Marketing

At least a few times a month I hear from a potential new client that their email marketing efforts produce no results. Once we sit and talk about their process, and how they follow up with the leads they get pretty quiet. This isn't uncommon. If you are struggling to create and execute targeted marketing campaigns that drive new business, you are not alone, especially for small businesses. It’s critical to the growth of your business, but you don’t have the time or the resources to do it and you cannot afford expensive marketing software or a high-priced marketing professional. Many of these small businesses are a team of one, two, or three trying to wear all the hats. They are great at what the company does, but they are not writers, they are not marketers, but they know they need to do this to get in front of existing customers and prospects.  Larry Caretsky, Founder of Commence - a trusted name in CRM is our guest today. Listen to this episode to hear how Commence has solved this common issue of starting, but then dropping the ball on everything after the email is sent through a campaign. There is an answer. Join Larry and Susan for, "Follow Up On the Leads, We'll Do the Rest."
Links from this episode:
Larry Caretsky - [email protected]
Larry on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-caretsky-b3a27824/
Susan on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/susanmfinch 
Commence - https://commence.com 
The Marketing Enablement Program - https://commence.com/service/marketing-enablement/ 
 
 

We hear about all the ways marketers miss the mark - what they do wrong. What if we focused on what they are doing right and then expand the use of those tactics? Some companies have a team of one or less than five and each must wear several hats. If, as a group, you lay out what is working, analyze the results through Google Analytics and pulling in all the pieces, as a group, you can tackle what is next.
It may be enhancing the most popular pages you have to ensure you move people along on the journey toward a conversation with your sales team. It may be creating a podcast or other content that appeals to your existing customers as the "inside group" rather than only talking to them when you want to sell them something new. 
Jeanne Hopkins goes through ways to bring out the best in the existing marketing plan, letting go of what's not working and allowing companies to divide and conquer what needs to be done to engage, then celebrating the mountain of measurable successes as a group. Join us for, "Making Use of What Marketers Are Doing Right."
Links from this episode:
Connect with Jeanne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannehopkins/ 
Connect with Susan on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/susanmfinch
 
About Jeanne Hopkins, B2B Fractional CRO with growth marketing chops, Advice with Accountability, GTM, PLG; former @hubspot VP Marketing; Speaker; Author; Advisor; Mentor; Start-up Investors:
Deep expertise in data-driven, high-velocity B2B and B2C customer acquisition, sales, marketing, and customer success organizations. Inbound (obviously)-based lead gen programs to support global demand for high-growth SaaS companies. Experienced in building GTM programs from scratch and turning around existing ones. Able to forge lasting partner marketing relationships with startups and enterprise-class organizations. Inbound marketing success in driving practical corporate, divisional and industry lead gen and nurturing programs. Success in growing and leading teams towards rapid results plus can enthusiastically manage many programs, people, vendors and campaigns concurrently, Proactive and highly productive w/analytical skills, thrive in a rapidly changing environment (start-up to corporate marketing), inspires excellence in others. Demonstrates concise, effective communication both written and spoken, able to handle ambiguity, a high workload, and an extreme amount of detail - all within budget.Building sustainable relationships that drive revenue via demand generation programs: Strategic, Technical & Creative - Co-chair MassTLC Sales & Marketing Group; Co-author, "Go Mobile"​, #1 best-selling mobile marketing book. Named to Sales Lead Management Association "Top 50"​ 3 years in a row and "20 Women to Watch" in 2015/14/13 & 2011; Named to VAR Guy Top Channel Leaders in 2015; MSPmentor People to Watch in 2014; BizJournal marketing experts; Speaker @ MarketingProfs B2B Forums, HubSpot Inbound 2011/12/13/14/15 Conferences, MIT Entrepreneurs Forum, AMA, Social Media Today, BrightTalk, MassTLC, Social Fresh. Advisor: OneScreen.io; Siemplify.co; Rank the Vote Digital Council; USEFULL (Coffee Cup Collective); Below The Fold (Acciyo)Author: Go Mobile!

A more complete title is, "How are you marketing to your employees, customers, prospects, community?"
Today I’m talking with Jeanne Hopkins who is launching Salty Marketing Company this month. We’ll cover what a fractional CMO is and isn’t, the four elements of marketing that every company must include or fail.
Employees
Customers
Prospects
Community
Consider this a wake-up call to marketers who are unable to justify their spending. This is part one of our session.
Links from this episode:
Connect with Jeanne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannehopkins/ 
Connect with Susan on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/susanmfinch
 
About Jeanne Hopkins, B2B Fractional CRO with growth marketing chops, Advice with Accountability, GTM, PLG; former @hubspot VP Marketing; Speaker; Author; Advisor; Mentor; Start-up Investors:
Deep expertise in data-driven, high-velocity B2B and B2C customer acquisition, sales, marketing, and customer success organizations. Inbound (obviously)-based lead gen programs to support global demand for high-growth SaaS companies. Experienced in building GTM programs from scratch and turning around existing ones. Able to forge lasting partner marketing relationships with startups and enterprise-class organizations. Inbound marketing success in driving practical corporate, divisional and industry lead gen and nurturing programs. Success in growing and leading teams towards rapid results plus can enthusiastically manage many programs, people, vendors and campaigns concurrently, Proactive and highly productive w/analytical skills, thrive in a rapidly changing environment (start-up to corporate marketing), inspires excellence in others. Demonstrates concise, effective communication both written and spoken, able to handle ambiguity, a high workload, and an extreme amount of detail - all within budget.Building sustainable relationships that drive revenue via demand generation programs: Strategic, Technical & Creative - Co-chair MassTLC Sales & Marketing Group; Co-author, "Go Mobile"​, #1 best-selling mobile marketing book. Named to Sales Lead Management Association "Top 50"​ 3 years in a row and "20 Women to Watch" in 2015/14/13 & 2011; Named to VAR Guy Top Channel Leaders in 2015; MSPmentor People to Watch in 2014; BizJournal marketing experts; Speaker @ MarketingProfs B2B Forums, HubSpot Inbound 2011/12/13/14/15 Conferences, MIT Entrepreneurs Forum, AMA, Social Media Today, BrightTalk, MassTLC, Social Fresh. Advisor: OneScreen.io; Siemplify.co; Rank the Vote Digital Council; USEFULL (Coffee Cup Collective); Below The Fold (Acciyo)Author: Go Mobile!

Holly Jean Jackson is a speaker, author, and holistic coach. This means she gives you three in one - a health coach, life coach, and a business coach. In this episode we are focusing on the value of relaunching your book. You put so much blood, sweat, tears, and hair-pulling into publishing a book. But what happens a few years later? Your publisher did their part, you did the signings, the promotions, and then crickets? Let's hope not. You may even be working on your next book, but you still really love your earlier works. There may be a few places that could use an update or a new version done as an audiobook. Have you done all that? Doing an audio version gives you the opportunity for updates. What about the kindle version? Can you update that? What a great way to reopen conversations with fans, clients, and prospects. Holly and Susan talk about the need for an actual marketing plan to relaunch what you did so well the first time. There is always a new way to do it better, and some elements that should be updated.  Listen to this episode of Rooted in Revenue, "You Wrote a Book, Is It Time to Relaunch It?"

Christopher Lochhead wrote a book called Play Bigger. He was the CMO of Mercury Interactive and a couple of other real high-flying Silicon Valley startups and just an awesome guy. But he has a saying. He likes to say, "Thinking about thinking is the most important thinking you do. A lot of what we're talking about is stepping back because it's so easy to default to, Hey, I just raised my Series A; I'm in MarTech, let's go get somebody out of drift or let's go get a sale.
Let's go find someone in Salesforce marketing. Let's go get a director from Salesforce to run our marketing. Oh, they'll crush it for us. And it's a natural default, right? And then a person comes in and because they weren't clear... And usually that person, they don't know how to vet. So, they're told this and they're super excited. Oh, wow. This is my chance. Put a stamp on it, but they forget that I'm not going to be in Salesforce anymore. Meaning, I'm not going to have, first of all, the Salesforce brand and just all the power of that. I'm not going to have all the resources.

Mark Donnigan from Growth Stage Marketing says, "It's important that a professional team work together and all the executives should be rowing in the same direction and all these kind of truisms, which are all true but there are some very profound implications to how we market and how we sell, which gets wrapped up in go to market as a result of the fragmented buyer's journey that we are in today." He also reminds us, "think about how you talk about yourself, how you talk about what you do. And even as a full-time employee, in fact, I could argue that as a full-time employee, it matters as much or even more because it's so amazing when you hear one person who just describes themselves in kind of the HR job description. What do you do?" Listen to the first half of this interview to walk away walking a little bit taller, and able to go into interviews with more confidence.

Karen and Susan cover where the typos are and how it can affect your credibility and make it more difficult for your sales team to build confidence with prospects. Listen to the full episode to get examples, details and an action list.
Susan's List of task reminders to keep it current.
Karen's secret tool to help you find the typos fast.
Check your own site for links to internal PDF files, videos on a YouTube channel, too - those change over time, especially since people are converting personal channels to business channels.

What have you learned about Buyer Enablement, beyond the evolution of Sales Enablement?
The sales people need to see how the buyers are responding to what they are doing.
What do buyers really want from salespeople? Well, we're not doing a very good job of getting them what they truly want.
If we're going to enable our salespeople, we need to ENABLE them to help the buyer. If they can't, we are failing at Sales Enablement.
The old sales training techniques no longer work. The role of the sales person has shifted over the past two years. Sales people are an information conduit to allow the buyer to preview what they may need. They almost become a concierge. It becomes a service role. Sales people have to evolve.
Do Sales & Marketing need to be aligned? You'll have to listen to find out. 
Susan's guests today are Orrin Broberg, CEO/President, Modus and Alice Heiman of Alice Heiman, LLC and co-founder of Tradeshow Makeover.
-----------------
About Modus:
Modus-built applications are intuitive because salespeople don’t have the time to be trained. Salespeople can customize their presentations and you can create strategies which govern the content users see. Your salespeople in France will only see collateral in French.
Modus Provides Companies a Complete Digital Transformation of their Sales Distribution Channel Strategy
Your remote salespeople worldwide don’t have the luxury of an online connection when meeting with clients. With our enterprise digital sales enablement platform, all the information salespeople need for the next sales call is immediately available on their tablet, phone, or laptop.
 

 
I find this common with smaller B2C businesses where you create a way to subscribe and never do anything beyond collecting the information.
A subscriber is someone who has already shown an interest in your company, products or services. They trusted you with their email address and possibly other personal information such as a name, country or more. You have their interest, NOW. So what happens after they subscribe? You need to be able to answer these questions:
What does their confirmation email look like?
What does the first email they will receive after that look like?
What is the call to action? Is it still relevant from the time you created it?
When was the last time you tested EVERY drip in your campaign and every step of subscribing?
How many automated drips do you have to go out them, and at what regular intervals after they subscribe?
Do each of those have a link back to a landing page on your website and a call to action relevant to the email message that went out to them?
Remember: One message, one ask in an email. Keep them focused.
When you create your drips to you try to save time by duplicating the previous one and editing it slightly? Nothing wrong with being efficient, but don't be sloppy. Make sure your call to action link, AND the image in the email go to the same landing page that continues that topic. Don't just take them to your home page where they are left to wonder around "the lobby" of your website. Keep them focused and moving forward toward conversion. You want them to either do another thing or give you the order or set an appointment. You also want it interesting and helpful enough they'd be inclined to forward your email or share it out to their people.
I HIGHLY recommend enlisting someone NOT working for your company to subscribe and go through the journey. You want a detail-oriented person who will click on the image and the call to action. Ask them to give you feedback about the email - content, links working, landing page. PAY THEM to do this or give them a gift card or something, if it's a friend. OR return the favor for them. My husband is my tester. He's caught images that the link didn't match the call to action, typos. We get in a rush sometimes and need another set of eyes. Our websites also change in structure every few years so they links need to be updated.
Want help creating or testing your subscriber journey? Email me: [email protected] and we'll set a time to meet.

There are a couple of free, simple tools you can use to stand out to your local market and potential clients. If you are a business that relies heavily on local traffic and customers, you need to take advantage of some free tools to build good will, establish yourself as a trusted resource provider and get points for being a good business neighbor.
1. Custom Google Maps:
Create a general map with your own custom pin icon, make it public. Add a great description, mention your own company name and URL. Then, add layers by topics: favorite restaurants, nightlife, best vendors and the ADD the businesses you want to support.
I will caution you, if you want to add a business that is perhaps not very active online or you are a rare customer who had a good experience with them, don't list them. Make sure they have good reviews because your recommendations of these businesses directly reflects on your business.
Be sure to be logged into Google AS YOUR BUSINESS persona. You want your business to stand out when you create this map. Create a custom pin with your mark. If you need help, email me. Shouldn't take me more than 15 minutes of billable time to get this done for you - just need your logo. 
When you add a business, be sure to describe WHY you are adding them. Something only locals would know or your favorite dish, service they offer, a stand out employee.
SHARE your map out everywhere, add it embedded on a webpage - not your home page, but an inside page and share out that page to drive people to your site.
2. Google Reviews:
Find these same favorite businesses, places, events and create reviews for them on Google. Do not post anything negative. This is to be an UPBEAT, local business supporting thing that you do. 4 star and 5 star only as your business. As you personally, you can get a bit more gritty, but even then, be careful about negative reviews. People can retalliate and it can become a review war.
Tell people WHY you like the business - specifics. Add a photo. When you go to your favorite places, take a photo and use it for reviews, maps and posts later. Try to post 2 reviews a week AS YOUR BUSINESS persona on Google. This builds authority and the businesses will start to notice you and may return the favor or at least recommend you.
3. Top 10 Lists:
I know I search in a city and then for: Best live music, best desserts, etc. Make your own lists. Have it related to your industry so that you are recommending possible strategic partners that could do the same for you. Think about a stylist -- having them make a list of top pampering places - massage, nails, boutiques, personal trainers, etc. could start to build a nice network of businesses cross promoting each other. Be sure you have added these same businesses to your list and your reviews AS THE BUSINESS. When you post as the business, you can still add your name if you want to add warmth to it and so that business would know who to recommend.
Need help with these strategies? Contact me - [email protected] so we can come up with a plan for you or your business. I can teach you how to do all of this and more.

 
Your past podcast content can do a lot more work for you to drive traffic, build credibility, open doors to prospects. I'm counting on the fact that you have a site for your podcast episodes and that you are connected in all the usual spots: iTunes, Stitcher, Libsyn, Blubrry, GooglePlay, etc. But you've had your show a long time. Why not put a new spin on past great episodes - new title, graphics and cover different points in the post, possibly edit the file a smidge or add commentary to the file? This can give you more content, easier and breath new life into your feed. 
Most of the time, after 20 episodes, your past doesn't show on your iTunes channel. If you bring back a show going back further, you not only can revisit a topic, but you can reach out again to that guest and let them know you still find their episode valuable and want to give it more exposure. Send them the embed code, new graphics, new link and see what happens. 
For more tips, or if your team is stretched already, come up with a monthly budget to schedule out 2-4 of these "best of" episodes each month and let me help you. [email protected]
 

Let's talk about what used to work, sort of: 6 foot table, skirt - branded or not, logo behind, business cards, two chairs, fishbowl for cards, bad candy to give away. (YAWN!) A total waste of resources. You must be memorable. You must be a destination booth at the event. If you don't have a booth, you need to do SOMETHING to stand out.
Listen to this episode for ideas for ideal give aways, engaging activities, treats, swag and more. 
After the break we'll also tell you what to avoid doing, hint: Buzzers, bells, anchor drops, puppies. The ideas range in budget - something for everyone.