Unlock Big Impact with Minimal Investment: The Talk About Digital Podcast Launch

Welcome to the very first episode of the Talk About Digital Podcast with Mark A Preston, a podcast designed exclusively for SMEs and small business owners who are eager to grow their customer base without burning through their budget. In this introductory episode, Mark A Preston, a seasoned Customer Growth Trainer, Speaker, and Author, shares his personal story of building multiple successful digital marketing ventures from the ground up—and why he’s passionate about helping business owners like you achieve big results with minimal investment.

What Will You Learn?

In this episode, Mark introduces his unique approach to digital marketing that focuses on maximising your impact without the need for hefty financial investment. If you’ve been paying marketing agencies a small fortune for results that seem out of reach, this episode will shift your mindset. Mark explains why you, as a business owner, are your most powerful asset in driving customer growth. You'll walk away with the tools to understand your audience better, leverage your strengths, and apply actionable marketing strategies that work, no matter the size of your budget.

Key Takeaways for Small Business Owners:

• Low-Cost, High-Impact Marketing Techniques: Discover practical, easy-to-implement digital marketing strategies that don’t require a large budget but can make a significant difference to your bottom line.
• Harnessing Your Unique Expertise: Learn why you, as the business owner, are best positioned to market your business and how you can use that knowledge to engage customers effectively.
• Actionable Advice for Immediate Results: In every episode, including this one, Mark provides his signature "TAD Takeaway"—a simple, actionable tip you can implement today to start seeing results in your business.
• Real Stories, Real Solutions: Mark shares his experiences of running a lead generation business, managing multiple marketing agencies, and working with franchisees to grow businesses, all while maintaining a focus on minimal investment for maximum return. His story proves that any small business can thrive with the right approach, no matter how limited the budget.

By tuning in, you'll not only gain insider tips from Mark’s 20+ years in the industry but also access to guest experts who will share their proven tactics for digital marketing success in upcoming episodes.

If you're tired of overcomplicated marketing strategies and are ready to take control of your business growth with simple, effective techniques, this is the podcast for you. Whether you're struggling with generating leads, understanding your audience, or positioning your business, Talk About Digital offers clear, actionable solutions tailored specifically for the challenges of small businesses.

Why Should You Listen?

• Results-Driven Content: Mark’s straightforward advice is designed to generate real-world results, helping you attract and retain customers more effectively.
• Empowering Approach: Stop relying on expensive marketing agencies. This podcast equips you with the confidence and know-how to manage your digital marketing in-house.
• Free Growth Tools: Subscribe and gain access to a 12-week free TAD Customer Growth Course, packed with more insights, tools, and tips to further fuel your business success.

Don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity to transform your digital marketing strategy and achieve big impact without a big budget. Tune in and take the first step toward making your business stand out online.

This podcast is produced by Voice It Podcast Agency
https://voiceitpodcastagency.co.uk

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mark A Preston: Welcome to Talk About Digital, the podcast for small and medium sized businesses looking to grow new customers through impactful, low cost digital marketing strategies. Have you invested in digital marketing with zero positive impact? If this sounds like you, then this is the place for you. Each week we provide actionable steps to move your business forward with our TAD Takeaway.

[00:00:28] Helping you to harness your biggest asset, yourself, to achieve big impact with minimal investment. Stay tuned as we dive into the world of digital marketing, offering insights and advice that will transform your business. Let's get started. Welcome to the very first episode of the Talk About Digital podcast.

[00:00:51] I'm Mark A. Preston, the founder and host of Talk About Digital. And in this first episode, I just want to give you an overview, a feeling of what to expect from future episodes. Well, to start with, I just want to introduce myself and give you a bit of a overview of my background. So you understand the value I can provide.

[00:01:15] Then I want to give you a story of how I started to talk about digital and why I feel that this podcast is actually needed for the small business community. And from there, I want to leave you with a tab takeaway, something that you can do now, something you can action into your business. That doesn't cost a fortune that you can do without a big budget that you can do now, which will generate big impact well.

[00:01:50] Moving forward, let's just give you a bit of an overview of who I am. As I said, I'm Mark A. Preston and I started in the digital marketing industry way back in 2001, which for most of us is probably the start of the industry. Way back then, I started by mistake really, I wanted to do something I could do myself from home.

[00:02:17] So, I basically got some free web hosting off my brother in law, which at the time I'd never heard of web hosting. And I set about designing a website. Like most people, I just figured out how to do it by researching and learning tutorials and going online. And then I just built websites and I started building website after website.

[00:02:47] And then I started realizing, well, No one's actually looking at these websites. So I need a way to get people to look at the website, to do something. That idea turned into an actual lead generation business. And over the next few years, I'd built over 120 individual websites in individual industries where I actually.

[00:03:18] drove quality leads to those sites. And then I sold those leads to small business owners who doesn't have the time or budget to invest into all the marketing to generate the leads. Moving forward over the first five years is I built a very good lead generation business and something inside me started telling me that I wanted to do this.

[00:03:46] Set up my own agency. So what I did, I sold the lead generation business, sold all the websites and got quite a bit of money. And I invested all my own money to start in a web marketing agency. And over the next few years, I grown that agency into a multi office. I had an office in Scotland and one in England.

[00:04:10] I had. Staff working for me and I'd never run an agency before, and it came with all the challenges of building a business, building an agency, employing staff, working out how to actually train them to actually nurture them forward. And all the challenges that comes with running an urgency, like people paying on time and everything.

[00:04:34] So I'm sure as a small business owner, you're used to hearing all these challenges because you face them day in, day out. And I'm not going to lie during the 2008 recession, that agency. went under. I lost everything. And from there, I basically took a bit of time out to re energize myself. And I come up with this concept of creating a digital marketing franchise.

[00:05:05] I wanted to create a sales team throughout the UK. Without actually having the hassle and upfront costs of doing that. So I come up with this concept of creating a digital marketing agency. I grew that and had 50 franchisees throughout the country, all servicing small business owners. So as you can imagine, I had like 50 micro offices all around the UK, all servicing small business owners.

[00:05:39] And the power of that, I found immensely valuable because not only was we making a difference to these people's lives, my job. As the CEO was to educate the franchisees given the training and the ability and the tools to go out and provide a quality service. I sold that business to a big company and I wanted to take a step back because even though that business was doing very well.

[00:06:17] Nobody actually knew who I was and I wanted to set up my own personal brand. So I branded myself up in the industry and it was just me. And from there, I have been providing training services. I've spoken on stages around the world, sharing knowledge at business events, and I've worked with some big brands.

[00:06:43] Now, I'm not going to lie. The money from working with big brands is really good. I mean, that's allowed me to achieve my personal goal of semi retiring. But there's no personal passion in it for me. The personal passion for me is helping small business owners, just like yourself, to generate big impact without the big investment.

[00:07:08] So for me, it's about how can I help the small businesses to push forward and make a real difference to the lives of people that's working within them. One thing I realized is there's a lot of small businesses just like yourself paying quite a considerable amount of money to digital marketing agencies out there for basically things they could do themselves.

[00:07:38] So these things are presented in such a way that they're made to sound so complicated, it warrants the high cost of the price ticket. But in reality, It's just stuff you can do yourself because I truly believe there's nobody better to do the digital marketing for your business than the people that work within those businesses.

[00:08:05] I mean, as a trainer, I've been into many small businesses. And groups of small businesses to actually educate them. And it just takes a couple of light bulb moments. And if the information is presented in an easy to understand format that you can relate to, well, it creates all the difference. I mean, I'm the first to admit, I don't know about your business better than you do.

[00:08:34] I will never understand your customers better than you do. So why not take advantage of that? And I'm here with the talk about digital podcasts to actually present the information in such a way that it's easy to understand. It's easy for you to action. It's easy for you to implement. Honestly, throughout the years, the SMEs out there and the small businesses out there that I've mentored and trained over the years.

[00:09:07] are doing really well, they never ever going to take over the world because that's not their objective. The real passionate businesses just like yourself who wants to make a difference. And this is why I'm doing this podcast because I do want to make a difference to small business owners. With that in mind, it doesn't take a lot.

[00:09:27] This idea of generating big impact because you need a big budget is false. It's understanding the customers. It's understanding the people. It's about how can you make people feel from what you're saying to them? I am a big believer in generating big impact with minimal investment, because not everything, you Costs a fortune.

[00:09:53] I have no script in front of me. And what you will expect to come from the future podcast episodes is me either alone, just chatting about different digital marketing techniques, putting them in a simple to understand format or chatting to a guest expert about that topic in a way that it's understandable for you.

[00:10:17] And with that in mind. I want to leave you with this massive TAD takeaway. Something that's so valuable that you'll think, why didn't I think of that? Now, those things are the most valuable things because like I say, everything's made to sound so complicated. So here we go. I have a question for you. What do you as a business want to be known for?

[00:10:49] Not what you are known for now, but what do you strive to be known for? On your website, if I read your website, will I understand that? Will I understand what you want to be known for? If not, then you're missing a massive opportunity. And I want you in this TAD Takeaway to go through, read your website, And think, does it have everything on there for a potential customer to make an informed decision as to want to contact me because I am known for that thing.

[00:11:28] I hope you found this episode of value and moving forward throughout the future episodes, I will be inviting expert guests on where they're too. We'll be sharing their stories, their valuable insights, and a massive tag takeaway. Thank you for listening. And I hope you join me soon. Thank you for tuning in to the talk about digital podcast.

[00:11:51] Remember, every small step you take brings you closer to your business goals. If you found today's episode helpful, subscribe to our podcast and sign up to your free 12 week tab customer growth course at www. podcast. com. Talk about digital.call UK to receive even more customer generating tips and in size.

[00:12:15] Until next time, keep harnessing your strengths and making actionable, impactful moves in your digital marketing journey. See you soon.