On Demand Advertising Solutions

From the Blog, Digital Marketing Update; Marketing Your Business, Are You Aware When Your Customers Vent? What Can Kill Your Business, Podcast #28

Posted on August 13, 2017August 13, 2017 by jverlin

When it comes to marketing your business–it’s bad if a customer vents against your business.

It’s worse if you’re not aware (and don’t respond) and it’s on an open platform for thousands to see (like Facebook).

Podcast #28 discusses how a bad customer experience shared on social media can kill your business.

It underscores the need to provide regular updated content, monitoring and engagement.

It’s all a part of our three-part strategy to drive SEO and web traffic and make your business exceed the profile and exposure of your competitors.

You may learn more about us and schedule a free appointment.

You may listen to all of our exclusive audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

Marketing Your Company; Are You Aware When Your Customers Vent? What Can Kill Your Business, Podcast #28

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Once again, good afternoon. This is John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions, with another Digital Marketing Update.

I’m calling this Are You Aware When Your Customers Vent? What Can Kill Your Business. A couple of observations here in general and then a major one.

This past weekend, now this is the first part of August, 2017. I attended a seminar for a Small Business Development Center at a local community college. It was about buying and selling a business. I talked to an attorney who was an instructor.

I asked him to tell me in general about how he’s seeing small businesses today and how they’re doing.

Are they doing well? Are they not dong well…so-so? And he said, well, they’re doing all right. But nothing to scream about. He talks to a lot of small business owners who coming to the college courses.

I talked to him about what I do and he pretty much agreed with me and said a lot of small business owners doing understand social media, content marketing, podcasting—they don’t understand a lot of it and they don’t use it.

But, he said they need to because its moving in that direction pretty quick.

And if they aren’t doing it, their competitors will. He pretty much agreed with everything in that statement. So it’s something to be aware of. This is from a community college that teaches small business courses on building a business.

And his observations of talking to people who are coming to those courses. So, it’s kind of a heads up on being aware of this. Either have someone freelance and do it for you. Or hire someone to do it for you. Because it is going to be impacting businesses large and small and already has and will continue to do so.

Now, another example I had over the weekend was a lady who lives in the town I live in does machine quilt making. And my girlfriends sister wanted to get a baby blanket made.

So, we ended up driving by, we found out from a yard sign that she did this, and we met with her. She was going to need measurements and everything. I asked her do you have a website?

She said no. Oh, ok. So do you just have the yard sign. And she said yea. I said I’m curious how that’s worked for you.

She said it’s worked OK, but the city is probably going to make me take it down. So in the back of my mind i’m thinking you don’t have a website. She obviously has some quilts made and probably getting business word of mouth I imagine.

And yet, what’s going to happen when she has to take the sign down? What is she going to do? And she doesn’t have a website.

This is kind of what I’m talking about, the dilemma. She’s probably getting referrals, which is great. She may continue to do that and she may not want anymore business too.

But this is a scenario I’m seeing time and time again, and they’re not prepared for when suddenly their market changes. Or a competitor comes in and does it better, or cheaper. These are things to be aware of.

One glaring example I wanted to talk about was a large national bank. Multi-billion dollar bank. I was talking to another social media person about some of the implications of social media impact.

Why business needs to be doing constant content marketing and engaging their prospects and customers.

This is a huge bank. Has been around over a hundred years. They have over 37,000 followers on Twitter and 16,000 likes on Facebook.

Quite a bit of activity. A lot of their posts were tied into community things they’re sponsoring or good things. But as I was reading through some of the posts, a couple of them stood out.

Basically, how dare you charge my elderly mother a fee because of blah blah blah. And it was pretty glaring. And they responded, we apologize we tried to call you numerous times. Please call us at this number. So at least they responded.

That was the first thing. And I was showing this to my girlfriend to get her opinion. And then we see a second post.

Somebody wrote in, you people went after my dying father…and we were behind because of medical bills, this and that and the other. How dare you charge us this and that and threaten to do this and that. And it was pretty cutting.

I was really shocked. And they responded, please call us, we’ll work through this together. But why do I mention this?

This is an example of what can happen and why social media in doing these things I’ve been suggesting in podcasts. Getting your content and expertise out in podcasting. Getting it online. Building relationships with your prospects and customers.

Because these are customers of this huge bank. That’s been around forever that are venting. In spite of all the other posts about the community service and other things they’re sponsoring. Suddenly, these two posts cut to the bone.

Made them look like a terrible, evil bank that’s going after their customers.

I looked at my girlfriend and she’s like, whoa! Now she’s never even seen that Facebook page or been exposed to that bank.

Let’s say she was a prospect. Suddenly read that on their Facebook page. Now they are aware because they’ve been doing social media for five years it looks like on their Facebook page.

This is my point in all of this. Your customers and prospects whether you know it or not, maybe venting on if you do have a Facebook business page.

If you have a personal business page or Yelp. Or Google +. Or any other social media platform whether you think you need to be involved or not.

They may be involved and they may be saying nasty things about you. So it’s critical that you’re aware and that you’re answering.

Now the bank did respond. Hopefully they’ll rectify everything that happened. But the point is this is why this is dangerous.

Social media is here and as that lawyer I talked to indicated, it’s moving in this direction. So much so that you can’t sit on your duff and not pay attention to it. But because people can now use it, it’s not a bad neighbor telling a neighbor something.

This is venting to thousands and thousands of people who are following or liking those posts, or pages.

And just remember, all marketing ties back in to the customer experience. Whether it’s Facebook posts, Twitter posts, blogging content, podcasting, you name it.

TV ads, radio ads, email marketing…all of this ties in to that end customer experience. That’s the critical thing, because that is where we are headed.

And it’s going to be mandated or dictated at some point through automated, not saying robotics but artificial intelligence.

It’s getting smarter and smarter to know what customers want. And providing that will be the differentiator between you and a competitor.

But getting a customer mad and not responding or not being aware and i’ve seen this happen quite a few times. Could be a black eye and it didn’t have to happen is what I’m saying.

So, this is why all of this is important of recognizing the online threat if you want to call it that, from a competitor or prospects or customers who are engaged.

And if you’re not. That’s a judgement call. That’s a judgement call to when they are searching and looking for who to do business with.

So anyway. I’ll get off my soapbox. Just some observations from this past week of people I’ve talked to, things I’ve witnessed.

To keep in mind when you’re growing your business. If you’re not doing social media, be thinking about that. Be understanding.

Your customers are critical. And they maybe engaged on social media one way or the other.

If you don’t have a website, again it’s all part of customer perception and branding of what I call the marketing platform of who you are and about your business.

John Verlin, I’m at jverlin1@yahoo.com. On Demand Advertising Solutions website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

Have a great weekend and we’ll talk to you next week!

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From The Blog: Digital Marketing Update; Marketing Your Business; 4 Reasons Why You Need Content To Own A Front Page Search, Podcast #27!

Posted on July 16, 2017 by jverlin

While most small businesses and professionals may be seeking local customers and clients, when it comes to marketing your business–image matters, particularly when it comes the a local search.

As we’ve noted in earlier podcasts, this shift of prospects moving to online searches and reviews makes brand perception more critical in the race against the competition.

athelte running — Businesses need every advantage they can get to exceed the profile and exposure of the competition.

As noted earlier, over half of small businesses fail to have a website and many don’t even have a Facebook business page.

This lack of online “real estate” can pack a punch in a prospects opinion of the business before they even engage you.

Podcast #27 discusses ways content can build out this important real estate for your business, whether through Facebook business pages, Google My Business, Google Posts, YP.com platform, local chamber of commerce pages, Linkedin business pages, Youtube, blogs, etc.

After five months of launching a website and beginning podcast/video content–the pic below shows how we “owned” the first page of our business search listing–out of 4,330,000 listings.

Google Search On Demand screenshot — Five months after launching a website and podcast/video content, we owned eight links on the first page of our search in Google.

If your local prospects were to search your business, how would it “look” in the listings? This is important because it is part of your branding and marketing platform.

Getting ownership of this page is just the beginning. Consistent and relentless promotion must continue to occur outside of searches to direct prospects to your blog content, which in turn a percentage will check out your website.

It’s all a part of our three-part strategy to drive SEO and web traffic and make your business exceed the profile and exposure of your competitors.

You may learn more about us and schedule a free appointment.

You may listen to all of our exclusive audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

Marketing Your Company; 4 Reasons Why You Need Content To Own A Front Page Search, Podcast #27

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Once again, good afternoon. This is John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions, with another Digital Marketing Update, Podcast #27.

I hope you’re having a great week. I was talking to gentleman who owns a digital marketing business this past week. We confer every week or so. He shares with me things about his clients.

He was telling me, he said it’s funny, but I have the same kinds of issues you have had, as far as people you talk to and how a lot of them are having a hard time understanding online presence. The need to have social media involved and things like that.

According to some recent surveys it seems that more and more businesses are realizing the importance of this. It’s a slow process. As we were talking I kept thinking, ok, let’s walk through this.

Let’s say you’ve got a business. You’re a small business owner or a professional. You’re trying to get referrals for new customers or prospects.

So you join a chamber, all right. You go to the chamber meeting. You might meet a few people. Give out a business card or two. Let’s say you meet somebody.

And maybe they are an accountant. And you might need accounting services someday. So you exchange business cards.

You go back to your office, and you’re kind of curious. The guys got what looks like a website. So you Google and search most likely I would imagine the name of that business.

And then, a few links pop up perhaps. You click one of them on, and it’s kind of a partial website you’re going to. The first impression you had of this person is at the chamber meeting. Probably noticed their dress but the business card. The image. Is it cheap? Does it look good? Do they look good? Are they sloppy?

These are all first impressions and that’s usually the first thing in direct contact like that. Now the second impression, you’re going online and you’re not finding a whole lot. And then when you do click through, broken links, not a lot of stuff, content on the website.

And you’re thinking this guy is an accountant, he ought to be good. But now, you have had several different impressions that have been formed, before you even call him.

This is what I call part of the marketing platform. It is the brand perception that is formed online even after you meet someone.

Because we no longer just get in the car and drive over to the office. We do research before we do things and over fifty percent use smartphones.

So doesn’t it make sense you’ve got to have some presence on the web. And yet I’m surprised how many professionals may have a blog post, a little blog and that’s it. You’re an attorney or whatever and you don’t have a proper online presence.

And this is like a comparision here. Let’s say you have a store. And you decide that you’ve got enough customers, I’m not going to fix up the display window. I’m just going to leave it open.Or just through a ladder in there or something.

You’re not too concerned about the image of the business or walk-in traffic, because you’re got enough traffic from direct mailers.

Would you take that approach to it? No, you’ve put some money into this. I highly doubt that you would not be concerned about your storefront and your display window.

Because you want more customers to be induced to come in and do business with you right? So this is the comparision I’m making to this online importance of the marketing platform, because this is where people are going to process and check people out. And seeing things and making decisions even before they even call you.

So I’m calling today’s podcast, 4 Reasons Why Content Will Allow You To Own the First Page of Google Search In Your Business. And this again is image.

Not to mention the content that might be there but the fact that the first thing that people see when they type in the name of your business, what’s going to come up?

Now typically, and there are a lot of people who buy links or paid links or ads, the first two or three might be another entity. And then you might have some show up.

So, here’s why this is so important to have content as a part of your blog and website. The content is going to give people a reason to visit your blog.We’ll, I don’t have a blog. I don’t have much content. Well you can now give people a reason to visit your blog to go to.

The content is searchable on Bing and Google and it will rank your blogpost higher and your website higher in searches. The more content you have, Google likes that and they’re going to rank you higher.

And by creating this content and owning that first page of searches—for example, there are businesses I’ve looked up in my hometown and they’ll have a Facebook business page, they might have a five star review which looks great—and that’s all wonderful.

Clicking on some of the links like a Yelp link show up. This can all come about to and one thing we stress is to have a Facebook business page, a Linkedin business page, every busniess page—a chamber association business page. Those business pages will rank because they’re already associated with Facebook, Linkedin or the chamber.

They’ll rank your name or business higher because they already have a platform established. So these are all things besides your website and blog that you should be involved in. And this is what I call the marketing platform. All of the different platforms, audio platforms for podcasts is a separate platform that’s going to rank you also.

So if you’re listening to this, you can see on this blogpost the first page rankings on my business I started five months ago. I started posting podcast content, video podcast content on Youtube. You’re going to see a Podimatic podcast platform I use for mp3’s only.

And these are all links, you can see some of the video links on Youtube. And that’s after five months. Launched the website five months ago.

You type the name of the business in and this is what people are going to see. Google My Business—all of these platforms because I’ve been doing it and promoting it on a regular basi, every day in five months.

Now there are some businesses I’ve searched in my local community. They have quite a few links. But from an image branding perspective. They’re ok. I’m not excited.

But when you have video content, audio content, you’ll see what I’m talking about if you’re looking right now at the Google My Business.

It makes a branding image difference. Nothing wrong with a lot of links and great reviews, that’s perfect. But when you add content to that mix, it rounds out the impressions is what I’m getting at—and your solid.

This is why it’s so mportant, whether you’re an accountant, or whatever—well I don’t need to have…

But these are impressions. This is marketing. This is…you know, you’re not H & R Block. You don’t have a huge brand presence. And this will help build that is what I’m getting at.

So these are four reasons why content will create a first page search brand impression that you can be proud of and you’re constantly adding to it to increase that impression.

Now, when they click through to those links and they listen to your video podcast and they hear the content—and read it and see the videos you’ve got on there—now they’re getting to know you.

Does this make sense? This is why the marketing platform is so important to get new business and supercharged and turbocharged referrals.

Because now, you’ve checked out this accountant, and seen all the stuff he’s got on there. Maybe he’s got all of these different things there, but now your impressed with him from day one. But now you’ve seen all of the stuff he’s got on there.

It adds a ton of credibility to someone you very well may want to do business with as opposed to a competitor.

The flip side of that is you go and search this person and other accounting firms come up locally—and they have more content and more brand image web real estate so to speak.

Suddenly you’re well…I might want to check these other people out.

See how that works?

It’s no different than a storefront really. It is your storefront. It’s your online storefront but it goes deeper than that because of all of the content to highlight your expertise and credibility.

And we didn’t have this twenty years ago. The capability to show off our capability.

But now they can do it and they are doing it and making judgments, comments on social media one way or the other.

And that you have no control over unless you answer some of those comments and you’re on that platform.

So, those are the four reaons it pays to have content. It pays to promote yourself through social media. And yes, have a credible website, with a blog all tied together.

Because you’re spending money on marketing and advertising or whatever else. And they get to that point from the radio or tv or magazine ads you’re spending money on. And they do some checking on you.

Background checking, research and they’re not impressed. You may have wasted all of that money.

Or at least an opportunity.

You’re going to give people a reason to visit your blog with content, the content is going to be searchable and rank you higher in the search engines they use.

It’s going to allow your first page search with eight or nine different links with content on them that look really good from a brand impression standpoint, and the content engagement standpoint when they click on it and go to it and check it out.

And it’s going to enhance and entertain those people who check it out. And it they like the content, they can forward to people they know.

And you’ve just expanded your influence to unknow people by having that content.

John Verlin, great to have you with us today. If I can help you with anything I’m at jverlin1@yahoo.com. Website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

Check out my website, check out this blogpost and see the first page rankings after five months. You can Google my business name, www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com and see what I’m talking about!

We’ll see you next week!

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, Marketing Your Business; 4 Reasons Why Customer Engagement Is The New Marketing, Podcast #26!

Posted on July 9, 2017July 9, 2017 by jverlin

When it comes to marketing your business, a new reality is taking place behind the scenes that is becoming clearer everyday: customer engagement is becoming the new marketing.

Podcast #26 discusses why this is becoming so important for the future growth of your business and four reasons why it’s happening.

Most important, what you can do to stay on top of your customers needs and engage them for future referrals and upselling.

We discuss this as part of our three-part strategy for small business growth.

You can learn more about our strategy and request a free consultation!

You can listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

Marketing Your Company; 4 Reasons Why Customer Engagement Is The New Marketing. Podcast #26

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Good afternoon, John Verlin with you, On Demand Advertising Solutions, with another Digital Marketing Update, podcast #26.

How well do you know your customer? Well, customer engagement is the new marketing. That’s what I’m going to talk about today.

And, Sajun Patel had an article or post in July of Inc. I ran across this last week because I was trying to put my notes together doing prep for this podcast as I mentioned last week. He had this post and I think it’s great. You might want to check it out.

He talks about four things of how customer engagement is becoming the new marketing. It’s really what I’ve been saying and trying to say over the last several months since I started this business.

The first thing he points out is to understand how customers are driving revenue. They’re not only driving current revenue but they’re the key to driving future revenue. I’ve talked the last few weeks about getting referrals.

And that’s part of it, they offer up referrals to you to continue to drive revenue in sales and they may themselves continue to buy from you, as well as recommend people.

He says that, the first point is that various changes in business models and trends have shifted alternately shifted power from the seller, you to the buyer, your customer. In general, less commitment is required on the part of the customer.

It’s easier and cheaper than ever before to leave and seek alternate solutions when value isn’t being delivered. And because of this, great customer experience can become a prominent competitive differentiator . Boy, that is an excellent way of saying it.

It’s because of this shift I’ve been talking about to more online experiences, where people can read reviews, comments, whatever, changes things for all of us as business owners in how we treat the customer.

And he talks about that great customer experience. Michael Fallon who is the director of Customer Success at PTC says that “customers have a voice and choice with the power to remain or take their business elsewhere, and to tell others about why they decided to do so.”

Wow, we didn’t have this before. Now you did, but it was word of mouth. But it’s now that times ten because of the social media platforms. And the fact that people are using these so often to state their feelings—particularly if they’ve had a bad experience.

Maybe they go online to Facebook or somewhere else and start spewing forth whatever. So he talks about “happy customers” go under utilized as an asset when it comes to driving acquisitions and increase sales.

He calls them customer advocates that can go online to write reviews, referring prospects, acting as references, driving event registration, giving product feedback, writing testimonials, increasing social shares, engagement with your content and even creating content. He says the possibilities are endless and depend largely on company use and strategies.

That’s another good way of summarizing the value of the customer, of all the things they can do for you if you ask them to. Customer testimonials, you can’t beat that. They’re great. That’s one reason we suggest in content, in podcasts or video or whatever you use, to increase or encourage some of your best customers to be involved

Tell them you’d like to feature them you’d like a testimonial and you’d like to interview them in a podcast. To talk about not only your business but their business. How your business might be helping their business. Or how they use your product or services.

The benefits they get and they’ll be thrilled. Tell them you’re going to put them in the podcast and record them. And they’re going to want a copy of that and send it to everybody they know.

And you just multiplied the potential people exposed to it. That’s why we like podcasts so well as well as written content, even though it’s transcribed as written content. Because people are excited about it and they want to send it out to everybody they know.

Now advocacy he talks about is a proactive process. Relationships must be formed and nutured before customers can be mobilized as spokespersons.

And it all comes back to, who’s going to own that customer experience? He talks about within an organization. Is it sales or marketing? Who’s going to manage that. You’ve got to decide that. But really, as I’ve talked about before, the customer experience starts probably before you even know it.

They’re probably going online checking you out. Reading reviews about you, what people have said. And that’s why I emphasize so much, particularly for small business to get involved with social media. Get online. Get your message out there. Do it not only with daily posts on Twitter, on Instagram, Facebook—but with content on a blog. Like these podcasts.

Why? Because it’s accessible content for people who are checking you out. And they’re getting to know you. You’re listening to this getting to know me. And I don’t even know you’re probably listening. But on down the road you might contact me and say, Oh, yea—I’ve been listening to your podcasts…I like podcast 23, etc.”

That’s why these are important. It’s pre-selling yourself, your brand in various platforms, in various ways before they even do business with you.

This is again, becoming more and more important. Who’s going to own that experience? You can be proactive in starting that. And it must be, he says—continuous selling, you have to constantly be doing it.

Now, fostering this continuous selling, you have to incentivize a sales team to be involved and stay involved by basing part of their compensation on advocacy customers as measured by references they give, referrals, case studies, testimonials, in other words, incentivize your sales team to get that information from these people and then compensate them for it.

So you don’t drop the customer and they leave. You forget about them. So all of this is part of the selling process.

He talks about this, surrounding customer success in advocacy need to shift in identifying nuturing advocacy must become as much of a priority as upselling and renewing.

And the real key here is, he says that customers represent something very real that you can lose. Because they’ve used your product and formed an opinion. Think about that. That’s going to get referrals because they’ve formed an opinion.

And that’s why this continuous selling, this continous communication with them not only might upsell them down the road, it’s going to keep that opinion high.

If it ever changes, and they let you know about it, you can answer them right away. Because you’re engaged with them. And again, this is why customer engagement is the new marketing.

Because you’re consistently out there with them and you don’t forget them.

Now, next question he asks is, do you really know your customer? Confusion he says surrounding ownership is a recipe for customer neglect. Especially as you begin to add marketing automation and technology into the mix. That’s why it’s important to decided who’s going to manage the account so to speak.

Now he says that the problem with technology is that you can remove that humanity from engagement.

But you can use technology to do messaging, emails, videos, social or other mediums. You can collect more personal customer data. Create relavant nuture campaigns based on customer interests, product usages and community building and networking. That’s how you can use technology.

As I mentioned earlier, monthly emails, a newsletter, an occassional survey sent to an email to keep monitoring what your customer needs are.

But it’s understanding that they are human and not a number. You’re using technology to keep them front and center.

So they feel like you’re their friend. And again, I keep coming back to these podcasts, one reason I like them is that they can listen to them at any time and feel like they know you.

This is the magic of repetition of an audio format. You can watch videos about them, but these are easier to engage. They can listen on a smartphone. Sit back and listen and have a cup of tea.

But they feel like they know you. This is all a part of that selling experience of the customer getting to know you and wanting to do business with you.

He points out that when customers make purchases from you, they do it to solve a problem. The value you offer in your solution will be unique to each of those customers. And to make it intregal that you understand each individual need.

Fallon says that “tomorrows leaders in customer engagement will be the ones who truly lead with knowing the customer and their outcomes in a very detailed level.”

It’s really, getting back to talk about customer surveys. It’s asking them what their needs are. And learning basically, a lot of times we have a group we send emails to. Sooner or later, they’re going to get burned out with our communications.

It’s consistently I would say having a methodical plan to stay in front of them. Whether its a survey, understanding the cost per customer, the cost to keep a customer, the lifetime value…total active users.

All of these metrics of understanding the value of the customer, but then keeping that customer. That’s why I keep saying it’s so critical to stay in front of them.

So basically customer relationships are an incredible way to drive revenue, it’s just knowing where to start.

And that’s why we recommend starting immediately on social media and getting podcasts and content on your blog to start a process with people who you invite in to to read your blog or listen to your podcast or whatever that is.

It’s you taking that step to move forward with your brand by engaging prospects that eventually become customers.

John Verlin’s my name. I’m at jverlin1@yahoo.com. Questions or comments. Website is: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

Would love to hear from you. We’ll talk to you next week and have a great day!

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, Marketing Your Business; A Simple 3-Part Strategy For Professionals, Podcast #25

Posted on July 8, 2017July 9, 2017 by jverlin

Most professional small businesses rely on referrals, and usually don’t need much hand-holding when it comes to marketing your business and promotion.

In fact, recent surveys show that over fifty don’t even have a website. But that may soon change as we begin to see store shelves in strip malls empty–and leases on buildings being posted.

The shift in online purchases and experiences redefines the customer experience and the relationship businesses have with their clients.

With a greater emphasis being put by the customer on reviews and online comments in Facebook groups, Yelp, etc., businesses can no longer ignore the impact social media plays in their marketing.

Podcast #25 discusses a simple strategy we developed for professional firms and small business to use in addressing these new relationships in building local business.

Influencing the customer experience begins with this communication and continues as the business grows.

It’s this three-part strategy that advances credibility and trust to the next level for our clients as we tell their story.

You may schedule a free consultation to see what services may be appropriate for your business.

You may listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy our video podcast!

Marketing Your Business; A Simple 3-Part Strategy For Professionals.
Podcast #25

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Another good afternoon, John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions, with another Digital Marketing Update, podcast #25—we’ve hit a milestone in podcasts. I’ve hoped you’ve enjoyed listening to them.

Today, I’m going to jump right in to this. A couple of things happened this past week. And, by the way, today is the Fourth of July, I wanted to wish everyone a happy fourth! I decided to record this today. It’s a great day to do this earlier in the week. A little rainy where I’m at, but should clear off later for fireworks.

Today I want to talk about a simple three-part strategy for professionals to basically grow your business. Get referrals, thigs like that. It’s really, something every business typically grows from—in fact a recent survey showed that half of small businesses don’t even have a website.

So how are they existing? Well, referrals most likely. And you think about, how do you get them? Maybe it’s from a chamber meeting. A networking thing you have. Maybe you have a good network. An industry trade group. Maybe it’s church-related people and just word of mouth based on clients and customers.

And that’s great. But there’s a shift going on as I’ve talked about before in online purchases and experiences. Which are redefining the client and customer relationship. And the relationship a business has with it’s clients and customers.

And we know this because Amazon recently bought Whole Foods. My girlfriend was at a strip mall recently and noticed the buildings in the area that were leased. Some of the businesses she went into. Shelves were empty. Clothes from last winter were still there. And she told me it was like a ghost town.

She was kind of spooked, like what’s going on here? We talked about this and I said, well, hopefully we’re not preceding a recession. Six months in a row now they’ve announced that auto sales have been down.

But what is going on here? Is this the beginning of moving more retail online? But regardless if that’s happening, it’s addressing these new relationships in building a local business.

Because the consumer-client shift to online is re-defining the relationship. No where, when you first get a referral, where does that relationship begin? A new customer or client—where does that new communication begin?

Well, many times you meet them as I’ve mentioned before. But to realize this, to influence that communication after you meet them is critical for the growth of your business. Whether they buy now or you have them as a client five years from now. You still want them.

So what are you going to do between now and then to build that relationship? And that’s where this whole online relationship experience is moving to. Greater emphasis is being put on this by clients and customers, primarily because of reviews and online comments. From Facebook, on Facebook groups, maybe Yelp for local businesses.

We can no longer ignore the impact that social media is having for the market. I know first-hand, I’ve seen it from a client getting negative comments on Yelp and Facebook group—because of some venting. Some unhappy customers. And they were not even aware that it was going on.

They had kind of turned their back to it and suddenly it came to their attention. And that explained why some customers were leaving their business. It was the online thing going on. Communication between people, commenting about that business.

So this is, the consumer and the client and the customer have changed this. To the online research, commenting, reviews. All those kind of things.

So, a three part strategy we put together to advance your credibility and trust to the next level with new prospects and referrals where you can tell your story.

And that is, number one—doing a client survey is our first step, or a customer survey. We might glean from clients you currently have what’s important to them. (post note: I’ve recently received emails from Amazon and Walgreens to get a $50 gift card for taking a customer survey).

Recently, I was looking at a Nissan website. A Nissan national website for one of their cars. And I noticed in researching the car, that they were highlighting a lot of the new technology. Beeping when you go in the wrong lane. Slowing you down if you go too fast up ahead in front of somebody, or behind somebody.

And i’m thinking, wow, that’s pretty cool technology. When I read the reviews about what people thought about the car, a number of them may have mentioned the high tech stuff. But a number of them mentioned some things that weren’t even addressed on the website of the car company.

And that was, how comfortable the seats were and how smooth the ride was. So this kind of highlighted to me a lot of times the differences we have with our clients and customers. We think we know what they want, in many cases it’s the opposite. Or not even addressed.

I have witnessed that first-hand too with a client. Where the suvey we did that we put together for them for their customers, the answers came back just the opposite of what they thought they would be.

Now how does that happen? Well it’s marketing research. If you don’t believe me, look at what happened with Coke. When they introduced a new formula years ago, they thought, who knows how much they spent on research, they thought they were right and had a backlash.

People wanted the old flavor back. So, they switched. And that must have cost them a pretty penny. So, this is the first step, trying to get to know what your clients and customers want. It’s important so you can focus in on their needs.

Leading from that, the second part, is to create content addressing those needs. We do interview-style podcasts like this for a number of reasons, because of the number of platforms they can be placed on, because you can “feel” how people are to get to know them and feel like you know them because of those feelings and emotions involved in interview style podcasts.

You can also feature your clients and customers on them. And talk to them and they can promote that content as well. This is answering the content-related questions you have from your customers about your business or industry. And then as I mentioned, feature clients or customers on these as well.

This is the creating content part after we learn about what they want in answering their questions about your business.

And then, finally—promoting that content through social media. It can be done through a variety of means through a variety of platforms. Which is what we recommend and do.

To build that online experience and engagement with new prospects and new referrals. As a matter of fact, with Facebook Zuckerberg has already said that smartphones and TV screens will be gone.

He’s already projecting virtual reality and artificial intelligence are going to take over. Robotics and things like that.

So this three part strategy can work beautifully for professionals as well as small business. When I was in radio, we had a number of professional firms, from a couple of contractors who did great to financial service firms, we had a couple of medical related programs.

All of these work beautifully because they lend themselves to interviews. And interview-style podcasting.

Recently, a friend of mine who is the business manager for a couple of radio stations in Knoxville, TN told me that what they’re noticing is, when we talk about this online experience.

When we talk about podcasts for shows, their on air listeners start listening to podcasts—and their on-air listenership goes down. But their podcast audience increases.

When we talked about some of this strategy—he said you’re right on target, because he said we’re already seeing it on podcasts. The influence these new podcasts are having.

So doesn’t make sense, that if businesses ask this and recreate those answers in podcasts, doesn’t that make sense that you might engage referrals and prospects in an effective way, because that is shifting again to more online?

John Verlin is my name, my email is jverlin1@yahoo.com. Feel free to email me with comments or questions. Website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

Would love to hear from you. Next week I’m going to be doing some prep work about some of these small businesses I’m reading about and what they’re doing, good or bad, to share with you about how to overcome changes in the economy, etc.

Have a great week!

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From The Blog: Digital Marketing Update, Marketing Your Company; 4 Ways To Make Your Firm A Rock Star, Podcast #24

Posted on July 3, 2017July 3, 2017 by jverlin

In today’s Digital Marketing Update, we discuss marketing your company with 4 ways to make your firm a rock star!

Throughout my former radio career (34 years) many professional firms and small businesses viewed advertising as a necessary evil–rather than embracing it with gusto.

While understandably wanting to save money–they’d invest in storefront, product, print advertising, Yellow Pages, or even TV–before trying radio.

Particularly ad agencies seemed to be notorious for NOT advertising their services. Same with doctors, lawyers, etc.

It seemed that unless they could get referrals, they were nothing more than ambulance chasers if they advertised.

I remember well, countless law firms I suggested sponsoring classical music symphonies (when I was at a classical station) who responded, “we can’t advertise”, we’re not allowed to advertise”, etc.

Whether true or not, times have changed!

My college years were spent some summers selling t-shirts, etc for the classic rock band, Shooting Star.

09_shooting_star — Shooting Star. My brother Ron in sunglasses. Van McClain second from right.

My brother, Ron Verlin, myself, lead guitarist/songwriter Van McClain and his brother Craig and I grew up together.

Our basement was the rehearsal pad for a number of years in the beginning.

So coming from a rock ‘n roll background–I learned a thing or two about promotion, brand image, etc first-hand.

Podcast #23 discusses how the same elements used in promoting a rock band can be used in promoting a small business.

Learn how to build a “fan” base for your small business and create a “rock star” image.

We discuss this as part of our three-part strategy for small business growth.

You can learn more about our strategy and request a free consultation!

You can listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

Marketing Your Company; 4 Ways To Make Your Firm A Rock Star.
Podcast #24

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Good afternoon, John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions, another Digital Marketing Update.

Last week I talked about how to make your business or firm a rock star.

Now, my background actually…I grew up with the band, Shooting Star. It was a classic rock band in 1980.

They signed to Virgin Records, they were the first American band to sign to Virgin.

My brother was the bass player. I grew up with the lead guitar player, Van and his brother. We all grew up together as kids. They used to rehearse in our basement for several years.

I used to work with them in summers selling merchandise. So I’ve seen a little of the promotional side of what it takes to be a rock star.

I want to apply that analogy to your firm or business. Beause you can do the same thing today.

Everything you do as you probably know in business, you build. It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. The same thing is true with those who become famous.

You look at the Beatles, it took them ten years of playing clubs in Hamburg and Liverpool to get honed in their craft. They got lucky. They actually had a producer who produced classical records. Not pop. He had a sound he created for them.

And Paul McCartney said several times there were songs that were terrible. Matter of fact, they had actually released several songs off of their first or second album on a different label, that bombed in the US.

And that’s why they didn’t want to come to America until they had a number one hit, because they ahd already experienced that failure. And then they cam out with I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

But as a rock star, you typically start out when you record a content piece—or a song. You get airplay, it’s promoted. Hopefully people will call in and request it. Other radio stations will pick it up. This is the process, tied into growing your business.

Airplay is shared, as other radio stations want to build listeners—they pick it up and play that music. People go into the stores and buy it. Word of that gets back to the radio stations and record label.

The demand picks up, the group then goes on tour. They start selling merchandise whthey’re on tour.

They even possibly win awards, going to number one, and now they’re becoming famous.

And then you repeat all of that. That’s kind of the process in a nutshell. Think about people in the past. They got famous. Elvis Presley comes to mind. He goes into the army. Gets out of the army two or three years later.

He’s worried and afraid that the fans have forgotten him. Because the Beatles had come on to the scene. He doesn’t know what to do. So the Colonel (Tom Parker), puts together the ’68 comeback special.

That could have bombed—and that would have been the last of Elvis. So you think about these people like Madonna, who have re-invented themselves. And they have to keep doing it. And one who I think is great is Paul McCartney.

Several months ago their was a Tweet, Paul McCartney seen in an airport in Orlando. Is he possibly going to be doing another world tour starting there? There’s a picture of Paul waving, a little video clip.

He’s constantly in the media. Just like the Kardashians. Somebody constantly creating content and promoting it. To keep their name front and center, otherwise they’ll end up like Bobby Vinton or whoever. You forget about them.

And this is the same thing in your business to make you a rock star. Jonathan Long had a piece in Entrepreneur last April that I’m going to some of his thoughts with you because it goes hand in hand with this, of what it takes to get promoted and get known on social media. And this is how to build your business.

He talks about becoming an industry thought leader. And this is where your blog is so important. The blog is your radio station. Businesses overlook this. They think it’s more of a diary. But the blog allows you to post podcasts, video, or written content so you become known for what you’re known for.

Now ideally, and this is ideally, you want another blogger or another online magazine to pick up that post and print it or run with it. Suddenly you now reaching a bigger audience and you’re becoming known as a thought leader in that industry.

Suddenly you start getting other publications picking it up and retweeting it or whatever. And it could possibly go viral because you’re getting a bigger audience.

People start coming in now and now you’ve got some numbers to talk about for the next thing you do. That’s the idea. But it’s hard. And you might even have a partnership where you pay them to feature you.

Years ago and they still call it product placement, you see a Coke bottle in a movie, well Coke paid a big price for that exposure.

So that’s the idea of being known for what you’re known for. And if you’re a rock band, what kind of band are you? Funk? Are you rhythm and blues? You’ve got to be known for what you’re known for. Shooting Star was classic rock. Midwestern classic rock to be precise. So you’ve got to have a genre.

You’ve got to fit into whatever that is. And your blog is your radio station. It allows you to put your content on there to be accessible. To your listeners or your prospects.

Another thing you can do is publish case studies and results. Case studies can be anything you’ve done with your business, successes you’ve had. This could be tied in to your customers, patients or clients.

Talking about how they’ve benefited from what you’ve done. It’s going to go hand in hand with a testimonial that we’ll get to in a minute.

It’s putting that information out and the results it yielded on your blog. Whether it’s in this type of format, a podcast or written. A chart, an infographic. A video testimonial. However you want to do it.

Prospects can go online with your blog and see what you’ve done. And those people that you’ve had in that case study are going to tell other people about the fact that they’re on your blog. Or your podcast or video.

And they’re going to refer that to other people they know. So now you’re getting second or third layers of people coming to your blog to learn about that because they know that person. And that’s a huge asset in terms of future referrals.

So you definitely want to do that. Feature a case study and have the results of that from working with a customer, a client, whomever.

Now, Mr. Long brings up a point—the third one and that is making your client list public.

I have mixed feelings about that because I know a lot of businesses have non-disclosure agreements. A lot of businesses that I know when I was in radio did not want people know what they were doing because they spend a lot of money.

But if you can get people, your customers or clients to be listed on your blog or your website. That helps people who are prospecting to decide if they should do business with you.

If nothing else, have business people who know you, commenting about your character, your professionalism, whatever that is.

Some people don’t want to give testimonials because they don’t want competitors to find out what they’re doing.

Ok, and then focus on your specialty. I know that lawyers have a certain area of practice, doctors may have a certain specialty. Focus on what you do best. Don’t get too broad.

You either make the best cheeseburgers in town. Three quarter pound. With sauerkraut, pickle, onion rings and it’s loaded. Or you just make a hamburger like everybody else.

You have to differentiate by having a specialty.

And then feature your clients or customers in your marketing. Again, this is about the best thing you can do is getting testimonials and then putting that on your blog, promoting those things.

Now that you’ve got your blog with content, and you’re becoming known for what you’re known for, you then promote it through social media or advertising or however you want to.

This is why all of this is so important to work together with hopefully a website you have. Because you’ve got to have the radio station to play the hit, or the music, to get the people to want it. To go in the store to buy it. To allow you to go on the road to become even bigger. Get written up and win awards.

And then you start it all over again. So that’s the analogy to the rock star thing. But it’s the same kind of process.

Content tied in to who you are, what you are. Getting known for that. Getting people referring it.

And this all ties in to future referrals.

This is how you can generate it and turbocharge it. By putting these things on your blog. And then promoting it.

Because of the platforms we have today as I mentioned earlier—you have the radio station, TV station, newspaper, everything to put content on and you can also promote it. Or have somebody do that.

It takes a lot of work. But this is all part of building referrals for the future and getting known. And become a rock star with your audience.

Now they see you and are wowed. You know, this business is really hot! And word will spread, not just the internet but word of mouth too. It all ties in.

And that’s how you can get your small business or firm to be known as a rock star. With the same types of promotion. Same types of elements that are involved. It’s a daily thing. You don’t just tweet out a little bit. You do it all the time.

You’re doing this on-going. That’s why they hire a publicist and promotion people when phones come out or new albums come out. It takes a lot of money and time to be consistent.

In this case today, because of these platforms, it’s much easier for a small business to do these things. But you have to commit to it.

So, John Verlin is my name. jverlin1@yahoo.com. Www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com is the website.

These are the four things you can do to make your small business a rock star. I encourage you to start doing it and experimenting.

Check out my website literally you’ll see what I’m talking about. You’ll see the blog. You’ll see the podcasts you can listen to. And with podcasts, you can place them on other sites as well to get downloads from iTunes and Google Play.

You’ll get further exposure plus you can get video exposure on other sites like Youtube, and get that type of online exposure.

It all works together. If you have questions, feel free to contact me jverlin1@yahoo.com check out www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com. We’ll talk to you next week!

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, 3 Reasons Why The Small Business Blog Is Nuclear Fuel For Future Growth, Podcast #23.

Posted on June 25, 2017July 2, 2017 by jverlin

Most small business owners I talk with have a general misunderstanding and general under-appreciation for the use of a Blog.

Hence the reason I showcase my powerpoint presentation upon our first meeting to give background on how a blog is useful in their overall small business marketing effort.

I then get “aha’s” once the presentation is over.

In podcast #23, we’re going to discuss just how important the blog really is to the future growth of the business.

The blog is like a mini-website that is an extension of and a part of your marketing platform.

platform bridge — The Marketing Platform is crucial for building growth and relevance in your prospects minds.

We discuss this as part of our three-part strategy for small business growth.

You can learn more about our strategy and request a free consultation!

You can listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

The Blog, Nuclear Fuel For Small Business Growth In The World of Amazon.
Podcast #23

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Good afternoon, John Verlin here of On Demand Advertising Solutions with another Digital Marketing Update, podcast #23.

I talked to you about this last week, but I want to talk about the power of the blog. Maybe it’s not a good analogy.

But it’s like nuclear fuel for growing a small business on down the road.

I want to talk to you about why this is so important. First of all, let’s look back—three things have happened this past week that reinforces why this is so important for small busines to have, a blog that is.

Facebook recently announced that they were going to focus more on the group experience, on Facebook.

For example, I belong to two groups on Facebook. One is a citizens group or a neighborhood group that has about 8000 members. As well as a high school reunion group that has, maybe a couple of hundred.

And we stay in touch on facebook. Ok, every week I see posts on the neighborhood group about, does anybody on this dog?

Or about a restaurant that serves whatever—they give a shout out to a business that did a good job, that’s pretty powerful stuff. Particularly if you’re complaining about a business or praising a business.

Those neighborhood groups, you’ve got 8000 in mine. That can do some damage. For local business.

That’s number one, Facebook announced that they’d focus more on groups. The second thing Google announced they were going to start having Google My Business posts capability.

So basically you have a Google My Business showing your business on a Google map, you’ll be able to make a post, kind of like a little Tweet. Although I think it’s something like 320 characters. You can have an offer, like fifty percent off lunch today. It will show up on people’s phones when they search for a restaurant in the area.

It’s another way Google is trying to engage prospects to do business with their customers.

And then, finally, the big, big news—is that Amazon bought Whole Foods, but they’ve also introduce Prime Wardrobe for clothing and Echo Alexa—or something like that. (Actually called Echo Look). It’s a camera. It looks like Echo but it has cameras on it.

You can order it for a couple hundred bucks. I guess you put it up and try on outfits. And Alexa the artificial intelligence will recommend what you should wear.

And I’m sure it turns right around and brings up things you can buy from Amazon wardrobe. Ship it to you.

Try it on, you don’t like it you can send it back. Suddenly Amazon is not only cutting in to food and grocers, but clothiers as well. Now how is this important?

Well, if you make hand made dresses let’s say, locally as a small business. Now, people can buy them on Amazon at a cheaper price than say a department store. Because it’s why some of these are going under.

So what are you going to do to differentiate?

Well, you could sell them on Amazon. But let’s say you’ve invested a lot of money in your local community. You’re a member of the chamber. Everyone knows you as the person who makes unique dresses.

You go to the farmers market, or the trade shows.

This is why a blog is so important, to add nuclear fuel to compete against the big giants, as best we can.

Because they’re coming in and doing things with all this technology.
So, three reasons why I believe all of this is so critical.

Number one, it’s obviously going to increase search engine optimization.

Think of the blog as a mini-website that’s attached to your website. It’s a platform that’s attached to your website. It’s not just a diary of what you do. This is bigger than that.

This is allowing your platform through either audio like this podcast you’re listening to, through video or through written information about you.

About your expertise that you can share with prospects and customers on a regular basis.

And because you’re doing it on a regular basis, this is fresh content of which Google search engine loves it and will rank you higher.

So it provides search engine optimization. As well if you tie in topics, categories and keywords that tie-in to your business. Ideally, that’s what you’d want to do. Because Google searches all of that.

But just because you’re providing fresh content is what they really, really are looking for that ranks you higher.

So, that’s what a blog will do—it will make you more searchable in the search engines. If you think about it, when you check out something—what do you first do?

You search in the search engine for reviews or ratings, things like that. That’s what people will do for your business. That’s why this is so important to make an impression on your brand.

Ok, that’s number one, it’s searchable.

Number two, you can provide information and entertainment with a podcast, with a written page, a post or a video, to engage them. To get them to want to learn about you.

This isn’t just bland information, they’re wanting something that they’re looking for. Now, you’re helping them by providing engaging content.

And finally, it’s promotable.

Promotable in that now you can direct people back to that blogpost. Just like I do with this podcast. I send it out on my social media.

You may have seen one of my tweets or posts, promoting this particular podcast about why you need nuclear fuel to grow your small business.

This is part of that nuclear fuel that you have the ability to use this platform to send that information out to get people to come back to learn more about you.

Do you see how that works? Hand in hand, you’re promoting your business, and you can promote your blogpost with direct mail, radio ads, TV ads, whatever.

Learn all about how we make jewelry. How we make dressses. Learn everything at our website and check out all of our blogposts. A number of ways you can promote this.

Those are mainly the three reasons why a blog is so critical.

Not to mention what the technology giants are doing to engage their customers with better experiences and technology.

This will help make your small business stand out from the competition if you adapt a blog and these ideas.

Because it’s all perception, as well as searches and links and things like that on Google.

So, a number of things that I think, it was really interesting but the bottom line is that it influences the customer experience. The user experience. That’s what everybody talks about. That’s the bottom line.

Because, now when they come to your website, they see your blog, they see your interactions. They think, these guys are really on top.

When they compare that to a competitor who’s not doing this, that forms a perception. And that’s part of your brand. The idea is to get your brand to stand out, get it relevant, and remind people on-going. That it’s relevant. And that’s what a blog will help do.

John Verlin’s my name. I know I’m talking fast, I’m trying to get all of this done within ten minutes, because I like to keep these short and sweet.

Next week, how would you like your business to be a rock star? Well, I grew up with a rock band, and I’m going to share with you some of the things I do…that I’ve learned you can do to become a rock star with your prospects and customers.

Because that’s what separates you again, from your competition.

And don’t close a blind eye to the competition. It’s there. And it’s watching you. Whether you like it or not, I read a couple of blog pieces this past week about how much competition is going to be fighting for market share.

What we talked about earlier with Facebook and Amazon are the big players, but small busineses are vying for each other too. And this will help you stand out. So be listening next week.

My email is jverlin1@yahoo.com, or visit www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com

Would love to hear from you with questions or comments and we’ll see you next week!

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, Weathering The Storms Of The Competition, Podcast #22

Posted on June 18, 2017June 21, 2017 by jverlin

Few small business owners are thrilled when a competitor shows up and steal their thunder, much less their customers.

But competition is a way of life for any business owner.

From inventors to entrepreneurs, history is full of examples of others who have altered ideas to create new products, enhanced an already successful product or just flat out stole a patent or idea.

If an idea has merit–it will probably be copied or stolen at some point, so getting used to the competition is a by-product of success. Then again, some ideas will just plain flop (like the above Ford Edsel).

Need an affordable marketing partner to weather the storms of the competition, build web traffic, new prospects and profits?

Podcast #22 discusses three main ways your small business can stay ahead of the competition.

Listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here.

Enjoy our video podcast!

Learn more about how our small business three-point strategy and services can grow your business–by scheduling a FREE CONSULTATION!

Weathering The Storms Of The Competition.
Podcast #22

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon to you. John Verlin with once again, another Digital Marketing Update from On Demand Advertising Solutions, podcast #22.

Today we’re going to talk about…and this is prompted by an email I got several weeks ago from a listener. His name is Don. And Don, I want to thank you for asking this question that prompted me to talk about all of this.

And by the way, if you do have questions or comments, feel free to email at jverlin1@yahoo.com. And will feature it perhaps on the podcast. And answer some of your questions.

The Storms of the Competition, is what I’m entitling this podcast. How to prevent or maintain your business in spite of the competitors. It changes, and storms crop up every ten or fifteen minutes you have a severe thunderstorm and a warning. And it could wipe out your business. Or wipe out anything if you’re not prepared.

So, consider this sort of a siren test, the weather sirens for your small business to prepare against the competition!

And I know a lot of small businesses will say, there is no competition. There is competition. The competition is what is in the mind of the prospect. And you many times can’t control it. So, if you think you’re safe, you’re not.

And just today, as an example, Amazon just bought Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. Now, and this has been talked about all day long on Twitter and social media. Stocks have gone up and gone down. Things happen because of this.

But, you don’t this is going to be a game-changer for Walmart or any grocer in the country? You don’t think this is a storm that could wipe them out? Prices at Whole Foods could go down because of Amazon’s platform and delivery systems.

There’s a whole list of things we could talk about. This is a storm on behalf of Walmart and grocers that maybe they saw coming, maybe they didn’t.

This is kind of thing, that of course it’s going to be on a smaller scale for small business. But these are the things you may or may not anticipate. So, what can you do?

Well, there’s three key things I want to talk about. And again, when you think about price, like a lower price for like insurance? A good example of what I want to talk about is if you look at it or if you’ve seen on Twitter, at least I have been following them on Twitter, is Progressive Insurance.

With Flo—that’s their brand mascot. Flo—I like her, she’s funny. And that’s the purpose by the user—to get you to like her. So, here’s Flo and she’ll show up on Twitter. Maybe our price isn’t the lowest..we’re happy for you. You may have seen that with a couple of other competitors. Like when she’s in a beauty pageant—and she’s crying because she didn’t beat the price and that kind of stuff.

Well, Liberty Mutual…I saw this after Progressive started doing this with little ads on Twitter. Liberty Mutual now has “combine your insurance and save $761.” Or Progressive would say, “you could save up to $629” .

But that’s price. OK. Now that’s a problem, because you’re going to compete head-on with price. But, they’re consistently talking about their brand. In spite of price—and Progressive, I like the way they did it.

Well, maybe our price isn’t the lowest. But guess what? They’ve got a presence out there with a memorable message. And it’s funny. And I remember the beauty pageant. Flo is crying, she didn’t win. The other two women are waving, like they’re happy, they won. But they’re communicating their brand and message in spite of price.

And they’re even having fun with it. They admit that they might not always be number 1, but they’re consistently talking to prospects and customers by in this case, Twitter. That’s point number one. Consistently be talking to your customers and prospects is a way to fend off competition. Why? Well, think about it.

Maybe they are going to do something different. But if you’re consistently out there, and this is why next week I’m going to go over and more into this on the power of the blog. As a part of your marketing platform. Why you need one and why it’s so powerful. But you can shift your message because you have a consistent platform.

In this case, Progressive vs Liberty Mutual. You can consistently be talking to them. Building that brand relationship. That is huge for small businesses. Because, guess what? Most small businesses are lazy. They’re not going to be doing this.

This is what I tell prospects when I meet with them and I go through a powerpoint explaining step by step the marketing platform. Why all of this is important. And this is one big reason. So you won’t get run over by the competition when a storm erupts. If they do something you don’t expect, what are you going to do?

Well, you’ve got a pattern of consistently talking to your prospects and customers. You can now alter your message to shift when the competition does something. First point.

The second point: consistently provide or offer value. Again, you’ve got a message that you’re doing, on-going with prospects and customers through social media, advertising, however you’re doing it. Now you can shift and offer something. Maybe, now through June 30th you get something.

Whatever the offer is, is to counter your competition. And this is small business marketing. This is the way it is.

But with these platforms, you can build an on-going presence with the brand. And you can alter and shift it as needed. So, that’s point number two—consistently providing an offer or a value to compete, to stand out.

The third point; consistently stay top of mind. It goes hand in hand with the other two. Basically the fact—and I’m seeing these in talking about Liberty Mutual and Progressive—I see their posts everyday.

It’s got to a point now, I can tell you about them. I remember them and they’re in my mind now. Cause I’ve seen them everyday. They’re consistently keeping their brand in front of prospects.

So this is why this marketing platform and consistency is so important. If you’re a small business and you’re not doing this on a regular basis. Well, I don’t have the budget…how could you NOT do it? That’s my question.

Because you’re leaving yourself vulnerable. They only way to beat the competition is to stay one step ahead of them. I won’t go into it all now, but it’s the reason we recommend podcasts and video on your marketing platform with a blog, to have the edge…cutting edge, the latest stuff.

Now when artificial intelligence takes over, I guess that will be a whole other thing. I probably won’t be around to see it, and you may not either!

At any rate, those three things: consistently talk to your customers and prospects, make this a part of your marketing plan.

Consistently offer or provide more value to zig and zag with the competition. To prevent that storm from developing. And, as part of that, to answer your customers questions, needs or wants or any issues.

That will help you build brand loyalty with them. And finally, consistently staying top of mind.

Those three things are some really good ways to control those storms from the competition. To keep them at bay.

Because the things I’m suggesting to you that I found over the years, most small businesses don’t do. Again, I don’t want to be critical, but people are lazy.

They don’t want to make the effort or the investment. Do you have someone on your staff that handles your social media on a regular basis?

Everyday, each week of the year? If you don’t you should consider that. Or hire someone, freelance it or what ever you need. This is how important it is.

If it’s so important for a big company like Progressive to be on Twitter…maybe it’s important for small business too.

Because those platforms that are available level the playing field between huge corporations and small mom and pop businesses.

You can see what Steve Jobs said about what the web does, it’s a level playing field now.

Next week, I’m going to talk about why the blog is like nuclear fuel for your small business long term existence.

Nuclear fuel—that’s pretty big stuff. Why that blog will provide that for your small business long term existence. Be listening next week for that.

John Verlin’s my name, jverlin1@yahoo.com is my email.

Website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com is the web address to visit. Love to hear from you with questions, answers, your thought, whatever!

See you next week and tell your friends about these podcasts, share it with them. They just need one idea that may improve their business. We’ll look forward to talking to you next week.

All podcasts are recorded by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From The Blog: Social Media-Tidbits on The Business Use of Twitter

Posted on June 12, 2017June 6, 2017 by jverlin

How your business can use Twitter

Twitter is a social media site that allows users to “connect” and communicate in “real-time” their opinions, ideas, thoughts, etc.

Most business-related users on Twitter are learning about and interested in new products, services, experiences, etc. They can get immediate recommendations, suggestions, pricing from other Twitter followers of the given business.

Businesses can reach out and connect/communicate with current or new customers promotions, pricing, events, etc. It’s Twitter’s “immediacy” in a given business category that makes it appealing to small business owners. Here are some ways your business can leverage Twitter.

Discover what is going on in “real-time” in the Twittersphere.
Twitter gives you the ability to see happenings in your business trade, events and even worldwide communications. Use Twitter search to check out conversations that show relevance to your small business where you can contribute and add value.
Small business can increase the “awareness” of their brand.
Elevate your business and increase the power of your marketing efforts by using Twitter to consistently message with those who “follow” you.
Provide timely customer service
The immediacy of Twitter makes it a great platform for customer service. In fact, 85% of SMB Twitter users said that it’s important that businesses provide customer support on Twitter (Twitter) You can respond quickly to customer questions/concerns and build long-term relationships with your base.
Connect with potential customers, brand advocates, and influencers
Twitter allows you to follow and interact with people that are not a part of your personal network. This can establish new conversations and build valuable connections.

Kiev, Ukraine – October 17, 2012 – A logotype collection of well-known social media brand’s printed on paper. Include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Vimeo, Flickr, Myspace, Tumblr, Livejournal, Foursquare and more other logos.

Below is re-printed from Twitter outlining the proper methods and definitions of their terminology. Small businesses should allocate an in-house social media person or outsource to a professional to get the most out of their efforts:

The building blocks of Twitter

You’ll need to understand the language and terminology used so that you’re able to interact with customers and engage in conversations seamlessly. Here are some definitions to get you started:

Tweet

A Tweet is a message posted on Twitter that can contain text, photos, links and videos.
Reply

Click ‘reply’ to respond to anyone’s Tweet. Replying to a Tweet is a way to show you’re listening and provide helpful answers.
Retweet

A Retweet is sharing a Tweet from someone else with your followers. Click the Retweet button to share the Tweet as is, or quote the Tweet to add a comment of your own.
Like

A like is a simple way to acknowledge a Tweet. It can also be useful to use as a bookmarking tool if you want to easily find a Tweet again. Tap the heart icon to like a Tweet and the author will see that you appreciate it.
Hashtag

A hashtag is any word, or phrase without spaces, beginning with the # symbol. People use hashtags to organize conversations and make it easier to find all content related to a given topic. Click on a hashtag to go directly to the search results for that term. Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.
Mention

Bring a Tweet to another person’s attention by including their @username in your message. You could use it to ask someone a question, to thank them, or simply to highlight a piece of content.

Using Twitter in conjunction with other marketing platforms on a regular basis promoting your expertise will help your small business build a marketing platform that helps bring in prospects via your blog to your website.

As more and more consumers use social media–this traditional media and social media presence will continue to grow in importance for the small business owner.

We suggest a three-part strategy that combines the immediacy of Twitter to reach out to prospects on a regular basis.

Learn more about our strategy and how it can successfully build your business using creative content and social media by contacting us for a free consultation with a special offer!

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, The Last Referral, Podcast #21

Posted on June 11, 2017 by jverlin

From a traditional sense, most small businesses thrive on getting referrals as their main source of new prospects and customers.

Nothing beats a friend “referring” you to a business that they enjoyed and had a good experience with.

But the times, they are a change’in! In podcast #21, we’ll discuss several examples of how today’s new digital media conversations are replacing the old referral-type of network–and how small businesses can stay on top of this change–and profit from it!

Check out our strictly audio content here.

Staying ahead of the curve for small businesses all start with understanding the dynamics of our three-part strategy and how it can work for your small business!

Learn more about how our small business three-point strategy and services can grow your business–by scheduling a FREE CONSULTATION!

Enjoy our video podcast!

The Last Referral, Podcast #21

By John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Good afternoon, John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions, with another Digital Marketing Update, podcast #21.

I’m excited to talk with you today, about “The Last Referral”.

That’s what I’m titling this, because several experiences this week as to why this entire social media, digital marketing platform is so important for small business owners.

I think I can speak for those over fifty, for example (because I am over 50!). From the traditional media standpoint to the new digital media and content marketing standpoint…why this shift is so important. Based on several experiences I had this past week.

The reason I wanted to do this with a podcast, rather than just write it down in a blogpost, is because I wanted to tell a story.

That is what podcasting does great—just like old radio shows. I can tell you my story with emotion and passion. I’m excited about it because I can show some examples I just experienced that I want to share with you.

Why all of this is important for small business owners to grasp. To understand why you need to get a marketing platform for their small business if they don’t have one already. And work it on-going, and this is why.

Recently, I was given the name of an eye doctor. The one I had been going to retired. My girlfriend got the name of a doctor at a place I used to go to years ago.

She was going to have a cataract removed. So she met with the doctor, had the cataract removed. Everything worked great. Told me about a procedure I needed, so I went to the doctor. Same thing, worked great.

Now I’m going to him from another doctor I had been going to for four years. She had retired and I was due to find someone new anyway.

My point being, this is the traditional referral, how most of us grew up with. Somebody who referred somebody, who referred somebody. So this doctor just got two new patients through one woman who was satisfied with the work he did. That’s the traditional way of doing it.

Another experience I had this week was going to a Farmers Market. Went to a couple of booths, one woman made soaps, hand-made soaps. Didn’t have any kind of marketing. We were just talking to her, at all.

Not much to really speak of. A lot of these farmers market vendors go to a number of these throughout the year. They need to get people there to let them know they can buy there product. The problem is I’m guessing, they don’t have much advertising in the marketing. They may rely on the city or promoter to advertise the event.

Another vendor had a catering business. Rather an extensive catering business. I checked online and they didn’t have much of a presence. And I’m thinking how are they going to promote the fact that they’re here, other than social media.

Maybe direct mail. But if they don’t have a program to do that, other than their own on-going way to stay in touch with their customers from previous farmers markets,

They’re just relying on the traction and they just want a piece of it. But they can be proactive to gather their fans who have bought from them before. Whether it’s their mailing list, email list…or whatever, and let them know they’re going to be at this new farmers market.

A bank I had worked for in the past, had sold a location and moved to a different one. Unbeknownst to us, there were a group of about 8000 local residents who formed a group on Facebook. Started announcing the fact that the bank had been sold, they thought. The sign had come down.

Almost in real time. Suddenly, we’re having people coming in canceling their bank accounts, thinking the bank was sold and going under. Which wasn’t true at all. It was the opposite. It was actually updating another branch to be more online friendly because a lot of these people wanted to do their banking in drive through or online. And they were upgrading.

But it doesn’t matter, the damage had been done because it had gotten on a Facebook group page of about 8000 people. And word just spread like wildfire.

Now this is another type, the new type of referral. And that didn’t work in a good way. That caused image issues. People assumed something based on one person’s post. And it went on and on and replicated throughout the community because of Facebook.

Now this is where this new referral thing is now happening. If you own a small business and you’re not actively engaged on Facebook or Twitter, in general with your prospects and customers. This kind of behavior will be going on and you may not even know about it.

The positive side of this is that you can be proactive. By on-going posts, every week, every day. To build your followers, your likes and all this kind of stuff. Yea, it takes time. It’s a slow, boring process. If you want to call it that. But, you never know, when you get that one prospect that gives you a referral, like in my case traditionally—then suddenly you get new business. That’s how it works.

Another person put on their recently that they had gone to a Taco Bell, they left some stuff out of the order…they called the Taco Bell. They were told that when it was convenient to come back. They doubled their order for free and gave them a coupon. And they gave them a call out on Facebook saying “thank you so much Taco Bell for doing what you did.”

And now 8000 people including myself saw that. And I thought, wow, that’s pretty powerful stuff. They did the right thing, and they understood the value of social media neighborhood group, which has grown a couple of thousand new members over the past year or two.

So this is why I call it the last referral. It’s moving online to Facebook referrals A new coffee shop, well it’s not new, the coffee shop has been around a number of years, opened a new drive through facility. Posted a couple of pictures of their new drive through. It went to 12,000 people.

Not just through their Facebook page, but people referring through the chamber and organizations in the local community.

And suddenly, boom they have all of these people knowing about their opening a drive through. Again, that’s how referrals are happening now.

That’s why this is so critical that you have a social media presence, linked to a blog with content, engaging content, I call it. And that’s why we recommend podcasts like this one, because you can tell your story and expertise on-going, every week, year round. And post it and promote it.

People learn, they’re educated and they’re entertained. Probably in the next week or two, I’m going to throughout some impersonations I used to do, like Jerry Lewis, Truman Capote…that I used to do in radio. Just to entertain you and make you happy. To get you coming back!

So, the last referral, it’s changing. It’s going online. A lot of talk fast and furious, good, bad and ugly. And you can help shape that discussion with your referral program. By giving bounce-back items, like us on Facebook, thirty percent your next purchase. Whatever that is, continue and start a program if you haven’t. Tie-in a blog.

That’s what features your content. It’s the base, the part of the marketing platform that does that.

We’re going to talk more about this in the future, but I wanted to get this out to you real-time today, because I just experienced this.

And this is why it’s so important. A lot of small businesses they dabble with likes—and they say “yeah, videos are good…and they don’t want to mess with it.” You could be doing it right now. I’m doing it. Helping others do it.

It gets you on the cutting edge of marketing. That’s the key. And that’s the perception people will have about you.

This business, it could be a little repair shop. Fixing lawnmower engines and trimmers and whatever. My gosh, they’ve got a post and a podcast last week from an interview. Being interviewed about, tips on getting your lawnmower ready for this spring and summer. How to change your oil effectively, the type of oil to use. These types of things. You may think, well, that’s easy—everybody knows that. Well, they don’t know it.

And guess what, they’re going to tune-in. They need to know these tips. For crying out loud, I tuned in to a video on how to clean a cat’s teeth of all things. Because I had a cat that had a tooth pulled and I wanted to learn.

Come to find out, I basically just had to use a certain type of food. But I tuned in and checked an online vet.

If I’m wanting to know how to clean a cat’s teeth, imagine how many people maybe looking locally for someone that knows how to fix a lawnmower engine or change a blade.

That’s where this marketing platform can really benefit your business. You build it. It’s slow growth. But it gives you a base from which to operate.

John Verlin is my name. OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com is the website. You can get hold of me, email is jverlin1@yahoo.com.

We will see you next week. Love to hear from you if you have questions or comments. Have a great day!

All podcasts are produced by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, Why We Recommend Video, Our Testing On Facebook Boost, Podcast #20

Posted on June 6, 2017 by jverlin

As a part of our three-part strategy for small business marketing, we recommend including video promotion on social media as an element in the mix of marketing bridge.

Specifically, animated videos that we create for our clients as they’re inexpensive, fun and memorable which equals, effective (at least in theory).

Today, in Digital Marketing Update, Podcast #20, we set out to test our own promotional video’s of On Demand Advertising Solutions.

Most of these are between thirty-five for fifty-five seconds in length. We know that attention spans on Facebook our quite short.

youtube #2 — “Post It On A Blog Or Just Call Us” animated video

But we anticipated that our target “small business owners/CEO’s” might take thirty seconds to see a video that automatically begins running on their Facebook newsfeed.

You can listen to our strictly audio podcasts here.

Enjoy the video podcast!

We tested these over a three day period, May 30th-June 3, 2017. Our target again were “small business owners/CEO’s” in a 30 mile radius of Overland Park, Kansas (near our Gardner, Kansas studio.

We pitted “Opportunities Abound-–An Engaged Marketing Platform” with “Post Them On A Blog And Just Call Us”.

Here they are below:

After a three day test, we found the cost-effectiveness startling. We also monitored how many “Facebook” referrals came in to our site from the video’s.

This, after all is our goal for prospects to see our site and view/listen to our videos and podcasts (to sample what we can do for their small business).

We know that like any service business, these can be produced and promoted by small business owners…but we also know that not everyone has the time, experience and capabilities to do so on a regular basis.

Much like an accountant doing your taxes–this is our goal to be a freelance marketing compliment to their overall marketing and advertising function. Providing not just social media promotion on-going, but innovative content that builds SEO, unlike other firms.

That, to us equates with real value to build fresh content and creatively promote it. That seems to be a major element many small businesses are not doing to showcase their expertise to new prospects.

As you can see below, the “Opportunities Abound–An Engaged Marketing Platform” video reached 401 people in our target, costing just $.02 per 3-second video view.

The second video, “Post Them On A Blog And Just Call Us”, reached 39 people in our target costing $.05 per 3-second video view.

During that three day test, we had 333 people reached in our target, with 132 :03 video views and 22 Facebook referrals from this $15, investment.

So, let’s just say the video’s produced approximately 20% new Facebook referrals to our website (or $.68 per referral).

And this paid video content is really a bonus to using these video’s on our blog, Facebook page, etc.

Our goal really is to get 2 clients per year, investing $1000/month (a One Day Offer package of services that includes customer surveys, monthly emails, podcast & video content creation, social media promotion year-round).

Obviously, if we continued with these videos compared with straight Facebook posts (and we have tested a number of them, which averaged $.50+ per click were the most efficient.

But they didn’t come close to the animated videos. Thus, why we recommend them as an overall part of a winning strategy along with podcasts (just like you’re listening to now).

Another reason we recommend animated videos (although we have done actual video’s as well), is the fact that you can tell a story in less than sixty seconds. It is also a simple story, so prospects can “get it” and have good recall, much like a short jingle.

Animated videos allow you to place them on your Facebook business page, Linkedin business page, etc–in full view of new prospects that refer from your posts and tweets, as such:

facebook video shot.JPG — Animated videos can be pinned to the top of social media sites for visitors to view as an audience is built from paid boosts, posts and tweets.

In essence–small businesses have the power of Hollywood and Radio star imaging (granted on a smaller scale) to use in promoting their brand.

By combining both podcast and video usage, small business owners can tell their story in short time spans and make a series out of it–all the while being promoted on a daily basis.

Part of the reason clients hire us is that creative content can be difficult to create on a weekly if not daily basis. This aspect of idea creation plus the amount of time in which to create, produce and promote is what we specialize in and offer to our clients in a very cost-effective manner.

Why We Recommend Video, Our Testing On Facebook.
Podcast #20

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon, John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions and another Digital Marketing Update, Podcast #20.

For a number of months now, we’ve been talking about various content that we can run for your small business. One of the things that we really like…actually, we stumbled across it, is videos.

And not just any video as you and I might think, but animated videos. They’re, I saw a new one on this, on a different platform, it’s more like real-life humans dancing around and that kind of thing.

For a fairly sizable fee, they’ll put your logo, and things like that on it. One reason we like them to recommend to our clients to help build their business, is several things—and today’s podcast I’m actually going to be including on our blogpost where you’re listening to this.

A couple of the videos we actually tested on Facebook, and we boosted those. We tested them over a three day period, and I have some data to share with you.

I’ve also got a couple of screenshots to show you, of costs and things like that. Keep in mind, all of this, whether it’s podcasting, social media promotion, blogging, everything you do…TV ads, radio ads, print ads, email marketing. All that you do works together.

One of them doesn’t just hang out there and do everything. It all works together as a part of the marketing bridge for your business.

Everything from your business cards, to uniforms, the look you have, the style. All of this should be symmetric and work together.

So, when I share information with you about podcasting or videos—I’m trying to zero in on some of the most effective things your small business can do.

What we’re trying to do to not only build traffic to your website, engaging your customers with creative content. But it all works together on an on-going basis.

It doesn’t just happen and you forget about it in six months. It has to be consistent and relentless. And the reason is you’ve got competitors out there doing what you’re doing, coming up with ideas…watching you.

I put some posts out there showing a lion stalking almost in wait. And that’s really kind of what it’s like.

Competitors are nipping at the heels. You have to be proactive and relentless with a lot of this to keep ahead. Be on top of your industry. Constantly seeking new information. I just recently had some information I gave to a client last week.

It was a great infographic of the clients’ clientele. Somebody did a lot of work to put together. I was out there doing my thing for the client on social media and promotion and I came across this.

Those are the kinds of things, and I know a lot of owners don’t have a lot of time to do this…but that’s where the marketing people can step in to do research and keep you informed.

And really, with social media, I found it’s really cool…you’re getting a lot of the latest stuff sent to you. When you’re tracking everything for a client, for example to do promotion. So you’re seeing a lot of cutting edge stuff.

Articles, and things like that. It’s really important that you stay on top of that, because you can bet your competitors will be. You’ve got to stay a step ahead of them all the way.

That’s why I kind of zero in on what I feel is the most effective for small businesses that they can use. It’s sort of new. I’m finding that a lot of small business owners may be intimidated by Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, social media promotion. Creating podcasts, videos, all of this.

Getting back to the Facebook testing we recently did. A couple of videos we tested are on this blogpost that you can look at. And what we found was, over three days, we found that the average video post, was about two to four cents per view.

Now Facebook has three-second views that they count as a view. Keep in mind, the shorter you can make a video, I usually try to make mine in thirty seconds, the better. It’s hard to do that.

I try to do mine between thirty to forty to fifty seconds. But the shorter you can do it, the better. Because when people are checking their feed, that video will automatically start—unless people have set their settings to prevent videos from running.

But it will just start going, and guess what—how many videos do you see out there on your Facebook page? Not a whole lot. So that’s why I feel this is very effective because you can target this.

Now I targeted CEO’s, small business owners, presidents—within a thirty-mile radius of my zip code area.

Knowing that these are the kind of people seeing this content—that’s all I cared about. So over three days, 332 people were reached, according to Facebook. About one-third, 132 viewed it for three-seconds or more. Now how many actually saw the whole video, I don’t know. They don’t tell you that. They just want your money. So they charge you for a view.

It was a $15 investment. But, on the back end of this thing—tracking on my website, I got 22 referrals over three days from Facebook. I’m going to say—there were some posts I put out there on Facebook as well. But I’m going to say just rounding numbers out-let’s say twenty percent, according to Facebook 132 that responded or did see it for at least three seconds. 22 of those who viewed it went to a page on my website. Which is what this is all about.

This is in addition to, in this case it was the videos as I didn’t do too many posts on Facebook on purpose. This is in addition to the posts that you or a marketing person does on a regular basis constantly. Because you’re gradually going to be building traffic.

So, how effective are these videos for Facebook in this case? Well, figure twenty percent of the people who viewed it—about $.68 per referral is what it costs to get those 22 people over three days. Guess what? I know that this is a building process. This whole branding/marketing thing doesn’t just happen.

The same thing when I was in radio. It takes time to build your brand. You need to be patient and you have to commit to it. Is it going to happen in two weeks? Six months? A year? You don’t know.

But I know based on the average cost of referral, that those videos were pretty darn good. In comparison to a typical boosted post, that I tested, they could be anywhere from $.50 to $2 or $3 if they didn’t score very well. People didn’t respond as well.

So you can kind of see the difference there. The effectiveness of video. Would you recommend them?

And this is a bonus folks! This is stuff that if you’re paying for it that’s great. But you can use these videos on your Facebook page. Pin them to the top of your Facebook feed. You have them on your blog. Each time we’ve done videos, we’ve put them on the clients blog, which again is more content for the search engines to see.

The animated videos have written content in them, and that is content that the Google search engine sees. That’s why we like the animated versions versus normal video. The place for “real” videos in my opinion is one or two things. They’re great for “how to” videos. You can post them on Vimeo and link them to your blog or Facebook page or your home page of your website.

However you want to do that. Keep in mind, those can be thirty minute videos. “How to Clean A Cat’s Teeth”, by a veterinarian which I actually did watch. It was fifteen or twenty minutes. It can be longer.

The good side is you can share your expertise with a real person doing it speaking directly to the customer. And they’re great. They all work together. The only difference I say…if you’re not attractive, that may be not a good thing! Whereas, an animated video doesn’t matter. They’re going to watch it.

But they will make suppositions. So if you’re a business owner that may not be attractive, I hate to be this blunt, it may not work well psychologically for customers or prospects first engagement with your website. If you are attractive, great. More power to you—that might work well.

I guess, the animated versions can be told shortly, quickly..not as much perceptional issues compared with actual customers, or owners talking. But, you can include that too. You can use them all—it’s your discretion as to how you want to use them.

But the animated—we grew up with cartoons. You think about all the little cartoon commercials you’ve seen over the years. I remember one for a heating and cooling company—in Kansas City that dates back to the ’50’s. I still remember the jingle and the little animated bird flying. They’re very memorable.

That’s pretty much what I wanted to share with you today. The test on Facebook, you can see the videos we tested here on the blogpost. You can try them yourself. But, when you create these—you can target key benefits, one at a time. Do a video on each one. It doesn’t have to be a big summary thing of all your benefits.

You can just break them down into little segments. A little minute or thirty second video. Animated videos. Test them on Facebook and constantly test with everything. Good marketers do. One thing may work great and you hate it. And the other one you thought would work well doesn’t. You just have to test.

Facebook posts, videos, testing. I had great results. I encourage you to consider to do that because they’re different. That’s one reason we recommend what we do and how we do it.

John Verlin is my name. jverlin1@yahoo.com is my email. Website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

We’ll see you next week when we’ll discuss some techniques I have found work well in not only promoting your videos, but podcasts and your website as well. Have a great day!

All podcasts produced by Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

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How your business can use Twitter

The building blocks of Twitter

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