More Than A Few Words

Is email marketing or social media a better tool for your business. The truth is, it’s not an either or situation. Each of these marketing tools has a very specific purpose. Social media is where you meet lots of new people with your messages. If your content is interesting you can reach new audiences through your existing connections.  But at the end of the day, it’s like going to a singles bar. Your end goal is to bring your date home for a more personal conversation, without competing with pictures of babies, and kittens. That’s where email shines.  It is more one to one conversation. And at least from the moment that they open your email, you fill their inbox and their screen and there are no distractions, you have a significantly higher conversion rate on activities from email rather than social media. So as you’re thinking about your marketing, make sure you have a role for each of these tools. This marketing minute is hosted by Lorraine Ball

What is a rich snippet?  Rich Snippets is the term used to describe structured data markup that site operators can add to their existing HTML, which in turn allow search engines to better understand what information is contained on each web page. However, the major search engines have taken this a step further, and now use this markup to present richer search results, enabling users to more easily find the information they are looking for. Sounds kind of geeky, right?  Well Lorraine and Sam break it down so it makes sense to all the non-techies in our audience. 

What if you had an employee who could be hard at work as you were doing something else. Sounds wonderful, right?  Well that is the idea behind marketing automation.  With a little planning, you can create campaigns which will reach out to customers and prospects, with just the right message at just the right time. As our guest, Travis Merle explains automation isn't one size fits all. It is about sending timely and personalized information in response to sales or support queries About Travis As a Channel Manager at ActiveCampaign, Travis works with agency partners that leverage and/or are looking to leverage marketing & sales automation as a service at market. A two year veteran, which is an eternity at AC, he spent the first nearly 9 years of his career at various agencies and media production companies. He's no stranger to marketing. He loves his partners, his teammates and the world of automation.

If you're like many business owners, you started your company to do something you enjoyed. Maybe you were a chef and you started a restaurant, or a doctor who wanted to take care of people, or a marketer who enjoyed the creative challenge of engaging customers with a product. Whatever it was, you started your company to do that thing. Along the way you learned running a business required sales, bookkeeping, IT and human resources skills. There are multiple distractions dealing with an unhappy employee, preparing paperwork for your accountant, or calling clients who are behind in payments. Each of these tasks takes you further away from what you set out to do. So how much time do you really spend doing what you set out to do?  If your day is primarily taken up with things that you'd rather not do, you're heading for burnout.  You need to recognize the warning signs and reverse course because life is too short. To get back on track, the first step is to build a plan. Maybe you need to change your business model

These days inboxes are overloaded and social media news feeds are controlled by the platform algorithms.  So, as a small business owner how do you break through the clutter to be sure customers see your messages? In this episode our guest Alfredo Salkeld explains how texting can be the answer for many small businesses with the ability to deliver simple, timely messages to an audience interested in what you have to say.  About Alfredo Salkeld As marketing manager, of SimpleTexting Alfredo is responsible for attracting new users to the platform then helping them see real results with SMS as quickly as possible. He and his team do this by creating expert articles, guides, videos, webinars and more full of useful, actionable advice. Thanks to this content plus SimpleTexting's stellar support team, the company has doubled in size since Alfredo joined in 2019. Prior, Alfredo lead the content strategy for Oasis—a luxury home-sharing start-up backed by Hyatt Hotels. He also worked as a copywriter at Push, an advert

If you have ever read a comic book you know that the Super Hero has amazing powers, but also the one critical weakness.  Business owners are marketing super heroes with amazing skills and talent, but weakness which can bring us an our business to the ground, like kryptonite does to superman.  Our guest, Karen Sullivan suggests that a good marketing strategy can help your overcome your kryptonite.   Curious about your marketing superpower ? Take this quiz.  About our guest - Karen Sullivan Karen Sullivan is a fourth-generation entrepreneur and award-winning designer with a life-long passion for persuasive visual and written communication. She founded Sullivan Solutions nearly 25 years ago to help entrepreneurial companies augment their in-house marketing with expert services that help drive sales further and faster. Her expertise enables clients to develop effective strategies that are built upon their unique strengths and make confident marketing decisions that drive demand for their products and services.

The next time you go to a networking event, ready to launch into your hard sell pitch stop and try something new.  Don't ask the same tired questions.  Instead, our guest Patti Farmer suggests three quick questions which will help you quickly qualify each conversation, so you know who to follow up with and how.    About our guest Patty Farmer is an award-winning Marketing & Media Strategist, International Speaker, Podcast Host, Magazine Publisher, and Event Producer and works with small business owners, entrepreneurs & speakers to attract and convert their ideal clients so they can make a big impact in the world, and bigger deposits in their bank account. Patty believes we all have a message and her mission is to help them master their marketing, leverage the media, and monetize their business in a way that creates transformation for both them and their clients while designing a lifestyle they want to live.  

Small business owners are often very short sighted when they consider the value of a customer, looking only at what they are going to spend today and maybe in the the years to come. But if you delight that customer, they will bring something worth more  more than the value of all they will buy from you. A customer who really knows and loves you, will be willing to talk about you to their friends and their families.  Their endorsement is the gift that keeps on giving. So as you think about how much you will spend to generate leads and drive prospective customers to your business, you also need to think about keeping those customers for the long term. MORE ON THIS TOPIC:  Be sure to read this check out our Customer Acquisition Worksheet  that is included in our Marketing Budget kit to calculate how much you can afford to spend for each new customer.  

Are you looking to expand your organization?  If its a struggle to find qualified candidates. you might need to change your focus. Typically the focus is on the candidate.The hiring company tells them to change their approach, resume, writing style, and exceptions to meet the company's needs. In today's competitive job market however, it is often the company that needs to change. Before you look externally, you need to look internally to see what image you are  projecting.  If your brand image in the market is lackluster and generic you are likely to get a lot of resumes that are lackluster and generic as well, because "like attracts like". This week our guest Career Success Coach, Lisa McDonald sat down with host Lorraine Ball and explained if you're having trouble attracting great resumes, you might want to start with your own corporate resume.

Does your heart sink when someone suggests having a meeting to discuss something?  If you are like me, you have attended so many bad meetings, that it is hard to be excited about the prospect of another one.  But Dr. Rick Brinkman believes it doesn't need to be that way.  If you treat  your meeting like plane flight, with air traffic control ( the agenda) a flight recorder ( capturing all the ideas) and a pilot guiding the conversation, you meeting can be extremely productive. 

This is a marketing minute with Lorraine Ball. When was the last time you updated your website? If the answer is more than two years ago, you're doing a disservice to yourself and your customers. You are not providing up to date information to your clients, and you're missing out on a chance to improve your search engine ranking with frequent relevant updates. You can freshen you content by adding new events, business tips and updated employee biographies.  A regular schedule for blog posts and articles also gives customers and prospects a reason to come back. But what about your design?  Is it keeping up? Take a look at the websites of your closest competitors and be brutally honest. How does your site compare? Does it look a little worn around the edges and out of date compared to their shiny new sites? If it doesn't stack up well, it is time for a face lift. KEY TAKEAWAY: Download our web audit kit to evaluate your website today.   

Great marketing starts with a strategy and a great strategy starts with questions.  What do you do if you don't know what to ask? Well Limehub founder Raine Gaisford shares a few of the questions and a new tool business owners can use to build their strategy. 

If you want to encourage someone to buy from you, tell them how to solve their problem without you.  That might sound crazy, but our guest John Welch the co-owner and President of Skymouse Studios explained that is a great way to build trust.  In this conversation with host Lorraine Ball, he shared some of his best tips to generate relevant content that helps you build trust with your clients. About John Welch This self described fast-talking co-founder of Skymouse Studios. is an extrovert, who loves helping people communicate better.  

Content answers the questions customers have as they're trying to decide if they want to do business with you. Once upon a time marketers ran television commercials and put ads in newspapers and simply waited for the phone to ring. But that was a long time ago.  It was so long ago that it seems like a fairy tale, an expensive fairy tale at that. Today, consumers fast forward through ads and change the station on their radio. They don't want to be interrupted by your marketing. They want to be free to look for information at their own pace as they browse and search online. And they're not just looking for coupons or discounts. They're looking for general information about trends and features, about company personnel, and examples of how your product is being used and what people think about your business.

Contagious content is something that SOME people will find so interesting they will be unable to resist the urge to share it. Andrea Breanna, the founder of Rebel Mouse explains we share things  because we want to show off what we know, connect with others or because something is so striking it hits our ITMO (inability to move on).  Creating contagious content boils down to emotions: Love, hate, belief and disbelief.  Great content will tap in to one or more of these emotions.  And often it will be love for some part of your audience and hate for another.  That's ok.  It means you have tapped into an emotion and avoided the dead zone in the middle. For more on this topic check out the blog post on Rebel Mouse  

It may sound crazy, but this week's guest Dr. Shirag Shemmassian says you can actually sell more when you give away free stuff.  He sat down with host Lorraine Ball to talk about how this strategy can work for any business.  How does it work?  You have to be strategic about what you give away. Think about previews of your services, or quick tips and informative guides which help prospective customers fell confident as they choose to work with you. The content you share has to be high quality, but it doesn't have to answer every question. Afterall that is what you want them to pay you for.  Dr. Shirag Shemmassian and his team of admissions nerds have been helping high-achieving students get into America's top colleges, medical schools, and graduate programs for over 15 years. Despite growing up with Tourette Syndrome and being told that his odds of academic and professional success were slim, Dr. Shemmassian completed his undergraduate degree at Cornell and his Doctorate at UCLA. Dr. Shemmassian's expertise on

This is a quick marketing tip from Lorraine Ball host of More than a Few Words. Here's an interesting statistic. More than 88% of online shoppers incorporate reviews into their purchase decision. Why? Because people are skeptical. They are more likely to trust what friends and family and even strangers say about your company more than what you say The tendency to ask for recommendations didn't start with the internet. It's always been a natural part of the buying process. So if your prospects are looking for recommendations and reviews as thy make buying decisions then asking for recommendations must be part of your selling process . From gathering testimonials to place on your website and encouraging people to post reviews on Angie's List TripAdvisor, Facebook, or Google or even asking for personal introductions from one client to another building a word of mouth business takes work. Looking for help? Drop by Roundpeg.biz. We would love to chat with you. And be sure to look for longer episodes of More t

Ken Cloke is a conflict resolution expert.  In this conversation with Lorraine Ball he shares some very simple tactics you can employ to diffuse a difficult situation.   1) Ask the other person, why is this so important to you?  Why are you fighting so hard to win.  Often when you ask that you can identify underlying issues which are really at play.  2) Take ownership of the conflict and ask the other person, what you can do to reduce the tension.  Ken Cloke is a world-recognized mediator, dialogue facilitator, conflict resolution systems designer, teacher, public speaker,  author of numerous books and articles, and a pioneer and leader in the field of mediation and conflict resolution for the last 37 years.

If you want insight into hot marketing trends, it is best to ask more than one person.  That is exactly what Melanie Allen and Meghan Martin of Green Loop Marketing did.  They reached out to nine marketing professionals to get their opinion on what would be hot in 2020.   The result is an informative article about nine trends to watch in 2020.  The article has something for everyone from the marketing novice and social media pro.   In this episode Lorraine Ball explores just a few of those nine trends.  Listen now. 

Marketing Tip from More than a Few Words My husband is an amazing cook. He reads recipes and comes up with his own variations, blending and layering ingredients in new and delicious ways. And even though he's amazing in our kitchen, he should not own a restaurant. Why? Because he knows how to time a meal with three dishes for eight people. But expanding that to 30 dishes for 100 people require skills he does not have The same challenge exists when it comes to managing professional social media. Lots of people are good on social media. They're funny and engaging and they have a large following, but just because they're good at managing their own accounts does not mean they have the skills to be a successful social media chef. What does it take to be successful as a professional social media chef level? It boils down to two things. The first is a precise recipe or content calendar which describes the ingredients such as the topics, types of content, and amount of content. The second is a plan for managing your