MAKE YOUR MARKeting

Dan Edwards is a real estate agent in my area. I've known him for several years and he's not just your regular real estate agent, he knows his business inside and out. And, what I love the most about him is he is an expert marketer. You're going to get a lot of tips out of him with today's conversation.

Dan's got a background in sales, business technology, and he's become one of the top real estate professionals in the greater Seattle area. And he loves people. He's great at marketing his businesses and he's a natural at putting people together. We talk about how businesses can market themselves today and most importantly, how they can be "top of mind" with their customers. What Dan calls Mindshare, owning a space in your customer's mind.

Dan share some of his best tips, including how to stand out from the crowd, his 36-Touch program, and many more great takeaways. Let's get on with the episode.

Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

You’re great at what you do. You already have a proven offer and an audience that loves it. You’re ready to scale and reach more people. And podcasting can be the perfect vehicle to connect and engage with your ideal customers.

Podcast listeners are loyal, affluent, and educated. And with over 50% of the U.S. population considering themselves a podcast "fan," that's a lot of ears in which you could be streaming your message. Podcasting is trending upward, and if you want to stake your claim in your market with an authority building and magnetic show, the time is now.

I'm really excited about today's guest James Hamilton Healy. He is our podcast, producer and strategist, and he's been amazing working with to help our clients launch their podcasts. There are a lot of reasons for starting a podcast and many benefits that you may not be aware of, and we're going to go over that in today's episode.

More than any other medium, podcasting allows you to build a stronger relationship with your audience, faster. When you think about it, when a person is listening to you, your voice is in their ear (literally if they are listening with earbuds). It's intimate. They can pick up on your intonation, the emotion in your voice.

And not only are listeners loyal, they are on the go, and in today's mobile world, podcasting fits in perfectly. Listeners can connect while walking the dog, cleaning up the kitchen, getting ready for work in the morning, or driving a car.

We all know our customers get to know, like, and trust us through the content we create. Podcasting allows you to quickly create high-value content that can be repurposed in a number of ways. Social media posts, blog articles, book chapters, press releases, and many more content assets can be spun from a podcast episode.

Listen in as James and I unpack some of these benefits, and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or want to learn more about starting your own show!

Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

You are creative. You are an innovator if you choose to be. You have everything you need, you don't need any other special training. Today's guest, Hall of Fame speaker and innovation expert Bill Stainton talks to us about how we all can find new and interesting dots, then how we can connect those dots to inspire innovation. He breaks this process for turning creativity into money down into three key steps:

1. Lights! This is the ideation stage. It's about coming up with lots and lots of ideas (light bulbs) — and THAT'S IT! Bill's techniques will have you and your team coming up with dozens of killer ideas.

2. Camera! This is the process of evaluation. During this stage, you and your team will focus (like a camera) on the highest value ideas from the dozens you've generated. You'll narrow them down to no more than 3 (preferably 1) that you'll take to the next stage.

3. Action! This is implementation, where the rubber hits the road. You and your team have generated dozens of ideas, and focused in on the very few (or one) that will move the needle. Now it's time to formulate a game plan for bringing it into reality.

On today's episode, Bill guides us through the important ideation stage, and gives us great ideas on how we can inspire our own creativity. Then he shows us how to turn that creativity into innovation, because, as Bill says, "Creativity on its own is worthless. It's important, but worthless because there's no value in ideas." They key here is to take those, winnow them down to the select few good ones, and implementing them.

I'm sure you'll get a lot out of this episode, I really enjoyed my conversation with Bill and I'm sure you will too!

Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is one of my highest recommended strategies for businesses to implement. Prospects finding us through organic search, not paid advertising, account for about 50% of our leads.

Today I'm talking with Hyak Saakian who is a leading SEO specialist and app developer about some tactics you can employ quickly and easily to boost your search engine rankings. If you make these tweaks and work on your SEO game consistently, over time you will see results.

Hyak and I break down the three-legged SEO stool:

- Technical factors - is your website is built soundly, is it easy for Google to understand.

- Content - the actual words on your site, do they match what consumers are actually looking for.

- Link factors - your online digital presence, are you considered reputable.

We go into detail about all three of these important aspects of SEO and give you some great tips for quick wins, along with long-term strategies and solutions.

Competition can be fierce and Google wants searchers to have a good consumer experience. If you can implement some of these tactics and create that better experience, you'll be rewarded with higher ranking and more visitors.

I'm sure you'll get a lot out of this episode, SEO is one of my favorite, in not THE favorite marketing strategy for a lot of our clients... and myself!

Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

There's a boatload of marketing strategies for businesses to choose from, how do you know which is the best for you? On this episode, I chat with Bruce Spurr who has worked with businesses of all types implementing marketing plans that work. There are a lot of great takeaways from our conversation, but the bottom line is that you need to trust the results.

If you have one, two, or three strategies that are working, just stick with them, grind it out, and put more effort into them. If they aren't working, then reiterate and try something different.

I see too many business owners getting overwhelmed with all the options and attempting to "do it all" which dilutes the results and is harder to track. Bruce and I agree, focus is key. He likens it to starting a marketing "bonfire." It takes a little time to get it fired up and burning hot, but once you do, it's best to simply add more logs to the fires and keep building it up, instead of trying to start another fire.

Stick with the fundamentals, like a great website with good copy and email marketing, keep focusing, and trust the results. There are more golden nuggets in this episode, I took plenty of notes for myself! Be sure and give it a listen.

Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

"Branding can be complicated. I want to make it easy and accessible so small businesses can compete and ultimately rule the world." Gil Nevo joins the podcast for a value-packed discussion about branding and how important it is in today's digital marketplace.

Gil's been a creative in TV and advertising for over 15 years. My favorite part about Gil is he animated over a hundred episodes of the show South Park. Yeah. We know, you know, South Park. He's also helped brand powerhouses like Coke, Ben and Jerry's, and Vitaminwater communicate their messages around the world.

Gil has worked with many different capacities in his career. He's also worked alongside me with our clients at Fingerprint Marketing to help with branding and messaging and strategy. So today we are talking about so many things around branding for small businesses, what the misconceptions are, what does it really mean to brand your business, and why it's way more than a logo.

You're going to want to check this episode out.

Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

Welcome to MAKE YOUR MARKeting, I am your host Pia Larson, founder of the Fingerprint Marketing Agency. In today’s episode, I am going to talk about How to Choose the Right Driving Instructor and School. I’m going to tell you more about my background, business, qualifications, and experiences. I also want to explain why knowing your destination matters when choosing who to work with. Throughout the episodes I’ll share simple road rules and other tips for keeping up with traffic. Now, let’s get this show on the road….

Notes and more episodes: http://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com