{E83} The doomed restaurant (and what it has to do with your business)

In this week’s solo episode, I talk more about the 3 Pilllars of Online Marketing and share a story about a doomed restaurant location my neighborhood and how that relates to marketing your business online.

Key Takeaways:

You can have all the bells and whistles you want on your website, but you need to have a plan to bring people to your site
It doesn’t end with building a nice website, and having amazing packages and services- what’s your promotion plan? Will you be doing guest blogging? Webinars? Facebook ads? Free strategy calls?

The failed restaurant and what it has to do with your website/online marketing. HINT: Everything!

Click To Tweet

Resource:

Ignite Online Group Coaching

3 Pillars of Online Marketing:

What does your 3 month promotion plan look like?

Get my Free 3 Part Mini-Video Course and start growing your business with webinars.

{E81} How To Create A Sticky Brand With Jeremy Miller

In today’s episode, I sit down and chat with Jeremy Miller, author of Sticky Branding and we discuss how to create a brand that is positioned to win.

Jeremy walks us through 3 of his 12.5 principles and we cover how simple clarity is at the cornerstone of any successful sticky brand.

Key Takeaways:

The importance of speaking in terms of your customer to create a more findable, memorable and desirable brand
Why you should create a community/platform around your brand
Why a community exists for its members and won’t survive if it’s just about marketing.

How To Create A Sticky Brand @stickybranding #marketing

Click To Tweet

Resource:

Sticky Branding

About Jeremy Miller

Jeremy Miller is a Brand Builder, Speaker, and the President of Sticky Branding – a Brand Building agency.

After rebranding his family’s business, Jeremy embarked on a decade long study of how small- and mid-sized companies grow incredible brands. Jeremy is the author of Sticky Branding: 12.5 Principles to Stand Out, Attract Customers and Grow an Incredible Brand, a branding playbook for small- and mid-sized companies.

{E79} 3 Pillars of Online Marketing

Stop Spinning Your Wheels Online! Does this feel all too familiar?

You feel like you’re spinning your wheels when it comes to your online marketing.

You know what you’re *supposed* to do, but there is no *real* plan and as a result you’re doing things randomly throughout the day.

You’ve created all your social media accounts, started blogging, and set up an email list…but nothing is really happening.

You’re constantly scrambling with what to say online and joining the latest social network in hopes that *this* will be the one.

Over the next episodes, I will be going over the 3 Pillars of Online Marketing so you can say good-bye to overwhelm and welcome more clarity, connections and clients in 2015.

Key Takeaways:

Platform: Get your website in order before you start sending people there. If you’re inviting people over, you’d make sure your house is in order, right? The same thing applies online. Before you start sending traffic to your website, you have to make sure you are ready to receive it! Do you have an opt-in in place? What about your follow-up strategy? Calls to action and auto-responders are important! And making sure you have the key information your prospects are looking for when they land on your site.

Presence: Once you’ve got your house in order, it’s time to figure out where your guests are hanging out online. You don’t have to be everywhere but you have to be in the right places.

Promotion: Once you’ve got your website ready and your engaging online with prospects, it’s time to ramp things up a notch and increase your visibility online. This is where Facebook ads, retargeting and webinars come in! And of course, making sales!

Stop spinning your wheels online. Follow the 3 Pillars of #marketing for more connections this year!

Click To Tweet

Resources:

{E78} How easy are you making it for your customers to buy from you?

In this week’s episode, I share the story of how car-shopping has led me to re-evaluate my website and buyer experience.

Is it easy for my potential clients to get in touch with me? How clear are my services? What is the buying experience like when they purchase digital products?

Key Takeaways:

The importance of testing your website on mobile and desktop
Look at your site with a fresh pair of eyes- how easy is it to access your services?
Do you plan on listing your prices or do your potential clients have to setup a consult call? Make it clear!

How easy are you making it for your customers to buy from you? #userexperience #sales #website

Click To Tweet

Resources:

Peek Testing

User Testing

Accelerate Mastermind

{E76} Tool Time! The essential tools to run your online business

In this week’s solo episode I go over the tools and apps I am using to run my business. Too often we get caught up spending time researching tool after tool so I wanted to share what’s working for me right now.

My biggest takeaway: tools will keep changing but find what works and stick to it! No point in spending all your time researching tools because as I’ve seen over the years- they will change!

Below you will find the tools I am using to run my business, with everything from social media to email management:

Website

Google Analytics plugin

Social Media

I use a combo of Hootsuite and BufferApp. I use Hootsuite for scheduled content and following conversations and hashtags and BufferApp for content that I want to share on the fly and gets added to my buffer queue.

Hootsuite

BufferApp

Images/Image Creation

If you’re looking to create your own images for social media and blog posts:

Email/Management

Mailchimp

Boomerang (a must!): This is one of my favorite apps. You can schedule email to go out at certain times (within Gmail)- just because you’re responding to emails on a Saturday night does not mean your clients have to know! Or if you want to break the habit of real-time email reply.

Landing Pages

Landing pages give your visitor a single call to action and decision point and remove all the other distractions from your website. This is helpful for optins (webinars, freebies) and sales pages.

Lead Pages