Content Makers

In this episode I chat to Hadrien Chatelet, Creative Director at The Wern and champion of entrepreneurs everywhere who have the creativity, but maybe not the tools, to brand their businesses.

In it, we discuss Hadrien's background, from being spotted while creating street art, to working for the French version of John Lewis and going on to manage a team at global agency Endeavour (now IMG) and how redundancy made him realise he wanted to give back.

We chat about his role today, as Creative Director at The Wern and how this involves helping with product design, courses, branding and especially social media content.

Hadrien tells how rewarding he finds being able to give entrepreneurs, who are often naturally creative, the tools to create design content themselves. Also, his philosophy that regardless of size, everyone deserves the right branding experience and designs that matter and follow the purpose and stories of the entrepreneurs creating them.

We discuss if it's easier to market a product business, as opposed to a service-based one (spoiler: it's not) and why good design starts with questions and understanding your true purpose.

This is a very inspiring chat about all things design and I hope you get as many takeaways from it as I did. You can find out more about The Wern by visiting thewern.com and you can find the full show notes, including links to Hadrien's design course and the Hype Yourself book, at bethgladstone.com. 

Eventbrite is an intuitive global ticketing platform allowing event organisers of any shape or size to run their events, from fundraisers to festivals. A one-stop shop solution that no doubt, you've already used to manage your own event, or buy a ticket to someone else's.

But did you know that Eventbrite also runs an incredibly successful B2B blog and pool of resources, by any measure of content marketing success?

In this episode I speak to content extraordinaire Amy Martin, the Content Marketing Manager for the UK & Ireland at Eventbrite who is part of that exact content cadence. 

In it, we learn how Amy has worked across content in pretty much every type of role; from agency to in-house and what she learned along the way. How she ensures delivery of a huge scope of content at Eventbrite, including publishing four days a week across two geolocations, and what the team looks like to support this. 

Naturally, we discuss events - talking trends and how events have become more purpose-driven and led by learning over time. The importance, in B2B, of focusing on content that either inspires or informs, and how to surface ideas that fit within this framework by listening to internal conversations and tuning into your community

How companies are prioritising and choosing to create content differently in a saturated market and how we’re returning to traditional media formats to cut through.

Lastly, how to not get distracted by “shiny” things, to ensure you can focus on the content that will make the biggest difference and solve the most pain points for your audiences.

This is a true insight into one of the most successful B2B content marketing strategies to date that anyone looking to replicate success through blogging, will find useful.

You can view some of Amy's amazing work at eventbrite.co.uk/blog and the full show notes from this episode at bethgladstone.com.

In this episode I chat to Danny Denhard, Director of Growth & Crowdfunding at JustGiving, business mentor and mega source of wisdom! Danny has over nineteen years of experience in managing teams, marketing, and product growth, all of which we touch on in this episode.

Beginning with what "growth marketing" really means, and why it's more about bringing disciplines together to tackle business problems and improve user experience than just short-term hacking. 

We discuss ways to work, the importance of communication and why it's so important to be able to get teams to buy into the journey. Why you shouldn't have to sit in meeting rooms to make decisions and how the mindset needed to shift gear between startups and corporates, isn't all that different. Danny also shares some great tips on how to get senior leaders to buy into marketing ideas, particularly around social media, starting with the power of the executive summary.

I then give Danny the not to easy task of ranking marketing disciplines in importance, from product marketing to social and SEO. We get Danny's advice on how to unlock social reach and why the newsfeed shouldn't be the primary focus today, and how good creative always cuts through. 

This was an absolute pleasure to record and if you enjoyed it, I'd love for you to leave a review or share it with a friend. As always, thanks a lot for listening. 

You can read more from Danny at dannydenhard.com on Twitter @dannydenhard or sign up to the Must Reads at mustreads.substack.com. 

On this episode of Content Makers, I chat to Natalie Raven the Founder of Parcel, a thoughtful gifting company, on how to create content from behind a brand. 

We discuss how Parcel started and how Natalie pivoted her target audience by changing the website content and even the logistics of the company. Why it's really about her audience finding connection with each other and how this feeds into everything she does and procures, at Parcel. 

We discuss Natalie's approach to social media, and particularly Instagram, and how brands can adhere to the right side of personal. Plus, the changing responsibilities of the retail industry and how by using automation you might lose something with everything you change while on the path to convenience. Plus, her incredibly interesting 100 days of rejection campaign and what this has taught her about resilience.

Natalie is one of those rare impressive people, who doesn't realise just how impressive she is. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it. 

To check out the gorgeous Parcel brand visit https://parcellondon.com/ or follow Natalie and her 100 rejections journey on Instagram @parcellondon.

If you liked this episode, there are lots more to come! Please subscribe to be first to get them in your downloads.

On the very first episode of Content Makers, I chat to Ben Tyson, the CEO at social media agency Born Social on how they approach social media today. 

We discuss how Born Social has managed the social media for challenger brands such as Nandos, Valspar and Chilly's Bottles. Why they choose to be specialists, rather than generalists, and how they measure success for clients, both in brand awareness and bottom of the funnel conversions.

We cover how to go beyond just thinking about social in terms of how you use it, to cross generational divides and why ensuring team happiness and longevity at Born Social is a key part of Ben's day-to-day role. Why quality of creative is so important in social media and why micro-content, iterated over time, is often the real big win.

Later we discuss the A word (algorithms) and why Born Social made a conscious decision to move away from the “game” of organic reach, to combine paid and creative. Plus why you shouldn’t always jump on new social channels as soon as they launch.

With some great nuggets thrown in about how optimising for likes and shares limits brand reach and Ben's very humble approach to what "success" looks like for his clients and team.

To find out more about Born Social's great work, visit their website or check them out on social @bebornsocial.