In recent tourism news, Alaska raised cruise tourism limits as residents’ concerns about over-tourism grew. Over-tourism is an increasing issue in trendy tourism destinations, and one solution that will keep revenue flowing is to focus more on bringing in visitors outside the regular busy season. Unless downtime is needed for maintenance or other recovery, selling year-round is a goal of most businesses that commonly experience seasonality. In this episode of Building Success Stories, Seth and I discuss How to Extend Your Selling Season.

Listen to common ways to extend your selling season and some great examples I've seen in my career working with businesses like this.

Click here to ead more about How to Extend Your Selling Season on our website.

This week's topic is aimed at those who may not listen to podcasts, but you may have a relative or friend who could use this advice, so please spread the word!

With nearly three-quarters of the US population using social media regularly, it’s a given that digital marketing is the best way to generate leads and get more customers in almost any type of business. Yet, a few people still feel that word of mouth or small ads in the local paper are the only ways to get business.

In this episode of Building Success Stories, Ann and Seth discuss why some small business owners are reluctant to use digital marketing, some answers to their issues, and how they can get started, even on a small scale, to get more leads and new clients.

It’s time to review your goals and targets from earlier this year. Ideally, you’ve been reviewing these weekly or at least monthly, but so many people don’t, which is why this mid-year assessment is critical. 

It’s so easy to lose track of time this time of year. Schools are out, vacations and holidays happen, and we get out of our routine. Hopefully, you are having fun and enjoying the fruits of your labor from the first half of the year.

In this episode of Building Success Stories, Ann and Seth discuss:

- Why a Mid-Year Assessment is important.

- What to look at during the assessment.

- How to get back on track to reaching your annual goals.

- Can you do even better than you originally planned?

- Assessing progress in all areas of your life and why that's important.

You want to do everything but can only do one thing at a time. If you prioritize and plan, you can focus and start ticking off those “one things” that will lead you to achieve your goals in all “circles” of your life.

Visit our article for this episode to get Action Steps and more info:

In this episode of Building Success Stories, discuss how to build a successful relationship with your digital marketing agency, the audio from a video presentation I've recently recorded.

Throughout my years in digital marketing, I've met many business owners who did not have a good relationship with their digital marketing agency. Often, they were unsure if the agency was providing the services they paid for, were intimidated to ask for clarification on technical terms, had no idea what to ask for, etc.

• Tips for selecting a digital marketing agency.

• What to ask for and how to ask.

• To have an ongoing, Long-Term Relationship – Partnership! Even if you don’t outsource regular work to the agency, you will need their assistance over the years to help with technical issues or revamp the website every 3-5 years.

During the presentation, I discussed my Digital Marketing / Website Development Action Plan Template, which I developed while working for Tourism Northern Ireland. I provided digital marketing audits and coaching for tourism-related businesses in that region. This template provides a detailed list of what to ask for when requesting quotations and giving instructions to providers.

Click here to view this content as a video presentation and request a download of the Digital Marketing / Website Development Action Plan discussed.

Click here to schedule a FREE 15-minute initial call with Ann Donnelly.

In this week's episode of Building Success Stories, Seth and I welcome Kate Austin into the studio. Kate is the Founder, Owner, and CEO of Advokate, LLC. Advokate empowers startups, small businesses, nonprofits, and artists with the marketing tools they need to be successful.

Born and raised in Killington, Vermont, Kate resides in Glens Falls, New York, with her dog Sasha and her three kiddos, Henry, Daniel, and Elizabeth. She currently serves on the boards of the Glens Falls Business Improvement District (BID), the Jackson Heights Elementary School PTA, and is on the advisory council of the World Awareness Children’s Museum, the A-GFTC Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and the WSWHE-BOCES Early College Career Academy (ECCA) Advisory Committee. 

In addition to her stellar marketing work, Kate is known in Glens Falls for her creative advocacy and event promotion. She is the founder of GlensFallsVegan.com. This summer, she is running the Glens Falls Vegan Festival, which will take place on August 10, 2024, and is involved in the first Glens Falls Mermaid Festival, which will take place on June 22, 2024.

We discussed her career, projects and passions, and life in Glens Falls, "Hometown U.S.A." She also announced her upcoming book, a collection of articles on parenting that she had written for her column in the Glens Falls Chronicle.

You will be inspired when you hear how Kate blends her personal passions with her professional skills to make such an impact on her clients and our community.

Take action!

• Determine three ways you can use your business skills and experience to impact your community.
  

If you enjoyed this episode and found the information useful:

📍Subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues.

📍Click here to subscribe to the Next Level Success Newsletter, a weekly email for ambitious individuals looking to take their businesses to the next level with insights, advice, and how-tos from Ann Donnelly’s 40 years of business and marketing experience.

A few weeks ago, I came across a very insightful episode of the Ed Mylett Show on a four-hour drive from my daughter's college. I couldn’t wait to get home, listen again, take notes, and share the episode with everyone! Mylett’s guest was Leila Hormozi, and the topic was Transform FEAR into FUEL. Mylett had recently had dinner with Hormozi and her husband, Alex, who are highly successful entrepreneurs, investors, and philanthropists. Hormozi’s self-awareness level at dinner blew Mylett away, thus her appearance in this episode of his podcast.

Because much of Hormozi’s work involves helping entrepreneurs build their businesses, much of the talk is about the traits of successful entrepreneurs, but the points discussed and the advice Hormozi and Mylett provide are relevant to anyone looking to reach their highest potential, whether it is in the professional or personal areas of their life.

Listen to this episode to hear my insights into the discussion between Mylett and Hormozi.

Topics included:

• The traits of a Failing Entrepreneur, according to Leila Hormozi

Develop (and Use!) the Communication Skills Needed to Realize Your Dreams and Goals! Click here to join the Waitlist for Raising Your Voice, Ann Donnelly's platform for women who want to reach their highest career and life goals, launching in Autumn 2024!

Take action!

• Determine at least one way you are doing business or working toward a personal goal not aligned with your values. How can you readjust to be more aligned?
  

If you enjoyed this episode and found the information useful:

📍Subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues.

📍Click here to subscribe to the Next Level Success Newsletter, a weekly email for ambitious individuals looking to take their businesses to the next level with insights, advice, and how-tos from Ann Donnelly’s 40 years of business and marketing experience.

This week, I bring you a very special episode of Building Success Stories—an interview with Megh and David Howard of Erbessd Instruments, a global leader in machine health monitoring. 

The company has customers in nearly every country and works with 145 distributors and partners worldwide. It has approximately 140 employees working between Glens Falls, two locations in Mexico, a European office in the United Kingdom, and a facility in India added last year.

We discussed what being based in Glens Falls means for the company and the area, how innovation and agility are at the core of the company’s success, and how marketing is not only used to reach potential customers and partners but also to educate and connect with potential future customers and employees at all stages of their careers.

There is a lot of information and inspiration in this episode which is a REAL Building Success Story.

(I apologize for the poor audio quality of this episode. My usual audio recorder failed on me!)

Take action!

• Determine three ways that you can use your marketing to reach potential future customers and employees in the early stages of their careers.
  

If you enjoyed this episode and found the information useful:

📍Subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues.

📍Click here to subscribe to the Next Level Success Newsletter, a weekly email for ambitious individuals looking to take their businesses to the next level with insights, advice, and how-tos from Ann Donnelly’s 40 years of business and marketing experience.

We all know what it’s like to go into a shop to browse when an aggressive salesperson approaches as soon as you enter the door and offers to “assist.” It makes you want to run out of the shop. That’s a salesperson who doesn’t understand the Buyer’s Journey. 

In this episode of Building Success Stories, producer Seth Cooper and I discuss the Buyer's Journey and the stages a person goes through before, during, and after deciding to purchase.

Considering these stages in all aspects of your digital marketing makes you more likely to engage the person, turn them into a solid lead, and then a loyal customer.

Listen to this episode to learn more about the Buyer's Journey, each stage, the content useful at each stage, how to use the stages in your digital marketing, and the risks you face if you don't consider the stages in your digital marketing.

Click here to read more about The Buyer's Journey - Understand the Stages & Use Them to Win Customers

Take action!

• Download Placentric's tool, Develop Content Ideas for The Buyer’s Journey, and use it to determine some ideas for the first stage, Awareness.
  

If you enjoyed this episode and found the information useful:

📍Subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues.

📍Click here to subscribe to the Next Level Success Newsletter, a weekly email for ambitious individuals looking to take their businesses to the next level with insights, advice, and how-tos from Ann Donnelly’s 40 years of business and marketing experience.

If you can only focus on one aspect of marketing your business, it should be increasing Domain Authority because this brings more relevant traffic to your website while boosting brand awareness and authority.

In this episode of Building Success Stories, producer Seth Cooper and I discuss Domain Authority, a metric used by digital marketers to give an idea of the value Google and other search engines give to the pages in their index to determine the ranking of search results. Other terms used are Page Rank, Page Authority, and Site Authority.

Listen to this episode to learn the benefits of increasing Domain Authority, the steps needed to increase it, what should be involved in an Authority Building Strategy, and the risks you face if you don't increase Domain Authority.

Click here to read more about Domain Authority.

Take action!

• Use the Moz Domain Analysis Tool to discover the Domain Authority of your website and your main competitors' websites to see where you stand.

If you enjoyed this episode and found the information useful:

📍Subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues.

📍Click here to subscribe to the Next Level Success Newsletter, a weekly email for ambitious individuals looking to take their businesses to the next level with insights, advice, and how-tos from Ann Donnelly’s 40 years of business and marketing experience.

In Episodes 26 and 27 of Building Success Stories, Producer Seth and I discuss the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a process for maximizing the traffic to your website, social media profiles, and any online “properties” you have from organic (not paid) search engine results.

In Episode 26, Part 1, we defined SEO,  discussed how it increases traffic to your website, and how to research and select the "keyphrases" to target on your digital marketing channels.

Listen to Episode 27 for Part 2 of this discussion and learn how to use these keyphrases to optimize your website and other digital channels.

Read more about this topic at https://placentric.com/ep27/.

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Take action!

• Review the website platform, or content management system (CMS), used for your website and determine how to use the elements needed to optimize your site and its pages for maximum traffic from organic search results.
  

If you enjoyed this episode and found the information useful:

📍Subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues.

📍Click here to subscribe to the Next Level Success Newsletter, a weekly email for ambitious individuals looking to take their businesses to the next level with insights, advice, and how-tos from Ann Donnelly’s 40 years of business and marketing experience.