3 Reasons You Should Join Our Education Program in the New Year to Enhance Your Small Business Marketing

3 Reasons You Should Join Our Education Program in the New Year to Enhance Your Small Business Marketing

by | Oct 30, 2020 | General, Insights

3 Reasons You Should Join Our Education Program in the New Year to Enhance Your Small Business Marketing

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When we launched the pilot program for the &Marketing Education Program a few weeks ago, we knew the challenges “one person marketing departments” face every day. When it comes to impactful small business marketing, no individual person has the time or training to master every task or monitor all of the changing trends.. There are just too many things to do that fall under the category of “marketing” – from setting a clear strategy, to sharpening your messaging and improving your website, to creating and distributing content and measuring results, to managing social media, to paid digital advertising — the list goes on.. Large companies have individual specialists to fill each of these areas. But marketers at smaller companies and solopreneurs are forced to do all of these things themselves, in addition to the endless list of other responsibilities. And it’s usually cost-prohibitive to work with traditional marketing agencies. That’s why we created our Education Program! Our goal was to test a program over 7 weeks to equip solopreneurs and one-person marketing departments with the tools, coaching, and accountability to grow your business and reach their goals. 4 of the 7 weeks have been completed, and we’ve gotten a sense of the biggest benefits of the program so far.

How Our Education Program is Enhancing Our Members’ Small Business Marketing Efforts

1) Real humans appreciate support from real human experts In our research, many of these one person marketing departments said they usually either tapped their network for marketing advice, called in a favor, or Googled and hoped for the best. Overwhelmingly, program participants appreciate the ‘human touch’ of our approach, which is a series of courses that build upon themselves and are supported by a community platform for Q&A.
The ideas/feedback you provide is beyond helpful, clear experts in your craft but able to explain and coach in a non-jargon filled way. The “real human” advantage you’re providing vs chatbot responses to support or pre-recorded sessions
- & Marketing Education Program Member

This kind of comment makes our hearts leap, as this is why we started the program in the first place! Our webinars are recorded live at the same time weekly, so we encourage live attendance and live questions on the materials. One feature members seem to appreciate is the “no dumb questions” section where we answer questions to clarify and simplify.
2) The program is well-rounded One of the most important parts of our course design was to take members through a ‘curriculum’ that builds upon itself in a holistic manner. First, we work to clarify their marketing strategy & messaging. Then we provide tools to upgrade their marketing execution elements (content, social, web, email, etc). These are tried and true foundations of small business marketing, with the unique &Marketing touch.
This educational series delivers a well rounded curriculum that assists small businesses, solopreneurs and one-person marketing departments to grasp, utilize and launch digital marketing programs into their daily activities.
- & Marketing Education Program Member

We originally provided the webinar recordings for members who could not attend live, but received feedback that many went back to watch the recordings again to better understand the materials and directly apply the learnings to their business. We also routinely get questions and comments in our forum and by email, which we aim to review and respond to within one business day.
3) We offer practical takeaways that are immediately actionable. We know that adult learners want to know the materials they are receiving are grounded in the right theory, but they can’t be bogged down by “too much fluff.” So, we strived to strike a balance between abstract principles and practical application. We’re elated to learn that many have found this program to be both well-rounded and practical.
The information is really valuable and has had an immediate impact on my marketing message.

Also, our research showed that other marketing programs were either generic in nature or didn’t focus on any practical application— especially for those with a focus on small business marketing.
Compared to the countless other Marketing Classes and Workshops I’ve invested my time in, I feel like this one has had me actually putting in the work. I feel like I am understanding tactics more and is specific to my business.
- &Marketing Education Program Member

What’s next? Making Improvements to the Pilot

We also received candid feedback that we were able to immediately improve a few areas for the remainder of the pilot:

  • Streamline and simplify the points of interaction so people can find resources quickly
  • Increase opportunities to network and meet other members.
Therefore, we created a Community Hour each week where members can join to network and meet each other, ask questions related to the course, or discuss any other timely topics on everyone’s mind. Head to our course description page for more background on what the pilot we’re currently running entails!

Learn more

Preparing for a full launch in January 2021

As we look forward to our full program launch in January, we’re creating a waiting list for one person marketers. If you or someone you know wants more information as it becomes available, please fill out the information below and we will be in touch!

SIGN UP FOR OUR WAITING LIST FOR JANUARY
About the Authors

Rajat “Raj” Kapur is the founder and Managing Director of &Marketing. He strives to provide growing businesses of all sizes unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj brings two decades of professional experience in marketing, sales, and strategy development experience spanning B2B and B2C Fortune 50, mid-sized, and startups.

About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

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Why You Need to Respond to Every Customer Review

Why You Need to Respond to Every Customer Review

by | Oct 23, 2020 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Why You Need to Respond to Every Customer Review

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Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have taken the first step in executing a strategy to grow your customer reviews. You start receiving emails for your Google My Business (GMB) account that customers are raving about your work. That’s great! Though you may want to take a moment to celebrate, don’t forget the most important step:

RESPOND TO THE REVIEW!

The importance and benefits of responding to customer reviews are endless, so let’s just focus on a few key reasons you need to respond to every customer review.

Why You Need To Respond to Every Customer Review

1. Encourage Customer Loyalty

You have a happy customer who has taken the time out of their own day to rave about your business. Show them how much you value them and encourage them to return – this drives customer loyalty and builds your base.

The review response can be short and simple, but you do need to respond and preferably within 24-48hrs

Bonus Tip: Refer to the customer by name in the response

2. Influence Future Customers

When perspective clients read reviews, they are looking for an outside opinion of your business and to see how you interact with customers. Seeing that you are interactive and appreciate your customers provides additional social validation. When you respond to every customer review, you show them that you are the business they want.

Think of your customer reviews as free radio advertisements – you want them to highlight you in the best way possible!

3. Directly Affect 15.44% of SEO Results

In Moz’s 2018 yearly study on Local SEO factors, they stated that Google has confirmed reviews are the 3rd highest contributor to your local SEO results, contributing 15.44% to your local search ranking. This is not only the number of reviews, but the quality and action each review has. 

This means Google is watching to see if other customers are “liking” this review, whether or not you are you responding to it, what keywords are mentioned, and so on.

4. Indirectly Affect 9.56% of SEO Results

Another contributor to your local search rankings is the Behavioral Signals Google tracks. A large piece of that is your click-through-rate, which can be positively affected when your reviews drive customers to your site to learn more. 

Don’t let negative reviews push customers away. Have your positive reviews pull them in to learn more!

5. Flips Negative Customers

So many businesses avoid asking for reviews because they are scared of receiving a negative one – which is quite possibly the worst excuse. You are a thriving business because you have tons of happy customers.

Even if you do have one upset person, it is not to be feared! Instead, view this as an opportunity to learn about how to improve and show other customers how you handle difficult situations.

Responding in a professional and timely manner to a negative review can have a positive influence on others by showing that you value your customer’s feedback and are a professional business person.

Additionally, studies found that 33% of customers who posted a negative review but received a response within 48hrs submitted a follow-up positive review!

Reviews are a necessity for any business to thrive in 2020 and beyond, but they can be overwhelming. You have a business to run, personal life to live, you don’t need another item added to your to-do list, which is why we’re here!

We want to help your business succeed by driving results without the work for you.

To learn more about how responding to customer reviews can help you grow your business, fill out the form below.

About the Author

Chelsea Craig, founder of Rhino Reviews, works with businesses to protect their online reputation by growing and leveraging their online customer reviews. They offer the only fully managed review generation and reputation management program on the market. Every client receives a unique strategy based on their current reputation, where they wish to go, and headwinds they might encounter. They work to improve both the external (Google, Yelp, FB, etc) as well as internal (Glassdoor, Indeed) reputation and take businesses from a reactive to a proactive position.

Chelsea has worked with over 80 businesses in all industries, including luxury construction, digital, energy, property management, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and education, to help build or repair their online reputation. She is both Google and Reputation Management certified and is a coach for Mike Volkin’s Masterclass, teaching how to leverage testimonials to accelerate your business growth. She has also had the opportunity to be a guest on a variety of shows discussing industry changes, small business strategy, and how to build your reputation in the digital space.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

Do Reviews Affect Local SEO?

Do Reviews Affect Local SEO?

by | Oct 7, 2020 | Business Intelligence & Analytics, Insights

Do Reviews Affect Local SEO?

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Do reviews help drive traffic to your site and increase local SEO results? A simple and important question. The short answer: Yes, they do.

For a longer explanation how, keep reading…

As a local business, you are always looking for ways to reach customers in their moment of need and win their business (and money).

Whether you place a funny sign outside your shop, offer free events at night, or give away puppies – you are ultimately looking for a way to increase foot traffic in your store – and the internet is no different.
People know reviews help influence customers when they are looking at your listening but that is a very small piece of the overall picture and how they help your business.

According to Moz’s 2020 Local SEO Industry Report, “Across the board, marketers agree that reviews impact Google’s local rankings.” They go on to explain that “reviews shape reputation, impact conversions, and drive both customer service and sales.”

As a business looking to not only survive, but THRIVE in 2020 reviews are “a force that cannot be ignored when crafting a modern local strategy.” Besides the obvious advantages a positive image/reputation provides, there are legitimate and trackable effects that reviews have on your business as well.

1. Reviews increase CTR on your website, which in turn helps increase your SEO rankings

In a study performed by Yotpo they compared a local businesses’ online presence over a controlled period of time.

The first time period the business averaged around 5,500 organic pageviews/month. The second period of time the business averaged around 8,000 organic page views a month!
The only difference they made?

Adding Customer reviews onto the business Google Listing.

2. Customer Reviews Increase Page Rankings through social validation

The internet is saturated and it can be difficult for a small business to stand out and claim space online. One way to dominate your local SEO results though is by growing your customer reviews.

As Leverage Marketing explains, “Online customer reviews can be a strong signal to search engines that communicates trustworthiness and authority. In an era in which competition has gotten tougher for small businesses on the web, managing online reviews is a way to differentiate your business and raise your visibility in the search results”

3. Keywords in your Customer Reviews Drive SEO

We all know to monitor our keywords on our website to help drive traffic, but did you know that the keywords in your customer reviews affect your Local SEO results?

No, you cannot control what your customers write in their reviews – but you can control if you comment and thank them! And when you’re responding to those reviews, you can control the keywords that YOU use.

4. Google rewards for Social Validation

Google places more value in what your customers are saying than what you say. Just as we listen to other people’s opinions, so does Google.

For example, if you have a headline on your main page that reads “Best Roofer in PA” that’s great. But Google probably isn’t going to show you first when someone searches for roofers. But, imagine you have 5 customer reviews that say you are “the best roofer in PA”— now that is influence.

Google scrolls those reviews for keywords and puts more weight on them when determining your ranking for SEO results.

So, do reviews affect local SEO?

What does this all really mean?

Every year Google and other sites place more emphasis on customer reviews. Advertising and marketing is changing and it looks like the new strategy of social validation is here to stay.

Growing your reviews doesn’t have to be hard and does not mean extra work for you. Our team is here to help you with positive reviews that affect your local SEO!

About the Author

Chelsea Craig, founder of Rhino Reviews, works with businesses to protect their online reputation by growing and leveraging their online customer reviews. They offer the only fully managed review generation and reputation management program on the market. Every client receives a unique strategy based on their current reputation, where they wish to go, and headwinds they might encounter. They work to improve both the external (Google, Yelp, FB, etc) as well as internal (Glassdoor, Indeed) reputation and take businesses from a reactive to a proactive position.

Chelsea has worked with over 80 businesses in all industries, including luxury construction, digital, energy, property management, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and education, to help build or repair their online reputation. She is both Google and Reputation Management certified and is a coach for Mike Volkin’s Masterclass, teaching how to leverage testimonials to accelerate your business growth. She has also had the opportunity to be a guest on a variety of shows discussing industry changes, small business strategy, and how to build your reputation in the digital space.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

2 Big Reasons Not to Pay an Agency Based on Percentage Spend

2 Big Reasons Not to Pay an Agency Based on Percentage Spend

by | Oct 5, 2020 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

2 Big Reasons Not to Pay an Agency Based on Percentage Spend

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Agencies use all kinds of methods to determine how much to charge your business for managing your paid advertising. One of these methods is to take a certain percentage of what you’re spending on those ads, like a commission. There are lots of reasons why this approach doesn’t pan out well for growing businesses like yours, but let’s break two of the biggest reasons down together.

Why You Should Stop Paying Your Ad Agency Based on Percentage Spend

Reason #1: The Car Salesmen 

Picture this: you walk into a car dealership. You know exactly what you want and how much you’re willing to spend on that perfect little mini-van you’ve been dreaming about for years. Okay, maybe not a dream minivan. But you’re ready to buy and you’re excited!

Wait! You’ve got that one nerve-wracking hurdle to get past before you put those keys in that ignition and sign on the dotted line.

The car salesmen.

But why? Why is he the obstacle and not the trusted guide?

We know why. There is an inherent conflict of interest. He wants to make money, and the more money YOU SPEND, the more HE MAKES. Put the kindest, most honest salesperson in that position, and they are still going to benefit from talking you into spending more money on that car.

The same applies when you are paying your ad agency based on the percentage of spend. It confuses the motivations and the intentions. Is the agency suggesting you increase spend because it’s the best move for you, or because it’s the best move for them?

Reason #2: Everything is Not Created Equal

Consider the following:

Search Keyword Daily budget Potential cost per click Number of keywords or variances
rehab $300 $50 <20
blouses $300 $1.60 >300

At the time this blog was written, a company showing an ad for the search “rehab” can easily pay up to $50 for each click. They will more than likely need a pretty hefty budget to gain valuable conversions. However, their account structure may be incredibly simple and easy to manage, as they only offer one service. There isn’t a lot of variety to what they’re offering. In this case, a high budget does not necessarily mean a cumbersome account to manage.

On the other hand, a company selling blouses online with the exact same daily budget may require 4 times the work. There are endless combinations of sizes, colors, and styles, which may make the account more complex, therefore requiring more frequent account management.

So why would an agency charge them the same fees for managing their accounts?

Simple. They shouldn’t.

What Should You Be Paying Your Ad Agency? 

If your ad agency is asking you to pay by the percentage of ad spend, maybe it’s time to put some other options on the table.

As you move forward, keep the following things in mind.

You should be fairly paying your agency for their expertise in the area, the work they’ll be putting into improving account performance, and the returns they get for your company. Once you’ve considered these critical factors, navigating a fair agreement is just around the corner!

If you’re interested in knowing more about &Marketing’s approach to paid advertising as an outsourced marketing department, fill out the form below.

&Marketing leverages the power of Business Intelligence to gain insights on paid search performance and help our clients make informed decisions. To learn more about our BI and analytics process, download our eBook

About the Author

Marketing Director Sydney Thomas helps clients create, implement, and optimize campaigns in their Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts. While ensuring that clients are getting the most out of their pay-per-click accounts, she also supports creating websites to improve SEO and supports paid social network advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Webinar Recap: How to Measure Your Marketing Performance to Prepare for 2021 – With Rajat Kapur, Paul Ferguson, and Eric Luftig

Webinar Recap: How to Measure Your Marketing Performance to Prepare for 2021 – With Rajat Kapur, Paul Ferguson, and Eric Luftig

by | Oct 1, 2020 | COVID Marketing, Events, Marketing Planning & Execution

Webinar Recap: How to Measure Your Marketing Performance to Prepare for 2021 – With Rajat Kapur, Paul Ferguson, and Eric Luftig

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With the end of the year quickly approaching, it’s time for businesses to evaluate 2020 performance metrics.

While measuring performance against sales goals is an important practice, assessing your company’s marketing efforts takes it a step further and can have a significant effect on your bottom line.

Considering the impact the pandemic has had on industries across the globe and understanding your market and how it has shifted are both key to knowing where to invest your marketing time and dollars in the coming year.

To get you started on the right foot in planning the year ahead, &Marketing hosted a discussion-based webinar lead by &Marketing’s Managing Director, Rajat Kapur, Paul Ferguson, resident Business Intelligence and analytics expert, and &Marketing Advisor Eric Luftig walked us through best practices for aligning your marketing strategy with tactical efforts to drive business growth.

During the webinar, we learned:

  • How to use data and analytics to get a snapshot of your market, where it is heading and how successfully you can impenetrate that market
  • How to use data to drive strategy, increase efficiency, and align to business results
  • Best practices for building brand awareness
  • How to evaluate which marketing channels are driving results and make informed decisions based on performance

Couldn’t make the live webinar? No problem! Watch the recording to learn how to set your marketing up for success in 2021.

WATCH THE WEBINAR

Not sure where to start? How about planning your social media content strategy for Q1 of 2021 with the help of our Social Media Playbook?

DOWNLOAD OUR 2021 SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYBOOK
About Rajat Kapur

As the Founder and Managing Director of &Marketing, Raj strives to provide growing businesses of all sizes unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj brings two decades of professional experience in marketing, sales, and strategy development experience spanning B2B and B2C Fortune 50, mid-sized, and startups.

About Paul Ferguson

Director of Business Intelligence & Marketing, Paul Ferguson helps clients develop fully integrated marketing solutions driven by data that make impressions and drive results. Whether it be design-oriented campaigns or digital market execution, Paul skillfully creates strategies to effectively reach client’s desired audiences. With over 15 years of B2B Marketing experience for companies ranging from $12 million to $350 million in yearly revenue, he is uniquely qualified to develop innovative solutions that generate awareness and ROI.

About Eric Luftig

Eric is a dynamic, passionate, and results-oriented senior executive with 25 years of demonstrated global, cross-functional leadership across operational and commercial functional areas. His experience ranges from working at large scale Fortune 50 public companies to smaller mid-cap, privately owned businesses — all of which helped shape his understanding of how to build customer-centric teams to best support growth. As a certified GE Master Black Belt, he combines his strong technical and analytical skills with solid business process capabilities. Eric has a genuine passion for customers, employees, and the community, with an inclusive leadership style that energizes and motivates teams to win.