Mac&Ernie Marketing Strategy & Training

25/02/2025

It’s easy to cheer for someone else’s wins—sharing their excitement, hyping them up, and making sure they know how amazing they are. But when it comes to our own achievements? That can feel…awkward.

Why is it so hard to celebrate ourselves? Maybe it feels like bragging, or we downplay what we’ve done because it “wasn’t that big a deal.”

But here’s the thing: if you’d celebrate a friend for it, why not give yourself the same kindness?

Here’s the other thing: algorithms looove it when you are celebrating and attracting positive comments.

So you should do it more! Here’s some thought-starters:

1️⃣ Reframe it: Think of it as sharing, not bragging. “I’m proud of this and wanted to put it out there!” feels different from “Look how great I am.”

2️⃣ Add gratitude: Acknowledging the journey makes it feel more grounded. “I’m so grateful for the hard work or the people that got me here.”

3️⃣ Keep it simple: You don’t need a speech. “This happened, and I’m really proud” is enough.

Remember, celebrating your own win doesn’t take away from someone else’s. There’s enough light for everyone to shine.

How do YOU get past the awkwardness of sharing your achievements? Or is it something you’re still working on? Feel free to give yourself a little shout out in the comments or a nudge to someone you know who has been holding onto some good news ❤️

🫶Erika

📸 There’s text in the graphics, if you need me to send it to you just send a dm and I’ll get into it asap.

19/02/2025

💛I love love. Especially when I hear small businesses talk about their loyal customers and how they have supported their business over the years 🥰

You don’t get loyal customers by accident though. Loyalty is like a marriage–a connection made after a courtship. What you do in that courtship period can make a huge difference to your future together.

So what is love? It’s not double-tapping on a post (though please go ahead, I could use the dopamine hit 😉). Genuine customer love translates into brand or business loyalty and referrals–both things that bring regular income into your business.

👉Swipe across to find out how to speak your customers’ love language and start working on your own ideas because this is not a tip, rather a thought-starter. Remember, I’m just a message away for a little bit of help if you need it 🫶Erika

_
📸 There’s important text on these graphics so if you can’t read it please reach out and I’ll send it to you.
_

07/02/2025

Why attraction marketing isn’t always the answer—and what is.

If you’re new to marketing or it’s not in your skill set, you’re probably in here daily looking for advice. What you’ll find is a LOT of advice telling you how to attract new customers or audiences.

Cool. That’s part of the puzzle.

But none of these people giving advice know you or your business, so how can their attraction strategies work for you? The answer is they probably won’t.

What will work for you is having the right balance of attracting new but, more importantly, retaining and nurturing existing customers and audiences.

Please hit save if this is resonating, because when you swipe across you’ll see some great thoughtstarters and results to get you thinking.

I know strategy sounds scary and expensive but it doesn’t have to be that way. My marketing strategies are custom - for real. I do not use templates or AI, I work with your skills, resources, confidence and budget. I bring you along so you can actually implement the strategy.

What’s holding you back? Send me a dm—it doesn’t cost anything to think about what you could achieve this year with the right guidance.

🫶 Erika

Images: contain lots of text, if you can’t read them reach out and I’ll send it to you 💛
_

19/01/2025

Guess who’s back…I’ve got whiplash

“Y’all are losing the plot praising trump for ‘bringing’ TikTok back. This is exactly what he wanted.”

15/01/2025

Amazing foresight. Imagine if you could go back in time and show him a smartphone 😅

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1KvVGVeLnC/

10/01/2025

When the cost of living goes up, your instinct might be to save on ingredients or time and drop your prices to suit what you think your customers want. But time and time again, successful brands have proven this is not the time to pull back, it’s the time to spruik your value even more loudly.

Value and the perception of value is really important right now, when purse strings are tightening. It might feel like cheap ‘n cheerful is winning, but if you’re a product or service-based business that deals in quality over quantity, you need to talk about that quality over and over again. People are looking for what you offer!

Swipe across to read what I mean and I would appreciate a comment to let me know you’re here and to get this practical advice past those pesky algos 🫶 Erika

📸 These graphics contain text. If you are using a screen reader and it’s not clear, simply dm and I’ll send you the text.

_

29/12/2024

Here’s another positive direction you could take in 2025 to change up your marketing and social media✨Focus less on following trends and more on developing and deepening your relationships with customers or clients✨

This direction is backed up by multiple sources of research, indicating consumers are wanting to build relationships and are finding it ‘cringey’ when brands jump on trends that aren’t relevant to them. This is especially so when you’re a local biz or service. Sure, you can use trends to attract new followers but are they going to buy from you and talk you up to their friends? 🤔

Swipe across to read what I mean and don’t forget to pop in a comment so I know you’re here 😅

🫶 Erika

📸 These graphics contain text. If you are using a screen reader and it’s not clear, simply dm and I’ll send you the text.

_

26/12/2024

As 2024 comes to a close, I am going to go over what I think is in store for Australian small and micro businesses, service providers and community organisations in 2025. The order of importance for YOU with these posts, will really depend on where you’re at in your marketing but let’s start by thinking about your brand👇

For many years now, many Australian small businesses have thrived with a strong brand and little else. You’ll have seen it all the time - great social media, big following, spending with influencers, big ads budget BUT not great reviews.

Guess what…with an economic squeeze comes better scrutiny and that gives you an advantage if you’re ready to take it on.

As we move into 2025, consumers are looking closer than ever at the businesses they support. Transparency, authenticity, and values are no longer optional - they’re essential. And guess what? Local businesses like yours are uniquely positioned to thrive under this increased scrutiny 💪

Unlike the big globals, you can connect with customers on a personal level, adapt quickly to their needs, and build trust through genuine interactions. It’s your ability to show real care - for your customers, your community, and the planet - that sets you apart. 🌏✨

Use this checklist to assess whether your brand is more than just aesthetics and truly resonates (swipe 👉).

📌 Take a moment to reflect and refine, because the future belongs to brands that are both real and remarkable, no matter what size. Hit save and please get in touch if you need help getting our brand ready for a bigger, better 2025 🫶 Erika

📸 This image has a lot of text including a checklist. If you’re using a screen reader that doesn’t pick it up, please message me and I’ll send it to you 🫶
_

24/12/2024

Sending big love to all of you at this ‘everything all at once’ time of year. I’m looking forward to a little bit of family beach time to recover from a huge year and to prepare for whatever 2025 has in store. I hope you get some kind of break too 🫶

2024 has been a whirlwind as I’ve been part-time in Mac&Ernie alongside running the Gippsland Community Leadership Program for a second year. Despite the reduced hours, I worked out today that I averaged 3-4 workshops/webinars a month and delivered a (lucky) 13 marketing and content strategies, led countless coaching and mentoring sessions (I did try to count but got distracted), added a handful of websites to the www, birthed baby brands and, wrestled a stack of social media accounts from 👺😮‍💨

2025 I’m back in the biz full-time and looking forward to working with even more small businesses, NFPs & community groups. With no holiday travel planned (boo) I’ve already booked in a couple of interstate conference gigs and some marketing workshops for regional tourism and small business owners. Of course, I’ll also be noodling around my beautiful Gippsland region too, catching up with and skilling up local small town businesses.

Lots in the calendar already but still plenty of space for YOU 👈🫶

Big love to Carly and Rach for keeping me on track in 2024 and to the other elves in the background who help Mac&Ernie clients look good - branding, graphics, photography, web design, social media posting (you didn’t think I was doing it all by myself right?! I’m no Santa despite my rounded belly, jolly laugh and ever-growing silver hair 👀 maybe I am Santa 🤔

Thank you one and all for your support this year. I have loved every single comment and message and meme shared. That’s why I’m still here - it’s all about the chats. To say I am grateful for the role I have would be the understatement of the year.

❤️Stay safe and be kind to yourself. And don’t forget to send that fkg Elf back to the North Pole tonight 😵‍💫

Happy holidays 🫶 Erika

_

02/12/2024

👆Who said that?

Me 👋 hundreds of times over the years because it’s one of the hard truths of business that everyone has to learn. It doesn’t matter if you’re in retail, ecommerce, fee for service or even not-for-profit and community service organisations. The expectations you set with your marketing will affect your outcomes positively or negatively.

I hope you’ll take a second to save this and come back to it if you need some help to close the gap between your marketing promises (customer expectations) and the reality (customer experience).

If you think you have a sales or social media problem, maybe there’s a bigger picture you’re missing 🤷‍♀️

Hope this helps 🫶 Erika

_
📸

Image: Me wearing a black long sleeve top, hair pulled back with a tape measure rolled out between my hands. I’m looking quizzically at the camera.

Ps. there’s a lot of text on these images sorry. Send me a message if you’re using a reader and I’ll send as text.

_

29/11/2024

Feeling all the feels after watching this awesome group of people graduate from the Gippsland Community Leadership Program last night. It's been my absolute privilege to spend the last ten months with them and I'm going to really miss the laughs and even the tears. Kind, funny, fierce, passionate. Every single person in that group gave it their all. You'll be seeing those faces around a lot more I suspect.

Thanks Tony Cantwell and Lisa Gooding for your kind words and Caroline Baldacchino and Fabien Moothoo for all your help the past two years. Could not have done it without you.

What a program! Now back to interviewing for 2025...

💛

15/10/2024

On the International Day for Rural Women I always reflect on the small business owners I have the privilege of working with and supporting across Australia. Today though, I am not home and I am not working. I am travelling through Japan with my family.

This morning, up early, my husband and I left the kids sleeping and wandered through the morning market to pick up breakfast. We are in a relatively small town in the mountains. Most of the vendors are women selling baked goods, home grown vegetables, intricate crafts, fresh flowers, dried flower arrangements and more. Many of the women are old, stooped and would have great stories to tell - I know this because they chat and laugh to each other and to the customers that speak their language.

It’s never lost on me how hard women work and never more so than in rural areas where they may farm, raise children, volunteer, support extended family AND run a business.

So today and every day, I extend my love and appreciation to rural and small town women across the world. You can easily support them by seeking them out to support them everywhere you go. It feels really good and supports the local economy in a meaningful way 🙏🏻

🫶 Erika

_

04/10/2024

Small business ownership is full of true contradictions and it can be confusing as hell for our friends and family 😬

It’s possible to feel all the feels at once:

👉Exhausted & Elated
👉Humble & Proud
👉Afraid & Brave
👉Stressed & Inspired
👉Successful & Disappointed

The trick is to not linger too long in the negative and to try and find a way to flip your situation into a positive one.

✨The inspiration for this post came from a great session I had with a client recently✨

Like many business owners at the moment, she was feeling a bit down about sales and not getting a return on the work she was putting in. After a little poke around her output and insights, I suggested she run some paid ads. She was very hesitant, but I was prepared to put my money where my mouth was and refund her session if they didn’t work.

We set some parameters for our agreement, built an ad and, after spending only $7.21 she made a $110 sale and had 7 signups to her email list. I know those are small numbers when you’re seeing people bragging about 6-figure months 🙄 but it’s real and meant a lot and I’m sure more results will come through over the rest of the week 👏

Sometimes just talking it out with a friend or partner or mentor can give you a different perspective.

That was my good news for today, making today an ‘exhausted & elated’ day for me and an ‘afraid and brave’ moment for my client.

❤️Big love to you all. Reach out if you need a little boost. I know I am booked out but I’m still happy to offer some actionable and no fluff advice if I can help you get moving again.

🫶Erika

_

28/09/2024

I’ve got a bunch of projects in the pipeline and time away with my family locked in so, just a reminder, I’m not taking on anything new until November. If you can wait, ace 👏 (but don’t wait till November to lock it in as my dance card is filling up 💃

If you just can’t wait, send me a dm and I’ll give you some recommendations for great service providers that I trust based on what you need 🫶 Erika

_

25/09/2024

✨No more beauty filters on Instagram ✨

In January 2025 Instagram will no longer be offering filters made by third parties in an effort to wipe out the use of ‘beauty filters’. Instead of the vast library of filters we currently have, they will only offer ones made in-house and they won’t be ones that enhance your beauty 💄

What do you think about this?

Of course there will be multiple ways around it but hopefully they will be less accessible or more effort, making them less attractive to teens.

Admittedly I’ll miss being able to hide the tired eyes and get a little summer glow on this inside face but it’s probably for the best given the damage done by this false beauty culture.

_

18/09/2024

Did you know Microsoft automatically opted you in to use your LinkedIn data for AI training and modelling? Oh and shares your data with ‘trusted third-parties’ for research. If you’d like to opt out, head to your settings / data privacy / data for generative AI and then toggle the switch off. Same for the research toggle if you’d prefer to not participate.

🫶Erika

Ps. If it’s your first time visiting your data privacy settings, have a look around and make sure you’re comfy.