More Than A Few Words

If you are like me, you have that one thing that you always put off, it's something that has to get done. But there is always something else more important that gets in the way. It is time to break the cycle of guilt associated with never getting to the things that are important.  You need to commit to making that thing a habit and do it every single day. And one of the best ways to make something a habit is to really understand how habits work. It is a three-part process. There's a trigger something that sets off the behavior. The action itself, and then the reward. For me, the habit I wanted to build was making five phone calls every day. So I put a reminder on my phone as the trigger.  Then I committed to taking the action when I got the reminder, not just hitting the snooze button and continuing with whatever else I was going at the moment. And the most important part is the reward.  When I'm done with my calls I go for a walk. That's my positive reward for making that behavior part of my routine. What is

Why build a dream team?  On the one hand things are so much simpler when it is just you.  On the other hand, when it is just you, then you are wearing all of the hats, all the time.  You have to do everything. If you aren’t working in the business, it’s probably not making money. That’s where the power of a team comes into play  When you build the dream team, with the right people and you actually put an accountability and follow up into your system, your life actually becomes less complicated. You have time to focus on the parts of the business at which you excel and maybe even have a little time off. 

The internet is filled with calls to action. Everywhere you go, there are brightly colored buttons commanding you to read more, get the content, watch this or buy now; all those buttons exist because they work. People respond, click or take action when commanded to do so, but some buttons work better than others.   If you’re going to design buttons for your website, keep the message short: 1-3 words so the reader can comprehend the command at a glance, use action phrases, tell people what to do, click here, register here, and most of all, don’t submit. In a study of effective calls to action submit was one of the least effective phrases you could choose.

A wise man once said, there is nothing so constant as change. That is especially true when you are a business owner. The key to success is often identifying opportunities to pivot and being brave enough to make the change.  Tiffany Youngren, Host of the Next Up Nation Podcast  and founder of the OHM Agency joined us for a conversation about transitions. Her advice:  Just because you made one change, doesn't mean there isn't another pivot in your future.  As things change you need to be prepared to make changes in your business Getting advice from other's can be helpful, just be careful who you take advice from.  Make sure they are where you want to be There is no single right time to make a change. It is more about committing to the change.   

Celebrity endorsements aren’t new. I mean, they’ve been around for a really long time as far back as the 1760s, when producers of pottery in China used royal endorsements to promote their product. Hollywood stars and athletes routinely allow their images to be used in endorsements of products. And we assume that the athlete knows something about the running shoes or the celebrity chef knows something about cooking. But these days, there is a new class of celebrity with the rise of the Internet.   Influencers don’t have to be in politics or entertainment or sports or fashion. They simply need to be considered knowledgeable by a section of the population. These days there are influencers in every business category and it may make sense for your business to consider partnering with an influencer to grow your brand.

People often ask me if I work with my husband.  And I politely explain that I would rather remain married, than try to navigate that challenging path.  But my guest, Paul Tompkins explains how to do both.   It boils down to a few simple strategies.  It requires patience and a willingness to put the other person ahead of you Separate work from family and not allow work to bleed into other parts of your life.  Set up a daily plan that may not start and end at the same time.   

A few thoughts to start your blogging checklist. I am a big fan of blogging because I think it can be a very powerful part of your overall marketing. So what’s involved in a successful blog? Well, to start it needs to be filled with a steady stream of content filled with relevant keywords. That’s great for search engines, but it also needs to be well written and relevant content for your target audience. Then then content needs to be properly indexed and categorized. s both human beings and search engines will find what they are looking for. Writing a good 500 word post is sometimes the easiest part of the process. Beyond the post itself, there needs to be a plan for your call to action at the end of the post, attractive images and links to other relevant content both on and off your site. Sounds like a lot of trouble.  Is it worth it?  You bet it is each time a a customer find your content.  Ready to get started?  Grab a copy of our content calendar to plan your attack. 

This week our guest Mark Dunsmore explains the best way to become an expert in your niche is not to try to learn everything about your industry.  You don't have to be a superpower in the industry and teach everything someone needs to know.  Instead, what it means is having more knowledge than the person who wants to learn from you, and being able to package that up in a way that enables them to progress along their journey

If a prospective customer went to Google to look for a business like yours, what words would they use? Your website must contain those words. They tell a search engine like Google exactly what your website or page is about. That information is then stored in the search engine database so it can be presented to prospective customers when they’re looking for a product or service.   One of the most common mistakes business owners make is thinking that there’s some single magic key word or phrase that they must dominate. But that just isn’t how search works anymore. Why? Because today, people are more likely to use natural language as they type or dictate to Siri. So instead of typing a short phrase like furnace repair, they’re more likely to ask “Who can I call to replace my furnace?” or “Why is my furnace making a funny sound?”   As you think about your keywords, think about natural language and how people are more likely to talk when they’re looking for a business like yours.

When people throw around the term customer experience, what are they really talking about? They're talking about the experience that customers go through when interacting with your brand.  It is not just a single moment, but rather a series of interaction in their customer journey. The cumulative impact of these experiences defines how they feel and how they perceive the brand is delivering on their promise.    This week, Stacy Sherman of DoingCXRight®shares some tips on how and when businesses should measure their customer's experience. 

Every day when you leave your home, you lock the door and you take your keys. That's what you do to protect your home.    As a business owner with a website, you need to lock your website to protect that as well. To do that you need to add what's known as an SSL, a secure socket layer to make sure that your information does not fall into the wrong hands and to signal to search engines that you're serious about security.   Because you see, Google and other search engines don't want to send visitors to websites that could be potentially dangerous, that could potentially distribute their information into the wrong hands. If you don't have an SSL on your web sight you need to get in touch with your web developer today.

It is human nature to be judgmental, to look at things which are different and judge them good or bad.   What is the difference between judgement and curiosity?  Actually, they're two sides of the same coin.  They occur as we recognize that something is different from how we'd like it to be or just different from what we're used to.   Judgment is what we typically do as human beings. We recognize something as either better or worse, good or bad. Where as curiosity is just looking to see what the differences are.  Our guest, Ryan Stanley explains that choosing to be curious opens us up to so much more opportunity as we ask the questions which help us improve instead of focusing on just the current state.    

In this week's Marketing Minute, we look at the art of the Meme   If you’ve been using social media for any length of time, you’ve probably seen a meme. What makes memes so popular is the fact that they give people a common topic or trend to make jokes about, creating a community feel as the meme is expanded and shared.   But what about brands? Are they invited to the party? It’s a question that every social media manager grapples with at some point, and the answer is more complicated than you think.   Why? Because memes move quickly. What’s funny today is outdated tomorrow. And so if your organization is not prepared to jump on a trend quickly, it may be something that you simply want to avoid. Secondly, meme humor can sometimes be cutting or biting. And if that doesn’t fit with your brand, again, you may want to avoid the topic entirely. 

This week's guest Robby Slaughter discusses the pros and cons of remote work.  He shares tips on how to make  working remotely more productive without allowing it to take over your life.   Stop using the phrase wok - life balance.  Think of it as life - work balance. When you put your life first in that phrase you are making a decision to  think about the person you want to be and how you want to live. Then the work is what enables you to have the life you want to have with your friends, with your family with your community.  to do that it is important to have a physical space which you can close off when your working time is over.   As you manage remote teams, think about switching form an open-door to an open-mind policy, creating virtual office hours and creating intentional and purposeful social interactions to build team camaraderie. 

Remember when everyone thought the internet was free, you could put your message out there and suddenly traffic came to your website? It was like magic. Well, those days are gone. Today, you are competing with so many messages as you try to drive traffic to your website that you need to push your way to the top with a little bit of advertising. As you think about advertising, you need to think about your business to see if it’s going to make sense. If you’re running a transactional business and there’s no residual value to advertising every day, you’re going to need to find new customers and start new relationships over and over again with a new batch of prospects. In contrast, relationship businesses can really benefit from advertising, using it to start the process of bringing people into your business and then staying in touch with them with other less expensive marketing opportunities.

Ten years ago, More than a Few Words was in its infancy. We tested a lot of formats, short programs, live broadcasts, and interviews with marketing professionals. And for about a year, simply the show was comprised of  conversations between Lorraine Ball and Allison Carter.  it was the early days of social media and there was so much to talk about.  There were mistakes by larger brands like Kenneth Cole and little regional publications as businesses of all sizes looked for guidance on using these new marketing tools. We also enjoyed talking about marketing trends and how we were approaching them at Roundpeg. In celebration of our 500th episode, Allison is back, for an update on some of our favorite conversations.     

Today, I want to start with a simple question. Is your website ready for company? Think about when you invite guests over to your home, you take a little time to clean up, dust, polish, put things where they need to be, you make sure your refrigerator is well stocked, and you have clean plates and silverware.  Well, when you bring visitors to your website, you need to do the same thing. You need to take time on a regular basis to make sure that the site is well organized, that you’ve got fresh content (new information) for people to browse and not that same stale stuff that you’ve had forever. Take time to clean up your code. Make sure you have new pictures and new resources as people come to your website. 

Everyone wants their website to  look awesome, with interesting pictures and cool animation. Unfortunately, none of that matters if the words don't tell your story. Why?  Because while it may be impressive, people don't come for this great scrolling animation across your homepage. They come for information.  In this episode we share tips on planning and writing the all important web copy.

When you're trying to get someone's attention, get them to open your email, or click on a link from social media, you have to be able to tell them what's in it for them.  You need to use what's called a Gain Headline. To use this style of headline you have to be specific and define for your reader how they will benefit if they take the time to click or read more. And if you want them to come back, you need to be sure that your content lives up to the promise your headline makes. This marketing minute features Lorraine Ball - Host of the More than a Few Words podcast. 

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