More than a Few Words

When I was a kid and the doorbell rang I would jump up and fling the door open in the hopes of entertaining a neighbor, friend or unexpected guest. But things have changed. We're a lot more cautious these days about who we invite into our homes and into our businesses. This creates real challenges for companies, particularly in the home service industry. How do you overcome this reluctance? The trick is to look for ways to make customers feel like they know you. To do this, you could add...

Since we were in middle school there's always been someone who said something negative about us. You'd think after all this time we'd learn how to respond but the truth is when you get a negative review or a negative social media comment it still hurts. This week, guest David Oates shares some tips on how to deal with negative reviews and comments. It all begins with empathy and action. It is important to acknowledge the person writing the review is unhappy and open a dialogue, offline, to...

When the phone rings, there's always that moment of excitement. This could be a customer! I've been through enough sales training so I feel comfortable moving prospects through that conversation. But at some point, the phone call ends. So what do you do to continue that conversation? While it will depend on how the conversation went, it's always helpful to have some resources ready to send as a follow up. What should you send? Regardless of the business you're in, think about what people...

This week we are talking about positioning. I know that sounds like some techie, marketing thing that you need an MBA to figure out but it really isn't. Your position is simply what you want people to think about you when you're not in the room and to have that conversation. My guest, Reuben Swartz shared his simply acronym MEGA as a way to think about your position statement in four simple pieces M- Magnetic - The key thing to remember is a magnet has two poles of equal strength. People...

A friend of mine who is an improvisational artist, and a marketer told me there were many things he learned when studying improvisational comedy that he could apply to marketing. The first is the rule of the Yes. And…. In an improvisational interaction, anytime someone says anything, you immediately say yes. This behavior allows you to build on the ideas of others. That’s actually how the internet works. If you’re looking for content ideas, find something someone else has written, and apply...

In this episode Lorraine chat's with Maddie Osman about style guides. But the conversation is not about colors and fonts. Your brand is more than just colors and fonts, it is also about the words you choose. Your style guide sets tone for your brand. Your word choice can be inclusive or exclusive, depending on the objectives of your content. Standardizing your word style will also help you save time as you create and edit content.

It seems like every day there is some new tool or trend. So how do you decide which new technology, software tools and digital trends deserve attention and resources and which don’t? Over the years, I have developed a simply strategy to figure out which new technology and tools are right for me. Explore The first part of the strategy is staying ahead of the curve by reading, reading, reading. There’s no single expert in the field so I have several websites I check on a regular...

I know you think we've talked about email a lot but we're going to dive into one of the most overlooked parts of your email marketing, the metrics Guest, Emily Maguire shares lessons learned over a decade sending successful email campaigns generating millions of dollars in revenue. She suggests that falling in love with open rates is a mistake. It doesn't matter how many people open your email, it only matters what they do next. You can game the system to change your open rates, or use...

I hate to say I told you so. Well, actually I like saying it because I enjoy being right. So I am very much enjoying the most recent announcement by Google that they are going to put even more emphasis on the quality of content on your website. They're going to penalize people with low quality, irrelevant and duplicate content. So if you're purchasing content from a third party and that content is published on multiple sites with little or no change before it gets to your site you are...

What do you do when external factors turn your entire business model upside down? That's what happened to MeetUp.com at the beginning of their pandemic, as their entire in person meeting model collapsed. Founder, David Siegel explains how going back to their mission of bringing people together allowed them to successfully pivot, survive and actually thrive in the new economy. David Siegel is CEO of Meetup overseeing its global business, which has 52 million members, hosts 15,000 events...

You need to protect the marketing assets of your business. I got a call the other day from a client I hadn't worked with in 18 years. He wanted know if I still had the original art files for his business now. As strange as that sounds, in the old days I would have had that information but I sold my agency two years ago. The new owners don't have quite the file system I did so it took quite a while for them to find the artwork. Is that my fault? No, it's his! He should have known better...

Owning a business is lots of fun. There are all sorts of reasons you do it. But at the end of the day. It's about the cash. Alvin Narsey considers cash a fundamental metric for any kind of business. Many business owners who fail to manage their cash end up in this situation: Sales and revenue are up, but when they look in our bank account there's no cash. So they wonder where all the money has gone. If your business is tripping along at a much greater pace than what you've anticipated,...

What is the Right Price for My Product? This is one of the most common questions business owners must answer. Defining your pricing strategy is critical to your success because it tells prospective customers a lot about your business, helping them place you in relationship to other companies in the market. So how do you come up with that price? There are many different approaches to pricing. Some are easier to implement and manage than others, and some are more appropriate for specific...

Most business owners did not start out thinking they were going to be sales people, but somewhere along the line they figured out that was what they had become. Guest Susan Trumpler shares tips on how to manage the role none of us prepared for. One of her first tips is to remember how people make decisions. It is natural for us to rely on our primitive brain that was put into their head to keep them safe. So the more you, as a seller, are in touch with how people think and why they make...

You've all heard of the sales funnel this marketing model where every sales starts at the top with a large group of unqualified prospects. In the middle are people who are mildly interested and at the bottom of the customers, In the traditional sales funnel model you put a lot of resources at that top of the funnel to bring in as many people as you possibly can. The problem is when you do that, there are very little resources left for that middle and bottom. Those are the critical stages...

Testimonials are marketing gold. But the trick is cultivate them. So how do you get people to talk about you? Guest, Erin Ollila breaks it down into two parts sourcing testimonials and then using testimonials. She suggests the best way to source testimonials is to make it part of your process. Don't wait till the project is done and you are handing over the deliverable. Ask questions throughout the entire time you're working with them. The easiest way to implement this is to start asking...

I started my career in retail. As a floor manager my job was to attract customers as they walked down the aisle of the store, to pull them into the department. I organized the racks of clothing so they would browse from one to the next and stay in the area as long as possible. Funny thing is as a web designer that's still my job. As I approach the look and feel of a web page I need to think about what will pull a reader in and get them to stay. I plan how I will connect pages and make...

Instagram is so much more than simple an app to share images of your favorite cocktail, flower or friend. It is a powerful business tool with four separate features, or neighborhoods as guest Kendra Swalls likes to call them. There is your feed, stories, reels and even an Instagram live feature. She suggests you curate your your feed to be a resource library for your clients. Reels are short snippets designed to engage prospective clients and stories are the behind the scenes looks at your...

I know you’re probably just starting out in your business. It is all really exciting and new. But, right from day one, you need to be thinking about building a business that someone else will want to buy someday. To do that, you need to lay that groundwork right from the beginning. Start by creating replicable processes and standard procedures which allow others to do tasks and keep things running when you want to step out of the equation. Even if you’re not ready to sell your business...

Geotargeting is a valuable tool if you run a local business. Connecting with customers around the block is what drives your business. But guest, Krystal Covington suggests it can also be a valuable tool if you have a national or even international brand. The trick is not to try to market everywhere all at once . Instead, be strategic and select an a attractive region. Google Trends can help you do just that. By studying the data you can find out which key words have grown in popularity and...