You’re posting, emailing, showing up on social… but is any of it actually working?

In this episode, we walk you through how to track your marketing data like a professional marketer, without getting overwhelmed by spreadsheets or vanity metrics, or buying expensive software. You’ll learn what to measure, what to ignore, and how to use data to make smart, strategic decisions.

Here’s what we cover:

• The 2 questions all data should answer: What’s working? What’s not?

• What to track across your website, email, and social media

• How to set goals that make sense for your business (not someone else’s)

• What to do when you hit a dip, plateau, or confusing trend

• Smart tools to help you track without overcomplicating it

• Why small, consistent tweaks win vs. complete overhauls

Going with your gut is great...until it’s costing you sales. So let's rewrite the story with a strategic plan to track the right metrics!

📩 Want help figuring out what’s actually working in your business?
Join the Big Bad Newsletter for smart, actionable marketing tips (with a little sass!)

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The holidays sneak up fast, and if you wait until November to start planning your promos, you might end up with a big lump of coal.

In this episode we share why September is the secret weapon for holiday marketing and what you can do now to make Q4 less stressful (and more profitable).

We cover:

• The biggest mistake small businesses make with holiday planning

• How to map out offers, deadlines, and capacity before the rush

• Simple steps you can take this month to get ahead (without burning out)

💌 Want more tactical tips like this? Sign up for the BBM Newsletter. It’s like hot cocoa for your business, except useful year-round.

📌 Related blog posts we mentioned:

• Business Math: Make Your Margins Make Sense

• Annual Marketing Calendar

Trying to grow your social media following, but the people just aren't following? Chasing likes and views but still not seeing results?
In this episode we talk about vanity metrics, the shiny objects you're chasing, that are really just killing your strategy.

We break down:

• What vanity metrics actually are, and why they don’t matter

• The question to ask before you post: “Does this provoke real action?”

• What does matter if you want your marketing to help you make more money

• How to grow your audience without selling your soul to the algorithm

• Real strategies for building connection (and later conversions) not just content

Because the real flex isn’t a viral reel, it’s a small, engaged audience that buys, shares, and sticks around.

📩 Want marketing tips that actually work for your small biz?
Sign up for the Big Bad Newsletter.

🎧 Subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode! And, leave us five star review! It helps us reach more scrappy small business owners like you.

If your small biz sales funnel is messy, or nonexistent, this is for you.

Today, we’re breaking down exactly how to build a simple, strategic sales funnel that guides people from “just found you” to “ready to buy” without expensive, fancy tools or building a whole tech stack.

In this episode, we’ll show you:

• The 4 core stages of a working funnel: Attract, Engage, Nurture, Convert

• How to tie your content to each phase so it actually moves people forward

• Real questions to ask about your audience at every stage of their buyer’s journey

• Tools to help you map your funnel and keep it scrappy

• Common funnel mistakes (and how to fix them fast)

Plus, we drop our favorite tech tools and give some content examples to help you turn your random posts into a clear, effective funnel.

📩 Want help putting this into action?
Sign up for the Big Bad Newsletter for real examples, plug-and-play templates, and marketing strategy tips delivered straight to your inbox.

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Loving the show? Leave us a quick review. It helps more scrappy small business owners find their way.

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m doing all the marketing things, but nothing’s really clicking,” this episode is your wake-up call.

Today, we’re breaking down what a sales funnel actually is and why every small business needs one. Yes, even if you’re just getting started. And, yes, even if your making less than $100K.

We walk you through:

• The three key stages of a simple funnel (Awareness, Consideration, Conversion)

• Why your marketing feels chaotic without one

• What to post (and when) to actually guide people to buy

• Real-world symptoms of a broken or non-existent funnel

We break down what a funnel really is (not some techy, complicated thing) but a simple way to guide people from “just found out your brand exists” to “ready to buy” by connecting all your marketing efforts into one clear path.

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Love this podcast?

🔔 Subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s episode where we show you how to build your funnel from scratch, and align your content to every stage.

In our last epsiode, we talked about why staying focused as a small business owner feels impossible (it has something to do with juggling every single role in your business.)

But, we didn't want to leave you hanging!

In this bonus episode of The Big Bad Marketing Podcast, we share the tools, tips, mindset shifts, and strategies we use to stay (mostly) on track while swimming through a million tabs, to-dos, and distractions.

You’ll learn about our favorite focus tools, like project management, time blocks, no-meeting days. We talk about how to protect your time, do deep work, and what to do when you inevitably derail.

If you’re building a business, wearing all the hats, and trying to hold it all together, this one’s for you.

Need help keeping staying on track?
The Big Bad Marketing Newsletter is your monthly check-in for clarity, strategy, and focus.
It’s free, it’s actionable, and it’s like a mini reset button in your inbox.
👉 www.bigbadmarketing.com/newsletter

Ever feel like your brain has 87 tabs open, and none of them are loading?

Welcome to small business ownership.

In this episode of The Big Bad Marketing Podcast, we’re talking about the hard, messy truth of staying focused when you’re wearing all the hats. This is a real convo about the sh*t we deal with every day, and if you're out here tryna' run a business, you probably do, too.

We talk about why staying focused is harder than ever as an entrepreneur in 2025, and the difference between true distraction vs. overload.

We also talk about how constantly switching tasks keeps you in a mental spiral instead of actually helping you get things done.

Learn our process for pulling each other out of the out-of-focus spiral when we’re deep in the weeds, and a few questions we ask to get re-centered.

💡 Feeling scattered? We got you.
Sign up for the Big Bad Marketing Newsletter. It’s free, it’s focused, and it’s a monthly nudge to keep your brain and business aligned.
👉 www.bigbadmarketing.com/newsletter

In this episode of Big Bad Marketing Podcast, we break down why newsletters are still one of the most powerful marketing tools to reach your target audience, and how to build one that people actually want to read.

We cover why newsletters work (and what they do better than social), how to write emails that feel like conversations, not commercials, and we tell you exactly what to include, how long to make it, and how often to send them out so your prospects are excited to see what you have to say, not scrolling past.

🗞️ Want to see how it’s done?
We send out a monthly newsletter full of marketing tips, real biz updates, and a few big, bad jokes.
Sign up here: www.bigbadmarketing.com/newsletter

Struggling to get customer testimonials that actually do something for your small business? You’re not alone.

In this episode, we break down how to ask for testimonials (without feeling cringe), what the testimonials should cover, and where to put them for max impact.

We include five elements of a killer testimonial, how to prompt your clients so they give specifics that help new prospects convert, instead of the generic “it's amazing!” and what to do if the testimonial you get kinda sucks.

We’re also talking strategy: how testimonials fit into the buyer’s journey, and where to put them to boost credibility and conversions. (Hint: Sprinkle that sh*t everywhere!)

Listen in, then grab our free marketing newsletter at bigbadmarketing.com/newsletter for more actionable tips like these, designed for small businesses that want big results on a budget.

AI is everywhere right now, and makes quick work of A LOT of tasky tasks... but just because you can use it for pretty much everything doesn’t mean you should.

In this episode, we break down how to use AI to level up your small biz marketing, and when to absolutely avoid it.

We talk about:

How prompt AI like a pro (shout out Jeff Su!)

How to build a system that keeps things human

And the biggest AI no-no's, like letting it write your emails to customers... yikes.

Whether you’re curious about AI or already using it in your workflow, this episode is packed with practical tips, real examples so you can make the most of your machine bestie.

🎧 Listen in now! And if you want more smart strategies for growing your biz on a small budget, sign up for our free newsletter at bigbadmarketing.com/newsletter. We’ll send you our go-to list of marketing levers to pull today, with or without AI.