Whitespace Marketing

10/09/2026

08/09/2026

We're at an event last week, where yet another person asked, 'Are you worried about AI affecting your business?' We get this question pretty regularly...and there are a range of answers depending on what part of the business we're talking about. (Generally speaking though, the answer is a resounding 'no'.)

So let's talk about it from the perspective of content. Posting. Social Media.

Yes, AI has made content incredibly easy to create.
The ramification of that is that GOOD content is now even more valuable. Great for businesses like ours.

Anyone can product a polished LinkedIn piece, pretty fast (if you are trying to say that it's not AI though, please remove the long m-dashes, they are a dead giveaway).

What we're trying to say is that churning content out on cue is not really a competitive advantage anymore.

People can read it and forget it in a New York minute.

What they won't forget is something worth saying. An opinion. Something relevant to you or your brand position. Something you have learned in the industry. A point of view that may or may not get an agreeable reaction.

Something original that sounds unmistakably like you.

Something that helps your readers get to know you, your business, what you actually believe in, what makes you memorable.

If you have a piece that could have come from anyone, doesn't sound like you specifically, well, it's not good content.

We see from our clients that opinion pieces, posts which bare a little of a business' or CEO's soul, those are the ones that cut through, the ones that are memorable.

They are the ones that make an impression.

That's good, valuable content, right there.

Figure out what tells a bit more of you, of your business.

03/09/2026

'I'm not sure what we should be posting about, how we should market ourselves - there's a lot of sensitivity around what we do..."

I hear this on the regular from community service orgs.
In fact, on our recent webinars and workshops, that was the overall feedback - we need to get better at telling people what we do.

A truthbomb for you.
You are actually sitting on your best marketing content.
I know, right??

This is what I mean:
🔹 Your stories happen every day.
🔹 Your team is helping people all the time.
🔹 Your staff is helping people make better decisions, build better lives.
🔹 Problems are being solved on the daily.

That is ACTUALLY your marketing.

Not in an icky, exploitative “look what we did” kind of way.
I need to emphasise - this is NOT sales.

This is raising awareness, which is the very first step of marketing.
It's real evidence of why your organisation exists and the difference your work makes.

So how do you actually use those stories?

1️⃣ Look for the small anecdotes.
It doesn't have to be a huge transformation.
This person was able to get the bus by themself for the first time. Life-changing for them. And YOU did that.

2️⃣ Tell the outcome, not just the activity.
“We delivered 50 sessions” tells me what you did.
300 people are now trained in a better way of communicating with our kids, your kids, so they feel safer - that gives me an outcome.

3️⃣ The story becomes the focus, not the person.
De-identify, redact, combine experiences or tell stories from the perspective of your team. Perspective gives the story relevance.

4️⃣ Connect it to the bigger picture.
One person's experience tells the story of why that funding is vital for your community. Can't forget that you need to keep doing what you are doing, and you need the support for that.

Try to recognise the stories around you.

There's your impact, right there.

01/09/2026

All our analysis points to this: Ddfferent content does different jobs. (What they are, and how to do it is further into this post...)

What we want is the following:
🔺 Reach
🔺 Authority
🔺 Credibility
🔺 Connection

All leading to that elusive, magical place ... Influence. I'm gonna break it down.

Want more REACH?
That is posts where you're not just talking to YOUR audience anymore, you are tapping into others, tagging, mentioning etc
🔺 Partnership content.
🔺 Collaborations.
🔺 Joint announcements.
🔺 Events.
🔺 Partner stories.
🔺 Major projects.

AUTHORITY?
Try not to spout that you are an expert, but more show them what you think.
🔺 Having an opinion.
🔺 Talk about what's changing in your industry.
🔺 Share what you're seeing.
🔺 Challenge something you don't agree with.
🔺 Explain what you think businesses should be doing differently.

Looking for CREDIBILITY?
Be genuinely helpful, being actually useful. Give stuff away, with grace.
🔺 How-tos.
🔺 Checklists.
🔺 Common mistakes.
🔺 Questions to ask.
🔺 Things to look out for.
🔺 Simple explanations of complicated stuff.

Focused on CONNECTION?
We're all talking about it (well, I'm not as much as everyone else seems to be....), but truly try to be human, be appropriate with your use of AI in communications.
🔺 Celebrate wins
🔺 Tell the story behind the work.
🔺 Talk about your people.
🔺 Celebrate something you're proud of.

So this month, when your team is planning content, don't just say, what should we post?

Ask yourself, how are we building influence

Different content does different things.

28/08/2026

We’ve just finished analysing 12 months of LinkedIn content for a client.
Three things stood out like the proverbial. Three things that you can easily incorporate into your own content strategy.

Number ONE
Different content does different jobs.
🔸 Partnerships drives reach - getting in front of MORE people
🔸 Opinion builds authority - building a profile of industry leadership
🔸 Practical content gets shared - adding to credibility
🔸 Personal content creats connection - developing emotional hooks

Number TWO
Useful content builds authority.
🔸 Checklists - things people can apply themselves
🔸 Practical advice - just remember to keep it uncomplicated
🔸 Questions to ask - helping educate others
🔸 A strong point of view - opinions make you human

Number THREE
Relevant reach beats big reach.
🔸 The right connections matter more than a massive quantity of connections
🔸 Create your content and connection strategy to meet your relevant audience and in the right industries eg for our client it is C-Suite, and our content consistently reached:
▫️CEOs
▫️Founders
▫️Directors
▫️Managers
▫️Senior professionals.

So, if you can, refrain from asking which post got the most likes... hard, I know.
Who DOESN'T like a vanity metric after all for that instant hit of dopamine...

Ask instead what job did it do, and did it reach the right people?

Then measure that.

28/08/2026

OK. This has happened twice this year, so I reckon we can officially call it A Thing.

Over the past couple of years, two new clients came to us, specifically wanting their business presentation sharpened up.

◾ New positioning.
◾ Modern new brand.
◾ New website.
◾ Well told story and messaging to cut through.

So we did that.

Then we got that story out there and built their profile around it.

Then, separately earlier this year, these clients told us that they had successfully sold their businesses. (Was it something we said...? 😂 )

And even better, both owners have told us they believe our marketing played a part in the outcome. The businesses were noticed, perceived more professionally, looked valuable.

Now, obviously I’m not going to claim a good logo, a cracking website, and consistently good content will sell your business. (Well, I might...)

But I will say this:
Good marketing means that outside eyes see value in your business.

◾ It shows what makes you different.
◾ It builds credibility.
◾ It makes the business look established and valuable.
◾ It tells a potential buyer there’s something here worth buying.

We talk all the time about marketing generating visibility and helping businesses grow, ad infinitum. Great - but this shows that there is more to it.

If you've got an end game of selling your business, then the right marketing can help build its value.

Two from two.
Not bad, right?

25/08/2026

“Our marketing freelancer is great, but…” is what I have heard twice in the last week, once from a business owner, and once from a CEO.

It’s not the first time we have heard it, of course.

As a business owner, you’ve been working with this person for a long time, and they have been great, you know that they are trying their hardest!

They respond when you send an email, which is terrific. They are really loyal.
They understand a fair amount of the business.
For the most part they are producing good work.

But you’ve noticed you have more requests, delivery can be a little bit slow, and to be honest, you’re just not sure if you’re getting the best outcome.

It is a difficult time, because no one wants to stop working with someone who has been so loyal.

We are always very cautious in this situation, because it is hard for a business to change from someone they have known for a while, but there comes a point when you need more than what a single freelancer can provide.

You need a larger out-sourced marketing agency team who is experienced enough to get a handle on the brand and marketing quickly, pick it up, and run with it.

When you decide to change, here’s what happens:
➡️ You stop having to work on one marketing project at a time - all of a sudden there seems to be no bottleneck. More hands are on deck. With more skills.

➡️ A captain starts steering the marketing ship. There’s STILL lots of stuff happening but it is controlled, and you can see that everything is working towards the business objectives. Proactivity becomes something that knocks on your door with regularity.

➡️ The marketing activities start keeping up with your business. New markets, new services, new opportunities. All without adding to your FTE headcount. Nice. And ALL of those activities directly support business objectives.

One thing that we like to add to that list in our own particular case is that you still get to deal with the owners of the business so that you have that personal direct contact, but with the knowledge that there is a team behind them delivering on a range of services.

25/08/2026

Client conversations | "We're the world's best kept secret. But we don't want to be.'

Feel like your business should be getting more attention than it is?

You're bloody good at what you do. No argument.

But you keep seeing your competitors on all the channels. (BTW that could just be the algos taunting you...)

Often the issue isn't visibility.

It's messaging.

Some of the most common culprits:

❌ Sounding like everyone else
❌ Using industry jargon
❌ Talking about yourself too much
❌ Trying to appeal to everyone
❌ Leading with services instead of problems

The good news?

They're all fixable.

Being seen is one thing - and of course, it's something I bang on and on about.
But no point being seen if you're not being understood.

Check out how to manage the culprits in our blog (in first comment)

We've unpacked all five in our latest article https://wp.me/pgoKwd-33b

03/08/2026

I’ve got a challenge for you. Don’t get too excited… it's about what I constantly bang on about. Clarity.

Here we go.

Find someone outside your industry, and ask them to take 10 seconds to look at your business home page.
Then ask them:
➡️ What does this business do?
➡️ Who do they help?
➡️ Why would someone choose them?

Yeah, I know, challenge might be overthinking it...

Except it's amazing how often the answers aren't clear.
The thing is, your customers aren't going to spend five minutes trying to figure out your business.

If they don't get it quickly, they'll move on.

Which means your homepage has one job:
➡️ Create clarity.
➡️ Not cleverness.
➡️ Not complexity.

➡️ ➡️ Clarity.

We've shared a few practical ways to test your messaging in our latest blog https://wp.me/pgoKwd-32I

17/07/2026

You know what I find just a little frustrating?

When I hear about people looking at a new business to work with: their website, their LinkedIn Profile, key people etc… and they still have to ask:

"So what do you actually do?"

Such a missed opportunity, and way more common than you'd think.

It’s everywhere, which leads me to one conclusion: most businesses don't have a marketing problem.

They have a clarity problem.

They know their business inside out, so they accidentally make their messaging more complicated than it needs to be.
Remember that customers don't want to understand your methodology.
They want to understand how you can help.
☑️ What do you do?
☑️ Who do you help?
☑️ Why should they care?

If your marketing can't answer those three questions quickly, you could be missing out, and you wouldn’t know…

We've unpacked it in our latest blog https://wp.me/pgoKwd-32I