If you are an online marketer and want to know how to increase your visibility online, you should take a listen. don’t go away. Our guest on this episode is from the world's leading competitive research service for online marketing. Fernando Angulo, head of communications at SEMrush talks about its tools and strategies for getting its clients noticed online.

About SEMRush

SEMrush was a startup in 2008 with about 12 software and a great idea. Headquartered in the Czech Republic, its first product was a called SEOquake, a free toolbar to use in a browser that measures metrics like website traffic, domain authority, website owner, number of external links and other KPIs for SEO. Today, SEMrush is global with 1,000 employees in four countries and three offices in the U.S., one in Russia and one in Cypress.

According to Fernando, anyone who has a website and wants to earn an exposure online needs tools like SEOquake and the services at SEMrush. The company can help marketing agencies, corporations, brands, small businesses, even freelancers, in developing four strategies: SEO, Social Media Channels, Content Marketing, and knowledge about competitors using the business intelligence that SEMrush offers. Its tools provide added value with more information, easier reporting tools and the ability to implement more campaigns and strategies at the same time daily. Its newest platform, Traffic Analytics, can provide intelligence about a competitor’s every move on every search engine, including traffic sources, social media, paid traffic and more.

While keyword research is still important, it has gotten much more complex. As a leader in competitive research services, SEMrush has a large database of more than 60 billion keywords in 150 countries.

Understanding How People Search Online

If you are just getting started online, Fernando recommends that you look at what topics are more popular in your industry. SEMrush can help by giving you insights into how people are searching for your products or services. For instance, today people are conducting more longtail searches. They are using longer phrases and sentences to find what they want. So, once you’ve picked your topic, choose those longtail keywords and create content for it.

Fernando says Google changed its search features and the way it is working with results two years ago. If you are looking for nearby gas stations, for example, you will usually get a Google map and a list of gas stations.

Google’s search results sometimes show listings where the snippet describing a page comes before a link to a page, not after. Results displayed this way are called "featured snippets."

Featured snippets are triggered by keywords used with a question, or comparisons like “what is a betters, this or that?” This is, again, because of the popularity of voice search and longtail searches. The third way to trigger a featured snippet is by using prepositions, such as, “like,” “for,” “with” and “without.”

About 80% of the featured snippets typically use Google products, so brands are seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of clicks coming to their websites. Fernando says you can change this by creating original content that follows guidelines. Google is looking for descriptions that are either 42 words or 262 characters in length. There can be an image or video with it or not. Also, adding lists to content can help you in Google search. Booker.com has been successful using lists with content that includes “the top 10 vacations in Spain” or “the most beautiful beaches in Greece.

SEMrush has recently added Content Marketplace, where brands can order content with all the structures required for a featured snippet.

SEMrush Pricing

Semrush offers three pricing tiers:

• Pro Package for $99.95/mo. It includes full access to the database and SEMRush tools with the exception of the Traffic Analytics tool.
• Guru Package for $199.95/mo. It includes everything in the Pro Package, plus seven years of historical data of your competitors’ PPC, prices, types of ads, positioning and more.
• Business Package for $399/mo. Full access to the above and the Traffic Analytics tool.

Connect with SEMrush

A very transparent company, SEMRush connects with people on almost every platform. It has Groups for Support, open discussions every week in Chats and offers certification programs with its SEMrush Academy

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.semrush.com

It’s a new decade and a new year, but some things remain constant. Content is still king, and its followers are growing. What’s changing is the way we consume content. In the past, content creation has been primarily text-based. Thanks to smartphones, however, more and more people prefer different ways to learn about brands. We’ve seen an explosion in podcasting and video is likely to be the next boom as it becomes more affordable and easier to do.

Companies like Vidyard have seen the trends. They’ve developed a platform to help your videos do much more. On this episode, Vidyard’s Customer Outcomes Manager, Jacob Fernandes, talks about its capabilities and features.

About Vidyard

Vidyard is a video hosting platform that identifies, scores and tracks engagement with viewers. It specializes in identifying who is watching your video. Vidyard can track engagements manually with custom forms that have to be filled out before you can watch a video. Or, the platform can integrate your data with Hubspot, a CRM or any other marketing automation.

Using the platform to upload and distribute videos is free. Hosting your video requires a monthly subscription. It can be as low as $20 per month or cost literally thousands of dollars depending on your brand’s needs.

With a paid subscription, brands can also empower its video content using several features, including:

• Call-to-Actions
• Annotations
• Thumbnails that transcribe videos for accessibility and to aid in SEO
• Choose your own adventure guides that enable viewers to watch a video on a website’s homepage, and then pinpoint where they want to go on a website for more insight about a topic they saw in the video.

Brands can also create video content using Vidyard’s free Chrome extension. The Vidyard Pro feature lets you record a selfie-style video and or take a screenshot from a web page and then email it to prospects or customers.

Getting Started

Jacob says there is very little to invest to get started with video. Most cell phones can shoot in 4k. All you need to buy is a wireless microphone and a basic lighting kit.

Lots of videos can be done in-house. These videos can be used for education purposes, as tutorials, invitations or even as a marketing tool for a brand’s sales team and any other customer-facing employee. In fact, Jacob says there are 6 must-have videos that brands should consider.

• Explainer video content with information about the brand, the products or services offered and the benefits of those products or services.
• How-to video assets to educate clients or customers on how to use your products or services.
• Thought Leadership video using executives who have expertise in a certain area and empowering them to create video content that can promoted online and on social media.
• Webinars for prospecting.
• Case studies on how your others are winning using your products or services.
• Demo Content

Jacob says brands that use video extraordinarily well include Hubspot and Marketo. And if you are a Hubspot listener, you can get an entire video suite right now for free.

Connect with Jacob

Email:        [email protected]

Website:     https://www.vidyard.com

Twitter:      @jacobsaidthings

LinkedIn:    @jacobfernandes93

What is influencer marketing? It’s basically a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from people with influence – they have a large social media following or they are viewed as experts in their industry. Our guest today is an expert on this very topic. Kerry Perse is the founder of Influence & Inspire Consulting. She’s here to tell us how to get started in Influencer Marketing.

About Kerry Perse

Kerry has a diverse background in advertising and marketing. She started her career in advertising here at Platypus, before moving to New York to work with other ad agencies in web design, creative, media buying, social media and technology. Her interest in influencer marketing came about while working in social media. In her newest venture as the founder of Influence & Inspire Consulting, Kerry helps brands identify what role influencers can play in their marketing mix, how to find influencers and set up a partnership, develop KPIs, create content and execute programs.

Getting Started

The first step in planning an influencer marketing program is determining a brand’s key messages. What does the brand want to communicate? Can the company communicate the messages alone? Could an influencer help enhance what the brand is communicating, or can the influencer handle the brand’s communications?

Next, who does the brand need to communicate to? How are they influenced? What are their interests and how do they consume their content? And who are the influencers in this niche that the brand would like to work with?

Kerry says there are tools available that can help brands find these influencers. There are influencer networks that provide managed services with technology dashboards that help brands streamline their communications with influencers. With these dashboards, companies can negotiate specific terms and help streamline the review and approval of content. Kerry has worked with Influential, a company that partners with IBM Watson to provide AI and machine learning, Captivate and FameBit, a company owned by Google which includes YouTube influencers.

Another way to find influencers is through Search Engine-only providers like Tagger. With Tagger, you can input the criteria for what kind of influencer you are looking for or you can also search using hashtags.

Connecting with influencers can be done using the managed service providers, going through the agents of celebrities or by direct messaging the influencers on their platforms.

Risky Business

Kerry says influencer marketing can be risky, but that you can mitigate those risks with careful planning on the front end and by using technology to help you on the back end.

It’s important to have a solid vetting process during the planning process to determine if there is a good brand fit, to get to know the influencer’s personality, visual style, tonality, language, subject matter and expertise. Some of the managed service providers also have historical performance data in their dashboards so you can tell if the influencer has a high engagement rate, what brands the influencer has worked with, and acquisition patterns with followers to make sure there are no artificial spikes that show the influencer is paying for robots.

And once your influencer is live, Kerry says you can use companies like Sylo, a third-party verification company to make sure your reporting data is accurate. The managed service providers can also help brands by having the influencers submit content in advance for approval.

Influencer Expectations

Most influencers do expect to be paid and the amount is typically mentioned in their profiles. They also are required to disclose they are being paid. Some influencers also accept product seeding. They will talk about your product, but you must also be prepared for the fact that if they don’t like your product, they will talk about that as well.

From the brand’s side, it is important to do your homework, pick the influencers you know you want to work with first. Communicate with your top choices and then let your budget determine how many influencers you can work with.

ROI

Your return-on-investment is always a big challenge when it comes to influencer marketing. If you don’t have a big budget, your can measure reach, engagement and even the number of visits to your website.

Brands with larger budgets also use paid media to measure ROI. You can either boost posts on platforms like Facebook or Instagram or use managed service providers to put real money behind an influencer’s post and serve the content to your target audiences.

Want to be an Influencer?

Knowing that you can make good doing what you like to do is attractive to individuals who want to be successful in this space. Kerry says influencers need to know what their personal brand is and their unique point-of-view.  What kind of content do they want to create and on which platform? Instagram and YouTube are currently the favorites, but Tik Tok is gaining in popularity. Also, you need to take pride in your content. Some influencers will spend an entire week creating one piece of content. And lastly, you are going to need to gain a lot of followers by discovering, following and engaging with others.

Connect with Kerry

E-mail:      [email protected]

Website:   www.influenceandinspire.com

LinkedIn:  @kerryperse

Twitter: @KerryPerse

Phone:      917.282.3365

With so many ways to watch video content these days, it’s a great time for the consumer, but it has also become an increasingly difficult time for the local media buyer. On this episode of Brandstorm, Michael Beach, CEO at Cross Screen Media, talks about his video advertising platform, which helps media buyers take some of the challenges out of buying broadcast, cable, connected TV, desktop mobile and social video content.

About Cross Screen Media

Cross Screen Media is a spinoff of a political agency called Target to Victory that Michael worked at in Washington, D.C. Frustrated by their own efforts to do audience targeting with video content, Michael and his team began investing in set top boxes from cable and satellite TV providers and other data sources, including media consumption habits from MRI and Scarborough, and even more recently, Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) from the data that is captured from Smart TVs. It was now possible to buy video content based on audience attributions and impressions, which is the same way advertisers currently buy digital advertising. By putting television and digital in the same audience-based currency, it was easier to compare and buy video content. Focusing only on video content, they launched their first television advertising platform in 2013. By 2016, they knew they had a platform that catered to media buyers’ needs and could be sold in local television markets. They closed the agency’s doors and created Cross Screen Media in 2017.

The Challenges for Local Advertisers Buying TV

Most TV stations sell their inventory based on ratings points. In smaller markets, however, about 70 percent of the video content doesn’t have a big enough audience sample to get a rating point. The ratings are so low for some programs, the ratings look like no one is watching.

Buying on impressions, however, allows advertisers to buy against digital and do some audience targeting.  Michael believes the future for the ad seller will be to make impressions more valuable by tailoring them to the audience. Advertisers who know their target audience will be more willing buy programming that can deliver the audience they want. That’s good news for TV providers. They will be able to, at least in the short term, sell more inventory. Television will be more affordable for the advertiser who wants to by those programs with lower viewership because they deliver the right audience target.

Another challenge is that the way things are trending, there will be fewer impressions on average to sell. Video content has grown by more than 300 percent over the last 10 years. Back then, there were about 200 scripted shows on television. This past year, there were more than 600 shows and this trend isn’t expected to change. There will be more programming in 2020 than 2019. In fact, while social media and digital has seen substantial growth the past 10 years, Michael says video content is about to explode.

Right now, TV has low targeting, but high attention. Digital is the opposite, high targeting, low attention. Connected TV is really exciting to Michael because it has the potential to be both.

All this will change over the next 5 years, according to Michael, and it will happen in three phases. In Phase 1, which is where we are now, about 50 percent of the video content is bought using age and gender demos. along with some audience targeting. In about three years, in Phase 2, there will be more audience targeting and audience attributions will grow in importance. By Phase 3, in 5 years, audience attribution will be the key component of the video spend and will be driven by how much foot traffic is generated or how many transactions are made.

How Cross Screen Media Makes Media Buying Easier

Michael says pricing for the Cross Screen platform varies and is primarily based on the number of markets bought. Onboarding is pretty quick for ad agencies, and usually takes less than two weeks. Cross Screen takes an advertiser’s customer data or information from a CRM and uses its national consumer file with more than 1500 attributes. The attributes can be used to build out a strategic audience. The platform provides different buying options and allows for cross-screen comparisons in broadcast, cable, connected TV, desktop mobile and social video content.

Buyers can then target consumer content and figure how to balance it across the various screens. With one place to bring everything together buyers can figure out who the target is, how that target consumes video content, what it will cost and then tweak the buy from there.

It will take some time for buyers to become screen-agnostic, where they won’t care about what content they are watching and only buy content that delivers their audience.

Mike believes eventually impression-based selling will make it easier for TV media buyers to buy more digital and vice versa, but it will also come in phases. Right now, the ad agency may still have a TV media buying team and a digital buying team planning and buying separately. Eventually, those two teams will work together, and ultimately the same team will understand both video and digital content.

Connect with Michael

Website: https:///www.crossscreen.media

Newsletter: https://www.stateofthescreens.com

Email:  [email protected]

Could your brand benefit from getting some spectacular aerial footage? If the answer is yes, what exactly do you need to know about drone photography? On this episode, Frank Datzer, director of photography and licensed drone pilot for DCP Video, shares his expertise.

About Frank Datzer

Frank has been involved in videography and video production for 35 years. He spent most of his career at U.S. Bank and later G.E. Medical. He owned a DVD Duplication Service before getting back into video shooting and production with his own company, DCP Video. He’s also done two, feature-length, independent films on Amazon called “Mister Scrooge to See You” and “The Return.”

Commercial Drone Photography Requirements

A drone license is required for anyone interested in making any money shooting drone footage. According to Frank, the test is not as easy as you would think. It is not about your skill as a drone pilot, but rather your knowledge of weather, how to read a Tack Chart and how airport traffic is handled. In the U.S, the test is a standardized FAA test, which is basically a junior pilot’s license consisting of 600 questions. You only need to answer 60 of the 600 questions, but you never know what those 60 questions will be. You must have knowledge of everything on the test, if you hope to pass. Frank says there are some background pieces available online that can help you prepare for the test. Internationally, licensing varies greatly, so you need to do your homework before doing anything outside the U.S.

Drone hobbyists do not need a license, but there are still some rules to follow. There can be no monetization of any kind without a license and if caught, fines can be as high as $10,000.

Things to Consider Before Scheduling Drone Photography

• Ask for credentials from drone pilots
• Every location is different so do your homework before setting anything up
• Get permission wherever you are shooting
• Allow two weeks’ notice for permissions
• Make allowances for inclement weather conditions
• Drones are typically not allowed to fly near airports
• Drones can’t fly above 400 ft. (Frank says low-level drone shots at 20-to-25-ft. can be very dramatic and beautiful, especially in a warehouse)
• Drones must be kept in your line of sight
• Night flying can be done one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset
• Flying over people, sporting events, emergency response teams and stadiums are prohibited
• No drugs or alcohol are allowed while flying

Why Hire Pros?

Four reasons:  safety, quality, experience at getting the best shots and ultimately, the end product.

If you are concerned about price, drone photography is less than hiring a helicopter. And, you may want to consider hiring someone like Frank who uses drone photography as a value-add. His drone camera is just another tool he uses like lighting or a second camera.

If you are considering getting into drone photography, Frank recommends purchasing a DJI Mavic Mini at around $300. Cheaper models typically don’t handle as well. Then, go to a park with no trees, start by flying low and keep practicing.

Connect with Frank

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: @frankdatzer

Instagram: DCP_Video

It was a long campaign with intense competition, but in the end, Milwaukee beat out Miami and Houston to be the host city of the Democratic National Convention (DNC),  July 13 – 16, 2020. Megan Suardini, vice president of Marketing & Communications for Visit Milwaukee talks about how the festival city did it and how we are preparing for a deluge of Democratic delegates and national media coming to Milwaukee. 

About Visit Milwaukee

Visit Milwaukee is an accredited destination marketing organization (DMO) that has been promoting the city for more than 50 years. Its role is to attract business and leisure visitors to the city and its marketing communications efforts are all done outside the city.

Landing the DNC

Even though Wisconsin is considered an important battleground state for the 2020 Presidential election, it was still considered an underdog when it received an RFP from the DNC in March 2018. There were eight cities in the running, including New York, Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Miami, and San Francisco.  By June, the DNC had narrowed the competition down to Milwaukee, Miami and Houston. The DNC conducted a site survey that summer as the city rolled out the “blue” carpet for the organizers. There were several additional visits to work on logistics before Milwaukee was chosen as the host city on March 11, 2019. With an economic impact of at least $200 million for the city, the event is expected to put Milwaukee on the world stage with its welcoming, warm, Midwest charm. Megan says we made it clear to the DNC selection committee that they were a big deal and we wanted them. The city sees this not as a red or blue win, but as a green one.  It is estimated about $114 million will come from direct spending, such as restaurants, hotels and rental cars, and another $85 million-plus coming from indirect (wages paid to workers) and induced (money spent in other cities by travelers to Milwaukee) spending. 

For Visit Milwaukee’s part in all this, the DMO has been focused on hotel rooms and all the logistics of housing. In July 2020, the city will host 6000 delegates and another 15,000 to 20,000 media personnel. There will also be about 1500 events during those four days. Visit Milwaukee has found lots of support from communities within a 45-minute to one-hour commute from the city, even in northern Illinois.

Megan says the exposure for Milwaukee will be tremendous. Her staff is already looking for and pitching stories to the media related to technology, innovation, neighborhoods, education, manufacturing, urban development, green initiatives, unique individuals and community groups and they are open to hearing more ideas from the public. 

The Milwaukee Brand

In addition to the DNC, the Ryder Cup, the Society of American Travel Writers, the USA Triathlon and U.S. Gymnastics Championships are among the organizations that have chosen to hold their event in Milwaukee in 2020. They are attracted by the Milwaukee brand which is considered to be warm, friendly, inviting and accessible with big city amenities. The city is also quirky, extraverted, unexpected, lively and clean. In Megan’s words, “Milwaukee is hot, and we are ready. We really want to host your event.”

Connect with Visit Milwaukee

Website:        www.visitmilwaukee.org/DNC

Phone:           +1 (800)-231-0903, +1 (414)-273-3950

PR Team:      https://www.visitmilwaukee.org/media/public-relations-staff/

Corporate Venues, Sponsors & Volunteers:  https://www.milwaukee2020.com/

A report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum indicates that more retirees and fewer young people could create a workforce dilemma for the state in the coming years. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce, or MMAC, has partnered with the Milwaukee 7 to help companies in the region attract, retain and train workers in jobs that offer growth potential. In this episode of Brandstorm, Susan Koehn, vice president of the Talent & Industry Partnership and point person for this initiative, tells us more about the workforce issues facing southeastern Wisconsin and what is being done to help businesses now and in the future.

Background

According to Susan, Wisconsin’s economic development and workforce development organizations have historically operated as two, independent silos. Economic development focused on corporate attraction projects, brick and mortar projects and building infrastructure.  Workforce development was involved in talent and training. Neither side was talking to each other, while the skills gap was growing larger in southeastern Wisconsin. Industry was blaming education for not producing the right kinds of worker’s skills to fill the jobs that were needed, and education blamed industry for not saying what skills were needed.

The recognition that talent was a key driver of economic growth sparked the first attempt to break down the walls between economic and workforce development around 2007/08.  The goal was to get the two sides talking to change the narrative.

MMAC/Milwaukee 7 Partnership

The MMAC is a membership-based Chamber of Commerce. The Milwaukee 7 is a regional economic development organization for the seven counties in southeastern Wisconsin: Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha.

When the Milwaukee 7 was formed in 2005, there was a realization that industry was involved in a zero-sum gain by poaching talent from each other. Collaboration was needed to bring in new businesses, expand existing companies and create new investments. The MMAC played a critical role in bringing the two organizations together and forming the Talent & Industry Partnership. Today, they share office space and staff and are working together to address the shortage of talent in the region.

Wisconsin Policy Forum Report Takeaways

Susan says the demographics are undeniable. The now-retiring Baby Boomers were followed by two million fewer Gen Xers and this trend has continued in birth rates. There are just fewer young people coming into the workforce. The recession may have also masked the talent shortage because there were fewer job openings. When the recession ended, companies that used to post jobs and receive hundreds of qualified applicants were now seeing three or four applications from people who did not qualify for the jobs.

So, while the report wasn’t surprising to people like Susan, it did confirm what businesses were seeing on the ground.

Analyzing Southeastern Wisconsin’s Labor Supply

Working with Manpower Group, research was conduction that indicates the workforce gap in the region’s seven counties will hit 38,000 in job openings by 2021.  Where are we going to find the people to fill them?

According to the Manpower research, there are pockets in the region where there are lots of potential workers who are on the sidelines and not working because they are no longer looking for jobs, are underemployed or ineligible. In fact, there are about 300,000 workers with a high school diploma, but no post-secondary degrees or credentials. Susan believes we could leverage of larger talent pool by taking a closer look at the job openings and determining if a college degree is really needed, or if an individual can come on board and be trained while on the job. She says, according to one of the tenets of sales, it costs far less to retain customers than acquire new ones. The same holds true for employees. Businesses can upskill the employees while on the job for far less and backfill some of the other jobs with higher education requirements with fresh talent.

Filling the Future Skills Gap

Southeastern Wisconsin is in a great position to improve the workforce dilemma through education and training. We have many excellent higher education institutions and a good K12 education system.  And, there is an openness now for industry and education to collaborate.

The industry can assist by providing real-world, learning opportunities, such as sponsoring classroom projects, job shadowing, internships, and guest business speakers. About 68-75 percent of college internships convert to direct hires.

Susan says legacy companies and industries in the region, like manufacturing, need to show innovation potential through more experiential learning opportunities. In fact, 67 percent of Americans believe more internships for young people would increase interest in manufacturing.

In Wisconsin, schools are mandated to provide academic as well as career planning, starting at the 6th-grade level through high school. MMAC has a program called “Be the Spark” that takes 7th graders from Milwaukee Public Schools on business tours. There is a push to increase the number of schools offering computer science classes and technical education for trades like plumbing, electrical and construction is making a comeback.

And finally, Susan says the Wisconsin Economic Development Committee (WEDC) has a program called “Think-Make-Happen that is targeting the likeliest candidates to attract and relocate to Wisconsin.  For instance, Wisconsin provides one of the most generous packages to provide support, incentives and free education to service members in the country.  The organization is also targeting alumni of Wisconsin institutions to come back and Midwest millennials who already live in colder climates to relocate to our state’s booming economy and great quality of life.

Opportunities for Growth

Industries with the greatest potential for growth in southeastern Wisconsin are financial services, healthcare systems and manufacturing companies that are intersecting with smart technology.  There is also an effort to build technology ecosystems like Milwaukee’s Water District.

Susan says while the challenge to fill the skills gap in our region is urgent, it is giving way to new ideas and ways to innovate and collaborate.  The Industry & Talent Partnership can help businesses, individuals and schools by connecting them with the right organizations and resources they need.

Connect with Susan:

Email:             [email protected]

Website:         https://www.mmac.org

Twitter:          @mke7talent

The holidays are just about here, so all of us at #Brandstorm thought it would be fun to talk about a sweet, corporate gift idea. This office gift could also be a clever way of saying, “I’m sorry,” when you really mess up. The name of the franchise is Woops! Its bakeshops and kiosks serve artisanal, French macarons, pastries and coffee all around the country. Milwaukee owner Shahnoza Saadati talks about this relatively new franchise and its delicate creations.

What is a French Macaron?

Shahnoza likes to say there are three macarons: the flourless American cookie that is typically made with coconut (macaroon), the French pastry (macaron) and the French President Macron. While they may all sound alike, there is only one macaron.  The delicate, French pastry is very difficult to make. The first step is making the crust, which is made with almond, four and fresh, whipped egg whites. The second step is the filling, a chocolate ganache with white chocolate from Belgium.  The macaron is then infused with flavors like pistachio, blueberry cheesecake and lemon tart.

There are 20 flavors in all. Some are seasonal like the strawberry milkshake and orange cream sickle in the summer, apple cinnamon in the fall, red velvet dressed up in confetti at Christmas. Valentine’s Day is always a surprise, but last year was a strawberry passion fruit. Some are American flavors that include cookies and cream, Nutella, red velvet and cotton candy. But the classics are always available – pistachio, dark chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, lemon tart and salted caramel.

The last step to making the macaron is freezing them in a special container so that no humidity gets in to spoil the colors and meringue crust.

A Corporate Gift to Remember

Shahnoza says she was attracted to the Woops! franchise because of its B2B approach to gifting. The French macarons are memorable because they are handmade, handprinted and hand-delivered. They come in a variety of beautiful packaging as small as a flavor pack with two macarons for $6, gift boxes from $13 to $26, combinations of boxes at $50, $100 and $200, and even large pyramids that are typically made for weddings. Both the macarons and packaging sleeves can be imprinted with corporate logos.

The macarons are made in New York, frozen and shipped in protective boxes to Shahnoza, who keeps the macarons in her storefront kiosk at Brookfield Square. While she has a retail presence, most orders are taken online and hand-delivered using Grub Hub and Door Dash. Orders can be fulfilled and delivered in less than 30 minutes, if needed.

Building Corporate Relationships

Shahnoza says doing in business in Wisconsin is all about relationships and referrals. She networks with the local Chamber of Commerce and Visit Milwaukee. She takes a pop-up kiosk to shows like Marketplace Wisconsin and uses LinkedIn to connect with businesses and deliver samples to interested parties.

About Woops!

Woops! started in New York with four friends and previous franchise owners who wanted to create something of their own. Their startups with the French Macarons grossed a quarter-million dollars in just 5 weeks. In no time, they realized “woops” we have a business, and just one year later, “woops” we have a franchise…or so the story goes.

There are about 50 Woops! locations and 30 franchisees in the U.S. Started in 2012, the company supplies franchisees with all the resources to connect with local businesses in addition to making the delicate and delicious macarons, custom printing and packaging. They have materials to say thanks, appreciate clients, even real estate closings, and support franchisees with weekly phone calls. While the cost of a business is always more than you anticipate, Shahnoza says the investment in a Woops! franchise is about $80,000 to $100,000.

Connect with Shahnoza

Email: [email protected]

Website:   https://www.bywoops.com/

By bike or by boat, it is the best pub crawl in town. The Milwaukee Pedal & Paddle Tavern has become the #1 tour in town in just a few, short years. Our guest, Derek Collins shares the ups and downs of a start-up business and how he and his partner, Ryan Lloyd have expanded their bike and boat bars.

Pedal Tavern Origins

When Derek’s partner, Ryan, called him to tell him about a bike bar up in Minneapolis they needed to have in Milwaukee, Derek thought his friend had gone nuts. Ryan replied, “it’s super fun and people will pay to do it.” So, in 2010, Derek and Ryan invested in their first bike bar and began operating the Pedal Tavern.

The Pedal Tavern is a 16-seat, BYOB bike bar that is powered by riders who must pedal. The two-hour tours take riders to three to four pubs and restaurants of their choice in the Third Ward and Walker’s Point. Derek says they have partnerships with about 20 places that offer drink and food discounts to Pedal Tavern visitors.

In the beginning, Derek operated every tour and business boomed, so the partners put all that money into a second bike tavern and kept reinvesting until they had five.

Controversy Threatens Business

When the Pedal Tavern applied for their fifth liquor license in 2012, the City of Milwaukee took notice and pulled the company’s liquor license. According to Derek, they were in a gray area that allowed the company to fall under the category of a “green limo.” The city argued since the bikes were not motor operated, they could not be considered a limo.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printed this news on the front page with the headline, “Tapped Out.”

The news was devastating to the company. People wanted to be able to drink on the Pedal Tavern tours. In 2013, business dropped by 50 percent. At the same time, Derek and Ryan were buying drink tokens from the bars to attract ridership. With minimal profit margins, they were not going to able to operate much longer.

A compromise with the City of Milwaukee saved the fate of the Pedal Tavern. It was agreed to limit the number of drinks to three per person and no hard liquor. With their liquor license reinstate, the Journal Sentinel ran another front-page story and by 2014, ridership was back up and the company was back doing business better than before.

Reinvestment Ignites Growth

Last year, the company expanded to have boat tours as well. They added Paddle Taverns that, like the bikes, were BYOB and took riders on tours down the Milwaukee River, originating at a local bar, called the Harp. Each boat is manned with a captain and first mate. Riders are encouraged to pedal the boats; however, the boats also have a motor. Fifteen to 20 minutes into the tour, the riders typically stop pedaling, turn up the music and enjoy the tour and each other.

Derek says they continue to invest back into the company. They’ve started an electric, Duffy boat company that individuals can rent and take out on the water. They also offer kayak rentals and have entered into another partnership with John Revord, owner of the Boone & Crockett bar and Mitch Ciohon, owner of Taco Moto, to purchase the Cooperage at 820 S. Water St. The building has three floors. The first floor has 11,000 sq. ft., and includes the Boone & Crockett Bar, a commercial kitchen and event space for weddings and concerts. The second and third floors are both 5,000 sq. ft. The second floor has an Air BnB, personal office space an art studio. The third floor is currently vacant, but Derek says they plan on creating a co-working share space.

Marketing Strategy

One of the beauties of having such a unique business is the buzz it creates. The controversy over the loss of the liquor license may have hurt at first; however once reinstated, it also created a lot of awareness for the company. Derek says they started their company with on Groupon offer in 2010, when Groupon was new and very popular. These days, word-of-mouth, visibility on the street and water and user-generated content on Facebook and Instagram. The company does advertise on Google AdWords and Yelp, and more recently radio ads within radio auctions.

Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Derek says investing in the bike and boat tour business isn’t cheap. The pedal taverns are about $45,000 each and the boats are roughly $120,000, plus an additional $20,000 in operating expenses for each business. If you are interested in doing this in other markets, he says there are some requirements you need to consider. The first is city approval for a liquor license. This concept doesn’t work without alcohol on board, even when the tours take you to neighboring pubs. The second is street access. In Chicago, the pedal tavern would not be allowed because the streets are too busy. And third, you must have the participation by the neighboring bars, restaurants and residents.

Connect with Derek:

Twitter: @mkederek

Website:  https://www.pedaltavern.com

https://www.Paddletavern.com

Online newsrooms are becoming very popular, thanks to companies like TEKGroup International Inc., an internet software and services firm that helps PR and corporate communications professionals save time and money, while providing a platform to help increase coverage in the mainstream and social media. Companies like Starbucks, Toyota, Dunkin Donuts and Walgreen’s and many others are using these newsrooms to centralize all their communications content. On this episode of #Brandstorm, Steve Momorella, owner and founder of TEKGroup talks about the online newsroom and why companies should be considering them.  

What is an Online Newsroom?

TekGroup has been creating newsroom for brands since 1998. Back then, they were called Press Rooms. They were a placeholder on your website for press release, news coverage, logos and imagery. The focus of the Press Room was for journalists. With the advent of social media, in the last 5 years or so, these Press Rooms have changed to Online Newsrooms or Brand Journalism Newsrooms where the focus is on the brand’s audiences. It is now a hub for all communications content – media assets, stories, imagery, video, audio, pdfs, social media, etc. While press releases are still used, companies have switched their focus to stories about the brand -- how the brand was created and how it is being used by customers, as an example. The articles are often written by people in different departments within the company, and not just PR professionals. Companies like Sprint are using the online newsroom as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) site or as Investor Relations sites.

Steve says the other big difference is that online newsrooms now make it possible to upload content and distribute all your communications to journalists, employees, customers and any other target audiences with a few clicks and its delivered.

The Online Newsroom Advantage

With social media and distribution integrated into one platform, PR and Communications professionals save time and money. They don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on wire releases because more than 4000 journalists are already in the dashboard and can be targeted by industry. TekGroup even offers a Twitter feed for journalists that can also be targeted by industry. You also can save money by not having to pay contact database companies to send out emails.

In the past, PR professionals had to write the content, pay a wire service so they could upload the photos and press release for distribution. Now PR professionals can save valuable time because the platform integrates distribution and all your social assets.  You can choose which social media account to use, who you want to send the content to, while sending out consistent messaging, all from one dashboard.

TekGroup Technical Support

The online newsroom is technically a standalone site from the company’s website, however from a visual and SEO perspective, it is integrated with the website. Visitors never know they are going to another site when they click on the newsroom icon. TekGroup build the site based on the client’s needs, and then become the IT department, hosting and managing the site. The platform also has an embedded analytics system that can integrate with a company’s Google Analytics for tracking and SEO purposes.

The Way of the Future

Steve says research has been conducted the last 15 years to measure the trends and expectations of both journalists and consumers when it comes to an online newsroom. In the past, it was used 100 percent of the time by journalists. Now, the numbers are 70 percent consumers; 30 percent journalists.

Pricing

According to Steve, there are two pricing tiers – professional and enterprise tiers. For large companies with lots of personnel, locations, products and services, it can be expensive. For small companies, the cost $10,000 annually. Steve likes to say, for less than $1000 per month, you get a fully-hosted website management system with unlimited use. Plus, no more costs for wire services or email contact companies. The savings can be huge depending on how much content a company sends out.

Connect with Steve

Email:     [email protected]

Phone:     734-945-7790

Website:  tekgroup.com

Twitter: @tekgroup