Neon Noise Podcast: Recent Episodes
Neon Goldfish
What if we could tap into our best customers' minds and figure out exactly what they wanted and what they would spend their hard-earned money on.
This would be fantastic! Rather than building a product or service we think they want and hope that it connects with them, we would know what they wanted before we built it. They would even tell us what to build.
Now for the good news. You can do this.
Building an opt-in audience of the customers you want to do business with will do just this and Joe Pulizzi is just the person to show us how.
Joe Pulizzi is the founder of Content Marketing Institute which hosts the largest in-person content marketing conference on the planet. He's also an entrepreneur, speaker, podcaster, and the author of 5 books related to content and marketing.
Joe joined this episode of the Neon Noise podcast to share his adventures and knowledge about the importance content plays in the marketing world.
During this conversation, we cover:
- Joe's plan to spend 30 days unconnected from the internet
- What owned content is and why it is so important
- The first thing Joe would do if he was starting a business today
- The moment Joe realized he had a winning idea and the formula to duplicate it over and over
- Why you shouldn't buy his new book and what you should buy
- How to annuitize your marketing by creating content today that will deliver traffic for years
- The realistic timeframes for realizing a return from a content strategy
- What he suggests we all do in 2018
- and much, much more...
We hope our conversation with Joe helps you understand how building an opt-in audience will be your key to growing your business.
Enjoy!
If you ever took a marketing course in college, there is a chance you used a textbook authored by Dr. Phil Kotler.
Dr. Phil Kotler is the S.C. Johnson @ Son Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has studies marketing for over 55 years, authored 57 marketing related books, published over 150 articles, and consulted for some of the biggest brands in the world. A resume that has earned him the right to be called the 'Father of Modern Marketing".
We had the opportunity to interview Dr. Phil Kotler on the Neon Noise podcast and tap into his vast knowledge of marketing while diving into some very interesting talk tracks not normally covered.
In this episode, we dive into the following:
- The relationship between Marketing and Capitalism
- How the Amazon Effect is changing the brick and mortar retail model
- The future of marketing
- The importance of positioning value at the right customers
- What he recommends businesses do today
- A little detail about his recently published autobiography
- And much, much more.
We hope our conversation with Dr. Phil Kotler provides you some valuable insight from one of the greatest marketing minds.
Enjoy.
Doing business with customers means we handle sensitive customer data.
We see news headlines of major companies with (perceived) security measures in place having customer data breaches at an increasing rate. This is due to the growing complexities of the business to consumer exchanges and malicious intent of more and more people.
So what do we do? How can we fine-tune our business policies to properly handle this sensitive customer data in a way that will reduce how vulnerable we are to a data breach.
David Harlow is an attorney and consultant in this very arena. He is an expert in the handling of digital security in the public and private sector.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, David joins us to chat about vulnerabilities we have in our businesses and ways we can go about reducing our risk to exposure.
Here are some of the items we dive into:
- The various types of information breaches
- Easy steps businesses can take to reduce vulnerabilities
- Major points of vulnerabilities many businesses have
- The 3 layers of protection we should all have in place
- How to create a plan to prevent a security breach and keep information safe
- Exercises to help train your staff on how to identify threats
- How you should approach creating and updating passwords
- The liabilities a business has when they do all the right things
- How advancements in technology is creating more layers of security but are also vulnerable
- And much more...
We hope our conversation with David will help you better understand digital security and provide some takeaways you can implement to make the handling of your customer's sensitive data more secure.
Enjoy!
I'm not going to blow your mind by stating that blogging is an important component of any content strategy.
We all know that.
To be fair though, if this is something we all KNOW... why aren't we all doing it? Additionally, those of us that are doing it might be doing it wrong.
This sounds like my gym routine.
In this episode of the Neon Noise Podcast, we are joined by Linda Dessau.
Linda is the founder of ContentMasteryGuide.com and has been helping others create online content since 2004. Her helpful step-by-step tips and guides provide clarity and and easy to follow approach for anyone looking to get more traffic, leads, customers through their website.
Here are some of the nuggets we talk about:
- Why blogging is a key component to any marketing strategy
- How to build your business without depending on the search engines - Google Not Required
- Her Four Step planning process
- How to choose what you should write about
- How long your blog post should be
- Her 7 Steps to creating a blog post
- The importance of teaser text
- and much more...
We hope our conversation with Linda helps you create a content creation strategy that will increase your credibility, grow your audience, and help you achieve your business goals.
Enjoy!
Attracting and retaining top talent seems to be a hot topic at the moment. Anyone that has ever hired an employee knows that it's not the easiest task.
- How do you find the right person?
- What can you do to attract top talent to work at your company?
- Once you find that rockstar, how do you keep them on your team?
The interesting thing to consider is how closely the marketing efforts we place on attracting new customers to grow revenue align with attracting rockstar employees to make our companies better.
Let's add in another layer of complexity and consider a whole new group of young professionals entering the workforce that have different goals and objectives than generations of the past.
Jennifer Newbill is a Global Director with Dell and an expert when it comes to hiring and finding new talent. She brings over 20 years of knowledge in HR and recruitment to this episode of the Neon Noise podcast.
Some of the talking points we cover include:
- How to attract the right talent
- Online platforms you should use for recruitment
- Why you should put on your marketing cap when formulating your recruitment strategy
- What really matters to Millennials
- The benefit to telling your company story
- Using consistent branding in recruitment marketing
- The reason HR should work hand-in-hand with the Marketing department
- Busting stereotypes about Millennials
We hope our conversation with Jennifer helps you create a recruitment marketing strategy that will help attract and retain the very best in your industry.
Enjoy!
Consumers trust online reviews.
We love to read the good and the bad others have written about their experience or a product.
As a business owner, there are a couple challenges when it comes to reviews.
- How do you get your happy customers to write more reviews?
- How can you handle negative reviews?
- What can you do to leverage these reviews into additional business?
Here are some fun statistics from this episode:
"Consumer reviews are trusted 12x more than descriptions published by the marketer."
"79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member."
"7 out of 10 consumers will return to a business if their concern is addressed quickly."
Doren Aldana is an expert when it comes to online reviews and testimonials. He is the Founder of MyTestimonialEngine.com which is the #1 software for helping local businesses collect and share reviews. His unique approach to collecting and managing online reviews helps businesses attract more customers.
Here are some of the talking points from our interview:
- The importance of customer reviews for customer service and search rankings
- Why it is so important for a business to actively seek customer reviews and testimonials
- How to get your customers to take action and leave a review
- Why you should consider using text messaging to collect reviews
- Ways to address negative reviews before they are published on the Internet
- The reason to have a review collection system is crucial to being successful
- How to get more referrals from your online reviews
Exclusive Offer to Neon Noise Listeners Doren has provided The Ultimate Testimonial Toolkit to all Neon Noise listeners. To access, visit the link below.
The Ultimate Testimonial Toolkit
We hope our conversation with Doren provides you with some solid takeaways on how you can collect more online reviews and turn that customer love into more revenue.
Enjoy!
Landing big contracts with hospitals or large corporations is not easy.
- Who should I talk to?
- How do I increase my chances of winning a contract?
- Should I invest 10 hours preparing and responding to the RFP that came to my inbox?
These are all questions that I've had and I'm certain you might have considered at some point.
Ed Bennett joins the Neon Noise podcast to share some tips and tricks for landing that big contract and establishing relationships with hospitals and large organizations. Ed is the former Director of Web and Communications for the University of Maryland Medical System and currently is a highly sought marketing consultant in the medical field.
His experience working on both sides of the relationship provides us with some helpful tips for anyone that wants to establish a relationship and with contracts with a large corporation or organization like a hospital.
Some of the items we discuss include:
- The benefits of working within a niche market
- Advice on establishing a relationship with a larger organization and becoming a preferred vendor
- Helpful tips on how to avoid that "red tape" that trips so many of us up
- The individuals within the organization you should focus on connecting with
- How to get the attention of a decision maker
- Best practices for responding to RFPs (Request for Proposal)
- Creative ways he is using social media to connect people
Sometimes you have to go to extremes to break through the noise and connect with people... the shock n' awe approach. For Brian and Jason of Good Fucking Design Advice, that was use of the F-word. Seems like a risky move but it works for them.
Brian Buirge and Jason Bacher operate the unorthodox design website called Good Fucking Design Advice where they share design advice and a lot more by incorporating profanity to connect with their audience. On the surface, it appears to be swearing for the sake of being bold and different but when you dive in to their story, there is so much more to learn.
Brian, the "good cop of GFDA", joins us on the Neon Noise podcast to discuss the following:
- How Good Fucking Design Advice was born and the realization their use of profanity was connecting to an audience
- The rules they established for operating the site
- Stories of how they approach risk and how they tackle failures
- How to take risks and creatively break through the marketing noise to be heard
- Some details about the book they are working on now
- What the GFDA pledge is and why it exists
- The current state of design in the online world and the future of design
We hope our conversation with Brian brings you a fresh perspective using a risky approach to cut through the noisy landscape and carve out a space to be heard.
"Experience is the thing you get the moment after you need it" ~ Brian Buirge and Jason Bacher
Enjoy!
Amazon is a juggernaut in the retail world and anyone can sell pretty much anything in their Marketplace. The trick is learning how to make money doing it. Can Amazon provide the global platform your business is looking for?
Stephen Somers and his business partner Robert Rickey, of Marketplace Superheroes streamlined the process of selling physical goods on Amazon. They turn an incredible profit by selling boring everyday products that hundreds of people buy.
Now, Stephen and Robert started mentoring others and turned it into a community called Marketplace Superheroes. It’s a roadmap of sorts on how to navigate the Amazon.com landscape. It has become the #1 place to learn how to build a sustainable, global Amazon empire.
Stephen stopped by the Neon Noise Podcast to share some secrets to selling your products on Amazon.
Stephen shares with us:
- Physical Products Are Key
- How Brick and Mortar stores CAN sell on Amazon
- See yourself as an investor, not a reseller
- How to Keep Your Products Simple
- Why Bundling Your Products Helps Your Bottom Line
- The Rule of 5
- (4) S Product Gauntlet
- Amazon’s Pay Per Click System
We hope our conversation with Stephen helps you gain insight on how to rethink your current selling strategy and how to enter the amazon.com marketplace successfully.
We are all in search for that one thing we can do to take our marketing to the next level.
What is that missing component that can be the game changer we are searching for?
Trevor Crane has the answer.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, 10 time best selling author Trevor Crane joins us to share how writing a book is the most powerful tool for you to use in your marketing.
I know what some of you might be saying, UGH...
I don't want to write a book. I don't have time to write a book. I don't even know where to start.
You are in luck and, chances are, these three barriers are quickly removed during our in-depth conversation with Trevor. He takes us through a fast-paced conversation riddled with examples and stories that helps to connect all the dots.
Some of the areas we dive into include:
- Why every business owner should write a book
- How to write the right book
- 4 key questions to ask yourself that provides clarity for writing your book
- Why you need a mentor
- How to get started writing your book
- A special offer for his upcoming event
- and much more!
Special Offer for Neon Noise Listeners Trevor is offering his book 'Big Money With Your book' for FREE to Neon Noise listeners. All you have to pay is shipping and handling. Get Your Free Copy of Big Money With Your Book
In addition to the free book, Trevor is also giving away FREE tickets to his upcoming conference in Tampa, Florida. Once you get the book, you can register and receive a free ticket for yourself and a guest.
We hope our conversation with Trevor will help you understand the reasons you should write your own book and use it as the keystone in your marketing efforts.
Enjoy!
We all need guidance no matter how good we are.
All the Greats had Great Coaches... think Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson.
While it might be easy to correct a noticeable performance issue, sometimes the mindset issues are more challenging to see. This is where a skilled coach can make the best one of the greats.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, we have Stan Way join us to talk about his experiences and how his coaching helps others achieve Peak Sales Results. He talks in depth about how most failures are a direct result from not only performance issues but also mindset issues.
Stan Way, the founder, and CEO of Peak Sales Results, helps sales professionals and business owners perfect their sales process. He uses scientifically based, proven concepts to help change your internal mindset first in order to then achieve success.
In this episode, Stan shares with us:
- Why it is important to correct your mindset prior to correcting your (insert whatever needs to be better)
- How he is different from business coaches, life coaches, or even other sales coaches
- What are some of the things that hold us back from achieving our professional and personal goals
- How he knows cold calling is not totally dead
- What is the imposter syndrome?
- How the right virtual sales team can take your business to the next level
- Why he suggests practicing and recording your sales pitches
- And much more...
We hope our conversation with Stan gives you insight on how you can elevate your performance to achieve peak results.
Enjoy!
One of my favorite quotes of all time is "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
This is something I read a long time ago and it stuck with me. I've had the privilege of seeing it come true on several occasions and it just makes sense. My hard work was recognized by others and it presented opportunities such as referrals for more work or invitations to speak in front of peers.
Becoming an industry expert is no doubt a fast-track for opening doors. As an expert, you are seen as the go-to person for advice by customers and colleagues. You are presented opportunities that others would never even know existed.
On this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Mark Schaefer joins us to talk about the opportunities that building your personal brand can present and the details of his newest book KNOWN: The Handbook For Building And Unleashing Your Personal Brand In The Digital Age. His book is the step-by-step blueprint to follow to become KNOWN as an expert in your industry.
Mark Schaefer is KNOWN as a best selling author, blogger, podcaster, keynote speaker, college professor, and facilitator of social media workshops. His experiences and "mindset of continuous and urgent learning" make him an undeniable force to recognize.
"10 Years from now, we'll look back at this time and wish we could go back. There has no better time in history to take advantage of this opportunity and build a personal brand than right now." ~ Mark Schaefer
Some of the topics we discuss include:
- Why his book KNOWN is different than the other 2,000 books for sale on Amazon about the topic of Personal Branding
- The 4 steps that everyone known in their industry took to get there
- The difference between being known and being famous
- Why now is the best time in history to become known
- Why people over exaggerate their fears of publishing content
- Several fantastic real life stories about helping people become known
- and much more...
We hope our conversation with Mark Schaefer will show you the value in becoming known in your industry and the opportunities it can create.
Enjoy!
Business owners and entrepreneurs are natural DIYers.
As we get a new venture going or try to continue growth of a venture that is beginning to gain traction, we search for ways to save money and turn to the internet for advice in lieu of spending money hiring a professional for expert advice. This holds true for legal advice too.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast we host Michael Prywes, a former film and internet producer who became an attorney, for a conversation about the various legal pitfalls a business owner/entrepreneur can face.
Michael is the author of The Gasp: How to Seize That "A-Ha!" Moment and Turn It Into a Winning Business (A Proud Lawyer Guide) which is a guide for creative entrepreneurs starting a business.
During our conversation, we discuss:
- Common mistakes made by start ups and growing businesses
- Questions to ask when hiring an attorney for legal advice
- How to approach attracting investors
- Pitfalls of hiring and firing employees
- How you should use sub-contractors
- Proper use of other's create work
- Things to be mindful of when marketing and advertising products and services
- and much more...
We hope our conversation with Michael provides some helpful nuggets you can apply in your own business.
Enjoy!
Podcasts are the new kid on the block gaining in popularity to both listeners and advertisers trying to market to these listeners.
Does podcast advertising work?
How is this different than radio?
Who do I contact to get a rate card?
We had lots of questions too so we contacted one of the best in the podcast advertising business to come on the Neon Noise podcast and tell us all about it.
Glenn Rubenstein is a writer, director, journalist, founder of Adoptor Media, and author of Podcast Advertising Works: How to Turn Engaged Audiences into Loyal Customers. As a veteran in a very young industry, he felt compelled to write this book to explain the basics that he would cover in just about every conversation he had with someone interested in learning more about podcast advertising.
In this episode, we cover:
- A little history on podcasts
- The difference between traditional radio and podcast advertising
- The power in finding the right podcast / influencer for your brand
- Which businesses are the best fit for advertising on podcasts
- Why podcast listeners are a great audience
- How podcast pricing works
- Best practices and expectations for podcast advertisers
- The benefits of placing podcast advertising through a podcast agency
- ... and much more
We hope our conversation with Glenn gives you a solid foundation of the podcast advertising world and helps you determine if podcast advertising is the medium to help you connect with new customers.
Enjoy.
What is the sound you hear when Microsoft Windows shuts down?
How about when SportsCenter comes on ESPN?
There are endless examples of recognizable audio that we instantly associate with particular companies or event actions we perform each day.
I had no idea how much Sonic Branding I was exposed to each and every day until David Meerman Scott explained it in detail.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, David Meerman Scott joins us for a value packed conversation about Sonic Branding and the New Rules of Marketing and PR. A highly sought speaker and author of 10 books, David is household name in the marketing world best know for The New Rules of Marketing and PR which recently came out with an amazing 6th Edition.
Here are some of the topics we discuss:
- The old rules of marketing vs. the new rules of marketing
- Making mindset shifts to overcome fear
- What newsjacking is and how to leverage it
- How to choose the right channel(s) for your marketing efforts
- Examples of sonic branding and how Davids' company "Signature Tones" helps create these for businesses
We hope our conversation with David Meerman Scott helps you understand Sonic Branding and the New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Have you ever attended a webinar?... Sure you have.
Did you know you were going to be pitched something at the end of that webinar... Sure you did.
Will you attend another webinar... I'm sure you will.
Using webinars as a marketing tool is incredibly effective. Most of us know that but few know how or where to get started. Fortunately, we were able to steal Corinna Essa for an hour and talk to her about how she is using webinar marketing to crush it.
Corinna Essa is the #1 international best-selling author of Money On Demand: The 16 Fastest Ways to Becoming a Millionaire. This book is the manual for how to leverage webinar marketing for getting more leads, subscribers, direct sales, and more for your business.
In addition to her book, she is also the founder of Social Media Worldwide which is a thriving social media management agency helping to construct and implement social media strategies for businesses all over the world.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Corinna's background and how she ended up where she is today
- The advantages to using webinars as a marketing tool
- How she uses webinars to grow revenue in her own businesses
- How she get people interested in attending and eventually purchase through the webinars
- What Social Media Worldwide does and how it can help
- The biggest opportunities in social media today
- And much more.
In addition to her book, she is also the founder of Social Media Worldwide which is a thriving social media management agency helping to construct and implement social media strategies for businesses all over the world.
We hope you enjoy our conversation with Corinna and gain some tips on how webinars can help you generate more revenue for your business.
What is your brand identity?
What impression do you portray to potential customers?
Do you make a good first impression?
Are you remembered or do you fade into the noise?
These are all questions we want to give positive answers to. We want to believe that we are the best in our trade - that we have a superior offering
to our competition. But are we biased? Are we fooling ourselves?
The story we craft and tell to customers is how we are initially judged by customers and the barometer they use to determine if we are a brand they want to engage with. The majority of of businesses fall short in this department and gravitate towards the same clichés that everyone uses such as "Customer Service is Our #1 Priority" or "We Take Your Business to the Next Level".
Gregory Diehl is the best-selling author of Brand Identity Breakthrough: How to Craft Your Company's Unique Story to Make Your Product Irresistible. He has spent the past decade studying businesses around the world and has unlocked the key to creating innovative brand identities and distinct business stories.
Gregory joins this episode of the Neon Noise podcast for an engaging conversation that includes:
- His interesting background and experiences gained from traveling the globe and living in over 50 different countries.
- What is Brand Identity?
- Why is it so important for a business/entrepreneur to create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
- Why is story telling so powerful?
- What is the secret to differentiating yourself from competitors?
We hope our conversation with Gregory will help you craft your Brand Identity, Unique Selling Proposition, and story that will make your business and products irresistible to customers.
Enjoy!
Social Media is now a big part of the marketing mix.
If you are still trying to figure out how to leverage this new and constantly changing medium, you're not alone.
Many entrepreneurs are searching for how they can use social media platforms and take advantage of the mountains of data they have on each of their users to position their businesses in front of the right customers.
There are countless social media "gurus" out there telling you about the blueprint they created to yield a gazillion dollars spending $0 of their money. While this may seem great and close to that magical marketing pill we all seek, it's logical to understand there are some basics and best practices that will be easier to duplicate and is more sustainable.
Enter Jason Falls.
Jason Falls is one of the most widely read and respected voices in the digital marketing and social media industries. A social listening and analytics innovator, he spends much of his time analyzing online conversations for consumer insights for clients of the Conversation Research Institute and consulting on broad digital marketing issues for a number of B2C and B2B clients. Falls shares his no-nonsense ideas regularly at ConversationResearchInstitute.com and JasonFalls.com. He loves Louisville, sports and bourbon.
Some of the areas we explore with Jason in this episode of the Neon Noise podcast include:
- How his background led him to becoming an early adoptor of social media in the mid-2000s and now an industry expert and respected voice
- The two primary paths you can take with each marketing campaign
- Stories about early social media campaigns with large brands such as Maker's Mark
- How big brands are using social media to amplify their advertising campaigns
- The future of email as a marketing tool
- The core components of a successful email
- And much more...
We hope you enjoy our conversationw with Jason and his no BS approach to social media and marketing.
We want to have impact in with everything we do.
As entrepreneurs, we want to leverage our time and get the best results from the effort we put into each action we perform. At times, we find ourselves scratching our heads wondering what we can do to better connect with people or project ourselves to achieve the desired end result.
Tim Furlong joins the Neon Noise podcast to share how to make small changes (quarter turns) to get big results. He is the author of Quarter Turns: Small Shifts That Have A Big Impact, a master public speaker, business coach, and has a new online course to help you become a better presenter / speaker.
In this episode, Tim covers:
- Why New Years' Resolutions do not work
- How to leverage your subconscious
- The power of being clear on what you want
- The importance of becoming clear about your brand and core values
- Becoming a better communicator
- How your presentation should be like a rock concert
- The most common presentation mistakes
We hope our conversation with Tim will help you understand how small changes can make big impacts in your professional and personal lives.
Warning: This episode does contain vulgar language.
Excuses are not welcome to Ryan Stewman. They aren't an option.
Ryan's story is an unbelievable tale riddled with adversity. At a very early age, he began to understand the world of sales and quickly found success. These skills were used in a variety of ways over the years. Some of these ways led to prison time, others to being a top producer in the mortgage industry in 2009.
Ryan now spends his time helping others learn his sales techniques to completely transform their lives and businesses.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Ryan's interesting background and the events that led him to where he is today.
- How he pushed through the upper limits that stop so many.
- The effectiveness of cold calling in today's environment.
- Why he creates so much content.
- How he gets so much done each and every day.
We hope our conversation with Ryan will help you put those excuses in check and break through those upper limits.
Enjoy!
In the Fall of 2008, Marcus Sheridan was fighting to keep his swimming pool company alive.
To save his company, knew he needed to get more traffic and leads to his website.
He began blogging about all the most common questions he heard from customers. This lead to his company having the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world. Single blog posts would bring in over $1 Million in revenue. This led to amazing growth for his swimming pool company and the birth of Sales Lion, his marketing and sales consultancy and speaking agency.
In this episode, Marcus talks about:
- How the economic fall in 2008 became a major pivot point for him.
- The changes in consumer behavior and its impact on marketing and sales.
- What the Ostrich Marketing Strategy is.
- How companies like Uber, Netflix, and Tesla can have success disrupting markets that no one though could be penetrated.
- The 5 types of content subjects that have the greatest impact.
- ... and much more.
We hope this energized interview with Marcus Sheridan gets you blood pumping and wheels turning about how you can gain so much by simply answering the questions your customers are asking.
"If you build it, they will not come..." is a quote from Wayne Mullins eluding to the idea that simply building a website will lead to a flood of online leads and more traffic than one business could handle. There is so much that you need to focus on when building a website and even more once you're done. To think otherwise is foolish.
Wayne Mullins of Ugly Mug Marketing joins us for this episode of the Neon Noise podcast to dive into several different areas about improvements to a website that will yield results. Some of the things Wayne shares with us include:
- How David Ogilvy helped him come up with his company name
- Why entrepreneurs are their own worst enemies when it comes to marketing
- Why simply having a website is not enough
- Why we need to be laser focused about our actions
- Thoughts on copying the competition
- The importance of video and story telling in marketing
- and much more
We hope our conversation with Wayne will help you with improvements to your website.
As advancements in technology continue to accelerate faster than ever, the question of when technology turns on us and the robots take over seems more likely than when Skynet was first presented to us in 1984.
In the meantime, we had Magnus Unemyr on the Neon Noise podcast to share with us how marketers are using artificial intelligence and robots to automate processes giving small and medium-sized businesses the ability to compete on a global scale.
Magnus is an inbound marketing and automation specialist, non-fiction author, and speaker. Over the past couple years, his focus has been creating state-of-the-art marketing strategies using some of the world's most advanced automation tools.
Please enjoy our conversation with Magnus Unemyr.
David Bradley is a digital marketing strategy expert, best-selling author, consultant and coach. David has worked with venture-funded startups and 9-figure corporations to help them develop and execute digital strategies.
He is the author of Getting Digital Marketing Right, a simplified process for business growth, goal attainment, and powerful marketing.
In this episode, we talk about:
- The importance of data collection in the planning stages
- Focusing on your buyer personas
- The various stages of the buyer's journey
- Where to invest time and money to get the biggest impact in your marketing
- How to use split testing to save you from making a bad hiring decision
Enjoy!
There are over 1 Billion websites on the internet right now. That equates to a lot of other companies vying for the same consumer attention you are. Your first step is making sure your website is top-notch and up-to-date. This does not have to be a daunting task and our guest for this episode wrote the book on this... literally.
Greta Rose Zagarino is the founder of Greta Rose Agency and author of How to Manage Your Own Website which is a survival guide providing all the necessary tools for small business owners to thrive online. Her work has been featured on NBC Nightly News, Oprah.com, MarieTV, Huffington Post, theSkimm, TED talks and more.
In this episode, Great Rose answers the following:
- Who would benefit most from reading her book How to Manage Your Own Website?
- What are common mistakes made during and after the construction of a company website?
- What's the next big thing that marketers should be paying attention to?
- What are some current buzz items on their way out?
- What is the #1 recommended marketing strategy for the time-strapped business owner?
We hope our conversation with Greta Rose helps you better understand how you can gain control of your website and make it stand out in that vast sea of over 1 Billion sites.
Enjoy.
Being a leader can be challenging. You want to be Mel Gibson in Braveheart but you fear you might come off like Bill Lumbergh from Office Space. This can be especially challenging if you have just found yourself in a leadership position for the very first time.
In this Episode of the Neon Noise Podcast, we are joined by Candela Iglesias. Candela is the author of "Build Your Dream Team: Leadership based on a passion for people" which is a must-read for anyone that manages a team of any shape or size.
Author and public speaker, John G. Miller, visits Neon Noise to talk about the myths of accountability and how to properly approach being accountable. In this episode, we cover the following:
- What does QBQ stand for?
- The 2 myths of accountability
- The problems that QBQ solves
- Looking at accountability as a parent
- Why Dave Ramsey makes John's book required reading for his staff
- ... and much more
Join us for this fun conversation and begin to understand the importance of accountability in your professional and personal life and how to make changes that will have a big impact.
Enjoy.
Mike Kawula from SocialQuant makes a guest appearance on Neon Noise to share secrets to getting the most out of Twitter as a lead generator for your business.
Simply writing a book can give you immediate authority. Imagine what becoming an Amazon Bestselling author could do for your credibility!
If this sounds intriguing and the idea of writing a book scares the you know what out of you, then you have to listen to this conversation with seven time #1 Amazon Bestselling author Gundi Gabrielle in this episode of the Neon Noise podcast.
Gundi dives into some of the secrets in her book Kindle Bestseller Publishing: Write a Bestseller in 30 Days. She also answers:
- How becoming an Amazon Bestselling author has impacted her life
- Why you should heavily consider writing a book - even if you are not a writer
- The biggest mistakes authors make
- What steps you need to take to become an Amazon Bestseller
Enjoy!
Your website's bounce rate is one of the most important metrics to understanding how well your website content is connecting to your site visitors. A high bounce rate means most coming to your website are leaving without visiting a second (or more) page. Obviously, we want to correct this.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, we cover 8 simple ways you can improve your website bounce rate and get all of that hard earned website traffic to engage deeper into the content within your website learning all the reasons then need to do business with you.
Blogging is an important part of any marketing strategy. Key benefits of creating and publishing awesome blog posts include positioning you as an expert in your industry, increasing your exposure on the search engines to attract more traffic, and keeping you on top of your game.
The act of writing the blog post can sometimes seem daunting.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, we go over a 10 Step Blueprint for Writing Awesome Blog posts. We hope this framework will give you an easy to follow outline that will get you on your way to creating remarkable blog posts in no time.
John Lee Dumas (also referred to as JLD) is the host of EOFire, an award-winning Podcast where he interviews today’s most successful Entrepreneurs.
JLD has grown EOFire into a multi-million dollar a year business with over 1600 interviews and 1.5 million monthly listens.
He’s the author of The Freedom Journal and The Mastery Journal, two of the most funded publishing campaigns of all time on Kickstarter.
Enjoy!
There is a lot of power in building an audience. A collective group of people that want to follow you. They want to engage with you and your brand. They want to hear from you again in the future. They value what you say. Building an audience has become one of the most powerful things that you, as a business owner, can do.
So how do you go about building that audience and how big does it need to be? We answer these questions in the middle of a thunderstorm. Enjoy!
Looking for ways to increase the conversion rate of your marketing campaign? Maybe your landing page is the problem. Make sure the traffic that you are working so hard for is being driven to a landing page that will help you convert rather than resulting in a quick exit.
In this episode of the Neon Noise Podcast, we outline some of the top mistakes made on landing pages that end up killing your conversion rate.
When you go on a first date, you usually take a shower, brush your teeth, maybe wear a new outfit, and try to make your best first impression. You should give your website the same treatment.
The first visit to your website is often times a make or break situation. You attract a new visitor to your website and the success you have in converting them into a lead depends on how good their experience is.
In this episode, we go over 8 things you can do to make your website better. To make it look, function, and feel better to your site visitors so you get a chance at a second date or even more.
Why should someone choose to do business with you? What's the reason they choose you over the competition?
There are lots of different options available to them. Some are inferior, some are superior, some are very comparable. Since you don't get the chance to have a one-on-one conversation with every site visitor, you need to set ourselves apart from the beginning.
You must quickly and clearly define the value you provide and how your business is the solution they are seeking. This is done by presenting your value proposition.
Driving traffic to your website is important. You need an audience to listen to your story. The real challenge comes with trying to get these visitors to turn into customers after they hear your initial story. The majority of your website visitors are not ready to buy at that very moment. So how do you leverage this visitor? What can you provide the person that is days or months away from the actual purchase date to make sure you are an option they consider. Converting these site visitors into leads is the key.
In this episode, Justin and Ken discuss 8 different types of lead magnets and how you can use them on your website to convert more leads. These lead magnets vary in size, ease of implementation, and placement in the buyer's journey. We hope our conversation sets your wheels in motion so you can figure out what lead magnets will best resonate with your buyer personas and increase the number of website visitors that convert into leads.
Building an email list is such an important component of your overall marketing strategy. Gaining permission to continue to connect with someone opens so many more opportunities to build credibility and be present when they are ready to purchase.
One common hurdle in this process it growing that email list. How do we get people to opt-in and subscribe to our email lists?
In this episode of the Neon Noise Podcast, we explore 9 different ways that you can grow your email list. These are overly complicated strategies either. Several of these are tactics that you could implement today.
Cold Outreach Emails is an email sent to someone that you have no relationship with. This is someone that you’ve identified as a target prospect and you are trying to connect with them to… build rapport, get them to visit a landing page on your website, or schedule a meeting. It’s the digital version of picking up the phone and doing an old-fashioned cold call.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Justin and Ken explore Cold Emails and how they can be used to enhance your sales efforts.
Enjoy!
The biggest impact the smartphone has made is no doubt connecting everyone to the internet no matter where (for the most part) they are located. The second biggest impact would have to be mobile apps. e also have mini-computers that fit in the palm of our hands that we can run
We mini-computers that fit in the palm of our hands that we can run all kinds of apps that do just about everything. There are millions of apps that do just about everything available for download.
In this Episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Justin and Ken share the top mobile apps they use every day and could not live without.
Enjoy.
Resources: SnapSeed
Photo Editing App
iTunes Download
Google Play Download
Evernote
Note Taking, Document Organization App
Website
SlackTeam Collaboration
Website
Lose It
Weight Loss App
Website
HubSpot CRM
Customer Relationship Management App
Website
Pocket
Content Aggregator App
Website
Teamwork
Project Management App
Website
In Episode 14 of the Neon Noise, Justin and Ken answer 10 common questions they get asked over and over again. Some of these questions include:
- How often should I blog?
- Should I use Facebook to market my business?
- What is the best paid search strategy to implement with a limited budget?
These are likely questions you've asked yourself or may provide some valuable tips to something you haven't yet pondered. Enjoy!
Additional Resources How to Link: Tips for Taking Photos with iPhone
Stock Photo Sites: iStock Photo, Shutterstock, BigStockPhoto
Stat on Sales Outreach Frequency: It Takes 8 Attempts to Reach a Prospect
"Marketing Budgets" is an interesting topic to talk about with SMBs. Some have one, most don't. Those that do have one aren't sure they are getting the most out of it.
In Episode 13 of the Neon Noise Podcast, we dig into the topic of Marketing Budgets and share some insights that will get everyone a little more comfortable with thinking and talking about their marketing budgets.
In this episode of the Neon Noise Podcast, Justin and I do something a little different.
We conduct a live review of a website we find on Google.
Why? It’s simple. We wanted to provide a real live sample of what we would go through with someone who contacted us asking for a Free Marketing Analysis.
So, we conducted a Google search and picked a website we thought was pretty nice to start with. Now bear in mind, the website we review is not someone we’ve ever talked to. The items we suggest may not align with their particular strategies… perhaps they do not need leads and have all the business they need. That is a real possibility. We simply used the site as a sample subject.
What we do is not the entire marketing analysis but does include reviewing a website (that is pretty nice to start with) and providing suggestions on how they could make improvements.
In this exercise, we cover the things we think are particularly good about the website, the existing areas that could be improved on, and things that are missing that could help generate more traffic or convert more leads.
We don’t get into anything outside the walls of the website itself, their goals, objections, and challenges, and marketing strategies for things like SEO, social, paid search, traditional marketing, and lead management.
We hope this live review of a random website will provide you with some useful tips you could use to enhance your website.
Additional Resources Link: Oakley Builders Website
Link: Free Marketing Analysis from Neon Goldfish
Doug Dibert joins us to cover the basics of video production and video marketing. We discuss the future of video marketing, tips for the 'Do-it-Yourselfers', the video production process, and what to look for when hiring a video production company.
In this episode, we cover:
- The future of video in marketing
- Tips for the do it yourself-ers out there
- The video production process
- What to look for when hiring a video production company
Additional Resources Link: Crossing River Studios
Link: Success After Film School
Link: Rode On-Camera Microphone
Link: Pinnacle Studio
Website Traffic is the fuel that makes the car go. The relevant traffic we can create the more leads we can generate leading to more new business. What can you do to generate more website traffic? This episode covers 13 practical and achievable ways you can attract more relevant traffic to your website.
Additional Resources Link: Website Traffic Calculator
Link: On-Page SEO Checklist
Rachael Plummer from HubSpot joins us to explore the inbound sales process. We dig into the biggest sales challenges that businesses face today, what happened to the traditional sales process, what inbound sales is, the four stages of the inbound sales methodology, and some actionable items you can do today to help you re-align your selling efforts with inbound sales.
Additional Resources Link: FREE Hubspot CRM
Ken and Justin discuss website analytics and important conversion benchmarks. They touch on the different source website visitors originate along with general averages of the visitors that should turn into leads and the number of those leads that should turn into customers. They also touch on a few tools to help you better understand what type of impact your website visitors and lead generation can have on your business revenue.
Additional Resources Link: Website Traffic Calculator
Link: Google Analytics Infographic
Content is the building blocks of the internet, there's is a staggering amount of content available and being created and published on the internet every day. Just creating content alone is the bare minimum needed for business' to be part of the 'game'. To win this game you must create remarkable content. In this episode, we cover why business' create content, why the content they create needs to be remarkable, what exactly remarkable content is, and how you go about creating remarkable content. It's time to be excited about the opportunities that great content can present for your business.
Additional Resources Link: Buyer Persona Template Download
Link: How to Create 10x Content
I have little doubt that if I presented you with a magical pill that would duplicate YOU so you could get more done, you’d be interested in that. Right?
Well, I have the next best thing. I’m talking about taking those same tasks you perform over and over again and systemizing them. I’m talking about automating your processes to remove the human error. I’m talking about helping you save the most valuable resource in your business... TIME.
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Justin and dive into the world of email sequences.
Additional Resources Link: Email Sequence Software Comparison Chart
Link: Slidedeck - Using Email Sequences to Create Your Marketing and Sales Machine
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Justin and I explore customer relationship management software, more commonly known as a CRM. We hope our conversation gives you a solid understanding of CRMs, the reason you should use one, features to consider when looking for a good CRM, and some actionable steps you can take to get started today.
Additional Resources Link: FREE Hubspot CRM
Marketing can be tricky, and simply getting any response should not be considered a win. Your goal should be getting a response from the most ideal customer that you can think of. Furthermore, having them feel educated and more sales ready when they initially contact you is even better. In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Justin and I discuss buyer personas. What they are, why you should take the time to create one or more for your marketing and sales efforts? We hope our conversation gives you a solid understanding of buyer personas, and the information you need to get started on creating your own. Enjoy.
Additional Resources Link: Buyer Persona Template Download
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, Justin and I discuss the differences between inbound marketing and outbound marketing or more commonly known as traditional marketing. Inbound marketing is a newer term that's gained tremendous popularity in the marketing world over the past several years and we don't see a slow-down in sight. Understanding inbound marketing is easiest done when compared to outbound or traditional marketing.
Additional Resources Link: Traffic Evaporation
In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, we explore something called, 'Website Traffic Evaporation.' Website traffic evaporation is tangible website traffic that leaves your website without a trace, likely forever. No phone call, no form submission, no demo request, nothing. Its likely cause is the lack of direction for the website visitor, oftentimes coupled with the misconception that every visitor to your website is ready to buy your services today. We hope our conversation will help you figure out ways to convert more of that website traffic you worked so hard to attract into leads and customers.
Additional Resources Link: Website Traffic Evaporation
In this episode of the NeonNoise podcast, Justin and I explore specific questions you should ask when hiring a website designer. This is often challenging for a lot of business owners because they just don’t know the right questions to ask or what to look for to help them weed out the bad from the good, and the good from the exceptional. We dive into areas that you should focus on and make sure you can tell the difference between someone’s going to give you the website you envision, rather than someone who might turn your project into a nightmare.