Future Steps Creative - Marketing & Website Strategy For Online Entrepreneurs

This episode covers the basics of website accessibilty for business owners and organisations. Learn more in the blog post here: https://marlonmcpherson.com/pod107_326

If you feel like social media is working against you as a service-based business owner, you’re not imagining it. Organic reach has changed. Algorithms prioritise paid advertising, and chasing likes, followers, and viral posts rarely translates into real business growth. In this episode, I break down: Why organic reach has declinedThe biggest mindset mistake business owners make on social mediaWhy likes and followers are often vanity metricsThe real purpose of social media for service businessesHow to use content strategically to generate quality leads Instead of fighting algorithms, learn how to use social media as a tool to drive traffic, build authority, and attract the right clients. 👉 Learn more and access resources: marlonmcpherson.com

This episode covers how SOPs ( Standard Operating Procedures) can help you save time and money in your day-to-day operations.

Checklist download: https://marlonmcpherson.com/marketingsaleschecklist/ Learn more at marlonmcpherson.com

This is an update on what's coming from Marlon McPherson in terms of resources and content in the near future. For more info visit marlonmcpherson.com

It’s very tempting to host your professional email account on the same hosting as your website. After all, there are lots of website hosts that offer emails for free with the hosting package, so it may seem to make sense to do this instead of paying separately for an email service. I don’t think it's a good idea thought and I’ll give you a few reasons why.

In this video, I break down the AIDA framework - Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action - and show you how to apply it to your landing pages. Whether you're selling products, services, or building an email list, this proven copywriting technique can significantly boost your conversion rates. I'll guide you through each step of the AIDA process, sharing tips on crafting attention-grabbing headlines, building interest with relatable stories, sparking desire with benefits and testimonials, and creating clear calls-to-action that drive results.

This episode covers, how to make your website more secure by creating strong passwords that's hard to crack, without having to remember what they are. Doing this will help protect against brute force attacks and other security risks. Links: https://www.passwordmonster.com/

FSC Ep.99 - Website Privacy Policy or Legal Pages - 3 Ways To Get Them. As a dedicated content creator and online marketing strategist, my mission is to help you grow your online business effectively. This video dives into essential website strategies, including implementing privacy policies—a crucial step for any successful online business. With data laws tightening, I'll guide you through using online templates, dedicated services like Termageddon, and professional legal assistance to protect your brand and boost consumer confidence.

This episode discusses whether to go with cheaper, unmanaged hosting or managed hosting. What's the difference, or what are the pros and cons? This is important to find out when you are ready to publish your website online.

Is having a Facebook page for your service business worth it today? I see so many business owners neglect their page but I will talk about why they may not be gaining traction on Facebook and why you may want to keep it up to date.

In this episode, I explain how to generate more qualified website leads and avoid getting low-quality form submissions. This naturally reduces your workload and increases the conversions from leads to sales as there is a filter in place. I discuss the strategy behind using a dedicated page and a custom form to achieve better results.

Learn why some small service-based businesses lose out on leads. Is it because they don’t get enough traffic to their website, because the website doesn’t convert well, or something else? I explore these in this episode and address one key thing that solo business owners fail to do when it comes to leads.

This is about the welcome email sequence and how the structure works. Here I cover a simple 3 touch sequence that goes out over a few days.

Having a website for your business is one thing, but having an effective website is a completely different thing. In this episode, I’m going to cover 3 things that make an effective website that works for your business so that you can attract and convert leads and customers.

In this episode, we're going to be talking about transactional emails and what they are. Also, we'll talk about some tools or services that you can use to get this setup.

You’re publishing online content like should, but you don’t seem to be getting anywhere and now you’re getting frustrated… Let's explore how to get more organic reach.

Emailing your email list subscribers is very important to build relationships and make sales. But sometimes it’s not a good idea to email them at all. In this episode, I’m going to give you 3 reasons why you probably shouldn’t.

This episode explores whether we can control whether our online videos, posts, or other content goes viral, and look at how we can maximise the opportunities available in our content marketing for our business.

A strong brand relies on understanding the brand voice. This is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. This episode goes through the key points for a successful brand voice.

This episode explains a strategy for following up with email subscribers to keep them engaged for the long term. This will help you stay relevant in their minds when they are ready to make a purchasing decision.

In this episode, I cover some things to do in terms of strategy before you get a website designed and built. This will help you prepare for the website project and help you get more out of your website in the end.

It is a nightmare to lose any file, and losing your website files is no different. In this episode, I’ll share with you a few tips on how to back your website.

This episode covers how you can do double opt-in your own way so that there is less friction when new people sign up for your email list. The typical automated double opt-in is restrictive and you end up with a lot of unconfirmed contacts. This method fixes this and allows you to personalise your own double opt-in email.

Bad quality hosting could be what holds your website back. In this episode, I explain what to look for when choosing a website hosting service so that you can get the best performance out of your website.

Knowing whether to use double opt-in for your email marketing is really important as it can determine the quality of your list. In this episode of Future Steps Creative, I discuss the pros and cons so that you can decide which one is best to go with.

In this episode, I share some of the basics of getting started with email marketing. After all email marketing is one of the best ways to generate more revenue for your business and having it in place will help you convert more leads online. Free Resource: You can grab my Profitable Website Checklist here

Today I want to talk to you about utilising your website to help you save time in your service-based business.

Is it okay to use third-party WordPress blocks to fill the gap that Gutenberg has? That's what I would like to explore. In this episode, I'll touch on how I use a combination of my page builder and the native WP blocks.

Every business needs processes and systems in place to run properly and make money. If you don’t have proper systems your business may end up getting out of control and running you instead. This episode talks about the fundamental systems that every business needs in order to be successful.

Ep.77 - Landing Page Vs Website: What Should You Use For a lot of people, this could be a decision that's hard to make. Not everyone needs a website straight away, and a landing page might be better to start with. I'll give you my take on which way to go in this episode of Futur Steps Creative.

In this episode, I share some of my favourite tools I use to edit my video podcast to help you choose the best option for you.

Creating online content is one of the best ways to organically drive traffic back to your website. But how can you ensure that you’re doing this effectively? I have 3 ways that you can get more website visitors directly from your online content and turn them into leads.

In this episode of Future Steps Creative, I’m covering how to get better audio in your videos or podcast. There’s nothing worse than having to put up with poor-quality audio in podcast episodes or videos s this can be very distracting to the audience and doesn’t provide a great experience. I’ll share with you some of my top tips to improve your audio straightaway. Free Podcast Starter Guide: https://marlonmcpherson.com/podcaststarterguide

The whole point of marketing is to direct potential customers towards your product or service. In order for this to happen, you need to get website visitors and then convert them into leads. This episode looks at the two main ways you can generate visitor traffic back to your website and why paid traffic may not be the best place to start.

You can't afford to have the majority of your website visitors leave without a trace. Most people are not yet ready to take action so you want to give them a reason to reach out to you and become a lead. This episode dives into 4 ways to ensure that you convert more website visitors into leads.

I just wanted to share with you the fact that I discovered yet another way to get content ideas using Canva when I have writer's block. Canva's Magic Write feature is excellent for coming up with outlines, as well as writing the content for you using AI.

This is the audio from one of my YouTube Videos that you can find here: https://youtu.be/Kw2xMTN_FqM In the episode, I share how my content marketing strategy works and how I practically manage my production and publishing process. The free template mentioned is here: https://marlonmcpherson.com/contentmanager/

Let's face it, Artificial intelligence is all the craze right now. Just like with any new, revolutionary technology, people are divided about what's going to happen and whether to accept it. This episode explores several ways you can use ChatGPT to help your marketing.

An unclear message can leave your website visitors confused and unsure about your business and whether it's for them. This episode is about making sure you hook your website visitors with the right message for your brand and target audience. After all, your website is a key part of your online marketing strategy and it needs to be able to generate leads and sales in order for your business to be profitable. This is one of the 4 key steps to making your website more profitable for your business. Grab the FREE Checklist that covers all the steps in more detail here: marlonmcpherson.com/profitablewebsite

Here, talk about why your website's appearance may be costing you, customers, by having a bad first impression. I have some tips for how to improve your website's design and layout to get more leads and customers. ➕Resources: ►Free: Profitable Website Checklist: https://marlonmcpherson.com/profitablewebsite ►Get my direct help with your online strategy here: https://marlonmcpherson.com

In this episode, I share how to start your own podcast for your business and connect with more of your ideal customers. You can also download my FREE Podcast Starter Guide to help you get started here: marlonmcpherson.com/podcaststarterguide

Google My Business, now known as Google Business Profile is still one of the best ways businesses can get local leads for their services or products. This episode looks at some of the ways you can optimise your profile to stand the best chance of getting found in the search results. You can learn more about my content at https://marlonmcpherson.com

Every business has a customer journey, but not everyone understands what exactly it is or what it means for a business. This episode raises the point of why you should be concentrating on what your customer journey looks like and see how you can use it to grow your business.

In this episode, I talk about having a single-focus approach to three key aspects of your online business. Doing this helps you move forward faster instead of stretching your resources and diluting your efforts.

A lot of people want to start online businesses these days, but not everyone is able to effectively run one. This episode explores whether or not you should stick with being a creator or maybe you have what it takes to carry out all the business operations.

In this episode, I talk about installing free WordPress plugins and what that might mean for your website. For more information about website strategy and content marketing, visit marlonmcpherson.com

Domain names are an extension of your brand and choosing the right one can be a big deal. It can get tricky as the most common names are taken and this might force you to become a bit more creative with your domain name of choice. This episode will give you some tips around how to choose a good domain name even if what you have in mind isn’t available. Associated post https://marlonmcpherson.com/60

Blog posts are an ideal way to attract and keep more visitors to your website. But, how many do you actually need to begin with? Let's explore this in today's episode. Check out the related post here: marlonmcpherson.com/59

I’ve created several websites for myself and others and I have seen some common misconceptions or mistakes around how to approach things, and I want to share some thoughts on this. When creating a website for a business there are some things to bear in mind so that you can properly plan and get a good outcome. That's what I'll be covering in this episode. See the related post here: marlonmcpherson.com/58