Episode 204 - Is your business a commodity Marketing Strategies to avoid being commoditized

In this episode of the Marketing Guides for Small Businesses Podcast, we tackle the pressing issue of commoditization that many service-based businesses face. Hosts Ian Cantle, Ken Tucker, and Paul Barthel delve into why businesses struggle with becoming commoditized and how they can stand out in a crowded, competitive market.

The episode offers actionable steps and strategies for differentiation, customer feedback, and leveraging technology to enhance your unique value proposition and secure lasting customer relationships.

Key Learnings:

• Identifying Commoditization: Learn the early warning signs of commoditization such as price wars, customer churn, and lack of differentiation, and how these signs can impact your business.
• Importance of Differentiation: Discover why setting your business apart from competitors is crucial and how it prevents the risks associated with being viewed as a commodity.
• Practical Strategies for Differentiation: Explore actionable strategies to differentiate your service-based business, including productization, systematization, and understanding your ideal customer.
• Leveraging Technology: Gain insights on the key technologies, like CRM systems and analytics tools, that can help your business streamline operations, respond faster, and deliver an enhanced customer experience.
• Customer Feedback: Understand the role of customer feedback in identifying areas of improvement and discovering what your business does well, helping you to refine your services and increase customer loyalty.

TAKE ACTION TODAY:

If you found value in this episode, we encourage you to subscribe to the Marketing Guides for Small Businesses Podcast. Rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform to help us reach more listeners like you. Also, visit our website at https://marketingguidesforsmallbusinesses.com/ for free resources, more episodes, and links to set up free consultation calls with any of the hosts. Share our podcast with your colleagues, friends, and family.

Keep calm and market on!

GET IN TOUCH WITH THE MARKETING GUIDES:

Ian Cantle of Dental Marketing Heroes and Outsourced Marketing

Jeff Stec of Tylerica Marketing Systems

Ken Tucker & Paul Barther of Changescape Web Solutions

What Gives Us Joy In Marketing 

Overview

In this insightful episode of the Marketing Guides for Small Businesses podcast, hosts Ken Tucker, Paul Barthel, Ian Cantle, and Jeff Stec take a deep dive into what brings them joy and satisfaction in their marketing careers. They discuss what fuels their passion for marketing, from the thrill of problem-solving to the satisfaction of seeing their clients succeed. The hosts also share their insights on the various tools and tactics they favor, as well as what challenges and frustrates them in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.

Key Learnings

Ken Tucker's View:

• Passion for Constant Learning: Ken talks about his endless love for learning about new marketing tools and features. He admits to having "shiny object syndrome" but finds joy when discovering new features that can add value.
• Building Solutions: He expresses his love for building websites and creating pages, which serve as immediate, tangible outcomes of his efforts.

Ian Cantle’s Perspective:

• High ROI from SEO: Ian shares his excitement for SEO and how seeing the results positively affect a client's bottom line is the highest form of success for him.
• Orchestration and Holistic Marketing: He emphasizes the importance of a strategic, orchestrated approach to marketing that integrates various tactics seamlessly.

Jeff Stec's Joy in Automation and Problem-Solving:

• Love for Engineering and Building Things: Jeff compares his experience as an engineer to his current role, where he enjoys problem-solving and creating marketing systems.
• Education and Client Empowerment: Jeff likes educating clients and demystifying the marketing processes, making them more involved.

Paul Barthel’s Passion:

• Automation and AI Bots: Paul shares his enthusiasm for building marketing automation systems and AI bots. He finds immense satisfaction in learning how these technologies work and solving the problems they present.
• Deep Technical Knowledge: He enjoys diving into the nuances of SEO tools and getting hands-on to solve technical challenges.

Challenges in Marketing:

• Client Expectations: The hosts discuss the difficulties of managing client expectations, particularly when clients want quick results or shiny new tactics without understanding the strategic foundation required for long-term success.
• Outdated or Bad Information: Ian and Jeff talk about the frustrations of battling against outdated or incorrect information that clients bring from networking events or other sources.
• Multi-Vendor Approaches: Ian highlights the issues with having multiple vendors who don't coordinate well, making it hard for clients to achieve a cohesive strategy.
• Technical Challenges: Jeff and Paul touch on the time-consuming and often frustrating task of keeping up with ever-changing software platforms and the lack of proper documentation.

HOW TO GET STARTED TODAY!

Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Marketing Guides for Small Businesses podcast! If you found value in this discussion, please like, share, and subscribe to our podcast. Do you have marketing challenges that you'd like us to tackle? Or do you need tailored advice on how to elevate your business’s marketing strategy? Visit https://marketingguidesforsmallbusinesses.com/ to set up a free consultation call with any of our expert hosts, and let's take your business growth to the next level. Don't forget to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts, so we can continue to bring you the content that helps you and your business thrive.

Keep calm and market on!

GET IN TOUCH WITH THE MARKETING GUIDES:

Ian Cantle of Dental Marketing Heroes and Outsourced Marketing

Jeff Stec of Tylerica Marketing Systems

Ken Tucker & Paul Barther of Changescape Web Solutions

In this episode of the Marketing Guides For Small Business Podcast, we delve into the ever-evolving landscape of online advertising.

We discuss the latest trends, best practices, and platforms to help small businesses effectively reach their target audience and drive results.

Tune in to learn how you can navigate the complexities of online advertising and maximize your marketing efforts.

Imagine if there was a way to get your brand in front of prospective customers who visited your website but haven’t filled in a form or called you.  And imagine if they viewed a particular product or service page, that you could influence them even after they’ve left your website using messaging related to the product or service they showed interest in.  It sounds impossible and a little too good to be true, but it’s very real and top brands use it all the time.  

It’s called retargeting or retargeted advertising (or sometimes remarketing). Whatever you call it, it is a hidden secret weapon in your marketing toolbox. In today’s episode we’ll take a look at what retargeting is, its benefits, and how you can start leveraging this low-cost secret weapon right away to help your business grow sales and conversions.

We’ll discuss:

What retargeting is and how it actually works. 

Why companies need retargeting.

How you can use other types of advertising like search campaigns or social campaigns to help make your retargeting most worthwhile.

How you can create retargeting campaigns that go beyond brand exposure.

Different types of retargeting and what platforms you can do retargeted advertising on.

How retargeting can be one of the most cost effective forms of advertising. 

As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard that one of the keys to growing your business is producing great content connect you with a larger audience. “Content is king,” we hear over and over again. We know we should be producing quality content regularly, but as a small business, how do we generate ideas for all of this content? How do we set aside time to create it all?

In today’s episode, we look at how you can create a small business content strategy that helps you grow your audience without needing a huge budget or large content team.

Join us as we discuss:

What kind of content works best at each different stage of the marketing funnel.

Content ideas for the awareness stage of the funnel.

What other types of content, beyond blogs, you can use for inbound marketing.

What content repurposing is and why its important.

How to decide what content to repurpose.

What evergreen content is and how to use it across channels.

How you can use infographics in your small business’s content across different platforms.

What user-generated content is and how your small business could use it.

What kind of video content is feasible for small businesses. 

Email newsletters are the daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly newsletter you receive from a company. Some of them are full of deals, others of announcements, others share tips or case studies, and others dive deep into one topic. 

There are many ways to set up your newsletter. The key is to determine the best style, content and cadence that works for you and your ideal customers. And, most importantly, to keep sending regularly. Today’s episode is all about email newsletters for small and medium businesses. 

Tune in to learn:

Why your business should consider starting a newsletter if you don’t already have one.

How to determine where to start when creating an email newsletter.

How frequently you should send your newsletter.

How to decide the best format and content types for your newsletter.

Why businesses tend to stall on sending out their newsletter regularly and how you can avoid this pitfall.

What easy and/or free email newsletter software systems exist and why you should use one.

How to use newsletter analytics to help determine if a newsletter is a useful tool for your business.

Having an email list you can use for marketing still remains one of the most important things a business can have in their marketing tool kit, but growing that email list seems daunting to most small businesses. In this episode, we’ll discuss clever ways to grow your list for both email and text message marketing.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to build an email list and why having one is so important. 

How you can use online tools to build your email list.

Different offline tactics for building your email list.

How to craft an irresistible offer to get people to opt-in and share their email address or cell phone number.

What types of lead magnets work well for most small businesses.

How a sales funnel can help you build your email list and how you can create a high converting sales funnel opt-in.

How to drive traffic to your lead magnet.

How to move people through the buyer’s journey after they opt-in.

The differences between text message marketing and email marketing for building and engaging your list(s).

Anyone who has worked in a large organization understands that there’s often tension between sales and marketing.  The sales people complain about the quality of leads they get, where their tradeshow booth is located, or the lack of sales support materials to help them land customers.  

At the same time, the marketing team sends what they believe are highly qualified vetted leads and think they have equipped the sales team with the materials they need to help move customers through their buying journey.  

Often there can be built up animosity between the two camps. But marketing and sales are each vital and are part of the same continuum, the customer’s buying journey. Join us for this episode to learn how you can ensure your sales and marketing teams are working together to maximize your efforts to move customers through the entire buyer’s journey.

We’ll discuss:

Whether sales and marketing generally have different goals and thus different priorities.

How a divide between your sales and marketing teams can impact your small or medium-sized business.

Signs that indicate a problem between your sales and marketing efforts.

The difference between the customer buying journey and the sales process most businesses are familiar with.

A framework for a buyer’s journey that is on a continuum from the buyer’s perspective and how it can help you combine your sales and marketing processes.

What sales support or sales enablement is and why it is important in the customer’s buying process. 

Common examples of sales support that a marketing team or agency could provide.

What you as a business owner can do to help align your sales and marketing teams. 

It’s estimated that more than 50% of today’s total web site visits are mobile. That number is typically even higher for websites in certain industry categories, like food and beverage. While your website can act as your 24/7 salesperson, if it doesn’t work well for more than half of your visitors, you’re definitely missing out on potential business. Mobile optimization makes sure your website and all digital content works optimally on mobile phones. 

In this episode, we’re diving deep into mobile optimization so you can make sure your website is working as hard as possible for you! Join us to learn:

What “responsive web design” is and why it is important.

Why your business needs mobile optimization.

What mobile first indexing is and how it affects your company’s search rankings.

What types of content help local SEO.

How optimizing for mobile is different from “traditional” website optimization.

How to get started in optimizing your website for mobile.

What key tools and resources are available to help you with mobile optimizations.

“Finding good employees doesn’t work. Instead, start attracting top talent.” Ryan Englin, CEO of Core Matters, joins us for this episode to share his knowledge on recruiting top talent to your business’ open roles. Core Matters focuses on the issues of high turnover or high growth and what businesses need to do to fill their open positions. Even as a small business, it’s possible to compete for the best people if you have the right system in place. 

In this episode, Ryan shares how to implement a process for attracting and retaining good people. Tune in to learn:

How small businesses can compete for the best people.

How you can improve your hiring process to be more efficient and effective.

How to avoid common mistakes many businesses make when hiring.

If it makes sense for your business to shift part of your marketing budget to recruiting and hiring.

Why hiring in the trades is so difficult and how you can make it easier.

Where companies can find good applicants

Nonprofits are just like many small businesses - they need to make the most of their limited marketing budgets. In today’s episode, Ben Chambers, marketing and fundraising consultant for nonprofits of Team Kat & Mouse joins us to share his experience in marketing for nonprofits. We’ll discuss how to make your nonprofit stand out when you have a limited budget and resources. Tune in as we discuss:

The biggest mistakes most nonprofits make when they market themselves and how to avoid them.

The biggest marketing challenge for nonprofits.

What you should focus on when setting marketing goals for your nonprofit.

The channels you should use when marketing your nonprofit.

The most underutilized marketing tool is for nonprofits

How to prioritize marketing resources when you have limited funds or staff capacity.

Whether you can you depend on a volunteer to manage your social media.

The key elements of an effective nonprofit PR strategy.

Tik-Tok’s potential as a channel for nonprofits.

The importance of having a defined marketing strategy for your nonprofit.

Are you the owner of a growing business wondering whether you should hire an in-house marketer or continue using vendors or marketing agencies? Both models have their pros and cons, though many business owners tend to gravitate towards hiring in-house employees because that feels most familiar. They think they’ll have more control, that results will be better, and sometimes think it will save them money. But is that true? 

Choosing to hire an in-house marketer or an agency is a big decision that will have a big impact on your business. In this episode, our marketing guides use their experience in both hiring in-house marketers and as agency owners themselves to share the information you need to make the best decision for your business. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why businesses gravitate towards hiring an internal marketer vs. an agency or remote marketing team

How to determine what level of marketer you need

How to gauge the marketing expertise of a potential marketer if marketing isn’t your area of expertise

The important questions you should ask yourself before hiring an in-house marketer like:

• Who Will MANAGE and LEAD this internal marketer?
• What tools/software subscriptions will an internal marketer need and what will these cost?
• Who will define the strategic marketing plan that they will execute?
• Is this person an expert in the area of marketing that my marketing plan requires?

How to determine the metrics for gauging success of the marketer in their role

As an online directory and resource site for people looking for businesses, Yelp is a true powerhouse. But, there are also many myths about Yelp that lead business owners to miss out on using it as an opportunity for growth.

Our guest this week is Alley Lieberman, Partner Account Executive, Yelp Inc. Alley joins us to help dispel many of the common myths about Yelp, like that Yelp is only for restaurants or that good reviews are removed for no reason. Alley will also show you how you can take control of your Yelp page to capture a new audience and level up your business.  

Before we get started, in full disclosure, Changescape Web is a Yelp Advertising Partner.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why the following are myths about Yelp and what the truth is instead: 

• Yelp is only for restaurants
• You have to pay to drive business from Yelp
• Ad spend positively influences Yelp reviews
• Only people with the Yelp app see your Yelp page
• People just go to Yelp to complain

What the difference between Google and Yelp is in terms of searching for businesses

The biggest mistakes that businesses make with their Yelp Profile

What Yelp ad products are and how they help your business

Best practices for creating your Yelp profile

How to build the perfect marketing team for your business

No matter where you are in your business journey - whether you are just starting out or if you are scaling up - you need marketing to grow. Understanding the range of skills required and your options for building the perfect team is critical for your success.

Even if you are a solopreneur starting on a shoestring budget, you will need to cover much of what we will talk about today. You are also going to want to listen carefully so you can start to “think into” growing your future team.

We’re recording this episode in mid-2022 where some parts of the world are very open and other parts are just emerging from COVID lockdowns and various restrictions. For some, it may be the first time in a couple of years you’re finally able to attend an in-person conference, event or tradeshow.

In this episode we’ll discuss ways to make those events and tradeshows more meaningful and effective for you. Whether you’re a first time attendee at an annual event or have gone all in as a tier one trade show sponsor with a 10x30 booth, we’ll give you ideas on how to make the most of it for your business.

For the purpose of this conversation, events are one day or less and conferences/tradeshows are multi-day.

Tune in to this episode to learn:

How to find relevant events and tradeshows to attend.

Why attending or displaying at events and tradeshows is worth it for small businesses.  

What you can do before the event to maximize the value of each event or tradeshow.

How to improve booth traffic and engagements at tradeshows and events.

How you can make the most of a tradeshow by attending as an attendee.

When Google recognizes that a searcher is likely looking for something local - think searches like, “24-hour laundromat” or “math tutors in Toronto” or “Thai restaurants open now” or any time somebody uses the “Near Me” functionality - the results prioritized are those found in Google’s Map Pack or Local Pack and other relevant organic search results.

Having a strong local SEO strategy is how you can get your business listed in the Map Pack and on that first page of Google search results. You want to show up every time a potential customer searches for, “Insert Your Business Product or Service Here in Insert Your Location Here”.

But it takes work to accomplish this goal, and there are many ways to get burned. In this episode, we’ll discuss how to improve your local SEO the right way.

Our four marketing guides will share:

What local links are and why they are important.

Why it’s difficult to rank a local business and why the Google Local Pack is important.

Which categories Google considers as spammy or high risk.

Why you want to avoid keyword stuffing in your business name.

Common mistakes that service area businesses and online-only businesses make that put their Google Business Profile at risk for being suspended. 

The importance of directories and reviews for local SEO signals.

The technical aspects of getting local SEO signals.

Ideas for building local links and finding local link opportunities 

It's been said that word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most powerful strategies a business can use, but is it? And if it is powerful, how can a business use it to create a constant flow of leads to their business?

In this podcast we'll explore what word-of-mouth marketing is, why it's so powerful, common word-of-mouth marketing myths, and how businesses can strategically leverage word-of-mouth marketing as part of their marketing plan.

Our four marketing guides will also explore:

Some common examples of good word-of-mouth marketing in 2022

Why relying solely on word of mouth marketing could be limiting your business’ growth opportunities

The value of word of mouth marketing for B2B and B2C businesses 

How to measure the impact of word of mouth marketing 

We’ll talk with Virginia Muzquiz (The Referral Diva) about becoming a master connector and how to build your business with referrals. Virginia Muzquiz is the founder of Master Connectors, Inc and the creator of the Referrals On Demand® program which teaches solo entrepreneurs how to turn their network into a referral-generating machine. 

With more than two decades of experience creating business by referral, Virginia teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners the art and science of filling their sales funnels with high quality business referrals. Tune in to learn how you can start building your business with referrals.

Virginia answers these questions and more:

Why don’t more businesses have a referral program?

What kind of results can a well-curated, well-leveraged network produce?

Do you have to be an extrovert to be an effective networker?

What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when they network?

How can a person build trust and authority to become referral-worthy?

Why is Business Network International (BNI) so effective for building referrals and how does someone get started with BNI?

Why is it important to ‘niche down’ to build an effective referral system? 

What is Referral Alchemy® and how do we create it?

If you’ve listened to previous episodes, you know we’ve talked at length about the value of an omni-channel approach to marketing - that is, ensuring the integration between all of the channels you use to interact with your customers (both physical and digital) to create a consistent brand experience.

In this episode, we’ll dig into specific traffic sources, explore their differences and discuss how to best use each. Picking the right source of traffic is vital to generating leads and sales - check out this episode to learn what the best source or sources of traffic are for your business!

In this episode, our marketing guides will explore:

The difference between SEO and SEM

Popular online paid traffic sources other than Google Search ads and Social Media ads 

If SEO is a legitimate traffic source for your small business

Different offline tactics that a small business can use to drive traffic to their website

Social Media Ads vs Google Search Ads and how to know when to use each

How content can increase traffic

Whether organic social media is the great traffic source most small businesses think it is

How many traffic sources you should pick to drive traffic to your website or landing page and how to decide which ones are best for your business

If I asked you to tell me the difference between your company and your closest competitor, would you be able to clearly articulate that difference? If not, you’re not alone. This is where customer interviews come in. The responses you receive from quality customer interviews can help you better articulate your company’s differences and craft messaging that really resonates with your target audience by speaking directly to them using the language they use. 

Have you included customer interviews in your marketing strategy efforts? If not, tune in to this episode to learn how to get started. 

Our marketing guides will walk us through the following:

What customer interviews are and are not (hint: they are not testimonials or online reviews)

Why you should include customer interviews as part of your marketing strategy work

What kinds of questions should be included in customer interviews

What to do with negative responses 

Why it’s important to have a third party interview your customers instead of you or your team

Marketing doesn’t work! SEO Doesn't Work! Google Ads Don't Work! Email marketing doesn’t work!

We’ve heard it all. As marketing consultants and agency owners we hear these complaints often from business owners who have tried certain marketing tactics without success. The truth is, every marketing strategy or tactic has both the potential for great success and for great failure. Check out our latest episode to learn why marketing sometimes fails and how you can avoid falling into common traps.

After listening to this episode, you’ll have a clearer understanding of:

What the most common marketing failures are and why they happen

What the real cost of marketing failures is

What areas of marketing tend to be most challenging for business owners

How to avoid marketing failures

How to monitor the health of your marketing to change course before it fails

While most businesses are aware of the importance of SEO, an UpCity commissioned study found that as many as 57% of North American SMB’s lack an SEO strategy. According to the same survey, some of the top goals for businesses were to increase organic traffic, strengthen domain authority and increase brand awareness, among other things. Yet, only 34% of businesses have made SEO a priority for 2022.

If your business is hoping to achieve any of the goals listed above, but doesn’t yet have an SEO strategy, you’ll want to stay tuned for this episode!

Our four marketing guides will discuss the survey findings and also:

Outline what an SEO strategy is and how it could help your business

Explain why ad hoc or random SEO efforts won’t help you achieve the results you want (and why you need an SEO strategy instead)

Discuss why so few businesses are making SEO a priority and what effects this might have for them 

How not investing in SEO could be putting your business at a competitive disadvantage

Explore whether you should be combining SEO efforts with your PPC strategies 

A white paper is a long-form document (typically 2500 to 3000 words) that is used mostly in the business-to-business (B2B) space. It is typically an in-depth report on a specific topic that explains a particular problem and provides a solution. A well-researched and well-written white paper can be a great opportunity to demonstrate your organization’s knowledge and expertise and can, when used effectively, help you generate leads, increase sales, convert prospects into customers and improve brand awareness. 

In this episode, we’ll cover how to determine if your company would benefit from creating a white paper and, if so, how to get started.

Tune in to learn:

What a white paper is and isn’t

How to know if creating a white paper is right for your company

Why a white paper takes 12 to 14 weeks to deliver

How to determine if you’ll need help writing a white paper

What pitfalls you might face on the road to creating a white paper

How to maximize the value of your white paper through proper promotion

Creating an effective marketing strategy is hard work and it can feel overwhelming knowing where to start and what to prioritize. But, marketing results don’t just happen by accident. Creating a strategy is key to ensuring you’re targeting the right audience with relevant content. It’s like the blueprint for all of your upcoming marketing activity and helps guide all of the decisions you make. The more time you spend building a quality strategy, the more opportunities you’ll create for your business. 

Tune in to learn how to create a solid marketing strategy and how to go about getting started one one for your own business. 

In this week’s episode, our marketing guides walk us through:

How to analyze your company’s current online presence

How to go about doing client interviews and why they are so valuable

How to look at what your top competitors are doing well to find opportunities for your own business

How to decide what element of marketing your business should prioritize

Why you should create a content calendar and how to create one

How to create marketing personas and why you should use them

How to craft a concise message that clearly communicates the client problem your business solves

How to leverage your current marketing assets by conducting a Marketing Assets Inventory

What a marketing system is and why your business needs one

Why doing the hard work of creating an effective marketing strategy is totally worth it!

In this episode of the Marketing Guides For Small Business Podcast, we discuss various lead-generation strategies for small businesses looking to increase their customer base. From utilizing social media and email marketing to implementing SEO tactics and hosting webinars, this episode covers a range of effective techniques to generate more leads and ultimately drive business growth. Tune in to learn how to attract and convert potential customers into loyal clients for your small business.

There are a lot of opinions out there about what an appropriate marketing budget is for a business, and it often depends upon who you ask.  In this episode our four marketing guides will help unpack this important topic with the goal of helping you answer this important question of ‘What Should My Marketing Budget Be’.

The questions we provide answers to in this episode include:

Why is setting your company’s marketing budget such a hard topic?

What is the difference between an overhead budget item and an investment budget item?

What should drive your marketing budget?

What factors should go into a marketing budget?

What about the 5% of revenue rule of thumb?

How do you determine the amount of budget spend vs what you actually want to accomplish?

The Four Common Problems Small Businesses Face

1. Most business leak leads online
2. Most marketing efforts take several week to show results
3. Speed of response is critical to winning the business
4. Tool costs add up

Nearly every small business has a limited budget. So if you have limited time and money, and you know that you can’t ignore the reality of digital marketing in today’s world, what do you do? Especially if you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on SEO?

In this episode we cover answers to the following questions:

When we talk about things like quick wins or automated wins, what does this mean from a marketing perspective?

What is a website widget and why is it  so important?

Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) has the ability for someone to text a business right from their Google Business Profile; so it seems like Google recognizes how important this is. Or is there another reason as well? 

There are a ton of communication channels out there that people can use to communicate with a business, and some of them have to be done on that platform. Does this mean a small local business has to be monitoring all these channels or is there a way to simplify that? 

About 62% of calls to local businesses go unanswered. Now don’t confuse this with ignoring them; but if there is only one person in the office answering the phone it either goes to voicemail or they are put on hold. If they hang up or don’t leave a message, that's a missed opportunity. Is there a way to immediately respond to that missed call and let them know someone will be contacting them?

What about review management and review requests? We’ve talked about the importance of reviews in the past; and that’s just one more thing that a business owner has to deal with. Any thoughts on automating this to one degree or another?

Join into the conversation and learn about quick marketing  wins for your company.

Learn what works, what doesn't and how to get in on the podcasting opportunity if you don't want to host your own show.

If you’re listening to us, you’re probably already familiar with podcasts and with so many of them out there now for every niche possible, you may be wondering if it is worth it to start your own. You have full control over content, promotion, scheduling…what is more freeing than that? But is it a good idea and with all the demands on your time already, is this a worthwhile content channel to pursue??

Questions covered include:

Walk us through the early days of a podcast set up and what it really takes to get one going?

What has been the most challenging thing about keeping a podcast of 2 years going?

Is it that hard to build an audience for a business podcast?

Is guest podcasting an option, and what is guest podcasting?

Do podcasts need to broadcast on video these days or is audio ok?

Join us for the practical tips on what works, what doesn't, what is expected and what to do if you want to jump in on the podcast mania that seems to be never ending. We give you practical tips. Join in the conversation.

In this episode we cover answers to such questions as:

What is User Generated Content and why is it important? 

Can Online Reviews Help With User Generated Content?

What Are Some Examples of User Generated Content?

For B2B Companies - Recommendations on How To Get User Generated Content

And much more…listen in.

Almost everyone has a love-hate relationship with email.  It's a relentless taskmaster interrupting our days with endless requests and endless spam. We would all agree that email isn't all bad, and it turns out that email marketing is one of the most underutilized powerhouses in a company's marketing arsenal. In this podcast, we'll talk about why and how you should leverage email marketing in your small business this year and provide tips for getting the most out of your email marketing efforts.

In this episode we cover:

Why Email Marketing Shouldn’t Be Ignored

How COVID Has Affected the Use of Email Marketing

How To Start Building an Email List

How Email Marketing Can Be Used During The Buyer’s Journey

Listen in and join in the conversation.

Marketing is a two-way street and does need input from the client - oftentimes, more than they know.  We’re talking today about how the various aspects of social media can be practically tackled by small businesses and the marketing agencies who support them. 

Tune in to learn more about:

Is attention span really shortening? Reels went to 60 seconds and TikTok expanded to 3 minutes in length, up from 60 seconds. 

The trend toward people wanting experiences in smaller niche communities. 

Video strategy for introverts.

Overwhelming feature releases on each social media channel.

This episode is more about the discussion of the pro/cons of some of the social media trends we are seeing, what to ignore, how it can feel overwhelming and what to do about it - from a small business perspective.

Join in the conversation.

You know, all too often, we go through the motions of marketing and sales without taking a moment to reflect on WHY we are doing what we do. Sure, we blog. We optimize. We post and tweet. We build. We meet. But what does it all MEAN?

So today, we’re going to help you take a step back from the day to day, stop going through the motions and ask: Am I still helping who I want to? Does my mission still have meaning? Do my people still believe that?

Items we discuss: 

How often do you think a company should take a step back and say, “Are we still who we are and want to be? What do we stand for? Has that changed?”

Thinking of the website as a home base for the brand, if things need to evolve with the company’s larger purpose, does this tend to result in a whole new site revamp or are we talking more of a change to the About Us page?

We often see that the company CEO’s values become the company’s values. Are there any fundamental flaws with this direction, do people just have to “live with it” or is there a more, all-inclusive way to come to a collective?

As a business owner, am I still doing what I wanted to do? 

Join in for an insightful discussion.

Marketing, like many other industries, changes at a rapid pace each year. Follow along with our predictions and some insights as we share what we see as changes and more of the same this year. Do you agree or disagree with any of our predictions?

While the start of a new year is a good time for these lists and predictions, it is important to understand that change happens throughout the year and that some change happens faster than we expect, while other changes happen slowly - how many remember “the year of mobile” for a few years in a row before it took off?

As always, join in the conversation and let us know what you think and what is working well for your company’s marketing.

Topics we cover in this episode:

Social Media platforms of importance in 2022

Search in 2022

Video marketing. Is this the year to finally stop being shy around the camera?

Voice search. Will it impact us as much as the hype suggests?

Ecommerce - even for those without a typical product to sell

Conversion and optimization and the customer experience

Advertising

Online competition

In this episode we’re tackling the customer journey.  These are the seven steps that someone goes through to buy and become a repeat customer. The steps are: know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, refer.

A way to explain the customer journey would be like this...No matter what product or service you sell, your customers, buyers or clients go through a few common steps from the time they find out about your offer until the time they buy from you. 

I recently did a deep dive presentation with business owners and took them through the concept of the customer journey and they were so blown away by how it helped them simplify how to look at their company’s marketing that I wanted to share this concept with a wider audience.

All of us on the panel are familiar with the customer journey so as we dive in, we’ll explain the steps, talk through each one, explain how the steps don’t alway happen in order and discuss what types of marketing tactics you may want to use at each stage and why.

Some of the topics covered include:

What are some examples of the “right” kind of marketing done at each of the steps?

We’ve explained the seven steps in a very logical fashion, does the customer always follow this path? Why/why not? 

Do you find that a lot of business owners want their customers to jump past certain steps in the customer journey and just get to the buying already??? How do you counsel patience and good marketing to enhance that journey?

If a listener was brand new to the customer journey concept today, what one or two things would you advise they start to do in their marketing to put them on a good path to guiding the customer journey for their clients? 

Join us for the conversation.

The Client And Agency Are Not Always Right: The Smartest Steps To Set, Correct, Save And Grow A Business Relationship

The client is not always right. But the agency is not always right either. The way we communicate throughout the duration of a business relationship means everything but let’s face it: Anybody who says they’ve figured out how to have the perfect client relationship every time is lying. 

There’s the honeymoon phase when everybody’s excited. But then, it’s not long before there are tests and challenges for both sides of the table. Today, we’re going to speak about what you can do to set, correct, repair, save and grow the business relationship – whether you’re the client or the agency. 

And we’re going to draw on our own experiences, some good and some bad to share with you.

Topics covered in this episode include:

When you and another party are just about to agree to an engagement, what kinds of things do you look for to indicate that you want to go forward full throttle with a client? Conversely, what kinds of things said or behaviors exhibited does the other side do that you know you’ve got to walk away or run from?

What kind of expectation setting can be done here by both parties to extend that honeymoon period beyond 30 days?

What kinds of things can we tell a client about these longer-term projects to put their mind at ease, especially when there’s a lot that they’re not going to see right away? 

What’s the right balance for an agency in terms of how you properly educate the client on marketing concepts and on what to expect with the work an agency will do for them? What level of client education is too light and what is too far?

What are some of the worst things that agencies and web firms do to potentially jeopardize the client relationship within the first 6-9 months?

Are we agencies talking about the things WE care a lot more about than what CLIENTS care about? If so, what kinds of things can we communicate more clearly to small business owners so that we stay on the same wavelength as them? 

It seems like one of the biggest threats to a relationship is the wealth of information out there that a client can read or hear. They read an article with advice that’s different than what you told them. They hear a speaker talking about a social media tool and wonder, “Why aren’t we on TikTok?”? They have a friend or colleague telling them that they should change their website, their LinkedIn profile, their email marketing. How can an agency cope with this kind of dynamic knowing that there’s a ton of info out there that can confuse and conflict -and keep the client walking on the same path as you?

Join us for a lively discussion.

In this episode of Marketing Guides For Small Business, we have a special guest, Jessica Embree from TULIP - Print Marketing, who will be sharing insights on why print marketing is still relevant in today's digital age. Join us as we discuss the power of tangible marketing materials, the importance of incorporating print into your overall marketing strategy, and how to effectively use print to connect with your target audience. Whether you're a small business owner or a marketing professional, this episode will provide valuable tips and strategies for integrating print marketing into your branding efforts. Tune in to learn more about the enduring impact of print in the ever-evolving world of marketing.

Fractional Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are those professionals a company would hire on a part-time or fractional basis. Perhaps the company has a marketing team great at the day-to-day execution but needs the strategic vision and path that a CMO can provide - this would be an ideal opportunity for a fractional CMO.

Today we have a guest on the podcast, Casey Stanton, who is the foremost expert in building a business as a fractional chief marketing officer. After working in a marketing agency for almost a decade, he had a stint as a professor of marketing at Tulane University. Casey is based in Philadelphia where he runs the premiere fractional CMO education and support company, CMOx.

Topics we cover in this episode include:

What is the role of a fractional CMO? What niches are best for a fractional CMO?

What does the future of a marketing team look like?

How can a fractional CMO manage multiple teams if they have multiple clients?

How does a Fractional CMO know they've done a great job?

Join us and tune in to this episode.

Free offers are everywhere.  Free iPad when you open a bank account, free decoder ring with your Fruit Loops, Act Now And Get A Free months membership, Buy one get one free.  Our world is filled with free offers because we as consumers love free stuff.  No doubt about it, there’s nothing like the thrill of getting a great deal and the marketing industry is full of free offers.  But what if there’s a hidden cost to free.  

What if by accepting a free offer you’re actually hurting your business by accepting something that will keep you from achieving the results that you would achieve otherwise?

Some of the concepts we discuss in this episode include:

Everyone loves getting stuff for free, but in the world of marketing investment, what are some of the potential costs that a business owner may not be aware of when accepting a free offer?

One of the often-overlooked aspects of free deals is that it lures us as business owners away from a better long-term choice by offering a short-term perceived incentive. How could this potentially keep the business owner from choosing the best choice for their marketing investment? 

How can a business owner avoid bad deals/free offers etc. that would hurt their business? 

Are there free offers that are often a good thing? Meaning not harmful to either business or the potential investment in moving forward with a paid-for purchase after the free offer is consumed?

Join us for this episode.

With so many new marketing tools and tricks and tips coming at you each week, which ones really matter? Which stand the test of time? Which are favoured by marketing professionals who use these tools day in and out on either their own company marketing or their clients’ marketing. 

Each of the five Marketing Guides explained some of their favs and why. You’ll have to tune in to hear the whole show, but here are some highlights of what was discussed:

Ian had SEM RUSH as a go to as well as he discussed some Google Ads ninja stuff (legit ninja stuff!!).

Dan dove into the world of online press releases and then took us on a tour of his best tips for LinkedIn usage.

Paul talked all about SEO tips he uses and then weighed in on tips to get back in touch via email marketing - those customers who haven’t purchased from you in a while.

Ken hosted the show so he had a lot to contribute on each topic and then took us on a deep dive into developing a customer referral program

Jen profiled content repurposing (getting more mileage out of your content) and talked about the legit way to get more Google Reviews for your business.

Enjoy the show.

To lay the groundwork for our discussion in this episode, when we talk about marketing experts, we mean those people who have a talent or expertise in ONE THING that you are hiring them for ...some examples could be 

• a web developer
• content writer
• graphic designer
• email marketing expert
• photographer - specific experts you need to get your marketing work out the door.

When we talk about a marketing team, we mean a coordinated group of people who are hired to work as your marketing team and these are typically an outsourced team. It may be you have a fractional CMO who brings his or her team to ensure all the strategies are implemented. It could be a consultant who sells your company a year-long engagement of marketing services.

The difference being that with the marketing experts, you the business owner are doing all the quarterbacking and strategizing to get all these experts to deliver what you need on time, on budget, on strategy.. When you hire the fractional CMO or the consultant with the program, they typically come with a team ready to implement and they handle the quarterbacking, coordination and alignment of the work to execute your marketing strategy.

So with both options being used by millions of businesses all over the world, one has to be better than the other right?

We’ll discuss and help you figure out the best option for your business. Tune in!

Today, we’re going to dive into a topic that virtually every small business owner struggles with and never has enough of: Time. 

Specifically, we’re talking about having enough time in your day, your week, your month for doing one of the most important activities to develop and grow your business: Marketing. You have a million things to do in a day. We get it. We’re business owners too. And yet, if you don’t have time for Marketing, what’s the small business owner to do?

Well, as it turns out, there are things you can do to further your marketing efforts right now, even if you’re one of the many time-challenged small business owners out there. And the five of us are going to help show you how to do just that in this episode.

Can't wrap your head around starting your own company podcast? You don't have to do all the heavy lifting to benefit from this powerhouse channel.

Try guest podcasting.

We'll cover guest podcasting in this episode and discuss:

• How does one go about getting booked as a guest on a podcast?
• What is the 'one sheet' and why it is important to guest podcasting.
• Why is guest podcasting such a powerful SEO tactic?
• Advice for someone who is making their first guest podcast appearance.
• How to find podcasts that you can be a guest on.

And much more. Tune into this episode and see how you can take advantage of this great opportunity for your own business.

Today we’re going to talk about some, but probably not all, of the SEO scams out there so you will be able to recognize and avoid them.

In this episode, we answer common questions about SEO scams such as:

• Misleading reporting
• Guest posting
• Domain authority link building
• Google SEO partners
• Your website isn't ranking
• Google listing is about to expire
• We rank #1 for this keyword

Join in for the conversation and find out which scams to look out for and which "scams" sound odd but are in fact not scams but rather legitimate ways to help your company website improve its presence.

Lisa Staff and Deevo join us from Sprout Connectors.

This is a full-service creative agency with a focus on social media management and content storytelling. 

Both Lisa and Deevo are accomplished photographers and entrepreneurs who have been growing their voice through their own podcast called the Mind Body Business show that explores central topics to the human race and the planet as a whole.

They believe in the power of the human spirit, innovation, and like to push the bubble on information dissemination highlighting all the wonderful things others are doing with their superpowers.

Join us for a fantastic episode that doesn't mince words!

Sprout Connectors: https://sproutconnectors.com/

Today we’re talking about marketing and sales. Particularly where marketing stops and sales starts...or should start.

We’ll discuss why the marketing/sales hand-off is a hard thing to do in many companies.

And what to do about it.

On our panel today we’ve got five experienced marketing consultants all with different views and experiences on this topic and we’ll share what has worked and what hasn’t.

Say it with me LEADS DON’T MEAN SALES...you still need to qualify and close your leads….

Two of us on the panel, myself and Dan, have incorporated sales experts into our own offering so that we can offer sales and marketing services to clients and we’ll discuss how that is working out for our clients.

We’ll get the point of view from the other side of the desk with Paul and Ken hiring a sales team for their agency.

And we’ll get Ian’s common sense approach to it all.

It’s a full show. Listen in!

Lane Houk of Signal Genesys dropped by our studio to talk about his company and the unique benefits users get when using the platform.

Marketing agencies and company owners will be very interested to find out how ranking, brand awareness and the consistent promotion of your company's or clients' online properties.

How to keep that content working for you long after it has been written and published to the web.

This episode is a real game changer, you don't want to miss it.

In this episode of the Marketing Guides For Small Business Podcast, we delve into the latest Local Consumer Review Survey for 2024. We discuss the key findings and insights from the survey, including the growing importance of online reviews for small businesses, the impact of positive reviews on consumer decision-making, and strategies for businesses to effectively manage and leverage customer reviews. Tune in to learn how you can use customer feedback to enhance your marketing efforts and drive business growth.

You know, you don’t have to do this thing called New Business Development alone.

Especially not as a small business owner.

The secret sauce is not in going to more events and drinking a lot more coffee with people but actually developing deeper relationships with what we call Power Partners.

We cover:

• What is a Power Partner
• How to become a Power Partner
• Mistakes to avoid
• Virtual Power Partners

Join in and learn how to use this valuable tactic for the months and years to come to help grow your business.

We’re excited to be talking with Zach Anderson of MoLoMedia about:

• Website Lead Capture
• Speed of Response
• Text Message Marketing

Learn the answers to help your own company's website presence. We asked Zach:

1. What does text-enabling your website mean and why is it so important?
2. Is it possible to use a web text widget to call or text someone in a company or even contact different people or departments?
3. Why is the speed of response from the business so important? 
4. What’s the difference between SMS and MMS?
5. Does text message marketing work for any business? 
6. How do you get people to opt-in to your text message marketing list?
7. How do automated text messages campaigns work? 
8. How important is it to use a text message marketing system to communicate with leads and customers? Couldn’t a business just use their cell phone?
9. Why do most businesses fail with the text message marketing that comes with something like a Point of Sale (or POS) system?
10. How important is it to be able to track revenue by campaign and by phone number? Are there any other metrics that show how effective text campaigns are?

Join in for an informative episode and learn the power of text message marketing for your own business.

Nobody likes stale bread and nobody likes a stale website, not your prospects, your customers, and definitely not Google.

You may be asking yourself ‘what makes a website stale, why does it matter, and how can I freshen it up’.  So let’s get fresh today and jump into this important topic.

We cover:

• Broken Links
• Outdated Copyright Stamps
• Not Enough Information
• No Call to Action
• And more

Join in and learn what to look for on your own company website and see what quick fixes you can do today and which updates you may need to call in a professional for.