More than a Few Words
1,038 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★★ - 88 ratingsA marketing podcast for business owners. The brief conversations of this marketing podcast are filled with practical tips from business owners and marketing professionals from around the world.
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Episodes
#779 It Is All About The Cash
October 20, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes - 9.78 MBOwning 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,...
#778 Cost Plus Pricing
October 16, 2022 10:30 - 2 minutes - 1.98 MBWhat 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 type...
#777 Get To Yes Faster
October 13, 2022 10:25 - 12 minutes - 10.3 MBMost 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...
#776 Turn Your Sales Funnel Upside Down
October 09, 2022 10:03 - 3 minutes - 3.13 MBYou'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 ...
#775 Testimonials are Marketing Gold
October 06, 2022 04:01 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBTestimonials 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 askin...
#774 Lessons from My Days in Retail
October 02, 2022 10:00 - 1 minute - 1.44 MBI 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 offe...
#773 Instagram Neighborhoods
September 29, 2022 18:56 - 11 minutes - 9.42 MBInstagram 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 yo...
#772 Build a Business to Sell
September 25, 2022 10:36 - 1 minute - 1.72 MBI 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 tho...
#771 Attack New Markets with Google Trends
September 22, 2022 05:00 - 10 minutes - 9.58 MBGeotargeting 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...
#770 Ideas on the Fly
September 18, 2022 10:00 - 1 minute - 1.75 MBIf you're like me, you never have your best ideas when you're sitting at your desk. It is always when you're out walking or talking to someone or driving in your car. Then by the time you get somewhere where you can write it all down and think about it, you have forgotten the idea. My tip is to get really well acquainted with the voice recording app on your phone. Anytime I have a random thought or idea, I just open it up and start recording. Sometimes I capture entire blog posts, and som...
#769 Branding for Creatives
September 15, 2022 04:00 - 11 minutes - 10.2 MBThis week, I chatted with Claire Gallagher about the unique challenges creatives face as they try to work on their branding. The rest of the world thinks designers have it easy when it comes to developing their marketing, but that isn't true. Claire explains they often have it harder as they get lost in the weeds of the design. About Claire She is a designer and a digital strategist. She's focused on helping solo service-based businesses like coaches and creatives show up online and scal...
#768 Tell Stories About Your Best Days
September 13, 2022 10:01 - 10 minutes - 9.33 MBI love to tell stories. Not only because they're fun, but because they're great for business. That's why I was excited to sit down with master storyteller, David Hutchins. He explains, regardless of who you are or what your role is you are in, you need to tell stories. There's lots of types of stories. Some are great if you are in a sales role, others help leaders communicate strategic direction or reinforce culture and identity. One story type which is really powerful and every one ne...
#767 Social Media is Like a Single’s Bar
September 11, 2022 10:00 - 1 minute - 1.45 MBSocial media is a lot like going to a singles bar. You're going to meet a lot of nice people and have some interesting conversations. But at the end of the day your goal is to bring your date home. In the world of digital marketing home is your website and your email list. This is where you can have that great one on one conversation without all the distractions like silly videos, cat pictures and baby images. This is where you can control the conversation. As your creating marketing an...
#766 Use a Quiz to Grow Your Email List
September 08, 2022 10:06 - 11 minutes - 10 MBLet's start with the numbers 80% of small business owners use email marketing to get new clients and to keep their existing ones For every $1 you spend in email marketing you can expect $38 back. It is hard to ignore the numbers. Email is still an important part of your marketing. But, how do you grow your email list? Guest, Tai Goodwin suggests one of the best ways is to use a quiz to engage visitors, learn something about them and collect their email address. Once you have them on ...
#765 Marketing is Personal
September 04, 2022 20:57 - 1 minute - 1.33 MBYour customers want to feel special. In interactions with you, they want the conversation to be focused on their needs and concerns. To communicate that focus in your marketing campaigns, add a little personalization to improve your ability to attract the attention of prospective customers. With so much business conducted remotely and online, it feels as if we have lost that “personal touch.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. Companies willing to invest in getting to know more about custo...
#764 Recession Proof Your Business
September 01, 2022 12:29 - 13 minutes - 11.3 MBIf you have been around the business community as long as I have, or maybe even half as long you know there are cycles. There are ups and there are downs. They way to survive the downs is to be prepared. In this conversation, frequent guest Matt Nettleton, shares tips to build a process to recession proof your business. He describes three things you need to have in place as we head into what may be a bumpy economy. A formal sales process Technology in place to to basically systematical...
#763 Everything Old is New Again
August 28, 2022 10:06 - 1 minute - 1.79 MBThere is this wonderful song written by Peter Allen in the 1970 s. Everything old is New Again. In a way that song sums up where marketers are these days. When that song was written fifty years ago, television advertising ruled. Businesses used the platform to build awareness by reaching a wide audience with little concern about demographics. It didn't matter who saw your message as long as you got in front of as many people as possible. The assumption was sooner or later someone would buy...
#762 Build Landing Pages that Convert
August 25, 2022 10:55 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBYou spend all of your resources trying to drive people to your website. But what do they do when they get there? Well if you goal is to generate leads and build your email list that's where a great landing page comes in. Co-hosts of the System to Thrive Podcast, Jennie Wright and Alyson Lex say your page has to grab their attention right away and that's a combination of how the page looks and the copy that's on the page. We buy with emotion and justify with logic, so the page needs to ...
#761 Let’s Start at the Beginning
August 21, 2022 10:00 - 1 minute - 1.27 MBOne of my all-time favorite movies is The Sound of Music. While I love most of the songs, the scene where Maria teaches the children to sing, is definitely on top of my list. say. She explains, when you read you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with Do Rei Mi. She breaks down all of singing into those three simple notes. It occurred to me while I was watching the rerun the other night that marketing has three little notes as well, the customer, their problem and your solution. If yo...
#760 Spark a Conversation
August 16, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes - 11.3 MBScott Murray thinks today's marketers have to stop selling, promoting and clinging to outdated strategies and tactics. Instead they need to create content to spark engagement, conversation and inspiration from their audience. As we've moved from print to digital, control has shifted from the marketer to the consumer. They decide when they will stop and look at your content and when they will scroll right by. To earn their attention, you need to put the right content on the right pla...
#759Use KPI’s to Grow
August 14, 2022 10:11 - 2 minutes - 2.17 MBHow well is your business performing? Key Performance Indicators help you answer that question. A KPI is a quantifiable measure of performance over time for a specific objective. KPIs provide targets to shoot for, milestones to gauge progress, and insights to help you make better decisions. A few things to keep in mind as you establish your KPI’s Directly tied to your objective. There are many things you can measure in your business, but KPIs are a unique subset which can be directly ti...
#758 Set Your Goals with Your Heart
August 11, 2022 10:01 - 12 minutes - 10.6 MBIf you're like most business owners you've set lots of goals and in your life and you've never fulfilled them. It not be the goal, but because your decision making process that is creating the failures. Debra Sunderland explains we have three decision centers the head, heart and gut. To often we let the head make the plans. The problem is our brain, in an attempt to protect us, anticipates risk and sets limits. She advocates for letting your heart and your passion drive your goals. About ...
#757 Build an Amazing Life
August 09, 2022 10:00 - 10 minutes - 9.26 MBWhen you started your business you probably assumed that sooner or later you would get around to building a life to go with it. According to guest Nicole Bandes, that is not necessarily the best way to approach things. She believes you can actually build a successful business around your amazing life. The trick is to stop defining success based on how others define it and focus on what is important to you. Then understand that you won't find balance, because life is not 50/50. There are t...
#756 Email - Your Little Black Marketing Dress
August 07, 2022 10:02 - 1 minute - 1.54 MB----more----Every woman has that little black dress in her wardrobe. Classic in design it is not too trendy and not too stodgy. It is incredibly versatile. With the right accessories, jackets, scarves or cool shoes it is perfect for every occasion, year in and year out. And every smart marketer knows that email is their little black dress. It goes well with all of the other elements in your marketing wardrobe. From the hottest marketing trend to the most basic marketing campaign, email ma...
#755 Managing a Business and a Family
August 04, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes - 10 MBSo you think you've got distractions and can't start a business. Well my guest, Renee Harris has nine children and still found a way to build a six-figure business. How did she balance the demands of a family and the demands of running a business? Renee explains. " We didn't start with 9 kids when we started a business and just like when you have kids normally you don't get them all at once and normally a business doesn't just fall in your lap. " She didn't try to do everything at once, ...
#754 Make Your Content Fun
August 02, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes - 9.98 MBSocial media and content marketing should be fun. If you are not feeling the fun in the content you are creating then your audience is probably bored, and so are you. But it doesn't have to be that way. Guest Elizabeth Ruth suggests when you start with a clear brand voice it is easier to create content which entertains and is memorable enough to help you sell products. About Elizabeth Ruth. Elizabeth is the Owner and Chief Copy Writer for ER Marketing Services. The agency empowe...
#753 -No Social, Just Media
July 31, 2022 10:52 - 1 minute - 1.23 MBFacebook is on a mission to take the social out of social media. They've announced changes to their algorithm that you're already seeing. They're prioritizing ads and video from complete strangers over the updates from friends and family members. Those updates are going to be buried somewhere and you're really going to have to look for them. As a user, this is incredibly frustrating. And as a business owner, it's confusing as I tried to figure out how to navigate this post algorithm chang...
#752 People over Profits
July 28, 2022 10:37 - 13 minutes - 10.2 MBThese days business is built on relationships. So when you are in a networking situation, guest Patty Farmer suggests you remember to focus on the people and the profits will follow. The relationships we build are the currency in today's business environment. So think of your business like an ATM machine. Are you making more deposits or more withdrawals? This is a return appearance for Patty. If you enjoyed this episode, you are sure to find value in our earlier conversations.
#751 The International Team
July 26, 2022 10:02 - 10 minutes - 9.38 MBThese days, it seems everyone is talking about working remote. with advances in technology, you can work anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world. As a business owner, managing a remote, international team has some similarities to managing other teams and a few unique challenges. This week, Matt Levenhagen joins us for a conversation about running an international team. About Matt For more than 20 years, Matt has on web design, affiliate marketing, niche marketing, PPC advertis...
#750 Success in a Rocky Economy
July 24, 2022 10:04 - 2 minutes - 2.25 MBI know the economy is rocky. Yes, things have been bumpy for the last three years. But the truth is, this isn't the first time it's happened, and it will be the last. If you want your business to still be around when things finally settle down, here are a few things you should do. Use this time to clean up your processes. Get efficient. With tight labor markets and rising salary, stop wasting time and money on anything that is not productive. Ruthlessly review your marketing. Just because ...
#749 Find Your One True Love
July 21, 2022 10:03 - 12 minutes - 10.1 MBWhen it comes to finding your life's love or passion is there really only one? Maybe you think that's a strange introduction for a marketing conversation. But it's not. Just as finding that one true love is important to your personally, it is also true for you as an entrepreneur. There is happiness and profit when you commit to your one true passion. Guest Jennifer Crawford says there is lots of talk in the entrepreneurial space about finding your why. It can be a complex journey to ...
#748 The Psychology of Words
July 19, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes - 9.97 MBSometimes when people write copy they forget they're not just writing for SEO. They need to keep in mind they are writing to attract the attention of real people who have specific reasons for reading the information According to our guest, Rai Hyde Cornell, Google's not the one clicking the buy now or book a call button. They are not the ones making the decision. So, why are you going to prioritize Google and Google's spiders and search bots over the actual humans who have the real power...
#747 The Right Price
July 17, 2022 10:25 - 2 minutes - 2.44 MBWhat is the right price for your product or service? Most small business owners struggle with this question, because they confuse the cost of producing the product with the value it brings to the customer. When it comes to establishing a price for your goods or services, the value of your product has absolutely nothing to do with production cost. The value is based on how much you help clients save, increase, reduce or improve. If you can quantify these benefits, then you have a foundation ...
#746 A.I. and You
July 14, 2022 10:12 - 10 minutes - 9.71 MBIf you're a little bit of a sci-fi nerd. The idea that the robots are coming can be a little bit terrifying. But if you're a marketer in today's world the advent of Ai is an exciting opportunity. Guest Thomas Helfrich agrees some of the early AI content wasn't great it has gotten much better. It's doing a great job for small businesses looking to produce short marketing copy titles and headlines. But for longer form you still need a human in the loop.
#745 Avoid Social Media Overwhelm
July 12, 2022 10:13 - 11 minutes - 10.7 MBDo you feel overwhelmed by social media if you do you're not alone but I've got some good news for you because there are things you can do to manage the chaos and make the time you're spending on social media productive. Our guest, Andrea Jones explains one of the challenges with social media is that it's a mixture of our business and our personal life. one of the tricks is to identify why you're on social media to begin with and separate the platforms for personal and business use. The...
#744 I Love Evergreen Content
July 10, 2022 10:16 - 2 minutes - 2.91 MBOne of the things I love about living in Indiana is the color of the seasons. There are the bright pastels of spring, the rich greens of summer, and the bright orange and yellow of fall. The exception is winter. The dreary days of winter seem colorless and bland compared to the vibrancy of colors throughout the rest of the year. That’s why I love evergreen trees. They bring spots of color to my view all year long. Just as these wonderful trees bring consistent color to my yard, evergreen c...
#743 - Stop Creating Content and Start Telling Stories.
July 07, 2022 10:13 - 11 minutes - 9.61 MBWhen it comes to creating content, the age old question seems to be " What do you write about? The biggest challenge of creating content is staring at that blank sheet of paper. But according to guest Kathleen Celmins, it doesn't have to be. The trick is to stop creating content and start telling stories with your clients, not you as the hero. In the "story" focus on their transformation, how they changed as a result of working with you. That is the source of compelling content! Abo...
#742 Unlock Your Creativity with Art.
July 05, 2022 10:00 - 10 minutes - 9.41 MBPeople tell me they're they don't think they're creative. But that's not true. Everyone is creative. We just express it differently. And you need that creativity to solve the business and personal challenges in your life. In this episode, our guest Fiona Valentine explains how simple it can be to unlock your creativity by drawing just a few minutes every day. Starting with a structure approach to learn the basic rules, anyone can learn to draw. That skill, in turn will unlock new parts o...
#741 Your Brand Position
July 03, 2022 10:00 - 1 minute - 1.18 MBWhat do you want people to say about you when you're not in the room. What do you want them to tell people. who are looking for someone who does what you do? All of those comments add up to your personal brand. Now a lot of business owners are under the misconception that somehow they control their brand. But they don't. Your brand is something that exists in the mind of your customers. All you can do is influence it with your marketing messages and your actions and over time you will cre...
#741 Shaping Your Brand Position
July 03, 2022 10:00 - 1 minute - 1.18 MBWhat do you want people to say about you when you're not in the room. What do you want them to tell people. who are looking for someone who does what you do? All of those comments add up to your personal brand. Now a lot of business owners are under the misconception that somehow they control their brand. But they don't. Your brand is something that exists in the mind of your customers. All you can do is influence it with your marketing messages and your actions and over time you will cre...
#740 Flip the Sales Conversation
June 30, 2022 13:43 - 11 minutes - 9.15 MBYou think you know everything about sales. You've heard all the presentations and everybody talks about pain and objections. Well, my guest Chandler Walker thinks that might be the wrong way to approach a sales. He believes the goal isn't just to stab at a prospect to find the pain. Instead, when you become a cognitive listener you are able to identify the pain and understand where the pain exists. Using that information you must help the prospect look not just short term, fixing the pai...
#739 Better Networking Results
June 28, 2022 10:01 - 11 minutes - 9.79 MBI love a good networking event. but I know not everybody loves that process. They're often confused and frustrated with how to start the conversation and where to go after they've opened it. Laura Templeton suggests you start by ditching the pitch mentality. Start by crafting a short "I help" statement. So when someone asks what you do, you an say I help . . . That makes the conversation about your customers not you. The next trick is to have a great set of questions you can use to get...
#738 It Takes a Village
June 26, 2022 10:43 - 1 minute - 1.5 MBEvery parent knows, It takes a village to raise a child. Each of the adults in the child’s life, relatives, teachers, coaches, brings a different perspective. The same is true for your business. No matter how smart you are or how much you know about your business, there are gaps in your skill-set. Your business village should be filled with smart, talented subject matter experts to help you fill in the gaps. If you are running a small business your village won't be comprised of employees, b...
#737 - A Rational Approach to SEO
June 23, 2022 09:54 - 10 minutes - 9.54 MBThink you know how Google works? Guest, Kyle Roof explains your assumptions may not be right. For example, many people think Google reads a web page as a human would. Google is not able to do that, it isn't pulling meaning from your content. It is an algorithm looking at your content not from an editorial quality perspective, but a mathematical one looking to see if you check off the boxes in the formula. Start with does your page include the keyword or phrase. Google will look for ...
#736 Sitting on a Gold Mine
June 20, 2022 21:45 - 10 minutes - 8.93 MBI bet you didn't know that you're sitting on a gold mine. but according to my guest Mary Henderson, you are. As human beings. we experiences built over a lifetime, and those experiences are currency. This is particularly true of former corporate executives who are exploring entrepreneurship. The skills you build over your career can be worth millions if you can systemize your knowledge, wisdom and skill set, transforming that into a solution Too often, however these would-be entrepr...
#735 Power Words
June 19, 2022 10:02 - 2 minutes - 2.54 MBWords have power to move, motivate, inspire, frightened and cheer, what you say and how you say it can have a strong impact on another person. Some words, called power words have more impact than others. These words have strong meaning, which can trigger a psychological or an emotional response. They're persuasive, pushing people to action. Using these power words in your web copy, email communication, social media, will grab the attention or your reader and move them to action. There are ...
#734 What Type of Bird are You
June 16, 2022 10:39 - 10 minutes - 9.43 MBWhether you're trying to hire a new person, work with an agency or close a sale, the very first step is really figuring out if you're sitting across the table from the right person. The problem is that people don't come with scorecards telling you exactly who they are and whether or not they're a good fit, or do they? Social engineer, Benjamin Bressington says there is a scorecard, if you look for it. In this episode, he boils down people into four main types, each with a set of communi...
#733 The Rule of 26
June 14, 2022 10:01 - 12 minutes - 11.1 MBWhat if you could improve the amount of traffic that came to your website, the amount of conversions and the lifetime value of customers by 26% each? My guest Michael Buzinski developed the Rule of 26 to help busy business owners understand we do not have to dive into the complexities of digital marketing to get revenue from our websites. He believes many business owners think of their website as an expense and not a revenue generating tool. To help change their perspective, he shows the...
#732 Healthy Conflict
June 12, 2022 10:14 - 1 minute - 1.73 MBWouldn't it be nice if we all just got along. That might seem like a good idea but it really isn't. You can't eliminate conflict completely. and you shouldn't. Well-managed conflict actually cultivates discussions and create opportunities to uncover new and innovative solutions. Accept conflict as a natural part of your relationship with employees and with all of the people in your life. It isn't necessarily good or bad. It can be very healthy if the conflict occurs when people have diffe...
#731 Vacation-Proof Your Business
June 09, 2022 10:04 - 11 minutes - 9.6 MBAll work and no play makes Jack or Jill very dull. As a business owner you work really hard but you also need to find ways to get away and take a vacation. Guest Carol Clegg shared great vacation preparation tips from working ahead, to finding co-working spaces along the way to get things done. You have to prioritize and focus on those things which have to get done to keep your business. But you may not have to be the person to do the work. About Carol Clegg Carol Clegg, is the ...