2179 - What Works in Small Business Marketing with Ninety Five Media's Emma Tessler

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1:05With us right now, Emma Tesler. Emma, you are the founder of 95 Media. You're found on the web at, it's all spelled out, 95media.co. You are also the host of Stop Scrolling, Start Scaling podcast. So to our friend listening, if you like Emma and you want to hear more of Emma, real easy. Just do a search and hit subscribe and start listening once this episode is over. All right, Emma, it's great to have you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here today. Absolutely. Before we start talking about your superpowers, what do you into lately? I don't know if you're watching any shows or movies or music or hobbies.

1:49What do you do when you're just completely leaving work behind? Yeah. It's so funny because a few years ago, I realized I don't have hobbies. My whole life is my business. We got to change that. So I've definitely been on this journey to find things outside of work that light me up and still kind of give me that creative outlet. And one thing I found about a year and a half ago, this makes me sound like I'm 80 years old, but it's actually needle pointing, which is such a fun hobby where, you know, it's like a canvas and you needle a design and you can turn it into a pillow or artwork or an ornament.

2:25And it's really fun to just kind of be in a group of other people. I go to a class most weekends and to do needlepoint. Oh, my gosh. And needlepointing is not that difficult, right? Because you're following a pattern. Yeah. It's kind of like paint by numbers for... Yeah, exactly. With thread or yarn or whatever you want to call it. It's very fun. Yeah. And I suspect that to me, that strikes me as something that would be kind of meditative. Yeah. You get to kind of like shut your brain off and do it and think of about that rather than, you know, work, which is hard to turn off for most of us. Well, I have a friend and she said, you know, that's like, that's what she loved.

3:09Like if, you know, for like when she's done with work and all that, she's just like, she grabs the needle point. She, and she always does that while she's watching shows. Cause it was like, it was either, cause like it, like she was saying like, ah, you know, like I was just like Netflix and then, or whatever. And then I would just like be browsing social media. And I'm like, it wasn't like a net positive for me anymore. And so she started needle pointing. And I think maybe like, I think paint by numbers, um, you know, just like while she's watching something and just like, you know, it's just so relaxing for her to do that.

3:44Yes. I mean, I'm the same way. I'm either like scrolling on my phone while I'm watching Netflix or needle pointing when I'm watching Netflix. So it's nice to get off of social when my whole life revolves around social. So to shut that off at the end of the day is a nice break. Yeah. And you mentioned that you get together with other friends and stuff and needle point together. Yeah, there's a class at a local needle point shop and she hosts it most Saturdays. And so it's fun to just kind of be around a table for a few hours with some people you don't know they come in and out and to needle point together.

4:14It's a nice little activity for a weekend. Oh my gosh, this is so cool. And of course, like you can just, there's probably like a gazillion products that you can buy. So like any design you want, you can see what it looks like. And so, you know, like a puzzle, like, yeah, I want to build that. Totally. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. And I have a really creative background. My first career was actually interior design. So I try and find like creative things to do outside of the marketing brain that I normally have on. Oh gosh. Yeah. You and me both. All right. So let's talk about what you do with 95 media.

4:51Yeah, for sure. So 95 media, we are a digital marketing agency and we really specialize in creating content that converts. The way that we do that is through mainly social media management for small businesses. Really what social media management is, is where you're working with a team like ours at 95 Media who can really step in and be a marketing partner. So we manage everything social media marketing related for our clients from building out their strategy, their content calendar, creating every single post, shooting content with them, really building and engaging with their community. And then of course, utilizing the data to inform how we adjust the strategy moving forward.

5:33And what I found is that so many founders started a business because they're so passionate about solving a problem and about serving their audience really well. But the truth of the matter is that it's really hard to be a founder these days without also being a social media marketer. But you did not start a business to be a social media marketer. We did. So we like to come in, take that burden off our clients' shoulders and really help them not only relieve their time to put their time towards other needle moving tasks, but actually not have to worry about their marketing because they know it's going to consistently generate an ROI for them without them needing to touch it at all.

6:08Yeah. Well, so here's the million dollar question, Emma. What's working right now in social media? What is working? Well, a lot's working right now. It's funny because I think a lot of people feel like a lot doesn't work, but the truth is there's a lot that does. Video content, of course, is one of the big, big things that is working and has been working for several years. What we're seeing is that platforms are leaning into a bit longer form content. So TikTok is showing, I actually just saw this stat yesterday. They're showing that videos over one minute long, which previously was a bit longer than everyone was watching.

6:49But right now videos over a minute long are garnering 64 % longer watch time than short videos. So they're starting to test 10, 15, 30, 60 minute videos on TikTok, which is something really to watch because what that tells us is that they're copying the YouTube model, right? So when you see a platform copying what another platform's doing, they're vying for that competitor space. And so if you are someone who has like leaned really heavily into short form content, I would start testing a bit longer and see how your audience reacts because that is what the platforms are looking at right now and seeing perform really well.

7:25Yeah. What would be examples of maybe clients you're working with and what are you putting in these minute long videos, which I have to tell you, I'm actually quite heartened to hear that because I was kind of thinking like, oh no, what are we going to get to? It's like the only thing, everyone's just got to do these dumb three-second videos or something like that. But to me, like if the content is good and it's substantive, I like a little bit more meat on the bones. Yeah. And I think that's really what a lot of people are leaning into as well. You know, we're seeing a big shift from like cable TV to YouTube TV.

8:04And so people are turning to social media, quote unquote, for their long form entertainment. So why couldn't that be you? I I would say a lot of the long form content is typically leaning into storytelling or educational content. So storytelling is ultimately sales content because what you can do with a story is you can break a belief that somebody has, right? So you can say where you've been or where a client has been, the journey they've been on and where they were on the other side of the challenge that they faced as one example and really dive deeper into that story a lot more than you would be able to in a, you know, 30, 45, 60 second video, which previously we were capped at.

8:47In terms of educational content, there's an unlimited plethora of what you could do. I would lean into like looking at what podcasts like this do because podcasting is ultimately long form video content at the end of the day. And so when you can look at that as inspiration and just say, okay, cool, I'm going to film a video of me talking about X topic and just let myself keep talking, not cut myself off at the 60 second mark, it just opens up a lot of opportunity. The one thing I would say to be careful of is just to not keep talking to fill the space, but to make sure it's really valuable because the amount of watch time on a video is key to that video being pushed out in the algorithm.

9:30So what watch time means is what part of the video did people stop watching at? So if it's a three minute video, did you lose them after five seconds? Did you lose them after 60 seconds or did they watch the entire video? And based on how much they watched, that determines to the algorithm how much they're going to push it out to more of a bigger audience. Yeah. People are watching the full video. You're going to have a much higher chance of that video continuing to garner reach. Wow. Okay. So, um, maybe it might be helpful in terms of best practice by the end of this video, You're going to do that.

10:05I'm going to share, you know, so it's like you're teasing, creating some open loops, you know, kind of teasing what's to come. Unfortunately, I've seen people really exploit that. And it's so disappointing. They're like, that was lame. You know, I'm sure we've all been through that. Yeah. Well, and the hook is important. But to your point, you do want to make sure you can deliver on that hook and that you're not going to lose people along the way. because you can start a video however you want, but if you don't give little nuggets of gold along the way to keep people activated in the video, you are going to lose them before you get there.

10:35So open up with the hook, but then make sure you're dropping really like high points of the video every few segments just to keep people continuing to watch. Emma, who do you typically work with? We work primarily with small businesses. is. So brands who have under 10 employees, typically, honestly, most of our clients have about five or less. However, we've worked with, you know, large billion dollar corporations at the same time. I really enjoy working with small businesses because we usually get to work directly with the founder. And that's really nice because we get an in-depth understanding of the brand and where the founder is really looking to go.

11:17So we don't niche down with regards to an industry, but really with the type of founder that we work with. So usually the type of client is someone who has either been doing all of their marketing on their own and is really struggling to have the time to do it, to create, to film, to strategize, and to actually get that content up. The other type of client is someone who has outsourced in the past and it just hasn't really been the right relationship. They haven't seen the type of results they were looking for. And so now they're coming to us to really hand it all off and know that it's taken care of.

11:54Yeah. And tell me about your business. I mean, as like 95media.co is your website, but who does the work? Like, where did you come from? Where are you going? Yeah. So like I mentioned earlier, my background is actually interior design. So I was not meant to be in marketing by any means. Um, but I was actually going to college for design and I had an internship with someone who was looking to grow her business with coaching back in 2015. And she, you know, I was very young at the time, youngest person on her team. And she was like, Hey, here's my phone, go on my Instagram. And I feel like people are doing this, like just kind to figure out how can we use Instagram to get some coaching clients for the business.

12:47And so I started poking around on social at the time when people were posting sunset photos and bad photos of their dinner and just kind of hoping for the best. But I saw it from a very different lens. I really saw a huge opportunity and a huge gap in the market. I wondered, like, why are more brands not on here? Like there's so much space to be had. There was very little competition and very few brands actually using Instagram to market. And so that really inspired me because I really saw where it was going to go. And as I, you know, graduated, I landed my dream job in design before I even graduated college.

13:27And I was like, okay, well, the universe is telling me like social media is just not really a thing. Everyone's literally laughing at me because I'm telling them I want to do social media marketing because it's not a real industry. I'll just do design. But I really couldn't let it go. I had some clients that I worked with on the side. And as the pandemic hit, I felt like, you know what? If I don't really go all in on building 95 Media now, I'm going to regret it. And I'm never, I'm really going to wonder what if. So I left my job in 2020 and really began building 95 Media at a time when, you know, everything was shifting in the world.

14:02So the timing really lined up well where brands realized in 2020, if I'm not on social, I'm screwed. I don't have an opportunity to have in-person marketing. No one's going shopping in person. I can't do any of my previous form of marketing. And that year really shifted everything for digital marketing. And so it was a really great time to go all in. And with our team today, as I mentioned, we serve small businesses and we ultimately help them grow their own brand, which is really, really inspiring and impactful on our end to watch our work really help others so deeply. But the structure of our team is we have myself as the founder, we have a creative project manager who really leads project management and overall coordination and quality across the team.

14:51But our clients get to work with an account manager and a community coordinator when they work with 95 media. So the account manager is the one who really coordinates day to day, creates all the content, builds the strategy and the community coordinator owns and builds their audience in a really beautiful way. Because back in 2015, when I started content, really did all of the heavy lifting, but today it doesn't, it's not enough. So we have to look at content plus community to really build conversions quickly. And at the rate that, you know, all of our clients are looking for. So that community coordinator role is such an essential piece to the success of our clients and what they see working with us.

15:31Yeah. Your podcast, Stop Scrolling, Start Scaling, again, to our friend listening, just go ahead and search that right now. Again, it's Stop Scrolling, Start Scaling. What do you talk about on the podcast? The podcast is my favorite place to really dive deep into that long-form content like we were talking about. It's where, you know, we get to dive deep into some topics generally regarding marketing. That's really my forte. So we talk all things, um, social media, email, and podcast marketing to really help our listeners grow their brand, whether they're doing it themselves, they're working with a team, they're considering working with us to give them the tools to know how to approach marketing really strategically.

16:14What I've found is that a lot of people are posting, but they're not finding those results come through the door on the other end. So we really aim to solve that problem with our podcast. Yeah. To our friend that's listening, who is like your ideal type of client and what should they do? What should they do with their own marketing? No, from here. No, whether they go to your website and how do they engage with you? Or maybe do you have resources that you'd recommend? Yeah, for sure. So what I would recommend if you're someone who is looking to really take your marketing up a notch, whether you're looking to improve that skill set of your own, or you're looking to work with us is start with our podcast, Stop Scaling Start Scaling.

16:55Our Instagram is definitely our most active social platform. We have tons of really helpful content over there as well. If you're looking to work with us, our link in bio on Instagram has all of our great links. Josh, you may include some in the show notes as well, but Instagram is a great place to go or our website, of course, 95media.co has all the good stuff, but we love working with small businesses, like I said, and we really specialize in creating content that converts, especially after a season where you just may not have seen those conversions come through for yourself. Yeah. Again, your website, 95media.co, and there's a link to everything that we've been talking about right there.

17:36Emma Tesler, again, founder, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. This was wonderful.

17:47Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

18:29I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

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