Learn Marketing Interviews

It seems that everywhere we look, there are people who are developing successful businesses and making money online. Blogging, podcasting, publishing – there seems to be so many different options, but there also seems to be a saturation. How can we create and grow a successful online business in a very crowded marketplace?

Our guest or this episode of Excellence Expected is Anita Campbell who has a wealth of experience in this area from her time as CEO of Small Business Trends. Anita is going to share some fantastic insights with us as well as some actionable tips that could get you started on the road to online business success.

We all have our passions, interests and experiences, so we each have our own unique voice. Therefore, each of us has an opportunity to create a profitable business in online publishing. Listen to this episode to find out how you could make your mark with your own digital publishing business.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast:

How can we build and grow an online business?

About Anita:

Anita is the founder, publisher and CEO of the hugely popular small business website, Small Business Trends. She was initially trained as an attorney and moved into consultancy before finally ending up as one of the most influential publishing figures in the small business space.

Anita built her online presence from scratch and she’s here with us on your favourite small business podcast to share her experiences and tips to help you get a start online.

Actionable Tips:

* Stick with it. It takes times to build up traffic so you should take a look at the metrics after 12 months or 24 months. This is not an overnight thing.

* Publish, Publish, Publish. You have to build up a body of work and put yourself out there consistently. Inconsistent or infrequent content creation isn’t good for your business. The more you can publish, the better. However, quality must be at the forefront of your mind. There are also huge search engine benefits.

* Figure out something to sell early on. You need to have some revenue sources until you can get your traffic to a point where you can attract advertisers or sponsors. You could write an e-book, produce a piece of software or work as a freelancer.

Top Quotes:

* “I realized the potential of publishing. Gradually the blog ate the business.”

* “There’s still plenty of potential for people to create a content oriented site and have it grow into a large site. You need to think about a narrow niche.”

* “If you can find an area or interest that’s not already well served, then there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity.”

* “When it comes to an aspiring entrepreneur, there’s plenty of opportunity to spot something that’s not being done or not being done well and bring your own particular flavour to it.”

* “You have to have something that you can use to make money with. These things can take a long time, especially if it’s supported by advertising. At first, you need to find money elsewhere to buy you the time to get to the point where you can earn real money through advertising or sponsorship.”

* “Sending reports to myself motivated me. The slightest bit of progress could give me the motivation to keep going. Measure things and really look at reports.”

Anita’s Links:

* Small Business Trends (http://smallbiztrends.com/)

* Anita’s Twitter (https://twitter.com/smallbiztrends)

Key Timestamps:

* 00:41 Challenged Issue

* 01:12 Anita’s Introduction

* 04:08 Why Digital?

* 07:42 The Opportunity of Online Publishing

* 11:45 Persistence

Noise is something that all small business owners must contend with. It’s never been easier to connect with potential customers, but the noise from competitors, social media and other distractions can be deafening. Customers are now attuned to just switch off. Even if a client or prospective customer does hear what you have to say, what sets you apart from all of the other people working in your industry or niche?

Making yourself heard above the din is one thing, but having a unique proposition is quite another. How can we begin to differentiate ourselves from the pack and help our small businesses thrive? Our guest for this episode of your favourite small business podcast is Matthew Pollard. Matthew has conquered this tricky problem himself, five times over, and now he has made it his mission to help small business owners rise above the noise by finding and utilizing their differences and unique features.

He will be speaking about the importance of differentiation, how we can start going about it and some of the possible hurdles that we may face along the way. As well offering his expertise, he is also going to offer some exclusive content just for listeners of Excellence Expected. This is a fascinating episode that offers some excellent, practical knowledge that can be applied to any business, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast:

How can we differentiate ourselves and stand out from the crowd?

About Matthew:

Matthew Pollard has built a reputation as the ‘rapid growth guy’. He has helped countless business worldwide achieve rapid growth by applying effective principles to their marketing strategies and ensuring that their underlying foundations are ready to handle an upsurge in growth.

He’s also behind five multi-million dollar success stories in industries as diverse as construction, education and telecommunications. Not only that, but he’s now also an in-demand speaker, writer, business coach and podcast host. Matthew’s here on the number one small business podcast to share his expertise and detailed roadmap that can be applied to any business.

Actionable Tips:

Matthew’s Five Step Sequence

* Step 1 – You need to work out who you customers are. Starting by writing down two lists. The first should be a list of the customers that you make the most money from. The second should be a list of the clients to whom you give the most value.

* Step 2 – With both lists written, start looking at the names and you’ll soon find there are similarities and patterns will begin to emerge. Group these similarities into groups and give these new groups their own names. These are market segments.

* Step 3 – Circle in red all the segments that you make the most money from. Circle in blue all the customers you give the most value to. What you’ll find is that there are a few segments that have been circled in both blue and red. You’ve now just found your target niche.

* Step 4 – Look more closely at the market segments that have been circled in both blue and red. Write down the specific things that you do for this target group. How do you help them, above and beyond offering products or services? How do you give them added value? Why is it that they stick with you?

* Step 5 – Write down what the higher purpose or true benefit is from the perspective of the customer. How can you summarise this in one short, succinct sentence that encapsulates everything that you provide for the customer? That sentence will become a popular tool to attracting new business and maintaining existing relationships.

Top Quotes:

* “I help businesses build the solid foundations underneath the marketing.

Each one of us, whether we’re small business owners or not, has had our fair share of tough times. Perhaps we’ve been through a painful divorce, or seen one of our business ventures fail. These challenging experiences and potentially painful memories can have a negative effect on our future endeavours. But, that doesn’t necessary have to be the case. We can use these experiences to help both ourselves and many other people who have been through, or are going through, similar situations.

With us for this episode of the number one small business podcast is Stacy Curtis, who has found that sharing our stories can make us heal and be able to handle difficult times better in the future. She now works with others to take the nuggets of wisdom buried deep down in memories of challenging times, extract them and present them to a worldwide audience. The things that we learn during the dark days needn’t drag us down for the rest of our lives and if we learn to think about and articulate them, they can be beneficial to us and many others. It’s all about how we view these experiences. And one of the best ways to create enough distance to really see them is to get them down on paper. By taking a step back and giving ourselves a new perspective on difficult times, we can start to extract the lessons that we, and others, can learn.

Only by looking at past troubles or mistakes in the right way can we start to make changes to ourselves and our businesses. Stacy is going to take us through some techniques that have worked for her and some that she espouses on her podcast and her training site.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast

How do we look inwards, draw on our wisdom and create something memorable?

About Stacy

Stacy Curtis is a writer, podcaster, teacher and entrepreneur. She is the mind behind the successful Write of your Life podcast that encourages people around the world to find their life themes and transform their knowledge and life experiences into wisdom that can be used by others to improve their lives and businesses.

Stacy joins us for this episode of your favourite small business podcast to share her insights into how writing about your life can have tangible benefits, not only for your wellbeing but also for your business.

Actionable Tips

* Discover your life theme. Take the time to go through the exercise. Once you know you can work to enhance it or change it. You have to be brave to do that, but the benefits could change your life.

* Think about which aspects of your story you’d like to change for the future. Most of us want to change something. Discovering your life theme will help you identify which aspects you want to change.

* Start taking notice of what’s happening around you and write a little bit about it each week. You need to start taking notice and making the time to write about it.

Top Quotes

* “Studies have shown that writing about your life and reflecting on your life can boost your immune system.”

* “Human beings have an amazing capacity to pull the wool over their own eyes.”

* “Writing helps you take knowledge and turn it into wisdom.”

* “What makes a good story is the details.”

* “What is the one piece of wisdom that you want people to take away? Find that and then you can add details that are specific to the medium you are using.”

* “Writing about or reflecting on your life can be the most effective fifteen minutes of your day. It gets all the junk out of your head and eventually you’ll get to some of the good stuff, the lessons you have learned. These are the lessons that you can then write about and craft into a compelling story that you can use in your business.”

* “We all go through life feeling that we’re so busy, but while you’re doing that,

These days, it feels as if every minute of the day some form of advertising or marketing is battling for our attention. Television, radio, mobile, print and online advertising has reached such a level that it can be difficult to focus on any one product, service or company that can offer us real value.

As consumers, the white noise of modern life can make it difficult to focus but as small business owners we need to be able to cut through all of the distraction and make our voices heard by the people that could most benefit from speaking to us. Trying to compete with everyone else is extremely difficult. By targeting our messages more precisely, we can avoid a lot of the competition and speak directly to the most relevant customers and prospects.

Differentiation, savvy marketing and offering added value can make a whole world of difference. Learning more about your clients and the challenges that they face can also be greatly beneficial as you can be more prepared to meet their needs as they arise.

Take the example of a small accountancy firm. If the firm sets out to work with whichever clients it can get, it will be going up against many others firms offering the same services. It will be difficult for any of them to stand out. If the firm were to narrow down their niche, they could be more targeted. So, if they promote themselves as accountants in the I.T. industry, they will have less competition and more focus. This could be narrowed down further to hosting providers, let’s say. The more targeted they become, the less competition they have to face and the more they can learn about their clients.

In this episode of your favourite small business podcast, we’re speaking to PR guru Tim Prizeman. Tim has extensive experience of making small businesses stand out. With the attention of our clients at a premium, his insights can help our businesses achieve more.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast

How can we cut through the noise attract the right attention to our businesses?

About Tim

Tim Prizeman has over 20 years’ experience as a PR consultant working on behalf of clients in the I.T., financial services and professional sectors both at home and internationally. He is also the author of The Thought Leadership Manual – How to grab your clients’ attention with powerful ideas as well as being a renowned public speaker.

Tim is an expert in making businesses stand out from their competitors and helping them grab the attention of potential clients. With the distracting noise of modern life, it’s never been a more difficult time to grab your potential clients’ attention, so Tim’s going to share his expertise to help us do just that.

Actionable Tips

* Understand the challenges of your clients. If you understand these problems, you can more easily provide solutions and relevant benefits.

* Set aside time for brainstorming. Get together with your staff or colleagues and listen to each other’s ideas and challenges. Exchange thoughts and help each other see issues from a range of different perspectives.

* Have a repeatable or routine feature. It could be a client dinner that you hold on a regular basis. It could be an initiative or campaign that you can repeat to keep its momentum going. Consistency is so important.

Top Quotes

* “Thought leadership means that you have ideas worth following and ideas worth paying attention to.”

* “We do live in a noisy world and you do have to cut through it. Part of the solution is identifying who is it you want to speak to and part of the problem is that the definition of who you want to speak to is too broad.”

* “If you are in a niche market, you aren’t competing against everybody and you can have a targeted message that’s memorable and relevant.”

Brand and branding seem to be used interchangeably in business and society in general. Even if some of us know that there is a difference, that difference can seem a little vague. When we hear either word, most of us will quickly start to think about the visual assets of a business, logos and marketing literature. However, while the idea of brand includes those elements, it also encompasses a great deal more.

Brand can be seen as a substitute for the word ‘reputation’. When we think of a company’s reputation, what do we think of? We think of the customer experience, the service, the products and anything else involved in our experiences of the company.

Brand is an overarching strategy that takes into account the big picture and the small details. If a company dedicates the time, focus and investment into making sure that every area of their business adheres to their brand strategy, it can do wonders for them. Conversely, if a company is unwilling to put in the effort or simply ignorant of how they’re perceived, it can really damage their business. While a sizeable investment is necessary for some businesses, many small businesses could make adjustments to their brand and strategies at a much lower cost. Brand is important as it is how your small business is perceived by customers and potential clients.

In this episode of the number one small business podcast, we’re joined by Giles Redmayne, a renowned expert and industry leader when it comes to this topic. Giles will be sharing with us the differences between brand and branding, how we can apply brand principles to our own small businesses and some of his experiences from his 20 years in the industry.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast

What’s the difference between brand and branding?

About Giles

Giles Redmayne is a founding partner and the business director of brand and design consultancy, Purpose. He’s been in the industry for more than 20 years and worked with and consulted major brands including Orange, Virgin Atlantic, Epson and Apple.

Giles is here with us on this episode of the number one small business podcast to discuss his area of expertise and how small business owners can optimize their brand to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Actionable Tips

* Find an expert to speak to. How will you know that they’re an expert? If the conversation quickly turns to visual assets and logos, then there is something wrong. Brand strategy fundamentally starts with your business, the challenges you face and your goals.

* Talk and engage. Have a non-committal meeting with an agency or run a workshop with them. Talk through your challenges and what you hope to achieve. You don’t have to commit to anything long term, but commissioning consultancy on a modular basis can create a lot of value.

* You need to be prepared to engage your whole business toward building a strong brand. Be realistic about the level of commitment required to build a brand in terms of time, investment and focus. So many projects fall short because people don’t take into consideration the full scope of the undertaking.

Top Quotes

* “Brand is a strategic plan that influences an entire organization. Branding is the application of that within visual assets and communications.”

* “When you flip the word ‘brand’ for ‘reputation’ it resonates in every boardroom up and down the country. The word ‘brand’ has perhaps become too associated with supermarket shelves or consumer goods.”

* “The first inclination is to think that I couldn’t possible afford to do that. But many of the key brand principles are common sense. It’s about finding out what’s at the core of your business that can differentiate you from the competition.”

* “One of the easiest rationales for investing in...

Not only has social media changed the way we live and see the world, but it’s also become a powerful tool for business. There are now more ways to connect with potential clients than ever before but we have all seen examples of social media being used in ways which have negatively impacted businesses. Perhaps a company’s social media isn’t targeted or well thought out. Perhaps their content is just too bland to be memorable.

How, as small business owners, can we get the most out of social media? What can we do to make a positive, lasting impression that will bring tangible benefits to our businesses? In this episode of the number one small business podcast, we’ll be speaking with Ramona Rice who knows more than a thing or two about this exciting topic.

Like all promotional activities, there needs to be a strategy behind a company’s social media output. This can give the impression that we will need to devote a lot of time to it. However, planning out your social media strategy doesn’t need to take up too much of our time and targeted output can have a huge impact. A little forethought and the help of some automated platforms can give us more time to concentrate on the more traditional areas of our businesses.

Most of us didn’t become small business owners to simply sell any old product. The products and services that we provide are things that we are knowledgeable and passionate about. It’s important when using social media to use that knowledge and passion when connecting with potential clients. Don’t be afraid to put some personality into your social media campaigns. It’s easier for customers to make a connection with a company that reveals the personalities of the people behind it.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast

How can we use social media effectively to improve our businesses?

About Ramona

Ramona Rice is not only a great friend of the show, but also a social media strategist, real estate marketer, blogger and podcaster. She manages social media strategy for one of the largest independent real estate companies in the United States. She has her own real estate marketing site and hosts the Sports Gal Pal podcast.

Top Quotes

* “You have talented people who are passionate about things outside of what they do. If you encourage them, it leads to better camaraderie and companionship.”

* “We started small, took baby steps and focussed on one platform at a time and very quickly we started seeing results.”

* “For our site, social media is behind only organic and direct traffic. That’s a real testament to the content we are creating.”

* “We want to provide education and value to our prospective clients. When the time comes when they want to buy a home, they already trust us.”

* “When you have a content marketing plan, it means that every single post, tweet, blog and video has a purpose behind it. It makes things much more effective and it’s easier to measure results.”

* “If you want to do this, the biggest thing you can do is have some data to show your boss. Find out if your competitors are doing something similar. The minute that they find your competitors are doing something, your boss will want to do it.”

* “You can’t be afraid to put some personality into your business. You have to be willing to let go of some potential customers to make sure you get the right customers.”

* “Automated services will save you so much time and they are all very cheap!”

Actionable Tips

* Every post needs to have a goal attached to it. It needs to be based on something that you hope to achieve. Even if it is just letting customers know that you are out there, keep a goal in mind. Defined goals make the process easier to plan for and the results are easier to measure.

These days, just having a website for your small business is not enough. Your site needs to be visible and it needs to generate leads that are going to help your business to grow. How can we drive traffic to our sites and also generate profitable leads?

Quick fixes, keyword hacks and creating all manner of backlinks are not the way to give your business the visibility it needs to succeed. More than ever before, content is king. So how can you produce valuable content that will not only help us rise up the search rankings, but also convert visitors into customers?

For long-lasting, organic results, we need to remember that nothing happens overnight and any SEO company who promises instant results should be avoided. Quality blog posts, great videos and valuable, actionable content will set your business on the right path to the first page of the search results in your niche.

Give your visitors an irresistible offer in exchange for an e-mail address and you’ll soon have a captive and relevant audience with whom you can engage in targeted e-mail marketing.

Our guest in this episode of your favourite small business podcast is Lindsey Anderson, a web strategist who has spent the last ten years helping small business owners get the most out of their web sites. Her company, Web Impakt, has helped hundreds of clients navigate the ever-changing waters of online business.

She is going to share her expertise with us and provide a guide to getting the most out of your online presence.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast Episode: How can we drive traffic to our sites and generate profitable leads?

About Lindsey:

Lindsey Anderson is an expert in the field of online traffic and leads. For over ten years, she’s been at the helm of Web Impakt, a company that specializes in web design, SEO, social media marketing and PPC management and also provides expert consultation to small businesses.

Her site, Traffic and Leads, aims to provide small businesses with complete traffic and lead generation solutions. Lindsey has a wealth of experience in helping businesses achieve tangible results from their websites.

Actionable Tips:

* Select a social media channel and start posting, especially with video. Don’t be shy, just start posting and let people know that you’re out there, you have a personality and you want to do business with them. 

* Make sure your website has a lead capture form so you can get that all-important e-mail address. Just start today and your list will grow and grow.

* Start generating content. Write long articles, short articles or create some video content. You don’t need to work with an SEO company. Write about your industry, small business or anything else you think your customers will be interested in and soon you will start coming up in the search results in your niche. Be patient and keep writing!

Top Quotes:

* “Content is king. Google is now so smart at knowing when people are trying to trick the system.”

* “Boring, generic websites are just sitting there passively. Add a blog or add an offer and your site will see the benefits.”

* “Make sure you have an irresistible offer on your website to capture that precious e-mail address.”

* “E-mail marketing helps us keep in indirect contact with our potential clients. When they are ready to do business, yours will be the first name that will come to mind.”

* “Any information that we can get from visitors should be considered a win. Even if they don’t make a purchase instantly, you can slowly start marketing your products or services to them.”

* “With an e-mail address and the permission to e-mail your visitors, you’re no longer at the whim of Google or Facebook algorithm changes.

Starting an online business can seem daunting. There sometimes seems to be too many different ways in which to go about it. The wealth of information that we have at our fingertips can also begin to feel overwhelming. We start researching an idea and come across something different in the process. Should I start a blog? A small business podcast? An e-commerce store? It’s easy to suffer from paralysis by analysis.

What then is the best way to build a brand, become a figure of authority in a particular niche and make some money during the process?

Our guest for this episode is someone who knows about all of these things and more. An online business veteran with over twenty years’ experience, Zac Johnson is a pioneer in this space and his blog has helped thousands of entrepreneurs get started with their own online businesses.

Zac is going to offer his insights and some actionable tips that could help you take the first steps to becoming your own brand, a leading figure in your field and to make some money at the same time.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast Episode:

How can you build a trusted brand, become an authority within your niche and make money during the process?

About Zac:

Zac Johnson has been making money online through a variety of ventures for over 20 years. He’s a widely respected expert on blogging and affiliate marketing and his articles have helped thousands of entrepreneurs take the plunge and start making money on the web. His blog covers all aspects of online entrepreneurship from building a presence on social networks to leveraging your brand and knowledge to become an authority figure within your niche.

He’s also published a book, Blogging Tips: Confessions of a Six Figure Blogger which aims to further spread useful, actionable and proven ideas on how to generate income in the digital space without a huge amount of initial investment.

Zac’s Actionable Tips:

* Take action, register a domain name and set up hosting. The best way to get started is to get something live today.

* Choose a niche in which you can become the authority. If you’re passionate about sports, start a sports training blog. If you own a local pawn shop, write content that reflects your experience and knowledge. Try to become the authority in this space.

* Turn the blog into a business. This can be done by monetization through affiliate marketing or you can create your own products, or offer consultancy services based on your expertise and experiences.

Top Quotes:

* “In 2007, I launched my own blog to really branch away from affiliate marketing so I could build my own brand, product and following and teach others how to do the same.”

* “You can really do anything now through the WordPress platform because of the functionality, the plugins and the themes that are out there.”

* “To get set up, live and running, it really only takes a few minutes of your time and there’s no programming or previous experience needed.”

* “The best way to take action and get things started is just to learn as you go.”

* “You’re online whether you like it or not. Take control of what is out there.”

* “You can’t let what is currently out there change your decision on whether you’re going to do this or not. You can’t accept things as they are, you need to get out there and change the game. That’s the whole entrepreneur mind-set.”

* “Search your passion and find something that’s profitable.”

* “Keep your content niche focussed and make sure it ties in to whatever your business is.”

* “You need to treat it like a business and take your time to build links, created content and become an authority.”

* “Most people are focusing on content and not content...

Business is entirely driven by sales. At the end of the day, if you are not selling something, you are not making money.

However, not everyone is a natural-born sales person. You may lack confidence, have self-esteem issues, or be afraid that you will be turned down. But you have to learn to sell without fear!

Successful sales people have the following qualities:

* Able to sell yourself and your idea/products

* Articulate: Be able to communicate what you want to achieve without feeling like you are trying to sell something to someone.

* Confident and comfortable in meetings

* Passionate about your products.

* Stand out from the crowd

Also, there are techniques outstanding sales people utilize when conducting business:

* Share your story. This will help to generate excitement and purpose.

* Prepare: Determine what you want; know what you are going to stay; etc.

* Build relationships: How can you help each other?

* Follow Up: Ask about the next steps. Put the ball in the client’s court and make them feel like they are making the decisions. Also, send an email to express thanks for their time.

* Apologise or Walk Away: If necessary, apologize if something is your fault. It is OK. You are human, you make mistakes. Also, know when to walk away from a deal, and don’t be afraid to say ‘No’ sometimes.

Now you are prepared to go out there and sell! Good luck!

About Ben:

Ben runs the National Enterprise Challenge, a not-for-profit organisation aimed at improving enterprise and employability skills of young people.

Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast Episode:

In this small business podcast, we challenge the issue of how to sell without fear.

Ben’s Actionable Tips:

* Empathy and Preparation: Research the company/customers. Determine what is in it for them – have an agenda and goal in mind to identify how that can work.

* Haggle, and then haggle some more. Push back or walk away if necessary and know what you are worth.

* Reflection: The deal does not always need to be done immediately. Take some thinking time if necessary. 

Top Quotes:

* “It’s all about sales. You’ve still got to be a commercial enterprise in the way you think.”

* “If you are passionate about what you’ve actually got or what you are selling…”

* “I think everyone has a bit of self-doubt now and again.”

* “Don’t do that again, you idiot. That’s not how you do things.”

* “You can’t just walk in to a sales meeting and assume that you are going to nail it every time.”

* “At the end of the day, there are so many people who sell to the script.”

* “What can I do to get this closed today? What can I do to follow up? When should I follow up?”

* “What’s the worst that can happen if you apologise?”

* “People are just people.”

* “If you can get that passion, you’ll look like you know what you are doing.”

* “It’s all about being professional and delivering on your promises.”

Guest Links:

* National Enterprise Challenge (http://www.nationalenterprisechallenge.co.uk/)

* LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/ben-dyer/7/9b7/a22)

Resources:

* Jordan Belfort (http://jordanbelfort.com/)

* Judy Robinett (https://www.excellence-expected.com/episode57/)

* The Essential 14–Day Guide to Cutting Your Working Hours and Increasing Your Impact (https://www.

How many people have visited your website? What pages do they visit? How often do they visit? What did they buy? Whether you are a big or small business – the data you collect about your website visitors is vital.

In a world of big data, the power for you as a small business could well lie in small data!

There are several ways and tools you can use to collect data, including Google analytics. These tools help businesses determine the most effective and efficient way to utilize their websites. They can be used to track, analyse, and understand site visitors – their existing or potential customers.

The more in-depth data you collect, the more you can communicate and engage with customers. For example, CANDDi integrates a real-time cookie that tracks every single thing for each visitor - every time they visit until they opt-in to identify themselves. That way, sales staff will know what to reach out to them about and will be able to create long-term relationships.

Most web tracking is anonymous. You don’t know who to reach out to in order to build relationships, but CANDDi helps with that. It can group together customers based on trends and their interests. This provides data that empowers sales people.

But what do you do with the website data you gather to tweak your marketing efforts and build relationships with your customers?

* Put time into creating the right content for specific people.

* Reach out to customers to identify why they go where on the website.

* Gather qualitative data: Why, how, and who?

* Know and care about your clients.

* Be mindful of privacy laws. Don’t abuse data.

* Ask customers what they want and need.

But effectively using the data you collect, your customers turn into clients. A customer is a transactional person. They come to mak a purchase. However, a client is coming to your website for wisdom and experience. They are coming to you because of your knowledge.

So, use data to take your business to the next level. Use it to help your bottom line!

About Tim:

Tim is the co-founder of CANDDi (Campaign and Digital Intelligence Limited), which is a tech startup that helps companies build relationships with website visitors.

Challenged Issue:

In this podcast, we challenge the issue of turning data into meaningful client relationships.

Tim’s Actionable Tips:

* Track absolutely everything! If you are not capturing the data, you can’t do anything with it.

* Qualitative not Quantitative: Ask why, who and how; and listen to results.

* It’s not all about the first date! Awareness, interest, and other factors help you to engage with customers/clients.

Top Quotes:

* “What’s the key things that’s going to get Bob excited?”

* “Your website is your best marketing person. Your worst sales person.”

* “Your website knows everything about your business.”

* “You can’t sell to a page view. People buy from people. People sell to people. People engage with people.”

* “Clients come to us because they want that little bit extra. They want the experience. They want the knowledge.”

* “When you imagine big data…they talk about it, but they don’t really do anything with it.”

* “Small data is far more exciting than big data.”

* “When people visit a website, we think we are showing them everything they want to see.”

* “Conversationalism - starting to ask people: What do you want from our business? What can we give you?”

* “You’ve got to use this kind of data the right way.”

* “Here’s a pint of Guinness. Take the world off your shoulders.”

* “The thing with relationships: They’re two ways.”