The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Podcast

The significance of inbound marketing is undeniable. Consumers are smarter, savvier, know what they want and have innumerable resources to get it. So it’s our goal as business owners to be wherever our potential customers are looking for us. Pay per click advertising has a proven track record as an effective strategy for inbound marketing. It’s fast, nimble, far reaching and makes managing and tracking your efforts simple. If you find that your SEO efforts are not quite where you’d like them to be, pay per click is a fantastic complement to this, as well as providing a nice boost to your other marketing efforts. Leslie Lewis knows a thing or two about managing successful marketing campaigns. She leads her agency’s efforts in all online marketing, overseeing campaign management and strategy for search, social and mobile media buys. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/111

You’ve heard it a million times from everyone you come in contact with that you have to build your list, you’re nothing without your email list. But what good is a huge list if at least half of the names on it have no communication with you or your business at all? If only there was a way to figure out which of those people were solid leads with a deep, vested interest in your products or services. This is where building a tribe comes into play. When you build your tribe, you’re cultivating and connecting with like minded people that are more likely to purchase your products and services. Think of it as having your own, loyal following of Deadheads, if you will. When you learn how to attract and communicate with the right names on your list, you build a valuable following of quality over quantity. Keith Perhac helps businesses increase revenue from their existing traffic by building authority and trust through their audience and customers. He also helps create online courses that add value to businesses and brands. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/110

A large percentage of the profiles that are currently on LinkedIn are incorrectly utilizing the platform as nothing more than a place to post their resume. First impressions are crucial, and with so many social media platforms out there, these first impressions are becoming more and more digital versus in person. What does your LinkedIn profile say about you? By just spending a little bit of time on your profile, you can be that person that continuously shows up in searches and generates a lot of buzz and attention. Personalizing your profile with things like a professional photo, non-generic headers and a vanity URL will not only get you noticed but it can also strengthen your SEO game. Amanda Healy is a social media rockstar who knows a thing or two about how to stand out from the pack. She runs the corporate media accounts for her employer, TIBCO, as well as leading a team whose job is to devise and execute multidimensional campaigns for lead generation. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/109

Every business, regardless of the size of both the company or the community it is in, faces a certain amount of struggles and adversity. The key in overcoming them is to concentrate on what your strengths and advantages are and use those to leverage success. You need to stand out from your competition, whether you are one of 300 or only 3 of a particular business in your community. A common assumption is that big businesses and corporations have the upper hand over small businesses, and certainly those in very small, rural communities. How could the little guys possibly compete with the big guys, right? Wrong. In the world of technology - and certainly social media - no one is limited solely by their geographical area. Becky McCray doesn’t just talk about small business and rural living, she actually lives it. As the owner of two businesses in a community of only 30 residents, her experience and practical perspective make her an authority on how how small, rural businesses can grow while shaping and greatly impacting their communities. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/108

You’ve just created a shiny, new website for your business, now you just need to “SEO it," right? Wrong. Search engine optimization isn’t something you just sprinkle on at the end, it’s an important ingredient that should be used throughout the website building process. Like an onion, SEO has many layers that make up the whole. It is so much more than just picking some clever keywords and calling it good. No longer is it brushed off as an IT issue, but rather part of the ongoing branding and marketing process. By implementing elements such as optimized title tags, link profiles and metadata into your website, you’ll be well on your way to making friends with Google and ranking through the roof in online search. Thom Craver is a SEO ninja. He has been teaching the finer points and nuances of effective SEO and related digital marketing strategies to business owners, college students and conference attendees. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/107

More than 1.4 billion people use Facebook, and more than 900 million visit every day. That alone is reason enough to consider using Facebook ads as a valuable means to connect with your audience - they’re already there! But how do you connect with them efficiently and promote your products and services without looking like you’re just trying to push sales onto them? There are a few golden rules to follow that will allow you to earn your audience’s trust, promote your products and services and build your ubiquitous email list. Amy Porterfield knows a thing or two about growing businesses. Her vast knowledge and experience as both a content developer and marketer for some of the country’s top corporations has given her the wisdom to know what works and what doesn’t when trying to grow your audience and build your brand. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/106

There are many ways to go about marketing your brand, and with the endless amount of social media platforms out there right now, visual marketing is topping the charts. But how do you connect with your audience through visual marketing in a way that influences and shapes the way they perceive your brand? Most important is to always be true to your audience. Find out where they hang out and be there. Maybe even consider finding ways to include your audience in the marketing with campaigns that include customer’s media such as photos. Steer clear of the trendy route and pave your own road that allows your brand’s voice to resonate with your audience and makes them want to share it with the world. Gregarious Narain is co-founder of Chute, where he helps enable businesses to create visually rich media that influences and shapes the way people perceive their brand. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/105

Loss of focus is a huge problem, not just with marketers but with people in general. Part of what we need to learn to do is to develop the habit or the discipline of purposely simplifying our lives so that we can focus our attention on the things that are most essential and important. When we realize that behaviors such as “multitasking” are actually doing more harm than good for our productivity and performance, we can begin to retrain our minds with more positive habits that we can use not only at work but in our everyday lives. Sir John Hargrave is the author of Mind Hacking, a book dedicated to teaching you how to reprogram your mind in order to change your life for the better. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/104

Mobile is a bigger factor in your small business's success than you might think. The fact that 90% of all social media and email is first viewed on a smartphone means that your business is losing out big time if you’re not reaching your audience where they hang out. Understanding that when your audience is reaching you via their smartphones or other mobile devices, they want a frictionless and more condensed experience. They don’t want to have to scroll through multiple pages just to get a phone number or an address. That risky behavior will get you nothing but increased bounce rates and lost customers. Tim Hayden saw the mobile future coming and used that foresight to help Fortune 50 brands make innovative changes in technology that has brought them bigger and continued success. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/103

You’ve built up an email list and generated a good chunk of leads, but now what do you do with them? So many small businesses are putting all of their focus on generating more traffic through search, social media and digital ads, but they’re putting very little effort into actually converting these visitors into customers. And let’s face it, isn’t that the goal in the first place? Just trying a few simple tricks like tweaking your welcome email, offering some quality freebies, being careful of the words you’re using and doing some split testing, can make all the difference to boosting your conversion rate. As the conversion educator at LeadPages, Tim Paige spends his days helping business owners and entrepreneurs use various data points to increase revenue by converting quality leads into sales. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/102