Category: Online Business

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Episode 87 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast 

In this week’s podcast Sean and Rob discuss 3 of their favourite marketing tools.

This is not an extensive “100 online marketing tools” list with applications dragged up from the dark depths of the web.

Rather these are 3 practical tools myself and Rob use in our day to day business to drive and convert traffic for ourselves and our clients.

These aren’t free tools either. Whilst 2 of them do have free trials, they are serious applications that can have a positive impact on the performance of your business.

The reason we are promoting them?

Because they work!

1. OptinMonster
2. Adespresso
3. Visual Website Optimizer

So come listen to this episode and find out why we are so excited.

Be sure to keep listening through the show to the end for the big reveal!

If you have any comments or feedback catch us on Twitter @SeanClark or Facebook Messenger.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Episode 85 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

This week Robert speaks with Joshua Millage Co-Founder of Lifter LMS, a free, open source ‘learning management system’ plugin for WordPress aimed at people who want to sell online courses – AND make them ‘sticky’.

• The best way for someone with expertise, who’s new to online courses, to get started
• The problem with traditional online course and membership site software
• Why LifterLMS recently went ‘freemium’ – and how scary that was
• Misconceptions about ‘gamification’ in the context of online courses and the ways you should actually use it
• The pros and cons of marketplaces like Udemy
• The outlook for the online course market in the next few years

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Episode 83 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

In this episode Robert interviews Scott Oldford an online lead generation specialist. Scott helps entrepreneurs grow their business by helping them implement a sustainable source of qualified leads through online marketing funnels.

And he believes you are missing out on 80% of the potential leads available to you, simply because you are not talking to them in the right way.

Scott began his business career aged 7, selling eggs from his grandfather’s farm. By 16 he ran a multi-million dollar business, by 21 he’d not only lost it all but racked up in excess of $700,000 in debt, and by 23 he’d recovered to create a new business with $1m in revenue. And he’s still only 24!

In our brand new podcast, we discuss:

• What’s a ‘marketing funnel’ and how do we create one?
• Why you can’t treat all leads the same
• Scott’s SSF formula for lead generation
• How to use different types of lead magnet to speak to different types of prospect
• What kind of email series should you use to ‘talk’ to new prospects?
• How many emails?
• How far apart?
• How often should you try to ‘sell’?
• How much ‘content’ vs ‘selling’ should there be?
• What Scott sees as the big trends in online marketing in the next 2 years

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 80 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

Businesses are normally so obsessed with driving traffic to their website. Whether it be looking for the latest Search Engine Optimisation techniques. Leveraging Social Media and Content Marketing. Or even spending money on pay per click campaigns.

Often they overlook the traffic already coming to their website, and what more can be done to get them to buy.

In addition many will start to run Google AdWords campaigns or Facebook Advertising without any thought for testing and making the most of the available ad budget.

This week I speak with Michael Leftwich, an information product marketer and conversion optimisation expert. Michael will give you some tips for not only improving conversion on your website, but also in your pay per click campaigns on Google and Facebook.

Some of the tools mentioned by Michael include:

• Adespresso
• Unbounce
• Leadpages
• Clickfunnels

Listen in to find out more.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Episode 74 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

What do people see when they search for your business on Google – and what can you do if it’s not what you want?

Robert talks to Jeremy Gin, CEO of SiteJabber, a leading community of 700,000+ online business reviewers, about how small businesses can manage their reputations online.

You’ll discover:

• Why reputation management is so important for small businesses and how the ‘industry’ works
• How the leading reputation management and review platforms work – and why they’re unfair to both businesses and consumers
• What to do – and not do – if you find a negative review online
• Where e-commerce and reputation management will be in the next 5-10 years.
• Listen to the show to find out how to build a culture within your business that works.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Photo Credit: Christopher Michel

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Episode 67 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

We spend a lot of time inventing ingenious ways to get more traffic to our websites. Spending money on Adwords campaigns, Facebook advertising and email marketing. Or we take hours crafting blog posts and optimising our site for search.

Rather than spend time driving more traffic, what if we worked on better conversion the traffic we already get?

This week we discuss an area many businesses overlook when it comes online marketing, landing pages. The pages you direct traffic to from your proactive marketing campaigns.

We look at the 5 key elements of an effective landing page. Both myself and Robert use landing pages for our own use and our clients. They typically have a single purpose, lead capture. When implemented well they can magnify conversion rates and provide a high return on investment.

So listen to this weeks show and get your website converting.

Mentioned in the show:

• LeadPages dedicated landing page software
• Robert’s 20 point landing page checklist (via VIP membership)

Please leave any comments below.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Episode 65 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

This episode was inspired by a recent blog post by Seth Godin, “Every marketing challenge revolves around these questions”.

Seth is a prolific blogger, has written many books and is a sought after at talking events for his insights and observations. He publishes a blog post daily, some as short as a sentence or two, but nevertheless powerful and thought provoking.

A lot of the time Seth takes the everyday, simplifies it and just makes you think. Which is exactly what happened in this case.

He raises 7 questions about marketing, most of which are obvious. Still many of which remain unanswered in most companies.

Too often we start a business, launch a product or create a new service without asking some fundamental questions. These questions can make a big difference to your success or failure. If taken seriously they may also make you consider whether you are doing the right thing in the first place.

We dissect Seth’s post and hopefully you should get some value from our discussion.

Find out more about Seth Godin here he also has an online course for Freelancers wishing to build a better business.

Thanks Seth for your inspiration over the years.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 63 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

In this episode of the Small Business Marketing Report we discuss Customer Relationship Management systems.

Often talked about, misunderstood and rarely implemented. The most important tool a business can put in place is a Contact Management System or CRM.

Before you put a CRM system in place you should understand how you want to use it. Also, what you want to get back from the CRM.

Many companies install complex solutions, at a cost, that is beyond their business requirements.

When implemented well a CRM can provide valuable insights. With rich sales and customer service data your business can act upon. They can also deliver fantastic returns on investment. That helps your business grow and expand as you understand more about your customers.

For online companies a CRM system provides even further data about your customers.

Listen in to the show as we discuss CRM systems in more detail. Please leave any comments below.

In the next episode we’ll discuss the various CRM systems currently available, their differences and the ones we use and why.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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Episode 57 of The Small Business Marketing Report Podcast

On the show this week we discuss some of the podcast shows we listen to and why they are our favourite picks. They are also listed below should you wish to subscribe to them.

The term Podcast was first used in 2004 and is associated with the iPod and broadcasting, and describes a particular type of audio delivered by a feed, a variation of RSS. Although podcasts are commonly associated with iTunes there are many other distribution sources.

Many podcasts take their lead from talk radio, and the subject matter available covers a wide variety of sectors from entertainment, sport, music, business and many niches in between.

Podcasts can be a great way to promote your business or raise your own profile, either by creating your own show or getting interviewed on a show like ours. Aside from a few technical considerations podcasts can be cheap to produce and an effective marketing medium. Also, once someone is subscribed to your podcast, new episodes will update on their device automatically.

Although traditionally audio, many of the more popular shows produce a video format too. There are even podcast networks, similar to the TV networks, that help to promote and support the associated shows bringing in advertising revenue.

We listen to podcasts quite a bit as it gives us access to information that you can’t normally get in mainstream media. It is also a very effective use of commuting time.

Sean’s Podcast Picks

• Six Pixels of Separation
• Twit
• TED Radio Hour
• Freakonomics Radio
• DTNS

Robert’s Podcast Picks

• Startups For The Rest Of Us
• Conversion Cast
• Antipreneur – The Ben Settle Show
• 1 Day Business Breakthrough

Listen in to the show, and if you have any questions then please feel free to comment on our Google+ page.

Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes & if you like it we’d be grateful if you could leave a review.

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