April 6, 2025 • 31 mins
"Done is better than perfect" might be the most liberating advice for businesses struggling with content creation. In this revealing conversation, Ty Ridgeway, Managing Director of Shoelace Creative, shares practical wisdom about modern marketing that cuts through the noise of complicated strategies.
The digital landscape has shifted dramatically, with audiences now craving authentic, relatable content over polished productions. Ridgway calls this "ugly content" - not because it's poor quality, but because it feels real in an age where AI-generated perfection is becoming the norm. This authenticity paradoxically drives higher engagement and builds stronger connections with your audience.
Video emerges as the undisputed champion of content formats, with Ridgway explaining why even six-second clips can communicate powerful messages through visual storytelling. For businesses intimidated by video production, there's good news: smartphone cameras now rival professional equipment, making unpolished, authentic content not just accessible but potentially more effective.
Perhaps most valuable is Ridgway's practical framework for content strategy, breaking it down into top-funnel (awareness), middle-funnel (trust-building), and bottom-funnel (sales) content. Rather than following rigid formulas, he advocates tracking performance and optimizing based on what actually works for your specific business.
The conversation tackles platform selection (LinkedIn for B2B, Instagram/TikTok for e-commerce), algorithm navigation, and even the continuing relevance of traditional marketing channels when used strategically. Throughout, Ridgway emphasizes starting small, being consistent, and focusing on maximizing one effective channel before expanding to others.
Ready to transform your approach to content marketing? Listen now and discover how authenticity, strategic thinking, and data-driven decisions can drive meaningful engagement with your audience.
This episode is supported by CareSuper.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello and welcome to the Canberra Business Podcast.
I'm Greg Harford, your hostfrom the Canberra Business
Chamber, and today I'm joined byTy Ridgway, the Managing
Director and Co-Founder ofShoelace Creative.
Ty, welcome to the podcast.
Very lovely to be here.
Thanks, Greg.
So Shoelace Creative, you're afull-service creative marketing
agency.
You're based here in Canberra,You've got an office in
Melbourne and you operatenationally.
(00:30):
It sounds very grand, but whatdo you actually do?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, it's kind of like a whole bag of tricks
really.
I mean we sort of cover thewhole ton of creative services
with the main focus in contentand marketing.
We sort of cover the whole tonof creative services with a main
focus in content and marketing.
So for us it's a lot of videoproduction, a lot of photography
, graphic design, marketing,general services, that kind of
stuff.
So like digital marketing, paidads, working with graphic
(00:56):
design, branding.
So we come into a lot ofcompanies and have a look at
them from a holistic point, froma content and marketing
perspective, and sort of starttweaking things and kind of
helping them push the needle inthe right direction for their
business.
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So how did the business start?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We actually started in sort of the music industry
down in Melbourne.
We started off by creating likea one-take session series, so
we would go around and filmone-takes with mostly sort of
Triple J kind of artists at thetime and we kind of got our foot
in the door through there andit just sort of evolved
(01:35):
naturally into more of an agencyand a marketing thing.
When I say naturally, it wasdefinitely shoved by COVID into
that trajectory.
We were very much an eventsmusic industry which kind of
closed down on us and thenpivoted and then a few years
later here we are.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, fantastic.
So how big are you now as ateam?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
As a team.
So we've got about fourfull-time staff and then we have
a few sort of part-time, casualkind of networks there, and
then we've got a large supply ofcontractors who have worked
with us for five years and theycome and go sort of depending on
the project's complexity.
So there might be four of us atone point and there might be 15
(02:16):
of us at one point Right.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
so small and boutique and easily able to flex, I
guess.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, we like to say small and agile.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Fantastic.
And who are your clients?
Are you mainly looking aftersmall businesses or are you into
the bigger end of town as well?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, we're into the bigger end of town as well.
So we work from smallbusinesses all the way up to
federal government, and thatalso includes councils down in
Melbourne.
So we work a lot with the cityof Melbourne on all their
large-scale events.
And then up here in Canberrawe're doing a bit more of a
focus on, you know, smallbusiness government clients, um,
so we're doing some workcurrently with the NVS regulator
(02:51):
, uh, and also on a broaderperspective within Australia
we're working with like clientslike AgriFutures, um, you know,
sort of in the agriculturesector, but it's still no two
days the same, no two clientsare the same.
Sometimes we're back in themusic industry, sometimes we're
in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So that's quite a mix of clients in a different range
of industries there.
Is it easy to change gearbetween them for you and the
team?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I think it actually gives us a bit more of
a perspective, because you comeat different clients that all
work in different sectors anddifferent industries industries
but they all have really similarproblems and, coming at it sort
of, I guess, with like amethodical approach and quite a
um, systematic dissection ofwhat the problem is and what's
(03:37):
going to fix it, they end upkind of being quite similar at
the end of the day, even thoughthey're all working to
completely different industries.
You know, most of the time it'slike they're all working to
completely different industries.
Most of the time it's like, oh,we've been doing marketing but
we haven't actually got thecontent, or the content's not
really working for what we'rewanting to do, and it's just
about identifying the audiences,what actually is going to
(03:59):
resonate and what's going totick the right box for them too,
in terms of what they want toachieve and how they're actually
going to tick the right box forthem too, in terms of what they
want to achieve and how they'reactually going to get there.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So how do you go about doing that?
What's the science that sits inbehind understanding an
audience?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I think it's in two parts.
One is actually understandingthe business or the product and
so having a really good deepdive discussion about the
business itself, getting areally good understanding of
what they're trying to achieve,what the tone of voice is, what
the brand is, and then fromthere it's about okay, well, you
(04:40):
know who is this going toresonate with, and finding
avatars based in thosedemographics.
And you can do that justthrough, you know, searching and
just a bit of research andidentifying those key target
audience markets and thenapplying that back across to
well, okay, what are you tryingto achieve and how are you going
(05:01):
to communicate to that marketthat you're trying to achieve it
to?
And a lot of it's quite commonsense.
At the end of the day, it's alot more common sense than you
think.
It's like, you know, if you'retrying to sell to a
business-to-business, b2b kindof product, it's like well, go
where there's a B2B audience andyou'll probably find that
you'll sell some more of thatproduct in that market or that
(05:21):
product in that market?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you think customers,businesses, need to be across
every channel that's out there,or do you think a much more
targeted approach is appropriate?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I think I'm going to say it depends on the business,
because a lot of people willreally benefit from using
multi-channels.
But also it's about identifyingwhat is working and then
doubling down on that untilyou've exhausted that revenue
stream or that market in termsof marketing.
(05:56):
Because there's no point ifyou're going where we're doing
really well, say in meta, andwe're a B2C uh product, and then
we want to actually now focuson b2b, well, before you try and
you know, open up a whole newarm of business and stream, have
you maximized your, yourearning potential in that
(06:19):
current market that's workingreally well for you?
Because a lot of the timethere's a lot of optimization
you can do to really push thatup and move the needle forward
in that market before you evenstart to think about other
things.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Content.
You mentioned content earlierand obviously that's critical to
marketing brand identity andcomms generally, but it can be a
real challenge for businessesto be creating the volume of
content that's required.
What's your view on that?
(06:51):
How do businesses go aboutputting a content lens over
their business?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Done is better than perfect, especially in this day
and age.
Especially in this day and age,we're seeing so much more of a
market flip and a trend towardswhat we term ugly content or
relatable pieces of content, andthat is in the dawn of the age
of AI.
I think a lot of people areseeking authentic content that
(07:19):
they can relate to and a lot ofthe times, that is actually
content that is not polished,not refined.
It's more authentic to thebusiness.
It's more authentic to thebusiness.
It's more authentic to thebrand.
It's also a lot easier toproduce.
Um, you can create a lot morecontent ideas.
So I think, if you findyourself as a business and let's
say, you don't, you know,necessarily have the capacity to
(07:39):
hire an external agency, butyou want to get your content up,
um, it's just about capturingthings consistently and putting
it out there and not thinkingtoo hard about you know, oh, we
need this piece of content to beperfect before we put it out.
Um, if you aren't postingbecause you're not, if you, if
(08:03):
you're not posting becauseyou're trying to perfect
everything, then you're fallingbehind.
And so I think, in this day andage and the way that things are
moving towards.
If you have an overall kind ofstrategy, then as long as that
content kind of falls withinthat umbrella, it's good to just
get it out there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And video is where it's at you reckon, oh, 100%.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean we're seeing such a huge rise in
platforms like tiktok, um, youknow that's come and taken the
world over by storm and a lot ofthese other platforms that
traditionally weren't basedaround video, say.
We'll reference linkedin here.
For example, you know they'vejust recently incorporated a
real type um video section totheir platform and so if you're
(08:47):
pushing video content andpublishing content on those
platforms, they're going toreally push your page and your
profile and your content to themarket, because they want more
people to put video up.
It's also just so much moreengaging.
You can get messages throughreally clearly, quickly, quickly
, concisely, um, and it'srelatable.
Graphic content is great, stillhas its place, but, yeah, video
(09:09):
is king and how long should avideo be?
that's how long's a piece ofstring.
Um, you know, if you cancapture attention in a three
second video and communicate amessage, great.
That's why a lot of you know,um, when we do a lot of
advertisement kind of workyou'll often find.
And you know um, when we do alot of advertisement kind of
work you'll often find, and youknow, in the industry they call
them like brand bumpers, butit's a six second um ad, and so
(09:34):
you normally end up with a sixsecond, a 15 second and a 30
second and that'll be.
You know, when you you hop ontoyoutube and there's a six
second ad that pops up.
Um, so a lot of the time if youare shooting for a longer form
thing, you know you can reallybreak it down into all these
little segments, and that's ahuge thing, as well as content
stacking.
If you're getting overwhelmedwith creating content, make one
(09:55):
piece of content that's a bitlonger and then you can just
repurpose it into a fewdifferent smaller, bite-sized
pieces.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, so six seconds is not very long.
Obviously Is it practical to becommunicating even a single
message inside that six secondsoundbite yeah, I think, I think
so.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Um, we see it, you know, done so effectively across
board.
You know, if you have a reallygood message, you can
communicate it super quicklywith video because it's such a
visual format you don't have tospell things out.
You can suggest in the way thatyou film things which will
paint a whole picture in a veryshort period of time.
(10:33):
It's that old saying of onepicture tells a thousand words.
Well, one second of video has24, 25 pictures in it, so you've
got a lot of words you can cramin there Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And the process of producing that video.
Like if you're a small businessor even a medium-sized business
, you might be a little bitscared about that, but is it as
simple as using the iPhones thatwe mostly all have in our hands
every day to produce some ofthat content, or does it need to
be much bigger and much morepolished?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I'd say it's a use by use case basis there.
Um, polished content has itsplace and it has a really
certain market that it needs tobe utilized for.
But if you know, if we'retalking general terms of content
, the latest iphone has moremegapixels than some
professional cameras, so they'rereally quite good and depending
(11:31):
on your market and where you'republishing your platform, the
platform you're publishing yourcontent onto, you might even
find that unpolished iPhonecontent will get you far greater
reach and greater goal hittingthan a professional, polished
piece of content.
But say, if you you know, if youreally wanted to have like a
(11:53):
really good, frequently askedquestions videos or how to use a
product or how to engage withus, like that's a use case where
a professional filmed, reallyhigh quality video will really
stand out and really help thebusiness.
In that point and I thinkthat's another thing as well is
a lot of people condense videointo a marketing tool, but it
(12:14):
can also be a general businesstool as well.
If you can send a video that'sa how to use your product with
every purchase, you'll probablyfind that you reduce support
tickets greatly across board.
So you know that one smallinvestment on a video will
actually save you a lot of moneyover time.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, and that's a really interesting point,
because it's not just formarketing, right, it's also
about customer support andhelping people use your product
and all the rest of it.
And you know, the classicpeople, I think, who need to be
using this sort of stuff arethose people who produce
flat-pack furniture and havethese little drawn um uh
diagrams that are impossible toto understand, um, because
(12:57):
they're not.
They're not photos or videos.
That's a great use, right yeah,it's an amazing use.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I put together a greenhouse um for my 30th a fair
few years ago, and there was somany times that we would get 15
steps in and then have to gonine steps back because we
either misread something or theydidn't actually tell you you
needed to put an extra screwthere, and so having a video of
that whole process would havemade it so much easier excellent
(13:23):
.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, I hope, um, some of the greenhouse
manufacturers and flat packfurniture people are listening
to this now.
You talked about tiktok earlierand there's other.
There's other sort of emergingplatforms out there.
Um there, snapchat's beenaround for a while.
Discord seems to beincreasingly popular as a social
media channel, but there'll bepeople listening to this who've
(13:43):
kind of grown at these newerplatforms and think I don't
really need to be there.
But if your customers are there, you need to be there too,
right?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yep, if you ever get overwhelmed with platform choice
because there is there's somany and you know there's always
new ones coming and going andthey're constantly changing how
they, you know, do their theircontent displays and what they
need to feed them the main thingis going if I've got a product
or a service that I'm selling,who I'm selling it to is my
(14:16):
general customer.
Where do they spend their time?
And then that's the platformyou need to be on and that can
just be as simple as you know.
You can ask around.
Most people know theircustomers.
If they're a business, alreadythey go.
We've got a pretty good idea ofwho our customer is, and then
it's just about tailoring thecontent and the platform towards
what they would use customer is, and then it's just about
(14:37):
tailoring the content and theplatform towards what they would
use.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Now.
Social media can be a littlebit scary in terms of the
algorithms that sit in behind itand how content actually gets
served up.
Um, it's not necessarily asstraightforward as um putting a
post up and suddenly having itspread across all your customers
here in Canberra or indeednationally.
So what are the tricks you needto be thinking about to get
(15:00):
better penetration of yourcontent?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Currently, with most of the algorithms, it's the
creative of the piece of contentis key.
And when we say creative, thatmeans the bare bones of what the
content is, means the the barebones of what the content is.
So, focus on something that'sreally engaging.
Um, it can either be reallyeducational, really engaging you
(15:24):
know, those sort of platformsin within your business and what
you want to put forward.
But, yeah, creative is king.
It's no longer the previousthing where you would, you know,
you'd post a photo or video andit would get shown to all of
your audience that follows you,you know.
It's now suggested contentbased on what their interests
are, even if they do follow you,so you might not get shown
(15:44):
across.
And we see it withadvertisement, we see it with
organic posts.
If you have a really, reallygood creative with you within
your content piece, it will havea hundred times more
opportunity to go viral or ahundred more opportunity times
to get shown to your organicnetwork.
And then those two sections gosuch hand-in-hand together where
(16:07):
it's, you know, paidadvertisement and organic.
And if you're feeding justreally good pieces of content
with good creative into them,they'll work together and you'll
find, like a really excellent.
X exponential increase in reachand growth so that's easy to
say, but possibly hard to do,like how do?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
you?
How do you know that yourcontents engaging?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
so there's a few really good tricks that you can
use.
One is just have a look atother people and other
businesses that are similar toyours that are doing really well
and see what kind of contentthey're posting and see what
kind of content is trending.
There's so much content beingfed into these platforms that
(16:50):
there's so much inspiration.
You don't have to sit there ina dark room and try and think of
stuff yourself.
You know you can get out thereand see what's working and
what's not working for otherpeople in your industry and then
that will hopefully inspiresome ideas for yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And how do businesses keep on top of this?
Because the algorithms changeright.
So that must keep you on yourtoes.
But how is anyone supposed tosort of keep on top of what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
It's basically a full-time job.
They keep on top of trends,different things.
Again, in some of these toolsyou can look at what's trending
on the platform and see fromthere.
They normally have like atrending bar, so you can kind of
quickly get a bird's-eye viewof what is currently happening.
The harder part is predictingthe trends, and that's when you
(17:46):
do the forward prediction oflike okay, we think that in
three months time somethingsimilar to this will be all the
rage, and that's that's evenmore daunting than just trying
to, you know, predict what'sgoing good now.
But I think as a business it's.
You don't always have to leaninto what's trending to have
(18:08):
good content.
If you come up with reallycreative ideas based within your
own platform or your ownbusiness, then People will enjoy
that piece of content becauseit is a good, creative, it does
have a good idea, it's enjoyable.
They'll consume it, they'llwatch it, they'll engage and
(18:28):
interact.
So don't try and always hit thetrending things.
You don't have to Try and comeup with some fresh ideas based
around what you're doing and youcan use other people as
inspiration.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, and how often should you be trying to drop
content?
I mean, I guess it depends onthe business that you're
representing, but, as a rule ofthumb, what are you recommending
to customers?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Rule of thumb.
It changes between each sort ofbusiness and what their goals
are, but I think at the end ofthe day it's what's realistic
for you.
Don't over commit, because ifyou over commit to posting, if
you set yourself a goal that youcan't reach, you're more likely
(19:11):
to not post at all.
So if you go, oh it's reallyhard for me to post two times a
week, then go, well, maybe justdo one post a week to start with
, and once you sort of get intothat comfortable swing of things
you can ramp it up to two andsee how that goes.
And a lot of larger businessesthat are more sort of B2C, say
if they're in the commerce spacethey'll be posting once a day
(19:34):
or a couple of times a day andmore across multiple platforms,
but generally they've gotfull-time people that their
whole job is to post that much.
So for the much smallerbusinesses it's about actually
just getting it done and gettingstuff up there, and so set a
realistic goal and make surethat it's attainable, because if
(19:54):
you set an unrealistic goalyou're more likely to not
actually post at all.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And make sure that you've got good content that's
engaging and interesting alongthe way.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And good content that's engaging and interesting
along the way.
And good content that'sengaging, interesting and you
will also find that, like, overtime, you get better at that as
well, like the more you post andyou can try different ideas.
Like you, you know, spend amonth posting different things
and then have a look at theanalytics and see which posts
got the most traction and thengo great.
(20:22):
And so the next month, insteadof throwing you know random
darts at a dartboard, again postmore of that type of content
that got the most traction.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So that's all very well, but how do you then try
and introduce new content, newideas and do something
differently?
Because the algorithms work onyou know what's worked in the
past, but then you're suggestingyou base your future activity
based on what's worked in thepast.
But how does that helpinnovation?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think you always set it as a base.
It's a baseline In that regard.
I'm not saying only ever postthat type of content going
forward, but if you say, allright, well, for the next month
we're going to make sure that wedo four posts of this
particular style of content thatwe know worked and then we'll
throw in some new ones to kindof break that up.
(21:12):
What we kind of do in terms ofif we were working for a client,
we have a spread of contentacross the classic top, middle
and bottom funnels and we alsokind of track a spread of
content against different, Iguess, genre types or engagement
(21:33):
types.
So for us, for example, if Ilook at our own company, you
know we would want to be doing acertain spread of behind the
scenes, a spread of case studies, engaging content.
That also, you know, is more oflike a how to, and they kind of
fall into these three top,middle, bottom funnel categories
(21:56):
, where the top is, you know,that awareness kind of tool, and
so that's the things that youhave social currency and things
that'll get you a little bit ofattention.
And then there's sort of themiddle section.
There is the content thatbuilds trust with your audience.
So that's the sort of stuffwhere we will do here's how, to
you know, set up email marketingor here's how to produce your
(22:18):
own interview style content foryour business and that
essentially when people land andwatch that content, they build
trust with us to say, okay,these guys know what they're
talking about, so if they dowant to come and purchase from
us later, they've built thattrust already in their head.
They're more likely to buy.
And then the bottom funnel ismore of the sales and the call
(22:40):
to action content.
So that would be postingsomething and saying, hey, we've
got a discount deal happeningor, you know, we offer this
particular type of service, getin touch with us now.
And a really like a supergeneral spread rule for that is
50% top, you know, 30% middleand 20% bottom, if you want to
kind of make it really just easy.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Which, of course, is completely the opposite to what
you might expect if you had amore traditional marketing
background and retail, forexample.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, yeah, totally different.
And you might find that whenyou start posting how much
content that actually you canpost 80 sales stuff and it works
way better.
And so it's about you know,just sort of getting that ball
rolling and then reassessingfrom there and you know, every
(23:31):
month or so you can just sit inand look at the stats and go,
all right, well, what's worked,what hasn't, how much of this
particular type of content isactually driven as sales.
I think that's the big thing is, um, is just track everything,
because it always helps you makethe most informed decision
going forward.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So if there was one place and I guess it depends
you're going to tell me itdepends on the, on the, on the
business that you're operating.
I'm trying to say that, but butlike if there was one, one
channel that you needed to bethinking about as a business.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I'd say I'll go service-based industries.
If you're B2B, linkedin is agold mine for you.
If you are a direct-to-consumerin e-commerce, you should be
thinking about Instagram andTikTok, um.
And if you're a B2B sorry, aB2C service, then I would also
(24:31):
probably think about Instagramand Facebook, um as a, as a big
platforms for you, and evenTikTok at times as well, because
you can really hit a lot ofengagement there and audience
demographics too.
You know, if you really aremore of a youth culture focused
business, then you know theplatforms where the youth
(24:51):
culture is sort of happening anddeveloping and growing, like
TikTok is a really good platform.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Now I notice you're not mentioning the traditional
media.
So newspapers, radio,television, they still obviously
have a place.
But what's your view of those?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I actually think they can be extremely useful.
I guess I would sort of lumpthem not so much into the social
category but more into thattraditional media kind of
platform.
I think it's all about doing itin a clever way because, just
like if you were to put up awhole bunch of Facebook ads that
(25:33):
don't have a very good creativeor content idea behind them and
you target a wrong audience andyou put the wrong lead or
traffic selections in there,there you're going to get not
very good results.
It's the same kind of thingwith the.
The media and traditional sortof avenues is really honing in
on what's going to push theneedle forward for you, and
(25:56):
maybe a small banner ad, um,isn't going to be the best push.
Or maybe putting a small bannerad isn't going to be the best
push, or maybe putting a smallbanner ad without an offer to a
customer is not a very good idea.
And so if you do those things,it's like having a real big
think about what is your leadmagnet, what's the idea behind
(26:17):
this?
Much larger companies can spenda lot of money on awareness so
they can just plaster themselveseverywhere, and so when people
think of a product, they thinkof them, much smaller businesses
, have to be a lot more targetedbecause they don't have the
same kind of spends, and so,generally, if you can have a
really good, clear picture ofwhat your lead magnet is and
(26:39):
it's a good lead magnet thenthat's something you should
definitely ship to these, youknow, to the traditional media,
um, and I think same things withyou know, like television
networks, you know the, thebvods, the broadcast video on
demand.
That's a really good platform,um, especially if you're
targeting people that stillwatch, uh, free-to-air
television via, you know, viathe app downloads, because they
(27:03):
will now just constantly pumpthose videos into those sections
and so you actually get a lotbetter um results and and
viewership than you would havepreviously, because you can pick
your spots a bit better andit's like more accessible well,
that's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
So still a place for for traditional media and and
direct mail.
Um, you know, does that helpyou cut through the clutter?
Obviously more expensive toproduce and, uh, drop out there,
but is, is there value in that?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
oh, yeah, um 100.
I think anything physical isalways great for people.
And in terms of also talkingabout direct mail, I will pull
us back into email, which I love.
I think email marketing is afantastic tool because you own
(27:50):
the audience and you can pickand choose when you send content
to that audience and yougenerally have a much higher
chance of directly talking tosomeone.
I know what you know.
Whenever I get a, an email fromone of my favorite stores, I'm
like, oh, what's, what have theyjust released?
Um?
So I think, yeah, emailmarketing is such a powerful
(28:12):
tool that a lot of people miss,and there's a lot of people miss
and there's a lot of platformsout there that make it really
easy with a lot of automations.
You know that can really pushthe needle forward there.
So I think that's a really goodrevenue stream that a lot of
people miss and also just like agood solid base of content just
to keep people engaged withyour business.
And that ties back into thatsort of, yeah, physical kind of
(28:38):
marketing.
You know bus advertisements.
It does work a lot of people,especially with you in the
service industry.
If people just need to getsomething, they will go with the
person they know and if theysee you around they feel like
they know you because they'veseen your stuff and so they're
more likely to purchase theproduct.
(29:00):
They don't really want to getup on Google and start searching
for things.
And then I mean some peoplelove it, but most people just
will go for the top hit and thencall that person.
If the price is right they'llbuy the product.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So traditional marketing still has still has
place, but obviously it's awhole whole bright new world of
often more, more modernmarketing as well yeah, well, I
mean, the best thing aboutdigital marketing is that it's
in the grand scheme of marketing.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
It's really cheap.
You know you can set your price.
A lot of physical traditionalmarketing is quite expensive to
get into.
It's effective but it isexpensive.
So if you're just starting out,you can really hone in on that
digital stuff, choose your ownspends and then, if you find
that something is working, don'tthen try and do other things,
(29:50):
just put more money into thatwhat is working until you
exhaust all of the opportunitieswithin that area.
And once you've exhausted that,then you can start to think
about like okay, what else canwe do?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Some really useful advice there.
Ty Ridgway, Managing Directorof Shoelace Creative, thank you
so much for joining us here onthe Canberra Business Podcast.
It's been great having a chat.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, no.
Well, thank you so much forhaving me on on the Canberra
Business Podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It's been great having a chat.
Yeah well, thank you so muchfor having me on.
It was lovely to talk and ifpeople do want to, know more
about Shoelace.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Your website is it's shoelacecreativecom.
We're also across all thesocial platforms, as you should
be, as it should be, so you canfind us on Instagram, facebook,
tiktok, linkedin, the wholekicky-boodle.
Instagram, facebook, tiktok,linkedin, the whole kicky-boodle
.
We've also got an email list.
If you want to sign up to thatone as well, you can do that via
the website or on any of theother social platforms.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Excellent, ty.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
It's been great hearing aboutyour business and to learn about
some of the advice you've gotaround digital marketing.
Now, just a reminder that thisepisode of the Canberra Business
Podcast has been brought to youby the Canberra Business
Chamber with the support of CareSuper, an industry super fund
with competitive fees, returns,exceptional service and a focus
(31:05):
on real care.
You can learn more atcaresupercomau and don't forget
to follow us on your favouritepodcast platform for future
episodes of the CanberraBusiness Podcast.
We'll catch you next time.
Hello and welcome to the Canberra Business Podcast.
I'm Greg Harford, your hostfrom the Canberra Business
Chamber, and today I'm joined byTy Ridgway, the Managing
Director and Co-Founder ofShoelace Creative.
Ty, welcome to the podcast.
Very lovely to be here.
Thanks, Greg.
So Shoelace Creative, you're afull-service creative marketing
agency.
You're based here in Canberra,You've got an office in
Melbourne and you operatenationally.
(00:30):
It sounds very grand, but whatdo you actually do?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, it's kind of like a whole bag of tricks
really.
I mean we sort of cover thewhole ton of creative services
with the main focus in contentand marketing.
We sort of cover the whole tonof creative services with a main
focus in content and marketing.
So for us it's a lot of videoproduction, a lot of photography
, graphic design, marketing,general services, that kind of
stuff.
So like digital marketing, paidads, working with graphic
(00:56):
design, branding.
So we come into a lot ofcompanies and have a look at
them from a holistic point, froma content and marketing
perspective, and sort of starttweaking things and kind of
helping them push the needle inthe right direction for their
business.
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So how did the business start?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We actually started in sort of the music industry
down in Melbourne.
We started off by creating likea one-take session series, so
we would go around and filmone-takes with mostly sort of
Triple J kind of artists at thetime and we kind of got our foot
in the door through there andit just sort of evolved
(01:35):
naturally into more of an agencyand a marketing thing.
When I say naturally, it wasdefinitely shoved by COVID into
that trajectory.
We were very much an eventsmusic industry which kind of
closed down on us and thenpivoted and then a few years
later here we are.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, fantastic.
So how big are you now as ateam?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
As a team.
So we've got about fourfull-time staff and then we have
a few sort of part-time, casualkind of networks there, and
then we've got a large supply ofcontractors who have worked
with us for five years and theycome and go sort of depending on
the project's complexity.
So there might be four of us atone point and there might be 15
(02:16):
of us at one point Right.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
so small and boutique and easily able to flex, I
guess.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, we like to say small and agile.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Fantastic.
And who are your clients?
Are you mainly looking aftersmall businesses or are you into
the bigger end of town as well?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, we're into the bigger end of town as well.
So we work from smallbusinesses all the way up to
federal government, and thatalso includes councils down in
Melbourne.
So we work a lot with the cityof Melbourne on all their
large-scale events.
And then up here in Canberrawe're doing a bit more of a
focus on, you know, smallbusiness government clients, um,
so we're doing some workcurrently with the NVS regulator
(02:51):
, uh, and also on a broaderperspective within Australia
we're working with like clientslike AgriFutures, um, you know,
sort of in the agriculturesector, but it's still no two
days the same, no two clientsare the same.
Sometimes we're back in themusic industry, sometimes we're
in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So that's quite a mix of clients in a different range
of industries there.
Is it easy to change gearbetween them for you and the
team?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I think it actually gives us a bit more of
a perspective, because you comeat different clients that all
work in different sectors anddifferent industries industries
but they all have really similarproblems and, coming at it sort
of, I guess, with like amethodical approach and quite a
um, systematic dissection ofwhat the problem is and what's
(03:37):
going to fix it, they end upkind of being quite similar at
the end of the day, even thoughthey're all working to
completely different industries.
You know, most of the time it'slike they're all working to
completely different industries.
Most of the time it's like, oh,we've been doing marketing but
we haven't actually got thecontent, or the content's not
really working for what we'rewanting to do, and it's just
about identifying the audiences,what actually is going to
(03:59):
resonate and what's going totick the right box for them too,
in terms of what they want toachieve and how they're actually
going to tick the right box forthem too, in terms of what they
want to achieve and how they'reactually going to get there.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So how do you go about doing that?
What's the science that sits inbehind understanding an
audience?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I think it's in two parts.
One is actually understandingthe business or the product and
so having a really good deepdive discussion about the
business itself, getting areally good understanding of
what they're trying to achieve,what the tone of voice is, what
the brand is, and then fromthere it's about okay, well, you
(04:40):
know who is this going toresonate with, and finding
avatars based in thosedemographics.
And you can do that justthrough, you know, searching and
just a bit of research andidentifying those key target
audience markets and thenapplying that back across to
well, okay, what are you tryingto achieve and how are you going
(05:01):
to communicate to that marketthat you're trying to achieve it
to?
And a lot of it's quite commonsense.
At the end of the day, it's alot more common sense than you
think.
It's like, you know, if you'retrying to sell to a
business-to-business, b2b kindof product, it's like well, go
where there's a B2B audience andyou'll probably find that
you'll sell some more of thatproduct in that market or that
(05:21):
product in that market?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you think customers,businesses, need to be across
every channel that's out there,or do you think a much more
targeted approach is appropriate?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I think I'm going to say it depends on the business,
because a lot of people willreally benefit from using
multi-channels.
But also it's about identifyingwhat is working and then
doubling down on that untilyou've exhausted that revenue
stream or that market in termsof marketing.
(05:56):
Because there's no point ifyou're going where we're doing
really well, say in meta, andwe're a B2C uh product, and then
we want to actually now focuson b2b, well, before you try and
you know, open up a whole newarm of business and stream, have
you maximized your, yourearning potential in that
(06:19):
current market that's workingreally well for you?
Because a lot of the timethere's a lot of optimization
you can do to really push thatup and move the needle forward
in that market before you evenstart to think about other
things.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Content.
You mentioned content earlierand obviously that's critical to
marketing brand identity andcomms generally, but it can be a
real challenge for businessesto be creating the volume of
content that's required.
What's your view on that?
(06:51):
How do businesses go aboutputting a content lens over
their business?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Done is better than perfect, especially in this day
and age.
Especially in this day and age,we're seeing so much more of a
market flip and a trend towardswhat we term ugly content or
relatable pieces of content, andthat is in the dawn of the age
of AI.
I think a lot of people areseeking authentic content that
(07:19):
they can relate to and a lot ofthe times, that is actually
content that is not polished,not refined.
It's more authentic to thebusiness.
It's more authentic to thebusiness.
It's more authentic to thebrand.
It's also a lot easier toproduce.
Um, you can create a lot morecontent ideas.
So I think, if you findyourself as a business and let's
say, you don't, you know,necessarily have the capacity to
(07:39):
hire an external agency, butyou want to get your content up,
um, it's just about capturingthings consistently and putting
it out there and not thinkingtoo hard about you know, oh, we
need this piece of content to beperfect before we put it out.
Um, if you aren't postingbecause you're not, if you, if
(08:03):
you're not posting becauseyou're trying to perfect
everything, then you're fallingbehind.
And so I think, in this day andage and the way that things are
moving towards.
If you have an overall kind ofstrategy, then as long as that
content kind of falls withinthat umbrella, it's good to just
get it out there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And video is where it's at you reckon, oh, 100%.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean we're seeing such a huge rise in
platforms like tiktok, um, youknow that's come and taken the
world over by storm and a lot ofthese other platforms that
traditionally weren't basedaround video, say.
We'll reference linkedin here.
For example, you know they'vejust recently incorporated a
real type um video section totheir platform and so if you're
(08:47):
pushing video content andpublishing content on those
platforms, they're going toreally push your page and your
profile and your content to themarket, because they want more
people to put video up.
It's also just so much moreengaging.
You can get messages throughreally clearly, quickly, quickly
, concisely, um, and it'srelatable.
Graphic content is great, stillhas its place, but, yeah, video
(09:09):
is king and how long should avideo be?
that's how long's a piece ofstring.
Um, you know, if you cancapture attention in a three
second video and communicate amessage, great.
That's why a lot of you know,um, when we do a lot of
advertisement kind of workyou'll often find.
And you know um, when we do alot of advertisement kind of
work you'll often find, and youknow, in the industry they call
them like brand bumpers, butit's a six second um ad, and so
(09:34):
you normally end up with a sixsecond, a 15 second and a 30
second and that'll be.
You know, when you you hop ontoyoutube and there's a six
second ad that pops up.
Um, so a lot of the time if youare shooting for a longer form
thing, you know you can reallybreak it down into all these
little segments, and that's ahuge thing, as well as content
stacking.
If you're getting overwhelmedwith creating content, make one
(09:55):
piece of content that's a bitlonger and then you can just
repurpose it into a fewdifferent smaller, bite-sized
pieces.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, so six seconds is not very long.
Obviously Is it practical to becommunicating even a single
message inside that six secondsoundbite yeah, I think, I think
so.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Um, we see it, you know, done so effectively across
board.
You know, if you have a reallygood message, you can
communicate it super quicklywith video because it's such a
visual format you don't have tospell things out.
You can suggest in the way thatyou film things which will
paint a whole picture in a veryshort period of time.
(10:33):
It's that old saying of onepicture tells a thousand words.
Well, one second of video has24, 25 pictures in it, so you've
got a lot of words you can cramin there Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And the process of producing that video.
Like if you're a small businessor even a medium-sized business
, you might be a little bitscared about that, but is it as
simple as using the iPhones thatwe mostly all have in our hands
every day to produce some ofthat content, or does it need to
be much bigger and much morepolished?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I'd say it's a use by use case basis there.
Um, polished content has itsplace and it has a really
certain market that it needs tobe utilized for.
But if you know, if we'retalking general terms of content
, the latest iphone has moremegapixels than some
professional cameras, so they'rereally quite good and depending
(11:31):
on your market and where you'republishing your platform, the
platform you're publishing yourcontent onto, you might even
find that unpolished iPhonecontent will get you far greater
reach and greater goal hittingthan a professional, polished
piece of content.
But say, if you you know, if youreally wanted to have like a
(11:53):
really good, frequently askedquestions videos or how to use a
product or how to engage withus, like that's a use case where
a professional filmed, reallyhigh quality video will really
stand out and really help thebusiness.
In that point and I thinkthat's another thing as well is
a lot of people condense videointo a marketing tool, but it
(12:14):
can also be a general businesstool as well.
If you can send a video that'sa how to use your product with
every purchase, you'll probablyfind that you reduce support
tickets greatly across board.
So you know that one smallinvestment on a video will
actually save you a lot of moneyover time.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, and that's a really interesting point,
because it's not just formarketing, right, it's also
about customer support andhelping people use your product
and all the rest of it.
And you know, the classicpeople, I think, who need to be
using this sort of stuff arethose people who produce
flat-pack furniture and havethese little drawn um uh
diagrams that are impossible toto understand, um, because
(12:57):
they're not.
They're not photos or videos.
That's a great use, right yeah,it's an amazing use.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I put together a greenhouse um for my 30th a fair
few years ago, and there was somany times that we would get 15
steps in and then have to gonine steps back because we
either misread something or theydidn't actually tell you you
needed to put an extra screwthere, and so having a video of
that whole process would havemade it so much easier excellent
(13:23):
.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, I hope, um, some of the greenhouse
manufacturers and flat packfurniture people are listening
to this now.
You talked about tiktok earlierand there's other.
There's other sort of emergingplatforms out there.
Um there, snapchat's beenaround for a while.
Discord seems to beincreasingly popular as a social
media channel, but there'll bepeople listening to this who've
(13:43):
kind of grown at these newerplatforms and think I don't
really need to be there.
But if your customers are there, you need to be there too,
right?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yep, if you ever get overwhelmed with platform choice
because there is there's somany and you know there's always
new ones coming and going andthey're constantly changing how
they, you know, do their theircontent displays and what they
need to feed them the main thingis going if I've got a product
or a service that I'm selling,who I'm selling it to is my
(14:16):
general customer.
Where do they spend their time?
And then that's the platformyou need to be on and that can
just be as simple as you know.
You can ask around.
Most people know theircustomers.
If they're a business, alreadythey go.
We've got a pretty good idea ofwho our customer is, and then
it's just about tailoring thecontent and the platform towards
what they would use customer is, and then it's just about
(14:37):
tailoring the content and theplatform towards what they would
use.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Now.
Social media can be a littlebit scary in terms of the
algorithms that sit in behind itand how content actually gets
served up.
Um, it's not necessarily asstraightforward as um putting a
post up and suddenly having itspread across all your customers
here in Canberra or indeednationally.
So what are the tricks you needto be thinking about to get
(15:00):
better penetration of yourcontent?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Currently, with most of the algorithms, it's the
creative of the piece of contentis key.
And when we say creative, thatmeans the bare bones of what the
content is, means the the barebones of what the content is.
So, focus on something that'sreally engaging.
Um, it can either be reallyeducational, really engaging you
(15:24):
know, those sort of platformsin within your business and what
you want to put forward.
But, yeah, creative is king.
It's no longer the previousthing where you would, you know,
you'd post a photo or video andit would get shown to all of
your audience that follows you,you know.
It's now suggested contentbased on what their interests
are, even if they do follow you,so you might not get shown
(15:44):
across.
And we see it withadvertisement, we see it with
organic posts.
If you have a really, reallygood creative with you within
your content piece, it will havea hundred times more
opportunity to go viral or ahundred more opportunity times
to get shown to your organicnetwork.
And then those two sections gosuch hand-in-hand together where
(16:07):
it's, you know, paidadvertisement and organic.
And if you're feeding justreally good pieces of content
with good creative into them,they'll work together and you'll
find, like a really excellent.
X exponential increase in reachand growth so that's easy to
say, but possibly hard to do,like how do?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
you?
How do you know that yourcontents engaging?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
so there's a few really good tricks that you can
use.
One is just have a look atother people and other
businesses that are similar toyours that are doing really well
and see what kind of contentthey're posting and see what
kind of content is trending.
There's so much content beingfed into these platforms that
(16:50):
there's so much inspiration.
You don't have to sit there ina dark room and try and think of
stuff yourself.
You know you can get out thereand see what's working and
what's not working for otherpeople in your industry and then
that will hopefully inspiresome ideas for yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And how do businesses keep on top of this?
Because the algorithms changeright.
So that must keep you on yourtoes.
But how is anyone supposed tosort of keep on top of what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
It's basically a full-time job.
They keep on top of trends,different things.
Again, in some of these toolsyou can look at what's trending
on the platform and see fromthere.
They normally have like atrending bar, so you can kind of
quickly get a bird's-eye viewof what is currently happening.
The harder part is predictingthe trends, and that's when you
(17:46):
do the forward prediction oflike okay, we think that in
three months time somethingsimilar to this will be all the
rage, and that's that's evenmore daunting than just trying
to, you know, predict what'sgoing good now.
But I think as a business it's.
You don't always have to leaninto what's trending to have
(18:08):
good content.
If you come up with reallycreative ideas based within your
own platform or your ownbusiness, then People will enjoy
that piece of content becauseit is a good, creative, it does
have a good idea, it's enjoyable.
They'll consume it, they'llwatch it, they'll engage and
(18:28):
interact.
So don't try and always hit thetrending things.
You don't have to Try and comeup with some fresh ideas based
around what you're doing and youcan use other people as
inspiration.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, and how often should you be trying to drop
content?
I mean, I guess it depends onthe business that you're
representing, but, as a rule ofthumb, what are you recommending
to customers?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Rule of thumb.
It changes between each sort ofbusiness and what their goals
are, but I think at the end ofthe day it's what's realistic
for you.
Don't over commit, because ifyou over commit to posting, if
you set yourself a goal that youcan't reach, you're more likely
(19:11):
to not post at all.
So if you go, oh it's reallyhard for me to post two times a
week, then go, well, maybe justdo one post a week to start with
, and once you sort of get intothat comfortable swing of things
you can ramp it up to two andsee how that goes.
And a lot of larger businessesthat are more sort of B2C, say
if they're in the commerce spacethey'll be posting once a day
(19:34):
or a couple of times a day andmore across multiple platforms,
but generally they've gotfull-time people that their
whole job is to post that much.
So for the much smallerbusinesses it's about actually
just getting it done and gettingstuff up there, and so set a
realistic goal and make surethat it's attainable, because if
(19:54):
you set an unrealistic goalyou're more likely to not
actually post at all.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And make sure that you've got good content that's
engaging and interesting alongthe way.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And good content that's engaging and interesting
along the way.
And good content that'sengaging, interesting and you
will also find that, like, overtime, you get better at that as
well, like the more you post andyou can try different ideas.
Like you, you know, spend amonth posting different things
and then have a look at theanalytics and see which posts
got the most traction and thengo great.
(20:22):
And so the next month, insteadof throwing you know random
darts at a dartboard, again postmore of that type of content
that got the most traction.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So that's all very well, but how do you then try
and introduce new content, newideas and do something
differently?
Because the algorithms work onyou know what's worked in the
past, but then you're suggestingyou base your future activity
based on what's worked in thepast.
But how does that helpinnovation?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think you always set it as a base.
It's a baseline In that regard.
I'm not saying only ever postthat type of content going
forward, but if you say, allright, well, for the next month
we're going to make sure that wedo four posts of this
particular style of content thatwe know worked and then we'll
throw in some new ones to kindof break that up.
(21:12):
What we kind of do in terms ofif we were working for a client,
we have a spread of contentacross the classic top, middle
and bottom funnels and we alsokind of track a spread of
content against different, Iguess, genre types or engagement
(21:33):
types.
So for us, for example, if Ilook at our own company, you
know we would want to be doing acertain spread of behind the
scenes, a spread of case studies, engaging content.
That also, you know, is more oflike a how to, and they kind of
fall into these three top,middle, bottom funnel categories
(21:56):
, where the top is, you know,that awareness kind of tool, and
so that's the things that youhave social currency and things
that'll get you a little bit ofattention.
And then there's sort of themiddle section.
There is the content thatbuilds trust with your audience.
So that's the sort of stuffwhere we will do here's how, to
you know, set up email marketingor here's how to produce your
(22:18):
own interview style content foryour business and that
essentially when people land andwatch that content, they build
trust with us to say, okay,these guys know what they're
talking about, so if they dowant to come and purchase from
us later, they've built thattrust already in their head.
They're more likely to buy.
And then the bottom funnel ismore of the sales and the call
(22:40):
to action content.
So that would be postingsomething and saying, hey, we've
got a discount deal happeningor, you know, we offer this
particular type of service, getin touch with us now.
And a really like a supergeneral spread rule for that is
50% top, you know, 30% middleand 20% bottom, if you want to
kind of make it really just easy.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Which, of course, is completely the opposite to what
you might expect if you had amore traditional marketing
background and retail, forexample.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, yeah, totally different.
And you might find that whenyou start posting how much
content that actually you canpost 80 sales stuff and it works
way better.
And so it's about you know,just sort of getting that ball
rolling and then reassessingfrom there and you know, every
(23:31):
month or so you can just sit inand look at the stats and go,
all right, well, what's worked,what hasn't, how much of this
particular type of content isactually driven as sales.
I think that's the big thing is, um, is just track everything,
because it always helps you makethe most informed decision
going forward.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So if there was one place and I guess it depends
you're going to tell me itdepends on the, on the, on the
business that you're operating.
I'm trying to say that, but butlike if there was one, one
channel that you needed to bethinking about as a business.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I'd say I'll go service-based industries.
If you're B2B, linkedin is agold mine for you.
If you are a direct-to-consumerin e-commerce, you should be
thinking about Instagram andTikTok, um.
And if you're a B2B sorry, aB2C service, then I would also
(24:31):
probably think about Instagramand Facebook, um as a, as a big
platforms for you, and evenTikTok at times as well, because
you can really hit a lot ofengagement there and audience
demographics too.
You know, if you really aremore of a youth culture focused
business, then you know theplatforms where the youth
(24:51):
culture is sort of happening anddeveloping and growing, like
TikTok is a really good platform.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Now I notice you're not mentioning the traditional
media.
So newspapers, radio,television, they still obviously
have a place.
But what's your view of those?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I actually think they can be extremely useful.
I guess I would sort of lumpthem not so much into the social
category but more into thattraditional media kind of
platform.
I think it's all about doing itin a clever way because, just
like if you were to put up awhole bunch of Facebook ads that
(25:33):
don't have a very good creativeor content idea behind them and
you target a wrong audience andyou put the wrong lead or
traffic selections in there,there you're going to get not
very good results.
It's the same kind of thingwith the.
The media and traditional sortof avenues is really honing in
on what's going to push theneedle forward for you, and
(25:56):
maybe a small banner ad, um,isn't going to be the best push.
Or maybe putting a small bannerad isn't going to be the best
push, or maybe putting a smallbanner ad without an offer to a
customer is not a very good idea.
And so if you do those things,it's like having a real big
think about what is your leadmagnet, what's the idea behind
(26:17):
this?
Much larger companies can spenda lot of money on awareness so
they can just plaster themselveseverywhere, and so when people
think of a product, they thinkof them, much smaller businesses
, have to be a lot more targetedbecause they don't have the
same kind of spends, and so,generally, if you can have a
really good, clear picture ofwhat your lead magnet is and
(26:39):
it's a good lead magnet thenthat's something you should
definitely ship to these, youknow, to the traditional media,
um, and I think same things withyou know, like television
networks, you know the, thebvods, the broadcast video on
demand.
That's a really good platform,um, especially if you're
targeting people that stillwatch, uh, free-to-air
television via, you know, viathe app downloads, because they
(27:03):
will now just constantly pumpthose videos into those sections
and so you actually get a lotbetter um results and and
viewership than you would havepreviously, because you can pick
your spots a bit better andit's like more accessible well,
that's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
So still a place for for traditional media and and
direct mail.
Um, you know, does that helpyou cut through the clutter?
Obviously more expensive toproduce and, uh, drop out there,
but is, is there value in that?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
oh, yeah, um 100.
I think anything physical isalways great for people.
And in terms of also talkingabout direct mail, I will pull
us back into email, which I love.
I think email marketing is afantastic tool because you own
(27:50):
the audience and you can pickand choose when you send content
to that audience and yougenerally have a much higher
chance of directly talking tosomeone.
I know what you know.
Whenever I get a, an email fromone of my favorite stores, I'm
like, oh, what's, what have theyjust released?
Um?
So I think, yeah, emailmarketing is such a powerful
(28:12):
tool that a lot of people miss,and there's a lot of people miss
and there's a lot of platformsout there that make it really
easy with a lot of automations.
You know that can really pushthe needle forward there.
So I think that's a really goodrevenue stream that a lot of
people miss and also just like agood solid base of content just
to keep people engaged withyour business.
And that ties back into thatsort of, yeah, physical kind of
(28:38):
marketing.
You know bus advertisements.
It does work a lot of people,especially with you in the
service industry.
If people just need to getsomething, they will go with the
person they know and if theysee you around they feel like
they know you because they'veseen your stuff and so they're
more likely to purchase theproduct.
(29:00):
They don't really want to getup on Google and start searching
for things.
And then I mean some peoplelove it, but most people just
will go for the top hit and thencall that person.
If the price is right they'llbuy the product.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So traditional marketing still has still has
place, but obviously it's awhole whole bright new world of
often more, more modernmarketing as well yeah, well, I
mean, the best thing aboutdigital marketing is that it's
in the grand scheme of marketing.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
It's really cheap.
You know you can set your price.
A lot of physical traditionalmarketing is quite expensive to
get into.
It's effective but it isexpensive.
So if you're just starting out,you can really hone in on that
digital stuff, choose your ownspends and then, if you find
that something is working, don'tthen try and do other things,
(29:50):
just put more money into thatwhat is working until you
exhaust all of the opportunitieswithin that area.
And once you've exhausted that,then you can start to think
about like okay, what else canwe do?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Some really useful advice there.
Ty Ridgway, Managing Directorof Shoelace Creative, thank you
so much for joining us here onthe Canberra Business Podcast.
It's been great having a chat.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, no.
Well, thank you so much forhaving me on on the Canberra
Business Podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It's been great having a chat.
Yeah well, thank you so muchfor having me on.
It was lovely to talk and ifpeople do want to, know more
about Shoelace.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Your website is it's shoelacecreativecom.
We're also across all thesocial platforms, as you should
be, as it should be, so you canfind us on Instagram, facebook,
tiktok, linkedin, the wholekicky-boodle.
Instagram, facebook, tiktok,linkedin, the whole kicky-boodle
.
We've also got an email list.
If you want to sign up to thatone as well, you can do that via
the website or on any of theother social platforms.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Excellent, ty.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
It's been great hearing aboutyour business and to learn about
some of the advice you've gotaround digital marketing.
Now, just a reminder that thisepisode of the Canberra Business
Podcast has been brought to youby the Canberra Business
Chamber with the support of CareSuper, an industry super fund
with competitive fees, returns,exceptional service and a focus
(31:05):
on real care.
You can learn more atcaresupercomau and don't forget
to follow us on your favouritepodcast platform for future
episodes of the CanberraBusiness Podcast.
We'll catch you next time.
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