pictures from my trip to Scotland next week, and either a very happy or very disappointed me.

If you enjoy reading my newsletter, you might also enjoy my blog FounderON , where I cover the MANY highs and lows of starting, scaling and selling my first business. Click the image below to check it out!