Monthly Archives: December 2020

How to Discover the Story of Your Brand

How to Discover the Story of Your Brand written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Park Howell

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Park Howell a 30+ year veteran of the advertising industry who has guided hundreds of purpose-driven brands and thousands of people who support them to substantial growth.

Park Howell is the founder of Business of Story and the author of Brand Bewitchery: How to Wield the Story Cycle System to Craft Spellbinding Stories for Your Brand. 

Questions I ask Park Howell:

  • What does it mean to a small business marketer when you say story?
  • How do I use the story idea to help my business?
  • How do you help businesses define the actual problem that they solve?
  • How do you work with businesses that don’t solve a problem that is emotion – how do they tell a story?
  • How does this idea of story affect internal audiences?
  • Does language ever get in the way?
  • What is your Story Cycle System?
  • How does this become more than a creative exercise?

More About Park Howell:

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WPBoostThis episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by WPBoost.

Your website is the hub of your business. If your website loads slowly visitors will not tolerate that and neither will Google. How fast your website loads has become increasingly important to your rank. If you want to find out if you have an issue with this or how to fix this check out wpboost.net.

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2021 Trends for Small Business Marketing Consultants

2021 Trends for Small Business Marketing Consultants written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch 

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I am expanding on the theme of the trend I started last week. In my work, I spend a good deal of time with those in the marketing field, marketing consultants, coaches, agencies, and the like. Now, these folks are small business owners in their own right but working with them gives me specific insight into this group.

Today I’m going to discuss 5 of the biggest trends that will affect marketing coaches in 2021.

Trends for 2021 for Small Business Marketing Consultants

  • Coaching and consulting practices explode
  • More firms crowdsource talent
  • Social media engagement gets more specialized
  • People crave faster consumption
  • AI gets very practical
You can also read my 2021 Small Business Trends post here

Love the Duct Tape Podcast? Give us a review!

 

Manage your clients, websites and tasks.

This blog post is brought to you by GoDaddy Pro.

GoDaddy Pro offers a robust suite of free tools to web developers & designers to help them save time managing all their clients and sites. With GoDaddy Pro, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage all their WordPress websites from one place. Exclusive time-saving tools let you bulk update WordPress core, plugins and themes on multiple sites with one click, as well as automate WordPress backups, cloning and migrations, and so much more. Get real-time performance, security and uptime monitoring across all your client websites. Members also receive a 30% discount on new, qualifying products.

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2021 Small Business Trends

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This

is John Jantsch, and I’m going to do a solo show. I think it’s been a little while I’m going to do

my annual wrap-up of the trends for 2021, I guess. It’s not a wrap-up isn’t it, it’s a prediction.

That’s a trends, for small business in 2021, but, you know, I love.

Testimonials reviews. I’d love to hear from you. Let me read one that just came in from a

tubblog. I know tubblog in the UK. Host John Jantsch is one of my go-to gurus for small

business marketing advice. And if you listen to his podcast, you’ll appreciate why John not

only shares some amazing wisdom himself, but he expertly interviews a host of the brightest

minds from the marketing space.

If you own a small business or work in marketing, then you’ll appreciate listening to this

show. Like I said, I love those who wouldn’t love those. I’d love to hear from you, if you

[00:01:00] appreciate and love to listen to this show, jump over to iTunes and give me a

review. All right. So every year for, I don’t know, the last 20 years or so, I’ve wrapped up the

year with my predictions for trends for the coming year.

And you know what I’m usually spot on. But that’s really more, I think, a Testament to the

fact that trends, I mean, they tend to creep up on us rather than overwhelm us. and, I think

that there’s also the fact that really was small business owners. You know, trends, have

usually kind of tipped, in the main, at least, I mean, we’ve been talking about it for a long

time before they honestly, you know, or something that small business owners really need

to.

Heed so, I mean, you think about like social media, mobile marketing, and even one that’s

going to show up today, you know, AI, we talked about those for a long time before they are

really practical, I think for many small businesses, but you know, then 2020 happened in

pretty much everything that might have sort of.

Slowly [00:02:00] crept in on anybody, you know, kind of came in untethered and proud and

announced itself. So, you know, trends really accelerated and became the fact, I think more

than a trend, I mean like zoo, right? I mean fact, everybody just did it, but it’s not a trend. I

think a new behavior that might’ve taken years to take hold is really now second nature.

I think for this year’s predictions and you’re going to, obviously a lot of people do these. I

think it’s going to take, a new level of insight or a different level of insight to curate the

trends. I think the trick this year is that, you know, the ability to spot the behavior that

emerges from a change.

I mean, kind of the forest trends, if you will. So for example, like is business travel going to

take a long time to recover? You know, our large conferences on hold for awhile. I mean, will

people come to expect 15 minute virtual meetings? I mean, even if they’re like in the same

office first together, so what did we make of some of this?

Now I know [00:03:00] that you can count on a lot of pundits out there that are going to

regurgitate the already worn line about marketers using this moment to become more

human. That businesses will be more about people and less about, I dunno, whatever it was

they were about before COVID, but I don’t. I think that we should be fooled into thinking

that that, and I hope that you don’t, that, that doing the same thing you were doing in a

different format is an innovation and that anything really in your industry, whatever industry

you’re in will look precisely the same, maybe ever again.

I think this year, the friction around change. I mean, literally we went to zero, right? Because

there was no choice. So I think you can expect some people to really try to claw back, you

know, what, what they knew. and I think you’re going to see a lot of other people. I mean,

completely reevaluate, restart everything.

I do think a lot of businesses are, are doing soul searching. [00:04:00] I know I have, I know

that’s occurred. but let’s not over simplify the result of it all. I think, forced to deal with the

change that we don’t fully understand. Has let’s really do some introspection of course, but

where law land is, frankly, anyone’s guests.

And that leads me to my first trend trend. Number one, paying attention becomes a survival

mechanism, you know, in 2021. I mean, as in most years, businesses thrive and survive due

to many factors, but I think next year, Those who kind of discover the shift of the moment

that stay very, very nimble, I think will be more equipped to evolve with their customers.

Like 2020 showed us, frankly, how fast everything can change and, and simultaneously how

fast we can respond and then change [00:05:00] and then respond or re respond. I think this

is the commercial version of, of present. Moment, mindfulness, I suppose. I mean, don’t take

anything for granted. Something that feels like momentum may just be abandoned for really

the feeling of the moment.

I mean, talk to your customers as much as you can. Not because they can tell you what they

want or need, because they can tell you how they’re feeling. And I think. Going forward. I

think we can expect fear and I don’t mean to be a cynic, but I think we can expect fear to be

a feeling, maybe the number one feeling for most of next year.

So tune your strategic strategic thinking to finding ways to, I don’t know, be the light in the

darkness. It’s a good way to say. All right. Number two, everything gets smaller. Now from a

practical standpoint, I mean, we’ve already seen this, right? I mean, conferences, meetings,

[00:06:00] gatherings of any sort, kind of contracted immediately.

And I think, I think to some extent, we’re all going to need to relearn how to gather again. I

mean, no matter how much we think we crave it. I think you’re going to expect to push for

less content, shorter videos, more intimate launches, mini courses, even, and, and the 142

page book instead of the classic 284 page book.

I think this trend will be driven by people’s desire for something that feels more personal.

Certainly not by, you know, the markets. Designed to get smaller. But speaking of design, I

think design is a true graphic design is it is a true barometer of change sometimes. And I

think you can already see online at least, and it’s already moved in that direction.

I mean, look at it. Look at the large headline fonts on websites, the muted color, almost a

watercolor splashes of retro illustrations and all the white space. On on webpages. I

[00:07:00] think that, that’s a, an indicator or a barometers of where I think some people’s

attitudes are going away or going as well, I should say.

and I don’t think smaller always means, just smaller. It also means less complex. I think you

can expect that to play out really in a, in a large dollop of nostalgia. you know, you think

about the visions of families riding around their neighborhoods on their bikes during 2021 or

2020, I should say.

I think that sparked an emotional desire for simplicity. All right. Number three, AI gets

practical. Okay. Of course, almost every trend article. then I think you can, kind of this year

were probably the last two or three years has talked about AI in some fashion. And I

mentioned it here as a trend. I do.

I. I do so really for some practical things it brings rather than the futuristic promise of, you

know, some sort of technological change now without getting too technical about the

workings, the mid [00:08:00] somewhere in the middle of the year, this year 2020 to, rolled

out, open AI, rolled out something called generative pre-trained transformer three, or you

might see it referred to as GPT three.

and I think in a lot of ways, It was a big leap that made AI useful for many applications. I

mean, instead of just being confined to the service or help desk bots on websites, it’s now

embedded in our basic typing. You, you might’ve actually even noticed this as you compose

an email out in Gmail, if you use Gmail or, or any of the Google suite of tools like Google

docs, I mean, the applications now, as you type

Suggest finishes to your sentences. And this isn’t just a, a feature that was added by Google.

I mean, this is AI powering routine tasks and it gets smarter. I actually wrote, this, This fall.

my latest book called the ultimate marketing engine. Here’s my plug for it. It’ll be coming out

with [00:09:00] Harper, from Harper Collins leadership in September of 2021 and planned to

hear from me about it.

But anyway, I wrote this book. It’s the first book I’ve written entirely in Google docs. how’s

amazed at how the suggested AI. don’t tell my editor this, but some cases, I think it helped

me right better, or at least, or at least it made it easier for me to write, sentences just from a

simple suggested start.

And I think you’re going to see a lot of tools. I’ve already started to uncover tools and

services and websites really aimed it at making, writing. Easier. I mean, the couple of tools

like headline and market muse is another great one. I think they’re going to change how

content is created. I think AI applications can write an article.

I mean, now based on just a handful of have fed in keywords now, is that going to be award-

winning pros? Well, maybe not at least right now, but you know, frankly, is that, is that blog

posts, you paid somebody $15 to write, you know, near as good [00:10:00] as AI, probably

not. But I think AI writers. I think those tools are righties to a place where they can get you

80% of the way there.

And then you, you know, the brilliant content strategists that you are, you can spend your

energy on making the, the content sparkle and, and, you know, getting it read by others that

becomes your job. I think this is going to shake up content creation, social posting agency,

and even though the entire freelance industry, pretty, pretty dramatically.

All right. Turn number four out of seven. Talent investment is back in style. So, you know,

most large businesses, I really have come to understand that there’s a real competitive

nature in attracting and retaining some of the best people. So they’ve, you know, they’ve

long invested heavily in recruiting and employee branding initiatives, but you know, small

businesses rarely can afford the, you know, the, the perks, to attract talent.

But one trend that I think is going to grow in the world of small business. [00:11:00] Is what

might be referred to as talent development. I mean, even if revenue is down and budgets

are tight, I predict that small business owners are going to see the wisdom of creating

training and mentoring opportunities, really in an effort to level up and develop and let’s

face it.

I mean, send a clear signal that their people aren’t important. Piece of their success. And I

think this has always been a big topic, big, important topic, but I think we’ll see a return to a

fundamental commitment to employee engagement around things like profit and skill

development. And I don’t think it’s going to be limited to big business only.

So if you’re out there listening to this and you have a training. Program or some way to help

people develop skills or mindset or even personal development. I think small business is

going to be a great target, for, the, the, the purchase of those types of things. All right.

Number five video gets personal again.

So. If, if [00:12:00] you’re a longtime reader or listener, and, and recall this, I said that last

year, so that’s the again, part, but I think there’s going to be another, evolution. I think it’s

going to continue to grow as a content medium. but I think it’s also going to, we’re going to

be a bridge to a couple of the other trends that I mentioned, already today, motion, it’ll be

the act of paying attention and getting smaller.

I think video, I don’t know, think of it as asynchronous virtual content. It’s going to take

another big leap and, and, and it’s going to bounce from the zoom screens that so many

people have been in front of to more personal, what I call one-to-one, you know, custom.

Personalized, platform. So for things like sales and technical support, and I think even as a

form of collaboration and commenting, internally, so tools like loom and BombBomb, you

know, I think they’re going to continue to grow and, I mean, face it, who wants to read four

paragraph email, you know, when you can just simply close your eyes, click [00:13:00] play

and get the message.

So I think you’re going to see more and more of that number six UX user experience. And

SEO search engine optimization get attached at the hip. So for a lot of years, it was pretty

fashionable to talk about the marriage of content and SEO. And I don’t know, now that

contents basically online air, I think it’s sort passe to even talk about those two concepts is.

As to right. but I think there’s going to be a newest HSA player in the SEO world making

waves, and that’s UX or user experience now UX isn’t, it’s not a new concept. I mean,

navigation, good navigation, at least as it is, user experience, content structure, you know,

those are, those are user experience.

I mean, so site speed, you know, how fast your site loads, how secure it is. I mean, those are

all part of the user experience, but, you know, Google, particularly with it’s, it’s just.

Obsession with this idea of a mobile first world or [00:14:00] point of view. I think they’re

going to raise the bar or at least the SEO bar, another notch next year.

So the three words that I think you’re going to have to come to terms with in 2021, and

those three words are core web vitals. So this isn’t. Meant to be a technical podcast. So I’m

going to have to leave it to you to, to research, what core web vitals is on your own, but

suffice it to say that slight sites, your website, any website that loads slowly or doesn’t

provide what Google thinks is a great mobile user experience.

You’re going to suffer in the SEO game. I mean, Google it’s typically mom about, you know,

how they rank things, but they’ve, they’ve actually gone as far as publicly claiming that in

2021, they plan to combine core web vitals with their other ranking signals. if you want to

dig into this a little bit, And there’ll be a link in the show notes.

my go-to source for education on anything to do with SEO, is, is my friend [00:15:00]

brianDean@backlinko.com. And you’ll, you’ll see that he’s done some work on core web

vitals, a highly recommend that you visit the show notes for this episode and, find back

linko.com. You could certainly do a search on your own and you’ll find it too, because after

all he’s really good at SEO.

All right. So, Oh, and, and, and another thing right now, core web vitals. It may, maybe those

of you that are Google search console people, and you should be, that you, you could see, I

don’t know, about six months ago. They started putting how your site ranks in these, in this

ranking factors that they call web, core web vitals, not how it ranks, but how they view it.

you know, good, bad or indifferent. All right. Number one or number seven, I guess the last

one, I think coaching. Ranks coaching as a profession, is, and, and as, as people actually

hiring coaches, been around for a long time, big industry on its own, I think the ranks of

coaching is, is really going to swell.

[00:16:00] You know, during 2020, a lot of people found corporate jobs. Weren’t so stable.

Or it’s so fun anymore. Maybe. I, you know, some people were laid off, and, and I think

started that coaching or consulting business. I, I, as many of you know, I have a network of

independent marketing consultants. So we saw a huge surge in interest from people jumping

out of corporate that just finally said, Hey, now’s the time to, to start that, that practice that

I’ve wanted to, I just think a lot of people took.

sometime during 2020 to kind of reconsider their life path in general. So my final prediction

is that the number of people who both decide to start coaching businesses, and those who

decide that that right now is the time to get our hierarchy coach. I think I. I think you’re

going to see that explode.

I think that coincides nicely also with the trend of, of businesses developing their people. I

think businesses are going to, to look for coaching and look for, opportunities to [00:17:00]

develop their people. And I just think that 2021 is going to be a year of recovery and

personal development. and you know, in some cases, one of changing priorities, so this

crystal ball stuff is fun, but more than anything.

my advice is this, stay curious this coming year, and you may indeed discover a new and

exciting chapter in business and in life because that’s the only thing that I know. The only

thing that I know is for certain is that change. Is it going to keep coming? All right. Take care.

Be well. And, hopefully we’ll see you one day back out there on the road.

5 Trends That Impact Consultants and Coaches in 2021

5 Trends That Impact Consultants and Coaches in 2021 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

In addition to working with thousands of small business owners each year, I also work very closely with coaches, consultants, and small marketing agency owners. These folks are, of course, small business owners in their own right. Still, this work gives me particular insight into the challenges, workings, and characteristics of this specific niche of business owners. (You can learn about the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network here)

With that in mind, I present the 5 biggest trends that will impact coaches and consultants in 2021 and beyond.

However, I need to add the 2020 disclaimer – I have no idea what 2021 will bring, and anyone who claims they do is delusional, lying, or just guessing. So, when all or none of what I’m about to share happens next year, please do not request a refund.

As much as anything, 2021 will be about re-evaluation, rediscovery, and a whole lot of recovery.

And that leads me to my first trend, which is pretty meta in a post about coaches and consultants.

1) Coaching and consulting practices explode

Good news, this is the business to be in next year. As corporate giants reassess their business models, some current staff will jump into the consulting world. These small, nimble firms will compete with the giant, slow-moving, expensive consulting options.

You can expect a lot more personal development going on next year and open the doors for wellness, mindset, and skill coaching practices of all shapes and sizes. (In fact, we created a Certified Marketing Manager Program for 2021)

Of course, look for coach certifications, coach training programs, and “coaches” coaches to follow this growth trend.

2) More and more firms crowdsource talent

Very related to trend number one is the continued shrinkage of siloed departments for everything. Marketing departments of the future will get very lean and depend upon quick-strike teams that can be assembled for specific initiatives and campaigns.

Look for freelancing sites such as Upwork to get in the game of assembling teams.

3) Social media engagement gets more specialized

Almost every social media platform got a little more complex last year. To stand out and grow market share. Features like reels, stories, and stitching enable content creators to produce in multiple formats that require shorter, attention-getting tricks to compete.

The simple fact is that for anyone other than the full-time social media influencer with a team, it’s become too crowded and too complicated to attempt to compete on multiple platforms.

Look for consultants to specialize and splinter into platform-specific tactics and look for businesses to rein in their social media participation in the same way.

Social media will continue to get more transactional, but only if done to near perfection.

4) People crave faster consumption

Spending eight and nine hours a day in front of a screen doing “work,” laced with video calls, has pretty much killed the appetite for anything streaming that is not full-blown entertainment.

Does the world need that streaming video of you driving in your car talking about how real the struggle is? Um, that’s a hard no. (If I cursed in my writing, this is where I would do it.)

Do we want short, punchy, maybe even a little funny, but to the point content? Can I have an amen right now? It’s a little ironic but consider this; we can consume about three times the amount of content reading than listening.

I’m from the Midwest, so I don’t talk very fast, about 150 words a minute. But I’m a speedy reader, about 600 words a minute. So, don’t assume that audio and video content is all people want. What we want is something that entertains or provides value quickly. (Although I’ll give a major plug for audio content due to its portability – you can listen while doing many other things.)

5) AI get very practical

I wrote about this idea in my general 2021 Small Business Trends post, but it certainly crosses over to anyone who produces or content or helps others produce content.

Almost every trend article you encounter this year will talk about AI in some fashion. While I mention it here as a trend, I do so for some of the practical things it now brings rather than the futuristic promise of the technology it implies.

Without getting too techie about the workings, the mid-2020 roll-out of Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 or GPT-3 made AI a useful tool for many applications.

No longer confined to those pesky bots on website help desks, AI is now being embedded in our basic typing functions. Maybe you’ve noticed that the application keeps suggesting finishes to your sentences as you compose an email in Gmail.

This isn’t simply a feature added by Google; this is AI at work powering routine tasks.

This fall, I wrote my latest book, The Ultimate Marketing Engine (HarperCollins Leadership Sept 2021), entirely in Google Docs. I was amazed how often the suggested AI helped me write better or at least easier sentences from a simple suggested start.

Look in 2021 for a host of tools, services, and websites aimed at making writing easier. Tools like HeadLime, Lately, DeScript, and MarketMuse will change how content is created.

AI applications can already write an article based on a handful of fed keywords. Now, is this award-winning prose? Well, no, but is that blog post you paid someone $15 to write near as good as AI – probably not. AI writers can get you 80% of the way there, and then you, the brilliant content strategist that you are, can spend your energy on making it sparkle and getting it read by others.

This will shake up the content creation, social posting, and freelance industries dramatically.

This crystal ball stuff is fun, but more than anything, stay curious this coming year, and you may indeed discover a new and exciting chapter in business and life because the only thing that I know for certain is that change is gonna keep coming.

This blog post is brought to you by GoDaddy Pro.

Manage your clients, websites and tasks.

This blog post is brought to you by GoDaddy Pro.

GoDaddy Pro offers a robust suite of free tools to web developers & designers to help them save time managing all their clients and sites. With GoDaddy Pro, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage all their WordPress websites from one place. Exclusive time-saving tools let you bulk update WordPress core, plugins, and themes on multiple sites with one click and automate WordPress backups, cloning and migrations, and so much more. Get real-time performance, security, and uptime monitoring across all your client websites. Members also receive a 30% discount on new, qualifying products.

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How to Create Meaningful Business Communication

How to Create Meaningful Business Communication written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Fred Dust

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Fred Dust the former senior partner for the design firm IDEO founder of Making Conversation, a designer, author, educator, consultant, trustee, and advisor to social and business leaders.

His latest book Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication is the topic of today’s podcast. 

Questions I ask Fred Dust

  • Designing conversations – how does one become such a designer?
  • What did the art of conversation play in the development of species and culture?
  • Have we lost the art of being able to write a letter?
  • Is 2020 causing us to want more?
  • Why is meaningful conversation so hard?
  • What do you want people to do once they’ve read your book?
  • The 7Cs is a core element to your book – what are the 7Cs?
  • Creative listening – I’ve found this the hardest – why?
  • How does digital communication get in the way?

More About Fred Dust:

Love the Duct Tape Podcast? Give us a review!

 

WPBoostThis episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by WPBoost.

Your website is the hub of your business. If your website loads slowly visitors will not tolerate that and neither will Google. How fast your website loads has become increasingly important to your rank. If you want to find out if you have an issue with this or how to fix this check out wpboost.net.

WPBoost has a special offer for the Duct Tape Marketing audience the first 10 companies that fill out the contact form at the bottom of the home page and include #ducttape and their own website address in their message details will get a free speed audit.

 

2021 Trends for Small Business

2021 Trends for Small Business written by Jenna Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch 

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I do my annual wrap up of 2020 in a way that predicts what is coming next year! I’ve been doing this post for the last 20 years and I’m usually spot on. That’s not a nod to my prediction ability but more to the fact that trends usually creep up on us and grow. So it’s more about paying attention than being able to predict the future.

Ah, but then 2020 happened, and anything that might have crept up on anyone pretty much arrived untethered and proud. Trends accelerated and became fact more than a trend – Zoom anyone? A new behavior that may have taken years to take hold is now instantly second nature.

Here is where I believe we are going next:

Predicted Trends for 2021 for Small Business

  • Paying attention becomes a survival mechanism
  • Everything gets smaller
  • AI gets practical
  • Talent investment is back in style
  • Video gets personal again
  •  UX and SEO get attached at the hip
  • Coaching ranks swell

Love the Duct Tape Podcast? Give us a review!

 

Manage your clients, websites and tasks.

This blog post is brought to you by GoDaddy Pro.

GoDaddy Pro offers a robust suite of free tools to web developers & designers to help them save time managing all their clients and sites. With GoDaddy Pro, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage all their WordPress websites from one place. Exclusive time-saving tools let you bulk update WordPress core, plugins and themes on multiple sites with one click, as well as automate WordPress backups, cloning and migrations, and so much more. Get real-time performance, security and uptime monitoring across all your client websites. Members also receive a 30% discount on new, qualifying products.

When you pair GoDaddy Pro with qualified WordPress and Ecommerce hosting plans, the benefits are even greater by including access to all premium features at no additional cost.

Learn more about GoDaddy Pro

2021 Small Business Trends

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This

is John Jantsch, and I’m going to do a solo show. I think it’s been a little while I’m going to do

my annual wrap-up of the trends for 2021, I guess. It’s not a wrap-up isn’t it, it’s a prediction.

That’s a trends, for small business in 2021, but, you know, I love.

Testimonials reviews. I’d love to hear from you. Let me read one that just came in from a

tubblog. I know tubblog in the UK. Host John Jantsch is one of my go-to gurus for small

business marketing advice. And if you listen to his podcast, you’ll appreciate why John not

only shares some amazing wisdom himself, but he expertly interviews a host of the brightest

minds from the marketing space.

If you own a small business or work in marketing, then you’ll appreciate listening to this

show. Like I said, I love those who wouldn’t love those. I’d love to hear from you, if you

[00:01:00] appreciate and love to listen to this show, jump over to iTunes and give me a

review. All right. So every year for, I don’t know, the last 20 years or so, I’ve wrapped up the

year with my predictions for trends for the coming year.

And you know what I’m usually spot on. But that’s really more, I think, a Testament to the

fact that trends, I mean, they tend to creep up on us rather than overwhelm us. and, I think

that there’s also the fact that really was small business owners. You know, trends, have

usually kind of tipped, in the main, at least, I mean, we’ve been talking about it for a long

time before they honestly, you know, or something that small business owners really need

to.

Heed so, I mean, you think about like social media, mobile marketing, and even one that’s

going to show up today, you know, AI, we talked about those for a long time before they are

really practical, I think for many small businesses, but you know, then 2020 happened in

pretty much everything that might have sort of.

Slowly [00:02:00] crept in on anybody, you know, kind of came in untethered and proud and

announced itself. So, you know, trends really accelerated and became the fact, I think more

than a trend, I mean like zoo, right? I mean fact, everybody just did it, but it’s not a trend. I

think a new behavior that might’ve taken years to take hold is really now second nature.

I think for this year’s predictions and you’re going to, obviously a lot of people do these. I

think it’s going to take, a new level of insight or a different level of insight to curate the

trends. I think the trick this year is that, you know, the ability to spot the behavior that

emerges from a change.

I mean, kind of the forest trends, if you will. So for example, like is business travel going to

take a long time to recover? You know, our large conferences on hold for awhile. I mean, will

people come to expect 15 minute virtual meetings? I mean, even if they’re like in the same

office first together, so what did we make of some of this?

Now I know [00:03:00] that you can count on a lot of pundits out there that are going to

regurgitate the already worn line about marketers using this moment to become more

human. That businesses will be more about people and less about, I dunno, whatever it was

they were about before COVID, but I don’t. I think that we should be fooled into thinking

that that, and I hope that you don’t, that, that doing the same thing you were doing in a

different format is an innovation and that anything really in your industry, whatever industry

you’re in will look precisely the same, maybe ever again.

I think this year, the friction around change. I mean, literally we went to zero, right? Because

there was no choice. So I think you can expect some people to really try to claw back, you

know, what, what they knew. and I think you’re going to see a lot of other people. I mean,

completely reevaluate, restart everything.

I do think a lot of businesses are, are doing soul searching. [00:04:00] I know I have, I know

that’s occurred. but let’s not over simplify the result of it all. I think, forced to deal with the

change that we don’t fully understand. Has let’s really do some introspection of course, but

where law land is, frankly, anyone’s guests.

And that leads me to my first trend trend. Number one, paying attention becomes a survival

mechanism, you know, in 2021. I mean, as in most years, businesses thrive and survive due

to many factors, but I think next year, Those who kind of discover the shift of the moment

that stay very, very nimble, I think will be more equipped to evolve with their customers.

Like 2020 showed us, frankly, how fast everything can change and, and simultaneously how

fast we can respond and then change [00:05:00] and then respond or re respond. I think this

is the commercial version of, of present. Moment, mindfulness, I suppose. I mean, don’t take

anything for granted. Something that feels like momentum may just be abandoned for really

the feeling of the moment.

I mean, talk to your customers as much as you can. Not because they can tell you what they

want or need, because they can tell you how they’re feeling. And I think. Going forward. I

think we can expect fear and I don’t mean to be a cynic, but I think we can expect fear to be

a feeling, maybe the number one feeling for most of next year.

So tune your strategic strategic thinking to finding ways to, I don’t know, be the light in the

darkness. It’s a good way to say. All right. Number two, everything gets smaller. Now from a

practical standpoint, I mean, we’ve already seen this, right? I mean, conferences, meetings,

[00:06:00] gatherings of any sort, kind of contracted immediately.

And I think, I think to some extent, we’re all going to need to relearn how to gather again. I

mean, no matter how much we think we crave it. I think you’re going to expect to push for

less content, shorter videos, more intimate launches, mini courses, even, and, and the 142

page book instead of the classic 284 page book.

I think this trend will be driven by people’s desire for something that feels more personal.

Certainly not by, you know, the markets. Designed to get smaller. But speaking of design, I

think design is a true graphic design is it is a true barometer of change sometimes. And I

think you can already see online at least, and it’s already moved in that direction.

I mean, look at it. Look at the large headline fonts on websites, the muted color, almost a

watercolor splashes of retro illustrations and all the white space. On on webpages. I

[00:07:00] think that, that’s a, an indicator or a barometers of where I think some people’s

attitudes are going away or going as well, I should say.

and I don’t think smaller always means, just smaller. It also means less complex. I think you

can expect that to play out really in a, in a large dollop of nostalgia. you know, you think

about the visions of families riding around their neighborhoods on their bikes during 2021 or

2020, I should say.

I think that sparked an emotional desire for simplicity. All right. Number three, AI gets

practical. Okay. Of course, almost every trend article. then I think you can, kind of this year

were probably the last two or three years has talked about AI in some fashion. And I

mentioned it here as a trend. I do.

I. I do so really for some practical things it brings rather than the futuristic promise of, you

know, some sort of technological change now without getting too technical about the

workings, the mid [00:08:00] somewhere in the middle of the year, this year 2020 to, rolled

out, open AI, rolled out something called generative pre-trained transformer three, or you

might see it referred to as GPT three.

and I think in a lot of ways, It was a big leap that made AI useful for many applications. I

mean, instead of just being confined to the service or help desk bots on websites, it’s now

embedded in our basic typing. You, you might’ve actually even noticed this as you compose

an email out in Gmail, if you use Gmail or, or any of the Google suite of tools like Google

docs, I mean, the applications now, as you type

Suggest finishes to your sentences. And this isn’t just a, a feature that was added by Google.

I mean, this is AI powering routine tasks and it gets smarter. I actually wrote, this, This fall.

my latest book called the ultimate marketing engine. Here’s my plug for it. It’ll be coming out

with [00:09:00] Harper, from Harper Collins leadership in September of 2021 and planned to

hear from me about it.

But anyway, I wrote this book. It’s the first book I’ve written entirely in Google docs. how’s

amazed at how the suggested AI. don’t tell my editor this, but some cases, I think it helped

me right better, or at least, or at least it made it easier for me to write, sentences just from a

simple suggested start.

And I think you’re going to see a lot of tools. I’ve already started to uncover tools and

services and websites really aimed it at making, writing. Easier. I mean, the couple of tools

like headline and market muse is another great one. I think they’re going to change how

content is created. I think AI applications can write an article.

I mean, now based on just a handful of have fed in keywords now, is that going to be award-

winning pros? Well, maybe not at least right now, but you know, frankly, is that, is that blog

posts, you paid somebody $15 to write, you know, near as good [00:10:00] as AI, probably

not. But I think AI writers. I think those tools are righties to a place where they can get you

80% of the way there.

And then you, you know, the brilliant content strategists that you are, you can spend your

energy on making the, the content sparkle and, and, you know, getting it read by others that

becomes your job. I think this is going to shake up content creation, social posting agency,

and even though the entire freelance industry, pretty, pretty dramatically.

All right. Turn number four out of seven. Talent investment is back in style. So, you know,

most large businesses, I really have come to understand that there’s a real competitive

nature in attracting and retaining some of the best people. So they’ve, you know, they’ve

long invested heavily in recruiting and employee branding initiatives, but you know, small

businesses rarely can afford the, you know, the, the perks, to attract talent.

But one trend that I think is going to grow in the world of small business. [00:11:00] Is what

might be referred to as talent development. I mean, even if revenue is down and budgets

are tight, I predict that small business owners are going to see the wisdom of creating

training and mentoring opportunities, really in an effort to level up and develop and let’s

face it.

I mean, send a clear signal that their people aren’t important. Piece of their success. And I

think this has always been a big topic, big, important topic, but I think we’ll see a return to a

fundamental commitment to employee engagement around things like profit and skill

development. And I don’t think it’s going to be limited to big business only.

So if you’re out there listening to this and you have a training. Program or some way to help

people develop skills or mindset or even personal development. I think small business is

going to be a great target, for, the, the, the purchase of those types of things. All right.

Number five video gets personal again.

So. If, if [00:12:00] you’re a longtime reader or listener, and, and recall this, I said that last

year, so that’s the again, part, but I think there’s going to be another, evolution. I think it’s

going to continue to grow as a content medium. but I think it’s also going to, we’re going to

be a bridge to a couple of the other trends that I mentioned, already today, motion, it’ll be

the act of paying attention and getting smaller.

I think video, I don’t know, think of it as asynchronous virtual content. It’s going to take

another big leap and, and, and it’s going to bounce from the zoom screens that so many

people have been in front of to more personal, what I call one-to-one, you know, custom.

Personalized, platform. So for things like sales and technical support, and I think even as a

form of collaboration and commenting, internally, so tools like loom and BombBomb, you

know, I think they’re going to continue to grow and, I mean, face it, who wants to read four

paragraph email, you know, when you can just simply close your eyes, click [00:13:00] play

and get the message.

So I think you’re going to see more and more of that number six UX user experience. And

SEO search engine optimization get attached at the hip. So for a lot of years, it was pretty

fashionable to talk about the marriage of content and SEO. And I don’t know, now that

contents basically online air, I think it’s sort passe to even talk about those two concepts is.

As to right. but I think there’s going to be a newest HSA player in the SEO world making

waves, and that’s UX or user experience now UX isn’t, it’s not a new concept. I mean,

navigation, good navigation, at least as it is, user experience, content structure, you know,

those are, those are user experience.

I mean, so site speed, you know, how fast your site loads, how secure it is. I mean, those are

all part of the user experience, but, you know, Google, particularly with it’s, it’s just.

Obsession with this idea of a mobile first world or [00:14:00] point of view. I think they’re

going to raise the bar or at least the SEO bar, another notch next year.

So the three words that I think you’re going to have to come to terms with in 2021, and

those three words are core web vitals. So this isn’t. Meant to be a technical podcast. So I’m

going to have to leave it to you to, to research, what core web vitals is on your own, but

suffice it to say that slight sites, your website, any website that loads slowly or doesn’t

provide what Google thinks is a great mobile user experience.

You’re going to suffer in the SEO game. I mean, Google it’s typically mom about, you know,

how they rank things, but they’ve, they’ve actually gone as far as publicly claiming that in

2021, they plan to combine core web vitals with their other ranking signals. if you want to

dig into this a little bit, And there’ll be a link in the show notes.

my go-to source for education on anything to do with SEO, is, is my friend [00:15:00]

brianDean@backlinko.com. And you’ll, you’ll see that he’s done some work on core web

vitals, a highly recommend that you visit the show notes for this episode and, find back

linko.com. You could certainly do a search on your own and you’ll find it too, because after

all he’s really good at SEO.

All right. So, Oh, and, and, and another thing right now, core web vitals. It may, maybe those

of you that are Google search console people, and you should be, that you, you could see, I

don’t know, about six months ago. They started putting how your site ranks in these, in this

ranking factors that they call web, core web vitals, not how it ranks, but how they view it.

you know, good, bad or indifferent. All right. Number one or number seven, I guess the last

one, I think coaching. Ranks coaching as a profession, is, and, and as, as people actually

hiring coaches, been around for a long time, big industry on its own, I think the ranks of

coaching is, is really going to swell.

[00:16:00] You know, during 2020, a lot of people found corporate jobs. Weren’t so stable.

Or it’s so fun anymore. Maybe. I, you know, some people were laid off, and, and I think

started that coaching or consulting business. I, I, as many of you know, I have a network of

independent marketing consultants. So we saw a huge surge in interest from people jumping

out of corporate that just finally said, Hey, now’s the time to, to start that, that practice that

I’ve wanted to, I just think a lot of people took.

sometime during 2020 to kind of reconsider their life path in general. So my final prediction

is that the number of people who both decide to start coaching businesses, and those who

decide that that right now is the time to get our hierarchy coach. I think I. I think you’re

going to see that explode.

I think that coincides nicely also with the trend of, of businesses developing their people. I

think businesses are going to, to look for coaching and look for, opportunities to [00:17:00]

develop their people. And I just think that 2021 is going to be a year of recovery and

personal development. and you know, in some cases, one of changing priorities, so this

crystal ball stuff is fun, but more than anything.

my advice is this, stay curious this coming year, and you may indeed discover a new and

exciting chapter in business and in life because that’s the only thing that I know. The only

thing that I know is for certain is that change. Is it going to keep coming? All right. Take care.

Be well. And, hopefully we’ll see you one day back out there on the road.

7 Small Business Trends that Arrived Just in Time for 2021

7 Small Business Trends that Arrived Just in Time for 2021 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

This blog post is brought to you by GoDaddy Pro.

 

Every year for the last 20 or so, I’ve wrapped up the year with my predictions for trends in the coming year.

I’m usually spot on too. But that’s really more of a testament to the fact that trends tend to creep up on us rather than overwhelm us. So, they’re not that hard to spot if you’re paying attention.

Add to that that a trend has usually long since “tipped” in the main by the time it’s honestly something that small business owners need to heed. Think social media, mobile marketing, or heaven forbid AI.

Ah, but then 2020 happened, and anything that might have crept up on anyone pretty much arrived untethered and proud. Trends accelerated and became fact more than a trend – Zoom anyone? A new behavior that may have taken years to take hold is now instantly second nature.

It’s going to take a new level of insight to curate this year’s trends. The trick this year lies in the ability to spot the behavior that may emerge from the change, or the forced trends if you will. For example, is business travel is going to take a long time to recover? Are large conferences on hold for a while? Will people come to expect 15 virtual meetings even in the office?

So, what do we make of any of this?

I suspect you can count on many pundits simply regurgitating the already worn line about marketers using this moment to become more human. That business will be more about people and less about whatever it was about before COVID.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that a) doing the same thing you were doing in a different format is an innovation and b) that anything in your industry will look precisely the same again.

This year the friction around change went to zero because there was no choice. Expect some people to try and crawl back to what they knew and still others to re-evaluate and restart everything.

I think a lot of business soul searching has occurred, but let’s not oversimplify its result. Because we were forced to deal with change that we don’t fully understand, it has led to some introspection. But where we’ll land is, frankly, anyone’s guess and leads me to my first trend.

1) Paying attention becomes a survival mechanism

In 2021, as in most years, businesses will thrive and survive due to many factors, but next year those who best discover the shift of the moment will be more equipped to evolve with their customers.

2020 showed us just how fast everything could change and simultaneously how fast we can respond and then change and re-respond. This is the commercial version of present moment mindfulness, I suppose.

Don’t take anything for granted; something that feels like momentum may be a bandage for the moment’s feeling. Talk to your customers as much as you can, not because they can tell you what they want or need because they can tell you how they feel.

Expect fear to be feeling number one for most of the year. Tune your strategic thinking to finding ways to be the light in the dark.

2) Everything gets smaller

From a practical standpoint, we’ve already seen this. Conferences, meetings, gatherings of any sort contracted, and we will all need to relearn how to gather again, no matter how much we think we crave it.

Expect a push for less content, shorter videos, more intimate launches, mini-courses, 142-page books instead of the classic 284 pages.

This trend will be driven by people’s desire for something that feels more personal than the market’s design to get smaller.

Design, a true barometer of change, has already moved in this direction. Take note of the larger headline fonts, muted color splashes of retro illustrations, and more white space on web pages. 

Smaller also means less complex, and you can expect that to play out in a large dollop of nostalgia. Visions of families riding around their neighborhoods on bikes during 2020 sparked an emotional desire for simplicity.

3) AI gets practical

Almost every trend article you encounter this year will talk about AI in some fashion. While I mention it here as a trend, I do so for some of the practical things it now brings rather than the futuristic promise of the technology it implies.

Without getting too techie about the workings, the mid-2020 roll-out of Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 or GPT-3 made AI a useful tool for many applications.

No longer confined to those pesky bots on website help desks, AI is now being embedded in our basic typing functions. Maybe you’ve noticed that the application keeps suggesting finishes to your sentences as you compose an email in Gmail.

This isn’t simply a feature added by Google; this is AI at work powering routine tasks.

This fall, I wrote my latest book, The Ultimate Marketing Engine (HarperCollins Leadership Sept 2021), entirely in Google Docs. I was amazed how often the suggested AI helped me write better or at least easier sentences from a simple suggested start.

Look in 2021 for a host of tools, services, and websites aimed at making writing easier. Tools like HeadLime and MarketMuse will change how content is created.

AI applications can already write an article based on a handful of fed keywords. Now, is this award-winning prose? Well, no, but is that blog post you paid someone $15 to write near as good as AI – probably not. AI writers can get you 80% of the way there, and then you, the brilliant content strategist that you are, can spend your energy on making it sparkle and getting it read by others.

This will shake up the content creation, social posting, and freelance industries dramatically.

4) Talent investment is back in style

Most large businesses understand the competitive nature of attracting and retaining their best people. Therefore, they often invest heavily in recruiting and employee branding initiatives.

Small businesses rarely can afford outlandish perks to attract talent, but one trend that I think will grow in small business is talent development.

Even if revenue is down and budgets are tight, I predict that small business owners will see the wisdom of creating training and mentoring opportunities to level-up, develop, and, let’s face it, send a clear signal that their people are an important piece of their success.

This has always been an important topic, but I think we’ll see a return to a fundamental commitment to employee engagement around things like profit and skill development that will not be limited to big biz only.

If you have training for skills, mindset, and even personal development, small business is a great target market right now.

5) Video gets personal again

I said this last year, so that’s the again part.

Video will continue to grow as a content medium and act as a bridge to a couple of other trends. Most notably, the acts of paying attention and getting smaller.

I think video, think of it as asynchronous virtual content, will take another big leap and bounce from the Zoom screens we are in front of to the more personal 1 to 1 platforms for sales, technical support even as a form of commenting and collaborating.

Expect the use of tools such as Loom and BombBomb to continue to grow. I mean, face it, who wants to read that 4 paragraph email when they can close their eyes and click play.

6) UX and SEO get attached at the hip

 A few years ago, it was fashionable to talk about the marriage of content and SEO. Now that content is basically online air; it’s sort of passe to talk about the concept as two.

But there’s a newish player making waves this year – UX or user experience. UX isn’t really new as a concept. I mean, navigation and content structure are UX. So is site speed and security. However, with its mobile-first point of view, Google is going to raise the SEO bar another notch next year.

Three words you better come to terms with for 2021 – core web vitals.

This isn’t a technical post, so you’re just going to have to research this one on your own but suffice it to say that sites that load slowly or don’t provide what Google thinks is a great mobile user experience are going to suffer in the SEO game. 

The typical mum Google has gone as far as to publicly claim that in 2021 they plan to combine core web vitals with other ranking signals. 

My go-to source for education on anything SEO related is my friend Brian Dean at BackLinko. You can find high-quality stuff here – especially when it comes to learning more about core web vitals.

You can see what Google thinks of your core web vitals right now in Google Search Console.

7) Coaching ranks swell

During 2020 some people found that corporate jobs weren’t so stable or fun anymore. Some were laid off and started that coaching or consulting business they had longed to start, while others took the pause as a moment to reconsider their life path in general.

My final prediction is that the number of people who decide to start coaching businesses and those who decide now is the time to get a coach will explode next year.

I think 2021 will be a year of recovery and personal development and, in some cases, one of changing priorities.

This crystal ball stuff is fun, but more than anything, stay curious this coming year, and you may indeed discover a new and exciting chapter in business and life because the only thing that I know for certain is that change is gonna keep coming.

 

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How to Understand the Hype in Marketing

How to Understand the Hype in Marketing written by Jenna Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Michael F Schein

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Michael F Schein the founder and president of MicroFame Media, a marketing agency that specializes in turning consultants, entrepreneurs, and executives into celebrities by using the hype concepts detailed in this book.

Michael F Schein is the author of The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers.

Questions I ask Michael F Schein

  • Some of these words are controversial – why these?
  • What is a professional hype artists?
  • Who did you study?
  • Would you put our current president in this category?
  • What’s the process for turning someone into a celebrity?

More About Michael F Schein:

Love the Duct Tape Podcast? Give us a review!

 

WPBoostThis episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by WPBoost.

Your website is the hub of your business. If your website loads slowly visitors will not tolerate that and neither will Google. How fast your website loads has become increasingly important to your rank. If you want to find out if you have an issue with this or how to fix this check out wpboost.net.

WPBoost has a special offer for the Duct Tape Marketing audience the first 10 companies that fill out the contact form at the bottom of the home page and include #ducttape and their own website address in their message details will get a free speed audit.

 

Weekend Favs December 12

Weekend Favs December 12 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.

  • checklistgenerator.co– Create checklists for free and host them wherever you want.
  • Lunch Club – Smart introductions to relevant people.
  • DEMAND CURVE – An in-depth guide to building an audience via LinkedIn organic content. Learn the advanced strategies used by LinkedIn experts.

These are my weekend favs, I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape