The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Podcast

With so many advertising platforms out there, why should you choose Facebook, and what benefits does it offer over the other options? One of the biggest differences with Facebook compared to Google - for example - is that where Google helps you find new customers, Facebook helps new customers find you. Facebook boasts a huge worldwide audience of 1.55 billion active monthly users, and has unrivaled audience enormity. That reach alone makes Facebook appealing. But when you add in the ability to enhance audience targeting, increase reach for your content, awesome tracking of performance and ROI, and only spend as little as you like and still get results, Facebook advertising is a no brainer, especially for small businesses looking to make a big impact. Massimo Chieruzzi loves to talk about using Facebook advertising for small businesses. His business, Ad Espresso, is a leading Facebook Ads optimization platform. Massimo loves helping small businesses get the most from their Facebook advertising while keeping it both simple and affordable. www.agentsofchangecon.com/160

Do you think sponsorships are only for nonprofits or big names and huge companies with a massive following and years of experience in their industry? Then think again. Even if you're just starting out and looking to hold an event, if you have an interested audience then you can find sponsors to help you defray the expenses involved with such an undertaking. Squash the myths that are holding you back. You can go after the big companies, you can land the big bucks, and you can keep them coming back year after year. By building a relationship with them that blends cohesively with your intended audience and giving them the incentive to support you financially, you can be successful at landing big sponsorships whether it's your first time at it or not. Linda Hollander knows how to attract big sponsors both for herself and her clients. Her thoughtful and compelling strategies for landing big names and big dollars are sure to help skyrocket your next business venture. www.agentsofchangecon.com/159

We all know by now that Pinterest has proven itself as more than a wedding planning and DIY platform. More and more businesses are seeing the power of using Pinterest to market and grow. By following a few basic "rules", you can effectively locate and market to your audience using Pinterest. Making sure you know your audience, create visually appealing content - both original and curated - make sure your boards really show who you are and you are categorizing them well, pin with some amount of frequency/regularity, and most importantly look to other pinners for inspiration. These are the "commandments", if you will, to successful Pinterest marketing that will help you grow your small business in a steady way. Kate Ahl is a Pinterest pro, turning what started as a personal interest in Pinterest into a business where she helps take the mystery out of Pinterest marketing, and allows her clients to sit back and relax as she puts into place strategies to grow followers and increase page views. www.agentsofchangecon.com/158

When people think about SEO, they often think of it as a cumbersome and laborious task, but it's actually less complex than a lot of marketers make it sound. It is, however, a mandatory marketing tactic if you want to increase visibility and take your business to the next level. Certainly you can - and in some cases should - hire a SEO pro, but there are some fairly simple strategies and techniques - even free tools - that a novice can use to make all the difference. It all starts with content, of course, but making sure you're choosing your keywords carefully, testing them out, and measuring their effectiveness makes all the difference. And don't forget to check out your competition, learn from their triumphs and failures, too. With over 8 years of experience and a true passion for web marketing, Nicki Hicks loves to help businesses reach their ideal target audience and increase their online presence with smart SEO. www.agentsofchangecon.com/157

By now you already know the importance of having a strong email list. It's more than just numbers, you need to find the exact people that will engage with you, read your content, and buy your products and services. So where do you find them and how do you keep them? Facebook ads can be an important and valuable way to find that audience, for a relatively inexpensive option. Facebook ads offer concise options for targeting - and retargeting - as well as pretty cool analytics to help you track who's clicking your links and who isn't. Amy Porterfield is a social media strategy consultant who has helped countless entrepreneurs and small businesses establish strategies to boost the success of their online marketing efforts. www.agentsofchangecon.com/156

Looking to reboot your business's marketing strategy? Maybe you're wanting to try something different to give your business's voice a kick in the pants. Perhaps you're looking for a way to engage more intimately and directly with your audience. Well look no further, live video is here and easier than ever! Keeping your audience and customers engaged can be a constant challenge. Providing them with compelling content is just one way to keep them coming back. But creatively getting it to them and mixing it up is another great way to do that, and live video offers an exciting and more engaging way to connect with your audience, and lets them have in on the fun, too. Lou Mongello is proof that live video engagement can be an effective and creative tool for keeping your audience interested - and more importantly - coming back to you time and again. Live video is just one of the ways he has helped build his business and brand by keeping his content fresh and engaging. www.agentsofchangecon.com/155

Are you having trouble getting people to fill out your online forms? Sometimes it's as simple as offering some motivation to influence your users. No, you don't have to offer a free Ferrari to anyone who fills out your form, but there are other - less extreme - ways. Paying attention to your analytics can make all the difference in finding out things like at which point your potential customers may be consistently abandoning your form, or how effective your forms actual are in converting customers. With a few tweaks, hacks and tips, you can optimize your forms and turn them into powerful, lead capturing goldmines! Marcus Taylor knows that forms separate your leads from non-leads, and he understands that they are one of the highest points of leverage that an online business has. His "Form Optimization Pyramid" framework outlines the different stages of how likely someone is to convert using a form, and can be used to help you optimize your business's online forms. www.agentsofchangecon.com/154

Just what the heck is Google Display Network (GDN), and how can you make it work for your business? With so many ad platforms out there, what makes this one special and how can your business best benefit from using it? GDN allows businesses to advertise images and videos on websites of their choice, so you have the ability to get pretty niche here if you choose to. Plus, think of all ways that can help your online branding! You have the ability to find and reach customers that otherwise might have been missed through other advertising platforms. Lisa Raehsler is about as "expert" as you can get on the topics of PPC, display, retargeting, and social media ad campaigns. Her strategy and program development for countless businesses over the last 17 years has shown quick, proven results. www.agentsofchangecon.com/153

So maybe your website isn't quite performing as well as you'd like. Maybe you're just not seeing much conversion, or at least the conversion rates you're hoping to reach. How do you go about figuring out where you may need to start tweaking things to improve on that? A/B split testing is a great way to test a few different variations and see what jives better with your audience. But where do you start? For a website with a large number of pages, that can be a pretty daunting task if you start testing variations of every page. Your best bet is to first see what individual pages - and aspects of each page - are performing and converting well as is, and then start working on those that need help. Chris Dayley is the founder of Dayley Conversion, where he uses his expertise and knowledge of using scientific, data-driven testing to help businesses improve their customer's user experiences. www.agentsofchangecon.com/152

For business owners, it's been pounded into our heads that we need to build our email lists. Build your list and email your audience with content, information and special offers. Sure, email is great, but do you realize the average person that owns a smartphone has it in their hand almost every 7 minutes? So doesn't it make sense to hit them up where they're hanging out? Texting isn't just a convenient way to chat with our family and friends, it's also a powerful mobile marketing tool. If you're doing it in a purely opt in way, and offering some form of attractive incentive, texting can offer you benefits over other forms of marketing. Texting is quick, interactive and pretty inexpensive. It's also a great way to send out time sensitive information, whereas if you were to send an email, that may not be opened by the intended recipient until the next time they log into their laptop or PC. Brian Mikes completely immersed himself in the world marketing, learning online marketing, email marketing, SEO and online advertising. Now he teaches the benefits and profitability of text message marketing. www.agentsofchangecon.com/151