Blog
Read on as we share the lessons learnt (usually the hard way) from the content trenches.
From Campus to Career: A Graduate’s Perspective on Full-Time Work
So, you’ve done it! You’ve thrown that cap in the air, snagged the degree, and are now staring down the barrel of what’s next. Goodbye midday naps and Thursday (and sometimes Sunday) night shenanigans, hello nine to five grind. Welcome to the land of full-time work, where alarm clocks are your best friend, coffee is your saviour, and your weekends are sacred ‘you’ time. But there’s a little more to it than that, don’t worry! Here’s a little glimpse into what it’s like from the
Insource v Outsource: When should you look for a partner to help with your marketing?
A content marketing agency telling you when not to outsource? This article is not a farce, but a pointed reminder that not all jobs should be delegated – and we’ll explain why. If you’re looking to claw time back into your week, there’s often better ways to do it than an outsourced agency solution. A bit like ordering ramen rather than sushi UberEats, not all tasks travel to an external partner the same – or should be ordered in the first place. Having taken briefs of all siz
What if? How to practice your Council crisis communications plan
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not a question of if, but when, you’re going to find yourself in a crisis communications situation. You only have to see the news to know natural disasters are the new normal, corporate reputational damage a daily headline and social media fast becoming the preferred tool for disgruntled employees to publicly whip former employers. What a time to be alive as a business!
Navigating networking: My golden rules for networking
I’ve spent the last 20 years talking to strangers in boring rooms. Some call it networking. Others call it torture. Either way, it’s an important part of your career – and whether you’re starting out, in the trenches or top of your game, I guarantee networking will form an important part of your professional trajectory. If like me, you find yourself in a networking rut, I’ve penned my golden rules for networking along with the trips, tricks and traps I see people fall into.
5 reasons you should invest in social media advertising for your regional event
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
How to develop a robust destination brand on any budget
Developing a destination brand or re-brand can be daunting especially when trying to stick to budget. Here are my tips on developing a destination brand from my 15-years of destination marketing experience.
2023: Our Year In Review
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
What does the future of Facebook look like? We had a guess at 2024 and beyond
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
TikTok in 2024 – A content marketers' prediction
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
7 tips to create lo-fi video for your social media channels
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
Hey destination marketers, are you making one of these social media mistakes?
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
5 Tips To Make Your Content More Accessible
Are you wanting to create more accessible content? Here's 5 tips to help with your next post.
6 common SEO mistakes you need to avoid
They don’t call this the digital age for nothing – according to Statista, 91 percent of Australians use the internet for communicating, entertainment, shopping, and business purposes – and your business is out there competing for their attention. The question is – how do you stand out in a sea of 8.5 billion daily Google searches? The answer lies in your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) mistakes.
5 ways interning can kick-start your career
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “university sets you up for the real world,” but what if I were to tell you this couldn’t be further from the truth? My experience interning at Media Mortar has sparked a new love content marketing through real world application.
8 reasons why your tourism brand should be on TikTok
We’d bet our morning coffee that either you’re addicted, or you know someone who is addicted to the app that’s taken social media by storm -TikTok. After all, it’s been the most downloaded app in 2020, 2021 and 2022 consecutively and 2023 doesn’t look any different.
5 steps I’ve put in place to leave my business baby to have a real one this maternity leave
As I face my second round of maternity leave, I feel like a seasoned pro at stepping out of my business baby to have the human-kind. Since I’ve been asked (and interviewed) many times about what structures I put in place to do it so well the first time, I wanted to share my blueprint for other entrepreneurs thinking about doing the same.
We're calling it: top social media trends for 2023
We love predicting social media trends, so it was fitting for our latest Feeling Content live event that we turned the whole morning into a forecast session – looking forward, looking back: hottest social media trends to come out of 2022 and into 2023. For those that couldn’t make it, we wanted to share our best guess on what we think will stay and what will go.
Recruitment marketing and why social media might be your answer
At our recent Feeling Content Event, we shared our top four tips for recruitment marketing through social media. It’s our view as content marketers that there’s a golden opportunity to be channel diverse in the way you talk to potential employees. Let me walk you through our recommendations, which are all included in this handy recruitment checklist we built.
5 lessons from five years in business
A wise mentor of mine once told me, “if you can make it to five years in business Hannah, you’ll be flying”. Her words have echoed in the back of my mind since she uttered them, and I’ve speculated fondly for years about what this business birthday and might feel like.
5 reasons you should be doing affiliate influencer marketing
What if we told you that you could outsource your marketing to experienced individuals for the cost of a sliver of a sale? May we introduce you to affiliate influencer marketing.
Boosted Posts vs Facebook Ads, which one should I use?
Have you ever been curious about those ‘sponsored’ posts you see while scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and wanted to use them for your business? Read on my sponsored-post loving friends.
Which Facebook Ad type is right for you?
Calling all novice social media advertisers. If you’re looking to dabble in your first social media advertising campaign to help solve a pain point for your business, then this blog is for you. Before you launch straight into the world of Facebook Advertising Manager, take a moment to educate yourself on the different types of paid campaigns available to you, to ensure you don’t waste precious advertising moolah on ads that don’t align with your end goal. From top of the funnel advertis
7 quick actions to improve your Instagram engagement
Got 99 problems and boosting your Instagram engagement is one? Let us help. Whether you’re a social media manager or you’ve been tasked with overseeing the channels on top of your workload, one of the things we get asked often (read: ALL. THE. TIME) is how to improve engagement on Instagram. With its fickle algorithms and ever-changing platform features, it’s easy to feel a little lost when hatching a plan to move the needle on your engagement. Don’t despair, there are things you can
6 tips every copywriter should know
The moment a new starter joins the Media Mortar team – from intern to manager – they are provided with our Media Mortar copywriting rules, aka our writing do’s and don’ts.
How to create a social media style guide
It’s as simple as this: if your business is on social media, you need a social media style guide. Without one, you run the risk of inconsistency, mistakes and confusion on the very channels that work like a megaphone for most businesses, social media. Adhering to a social media style guide keeps your brand's look and feel consistent, helps onboard social media team members with ease and builds credibility online by exercising a cohesivity across all platforms. Read on for our suggestions to
Dear client: 5 things your marketing agency wishes you’d stop doing
Briefing a marketing agency isn’t rocket science, but if the steam coming out of the ears of agency friends after a recent post I put up on LinkedIn was anything to go by, agencies are frequently on the receiving end of some pretty curly requests. Since a strong brief delivers strong outcomes, we wanted to share the biggest bugbears we have as a content marketing agency when receiving client briefs. If you’re thinking of briefing your marketing agency, take it from us, these are things you
Why you should be making Instagram Guides
We all know how effective a well-crafted reel or story is on Instagram, but have you heard about Instagram’s new (and more underrated) tool, Instagram Guides? You wouldn’t be the first to have missed the appearance of the little map icon on your IG feed last year when Instagram decided to merge the best parts of a blog post and regular IG posting into a new style of content posting, IG Guides. Here's what we know, why we like them and why we think you should be adding them to your content
Scroll Stopping reasons why Instagram Reels need to be part of your social media strategy
Instagram has come a long way from the days of being a basic social media platform for users to share their photos with friends and family. In fact, this year Instagram announced it’s a video platform, which means the app is putting all its video features first. With videos (both short and long-form), Lives, Stories, and now Reels, it’s no secret many of us have feature fatigue because no sooner have you learnt the latest feature, there’s a new one. However, Instagram’s latest feature
7 reasons why LinkedIn needs to be a major player in your social media strategy
So you’ve got your business’ Facebook and Instagram accounts down pat – but what about LinkedIn? A LinkedIn account is basically an online business card with tremendous sharing power and massive reach across thousands of industries, which is why we encourage all our clients (particularly those in professional services or appealing to a professional target market) to get active on this channel. What’s the difference then between LinkedIn and other social media sites? While people sign
Four lessons from four years running a small business
People often ask me, “what’s it like running a business”? My answer for the past four years is always the same – it’s hard. It’s both the hardest and most rewarding work I’ve ever done, and the most analogous situation I’ve found to it has been mothering a child. Despite what it might look like from the outside, the hours are long and the praise short, but the good days far outweigh the hard ones. Since Media Mortar turned four this April, I wanted to share four of my biggest
8 ways to lift your Instagram Stories game
With over 500,000 million people interacting with Instagram Stories, or Instastories, every day, the question isn’t whether you should be on Instagram Stories but rather, are you doing enough with them? If not, you’re missing out on a key part of consumer’s purchasing patterns, with research indicating 58% of consumer’s purchase decisions are made by something they’ve seen on Instagram Stories. Since launching in 2010, Instagram Stories have provided a welcome rugged and raw alternat
11 key takeaways from the 2021 Victorian Tourism Conference
Move over Zoom and Microsoft Teams, Melbourne just hosted its first IRL conference since COVID and the energy in the building was electric. While the Victorian Tourism Conference was titled “Shaping the future of Victorian tourism” the presentations and conversations also provided a platform to reflect on learnings from the past year. More importantly, for most of the 800 people in attendance, it was a chance to move beyond the computer screen and connect with industry partners face-to-fac
5 reasons NOT to outsource social media management
As a content marketing media agency, you’d think we’d be the first to say outsourcing your social media management is always a good idea, but truth is, for some people, it’s a disaster. And while we could take your money and run, we’d rather be honest and save us both the headache if you’re not ready for outsourced social media management. In our experience, the reason most businesses look to an outsourced social media solution has very little to do with social media as a skill, but ra
Highs and lows of 2020: Media Mortar Report
Every year as a business owner, I like to pull together a cathartic report of the year as I pen my new year’s resolutions for the business. As I sit here in the first week of January 2021 starting on my reflection of the year that was – like most people, I don’t even know where to start. 2020 was something else; the highs were insurmountably high and the lows unfathomably low, like a rollercoaster where even the flat parts made you want to scream. But importantly as I sit to write this
Five Business New Year’s Resolutions we’re adopting
I don’t know about you, but I’m maniacal about setting New Year’s Resolutions. Ever since I read this stat from Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California – which outlined that you’re 42% more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down – I realised I wasn’t crazy in my goal setting, merely, setting myself up for success. This year, I’ve taken a new twist on resolutions, writing both personal ones and business New Year’s Resolutions. My
How can you measure ROI from organic content?
“Sounds good, but what’s the ROI?” We’re so used to this question it could form part of a drinking game in client meetings (Eds note: we should bring drinks to new meetings). Since paid digital media is so transparent in the way it reports returns, it’s easy to question the ROI (return on investment) on organic content. Organic content doesn’t always spit out a neat little graph that marries up with how many leads, clicks and sales came from your content. But just because you can�
Tourism marketing trends to focus on in 2021
We all know 2020 wasn’t the year we asked for in the tourism industry, but our bottom lines are the proof it’s the one we got. As the world starts speculating about what comes next for tourism and events, we’ve been busy gazing into our content marketing crystal ball to help you capitalise on consumer marketing trends. Just last week we presented our forecast to the Local Government Association of Queensland and wanted to share where we see 2021 going for the industry we know and love so
Are you making one of these tourism marketing mistakes?
The good thing about marketing mistakes is that you can learn from them. The even better thing about mistakes, is they don’t even have to be your own to be a learning opportunity. That’s why we’re lifting the lid on the biggest tourism marketing mistakes we encounter, on repeat. Before you start executing your tourism marketing plans, make sure you’re not falling into one of these common pitfalls. 1. Just a reminder, TVCs were designed for the TV. Keep them there Don’t get us wrong,
Three reasons organic content is not dead
Call me biased as a content marketer who makes a living out of organic content, but I take offence when people say marketing is ‘pay to play’. Over the course of my career, I’ve seen proof that organic content can perform like a high-powered Ferrari on a race track, when it’s released in the right conditions. Sure, organic content might not work like it used to (remember the days where you could put up a photo on Facebook and have it be seen by ALL your followers?). But it’s a far cr
10 tips for working with digital influencers
Did you know 71 per cent of Australian consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a post by a digital influencer? Based on this stat alone, we think it’s time you considered adding digital influencers into your marketing strategy too. Before you stop reading and start sending your product to influencers, pump the breaks. There are a lot of steps required to find your perfect digital influencer match before the art of influencing happens. Whether you’re a small brand or a global
5 marketing activities that won’t cost you a dime
If COVID-19 has taught us one thing with marketing activities (Eds note: if only it was just one thing), it’s how quickly marketing budgets can change. We saw many of our clients go from hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars to a next-to-nothing budget. It made us think about the marketing activities that can be achieved when your marketing dollars run dry. Regardless of if you had a large budget to start with or are just starting out in business, we’ve got five marketing activities y
4 ways we adapted to market our business through a pandemic
You know who needs a tourism marketing agency when the world can’t travel through a pandemic? Very few people it turns out. But if three years of running a business have taught me anything, it’s that you don’t wish for more business, you work for it. Needless to say, we’ve been busy these past three months through the COVID-19 pandemic, adapting our way of doing business to meet our market (the tourism and events industry) where they needed us most. I wanted to share four ways we’ve
How to start a blog for your business
So, a marketing specialist has told you that you need to start a blog. What next? Don’t sit in front of your computer wondering how to put pen to virtual paper. Pour yourself a cup of creativity (aka coffee) and start working through this step by step guide for how to start a blog. Your new blog is about to become one of your most valuable marketing assets – just keep an eye on your Google Analytics to see why. One of our client’s blogs single-handedly is responsible for 110,000 visito
19/20 Year in Review
Amidst closing out finances for EOFY 19/20, one of my favourite tasks each June is to take time out to reflect on the year that was and share our Media Mortar year in review. Consider it like one of those Christmas emails you used to receive from a family friend – with a little teaser of what happened and some insights into what’s to come. Like most business owners, our FY 19/20 will undoubtedly be remembered by the current global pandemic. But don’t worry, this is a blog post about hop
6 reasons you should schedule your social media content
You know what we hear a lot of in our line of work? “I don’t have time to manage my social media.” To be honest with you, we get it. Our feedback from more than 300 different small businesses we coached over the past three years revealed business owners were spending more than two hours a week struggling with their social media. That’s 4.3 days of the year wondering “what do I post.” No wonder small business owners say they don’t have time for social media! We have good news – y
6 event marketing pitfalls and how to avoid them
Want to know one of the unexpected benefits of working with so many different events over the years? We get to have a bird’s eye view of how really good events run. The flip side is we also get to see the most common marketing pitfalls not-so-good events seem to fall into. The perplexing thing about these marketing mistakes (like these small business ones we wrote earlier), is they are usually totally avoidable and don’t cost money, just time. Our belief is that being forewarned is forear
Event marketing: Using social media to market your event
Believe it or not, the most powerful way to connect with your customers through your event marketing is completely free. It’s also probably sitting 10cm away from you right now – your mobile phone. If you’ve read Social Skills, you’ll already know how powerful social media can be. Many events struggle with how they can stay relevant with their event marketing for 365 days of the year. Especially when their event is only 2-3 days of the year (and for many events, even less). Truth be told
Step-by-step guide: How to define your target audience
In the words of our favourite marketing guru, Seth Godin, “everyone is not your target audience”. And yet, this is without a doubt the most common misconception we encounter when onboarding a new client. On behalf of marketers across the globe – can we please ask you to define your target audience, so your marketing messages reach someone who is actually listening? We’re not talking about writing tomes of strategy or complex Gantt charts; we’re only asking you to answer one simple q
How to report social media marketing and set KPIs
Since we’ve been presenting our social media marketing workshops across Australia, we’ve been privy to the questions small businesses have about marketing. Most questions you expect [What is a hashtag? How do I find time for all this? Why do I need to do social media?] but other questions come out of left field. Like, what do I report and how should I set social media KPIs for my team? *cracks knuckles* Welcome readers to the dark art of reporting. Here are our seven super simple steps t
Coronavirus and the tourism industry: Marketing tips to support your business
We've been asked a lot this week about our top marketing tips during this time of crisis. There’s no doubt about it, the corona crisis is unprecedented. For tourism operators across the world, it’s devastating. For tourism operators in Australia, excruciating. And for our Queensland clients who’ve come off the back of seven years of drought, only to be hit with bushfires and floods back to back, it’s crippling. But in the darkest tourism times, there is hope. Where there are challen
Why your business should be marketing to millennials
Millennials don’t need much of an introduction. The press they’ve been given in recent years unfortunately does most of the talking for them. Narcissistic. Entitled. Bratty … these are just a few adjectives that are thrown around the media. Maybe you’ve seen or heard a few of these delightful monikers? It’s fair to say the world hated millennials … that is until they became a $3.3 trillion industry and businesses globally started to sit up and pay attention. If you run a business,
Our cures for Instagram caption-block
Have you ever found the perfect photo to share on social media, but as your fingers hover over the keyboard to write a Pulitzer-prize worthy Instagram caption, your mind goes blank? Yep, it even happens to us too. You’ve got a case of Instagram caption-block. Aka the crippling stall of ideas and creativity that usually kicks in when you’re short on time and in a rush to send your post into the Instagram wild. What if we told you we have a guaranteed cure that will have your posts live and
Tourism marketing takeaways from ART Convention
As a content agency specialising in tourism marketing, we work with regional tourism boards, operators and events A LOT (seriously, check out our portfolio). We truly believe it’s the roads less travelled that provide the most exciting stories to tell. So, it was a no-brainer for us to clear the schedule for the two-day Australian Regional Tourism Convention (ARTC) and learn from the best-in-regional-tourism-class. For anyone working in this space – from local council, tourism organisation
Top 7 takeaways from the ASTW Convention Cairns
In case you missed our Tropical North Queensland tans, we recently attended the Australian Society of Travel Writers (ASTW) 2019 convention in Cairns. It was a sun-filled weekend of networking, learning about trends in the tourism industry and soaking up all North Queensland has to offer. It wasn’t all fun and games though. Our team also assisted the Tourism Tropical North Queensland in providing famil and itinerary coordination support to over 100 domestic travel media across 15 different p
Storyselling: why stories drive sales
A wise man (Seth Godin) once said “marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell” and in our opinion, these are words to plan your marketing strategy by. We strongly advocate that stories have the power to drive sales, because they have the ability to empower action in the recipient; something gratuitous data dumps (aka sales campaigns) rarely achieve. This has never become more important for Australian products and services, because we can’t compet
Pitch Perfect: How to get publicity for your business
There might be no such thing as bad publicity – but what if you’ve got no publicity? That’s the reality for lots of small businesses we work with, who don’t have a PR plan, let alone well-practiced pitches to land their product, brand or services in front of the media. The good news is PR, unlike ER, is something you can DIY yourself. We’ve got you covered with these tips – tried and tested during our one-on-one sessions with tourism operators up and down the State. But first, let�
The marketing secret sauce every business needs: customer reviews
Did you know the most powerful marketing department in the world has no budget and makes no marketing plans? Who is this elusive marketing team and how the hell do I employ them? They’re consumers – and good news, there’s billions of them out there. Collectively, they make up the world’s largest marketing team and what they have to say about your product, brand or service will likely make up more than two thirds of your marketing efforts (Mark Schaefer). It therefore pays to spend ti
7 tips for adapting to change in the workplace
“It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is the one that is able to adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself” – Charles Darwin I was recently asked to speak on a Women in Tourism panel about adapting to change in the workplace – a topic I could talk under wet cement about. Throughout my career, I’ve changed not just roles and organisations – but industries too – switching law for marketing approximately one billable unit in. I’ve wo
8 steps to building your online strategy
If we had a dollar for every person who told us “I don’t need an online strategy”, we’d be swinging in hammocks on an island far away. The short answer and premise for the next 1000 words is this: if you’re selling a product or service to customers, an online strategy is a non-negotiable for your business. In Australia alone, 88% of our population is online and 69% are active social media users (We Are Social, 2018 Digital Report). So without an online strategy you’re not just fish
18/19 A Year in Review
End of Financial Year for small businesses is like January 1 for the #fitspo community – a time to go gungho with new goals, laser-focussed determination and energy to do things a little differently. Before we turn a new leaf and throw ourselves straight into the next year, next project and next hire, it’s important that we stop and look at how far we’ve come – what we did, what we learnt and what we could do better if we had the chance to do it all again. Put your seat belt on as we drop
6 common marketing mistakes small businesses make
Empowering small businesses to take control of their digital marketing and demystify social media is more than just our livelihood, it’s what we’re passionate about. Over the past two years, we’ve been honoured to present digital marketing workshops to hundreds of small business owners across Australia and help them tame their digital marketing demons. It’s a role that’s afforded us the opportunity to roll up our sleeves and troubleshoot the most common marketing problems that small
It's no holiday: 5 pieces of career advice for university students
Every year, I’m honoured to be asked by my university to lecture students studying new media about what it takes to ‘make it’ in a marketing world that moves faster than a Lamborghini on a speedway. While my lecture focusses on innovative campaigns that use new media, I truly believe the principles that will make you stay current in the digital marketing space aren’t new at all. In fact, most have nothing to do with creativity or technology, but mindset and just how willing you are to
Lessons from the entrepreneurial trenches: Media Mortar turns two
Take it from me, starting a business is easy – anyone can do it. Running a successful one, well, that’s the difficult part. As I close in on the first two years of Media Mortar, I want to share a few lessons I’ve learnt from the small business trenches. I’ll start by saying I don’t profess to be an entrepreneurial expert, but I am often asked by other soon-to-be entrepreneurs about the steps I put in place to escape the shackles of nine to five and go out on my own. I also attend a n
8 Instagram Tips for Tourism Businesses
Hashtags and handles aren’t meant to be hard, but for most of the tourism operators we’ve met in recent digital-ready workshops, decoding Instagram seems to be as challenging as Alan Turing decoding Enigma. If your face contorts like the quizzical emoji (🤔) every time you log into the app, we’re here to help. Over the past three years, we’ve worked 1:1 with over 100 tourism operators, and helped turn their puzzled expressions into veritable-PHD’s in Australia’s favourite ima
How to intern like a #boss
A good internship can be the segue from the lecture theatre in Z Block to a corner office with river views (OK, maybe not straight away). However, a bad one, well, that may leave you knocking on the door of the career counsellor and questioning your life choices. But like the saying goes, it takes two to tango and a successful internship doesn’t rest solely in the hands of the company sharing their desk space with you – you play an equal (read: massive) part in how it goes. After two success
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