Marketing Magic

Do you have more than one target audience for your business?

The guest that I had on this week’s strategy session has three… yes, you heard that right! She wanted to gain some clarity around how to reach the three audiences that she has for her business and that’s exactly what we talked about in this episode.

I spoke with Emmy, the founder of Shop Local, an online business community that helps people to do exactly what it says: buy and sell their products in the local community.

We talked about an upcoming show she’s doing and how she can attract more vendors to that show. She shares how she plans to run the tradeshow online and her vision around what that will look like. 

We talk a lot about how her online marketplace functions (think Etsy but for your local community!) She shares pain points that she helps solve for her vendors and I give some advice on how she can leverage her vendors to reach more people. I also give her some tips around using marketing to help smooth out people’s fears and how to use Facebook groups for marketing efforts. 

We talk about:

• Why Emmy started her business to help small businesses
• What their give-back program is 
• How she targets her 3 separate audiences
• What they’re pushing toward in the midst of COVID
• How her online marketplace functions 
• What they’re doing to attract vendors for their upcoming show
• Trends she’s noticed about her vendors
• Pain-points that her business is solving for vendors 
• How she can leverage her audience for her messaging
• How they use influencer marketing and live videos
• What the fair will look like virtually
• Advice for leveraging vendors’ audiences
• Why giving people a clear path will help them smooth out their fears
• Tips for getting into Facebook groups for marketing purposes

About Emmy:

I started a website company when I was 19 and over the years saw small businesses struggle with the same marketing issues. I realized that there needed to be some sort of shared Community marketing platform that supported local businesses in the community. Shop Local was born and we've grown in communities all over the US that use our mobile app. Now we've launched our Online Marketplace to help businesses survive the big online mogules like Amazon and Etsy.

Connect with Emmy:

Website | Facebook Group | Instagram

Links:

Download the mobile app

How to get your chamber involved in Shop Local Online

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation...

As a service provider, especially one that serves a local community - it can be challenging to think beyond the four walls of your business….

Today’s guest, Amy will change the way you think about your business and how you can expand what you do and who you serve.

Amy Flaherty talks about how she took her mental health practice online. Amy not only runs her private practice but she also runs a membership program and an online institute. In this episode, we broke down her business and particularly how she manages launches.

Launching is something that many business owners are unsure about. The decision about whether you should launch or have an evergreen program leaves a lot of business owners confused.

Amy shares why she chose to do launches and how moving to this model has changed her business and herself as a business owner. We also talk about why it’s okay to make mistakes, what she would’ve done differently looking back now and what she plans to do next in her business. 

We talk about:

• How she made the jump to take her therapy business online
• Why she decided to close her membership
• The big things she had to wrap her brain around when moving to online work and into the expertise role
• What tools she uses for creating her online membership
• Why she does online launches 
• Why launching is right for her versus having an evergreen model
• How moving to this model has changed her business and herself as a boss
• What she would’ve done differently looking back
• Why it’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them
• What Amy plans to do next in her business

About Amy Flaherty:

My name is Amy Flaherty and I’m a Licensed Psychological Examiner-Independent (LPE-I.) You are probably like what is that?? I get that a lot.  It’s a unique to Arkansas thing. Arkansas licenses people at the masters level through the psychology board to do testing and counseling; with the “I,”I can practice independently (without supervision). There aren’t many of us so it’s likely you haven’t heard of it.

But the most important part you need to know is that I’ve been practicing therapy with kids and adults since 2005 and have been in private practice since 2007. 

I’m also a Registered Play Therapist (RPT).  I’ve been a RPT since 2012.  Becoming a RPT was really one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made in my professional life. 

While sandtray therapy is my passion, it’s not the only method of therapy I use with my clients. I view change through cognitive-behavioral therapeutic lens but utilize many experiential methods to access all parts of my client’s brain.

I’m a constant learner and a self-proclaimed nerd.  I have a passion for neuroscience and neuroplasticity, especially as it relates to sandtray therapy.

Connect with Amy:

 Southern Sandtray Institute | Sandtray Therapy Association | True Hope Counseling

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Memberium

Tribe

Product Launch Formula

Public Relations often feels unattainable because we usually see it working for giant brands with an agency creating the most incredible spins on news. The secret to actually getting media and the right kind of explosive attention is all about the relationships and followup. Anyone can utilize PR for their business so I brought Courtney Love Gavin, a public relations strategist to help break down some of the myths that people have about PR and how to use it to grow their business.

Courtney actually started her own public relations firm after using PR to grow her creative goods business. She was profitable within 30 days of launching by using the power of PR to get visible and left the corporate PR world for good.

She discusses how to approach PR for your business and the importance of building organic relationships to help get your message out there.

Courtney shares how to pitch yourself and why you need to filter your pitches depending on who you’re speaking to. We talk about how less is more in the world of PR, why you should have PR for your business and how to use PR in times of crisis. 

We talk about:

• What Courtney does as a publicist
• How you can approach PR for your business
• Why you should build organic relationships
• How to pitch yourself and your business
• Why you should filter your message to who you’re pitching to
• Why PR is about less rather than more
• What the point of PR is for your business
• Why you should be putting yourself out there in a meaningful way
• How to use PR to manage crisis communications

Courtney Love Gavin is a sophisticated public relations strategist and consultant for visionary entrepreneurs and brilliant leaders. Courtney Love teaches her clients how to use PR to arrest attention, inspire action and increase their credibility, drawing from her 16 years of experience leading PR for the world’s most admired brands and business leaders. Courtney Love is solar-powered and lives in Santa Monica, CA with her rescue dog Chandler Bing. When she’s not consulting or creating communications that convert, Courtney Love enjoys trips to the library and perfecting her right hook.

Website | Instagram | Facebook

My Pretty Playbook

It's funny when you start something, you never really know where it's going to go sometimes. I find that's the case with the podcast. Today, we're celebrating 100 episodes of The Marketing magic podcast, which is pretty crazy because when I started this two years ago, I really wasn't sure where it was going. I didn't have any lofty goals. I just knew it was where I needed to be, and the content platform that was going to be best for my personality, and for what I wanted to accomplish in my business. The rest was just a wild ride. Here are 100+ truth bombs from the past 99 episodes to give you bite-sized inspiration to build amazing businesses.

1. Find your voice. Find what you have to say. Find what's important and be willing to say it out loud. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
2. Speak up. That's different than just finding your voice because sometimes we just don't know what to say, and sometimes we're afraid to say it. So whether you fall into either one of those camps, I want you to have permission again and to hear it over and over and over and over and over and over and over. You're allowed to say things you're allowed to have a point of opinion, you're allowed to say more than just what you're good at or what you're doing in your business. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
3. Find women who are pulling up chairs at their table for you to join. That's a big difference from people who are putting their claws out, especially in the women's space. If you've never had someone who is amazing, who's ahead of you, who's on the same par with you, who's doing great things that you look up to that's been like, Hey, you know what, there's room for you at my table here figuratively or literally, you need to find new posse.  There is so much space and growth and amazingness that happens when women take each other under the wing and support each other and you need to find that kind of community.  - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
4. Find a group of women entrepreneurs who are ahead of you and pay attention. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
5. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable with your message. That can either look like being uncomfortable saying the same thing over and over or by being uncomfortable in your business, period by saying the hard things. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
6. I found this quote on one of the episodes Episode 52, I believe, and I loved it so much. I forgot it was even in there.”Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from.” Gosh, I should get that one tattooed on my arm right now. And I know some of you right now need to hear this message today.
7. Entrepreneurship is hard. And there are no overnight success stories no matter what you believe, or what you see online or what you read on the news. Entrepreneurship is hard for a purpose. And it is to help you discover who you are. I think it's so much deeper than just having a business. It also is this whole thing with teaching you who you are as a person, and what you're supposed to be doing here on this planet. - Episode 039 with Lilah Higgins
8. The most successful brands and people behind the brands are confident. That's their secret weapon. If you don't believe in yourself, Why will anyone else believe in you as well? That's a deeper conversation I go into with Candice Hickman on building a successful personal...

Do you know the direction that you want your business to be headed to?

With everything happening around the world with he COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no doubt that the decisions you make now can have long term impacts on your business. 

With that in mind, I wanted to bring on someone who could help us understand and navigate through this time better within our businesses. I had the pleasure to speak with Casey Gromer, founder of Wave Marketing.

Casey helps companies by stepping in as their own CMO and helping them to make better, more informed marketing strategies. 

She shares why you need to know what direction you want your business to go and the foundational things you need to consider during this time. 

Casey talks about why you need to create 90-day action plans and the importance of having a weekly CEO meeting to assess direction and strategy. We also talk about the differences men and women have in how they grow and market their businesses, why she hires other marketers to help her in her business and so much more. 

We talk about:

• How Casey got started with her company Wave Marketing
• The long term implications of making decisions in this climate
• How there’s more that one right path to grow your business
• What foundational things you need to think about for your business during this time
• Why Casey hires other marketers to help with her business strategy 
• How she approaches strategic planning and her tips for planning
• Why you need a weekly CEO meeting
• The differences between how men and women grow and market their businesses

About Casey Gromer:

I'm your Small Business CMO. Companies just like you hire me to help their business reach its full growth potential.

I'm a strategic marketing leader, partner, and trusted advisor. I put strategies and systems in place to ensure the success of your marketing initiatives. Together, we put the right people doing the right things so you are able to save time, resources, and money. Once you have the structure, it’s easily repeatable to support your long term growth.

I’ve spent over 20 years leading marketing teams for Fortune 50 corporations and now work with companies with big visions.

Connect with Casey:

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Casey’s free checklist

A Fresh Wave of Marketing: An Intentional Approach to Marketing for Visionary CEOs

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss...

At the time of this recording, we’ve been in lockdown for COVID-19 for two months and businesses are just starting to open up in phases across the country. With it comes a lot of uncertainty, fear and even hope. What no one seems to be talking about, is What’s Next? And what does our world and businesses look like Mid-COVID, and eventually, post-COVID? 

That’s why I knew I had to bring on Connie Chesner to talk about what’s next for many business owners. Connie is a market research consultant, strategic insights expert and the leader of Armored Team Building and Armored Research. 

During the pandemic, she created a report that helps businesses know how to balance the uncertainty of the world with still running a business and how they approach it with their customer base. In this episode, we get into understanding where your target market is and how you can get the inside scoop of what they’re thinking. 

She tells us about the report she conducted on market motivation and COVID-19 and the 5 major shifts we’ll be seeing as we navigate, “America On Pause”. Connie dives into how to avoid uncertainty in hard times, why you need alignment in your messaging and importantly, how you decipher between facts and fake news. 

We talk about:

• Connie’s background and what brought her to start her businesses
• What her report looks at and how she predicts COVID-19 will affect the future of our world
• How individual business owners should approach their business strategy during this time and build trust with their customers
• How you can use market research to understand where your customers and clients are at currently
• Why now is a good time to utilize the creepy exercise with your market
• How brands can avoid uncertainty in hard times
• How some companies are coming up with unique ads right now by getting creative and looking at the markets
• Why you need alignment in your messaging
• How to know if a source is credible and reliable

About Connie Chesner:

Connie is a master at resiliency and human motivation with 20+ years in psychology, qualitative market research, and hard earned personal experience. She’s been an international media expert, keynote speaker at conferences such as Loyalty 360, a professor, has run projects to launch and reform multi-national brands, and today she weaves that deep understanding into guiding people to stronger leadership and fulfillment.

​Her diverse background in training, mentoring, and guiding others allows her to connect motivational psychology and self-defense training in transformative ways. Krav Maga began as a way to rediscover herself, her trust, and her confidence after a 5-year abusive relationship, but quickly turned into a passion and vehicle to impact teams in revolutionary ways.

​She has successfully founded two businesses and worked within corporations and agencies, allowing a diverse understanding of how individuals and organizations motivate, build trust, maintain, and grow.

Connect with Connie:

Website | LinkedIn

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Free Report Download

Armored Team Building LinkedIn

Connie’s Post with...

Websites are magical. And beautiful. But just because you build one, doesn’t mean people will come. That’s where Google comes in. So how do you get your website to show up on the first pages of Google?

If you want your website to get in front of tons of people, you need to pay attention to search engine optimization (also known as SEO). 

In this episode, I was joined by Meg Casebolt, an SEO genius and founder of Love at First Search.  We explore the in’s and out’s of SEO and how to get your website ranked higher in search engines.

Meg and I geek out on how she helps clients with their SEO and the first place to start working on your SEO. She gives us her favorite tools to help improve your rankings.

We chat about why you need to have consistency for the sake of your SEO and how you can use customer reviews and testimonials to help your business show up higher in searches. 

We talk about:

• What Meg does and how she got started in the SEO world
• How testing things out helps you to figure out what you really like for your business
• Meg’s approach to SEO and where she starts
• How to audit your own website SEO
• Tools she recommends for improving your SEO
• Why you need consistency to optimize your SEO
• How to use Google My Business 
• Why you have to be willing to put in the work to show up in search results
• How reviews help your website to get found in search

I’m Meg Casebolt and I’ve been helping female business owners like you create beautiful, search-friendly websites and strategic content for the past 6 years.

I’m your no-B.S. bestie who makes it super easy for your dream customers to find – and adore! – you online, resulting in effortless web traffic, consistent customers, soaring profit and SO much more free time (and sanity)!

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

UberSuggest

Google Trends

Google Search Console

Google My Business episode

SEO Starter Kit 

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

Clearly, I love podcasting. A lot. And I DO recommend it over blogging to a lot of clients and guests. But how do you know if a podcast right for you? And How do you wrap your brain around what message you want to share? It’s honestly amazing how much reach a podcast can bring to you and your business.  In this meta podcast episode all about launching a podcast, I brought on podcasting strategist, Kat Brendel to talk about why you might want to start a podcast, how you can get started now and how to get over some of the limiting beliefs that stop you from sharing your voice. For instance, did you know at the beginning of 2020 these were the most recent podcasting stats: - There are 850,000 podcasts available right now - 50% of Americans listen to podcasts and 22% listen weekly - 25-44 year olds make up 50% of the listenership - 80% of listeners listen to the entire podcast or most of it - 20% speed up the podcast

Kat shares how she got into podcasting after leaving her startup job and founding a coworking space specifically for women. She shares how local businesses can use podcasting as a marketing strategy. She also gives her advice on following your intuition on what medium to show up on if you feel that podcasting isn’t the right fit for you.

We talk about:

• How Kat got into podcasting after working in PR and marketing
• Her experience of leaving a job to start a coworking space and work on her podcast
• Why she encourages people to launch podcasts
• What Kat does with podcast coaching and the first steps to getting started
• The things that Kat’s noticed as the best strategies for building a podcast audience
• Her experience with using podcasts for local business
• How Kat recommends that people start if they want to create a podcast
• Why you don’t have to start a podcast if it doesn’t fuel you

Kat Brendel’s love of stories led her to study journalism and build a career in media. After getting a boatload of marketing experience in South America, the US, and Europe, she learned not just how to tell good stories, but how they can drive businesses forward. She hosts the Leading Rebels podcast, co-founded CoWomen, and collaborates with bosses like you to launch & grow your podcast to grow your audience, impact, and business!

Website | Instagram | Podcast

How to Grow Your Business With a Podcast 

Quiz: Should You Launch a Podcast?

"Your Guide to Find & Own Your Story" Blog Post / Podcast Episode

Bosspod Academy: Launch Your Podcast With More Strategy and Less Overwhelm - Like the Boss You Are!

The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas 

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community,...

Have you ever felt tired of talking and talking and promoting that thing you’re really good at… because the thing you’re really passionate about is on the tip of your tongue but you’re too afraid to voice it aloud?

Or better yet, have you ever censored yourself from posting something or piping up in a conversation because you discarded your thoughts as important enough?

This is something that dawned on me a few months back at a conference. There aren’t enough loud, proud, female entrepreneurs that are sharing their voice with the world. 

That’s why I had to bring Maggie Frank-Hsu back to the podcast for another interview. Maggie is a copywriter and writing coach for entrepreneurs. We had a deep discussion on finding your voice and latching on to your big idea.

We get into what Maggie does to help clients find their big idea. She talks about overcoming the wrestling match of what you should do and what you actually want to do.

Maggie and I talk about how finding her own voice has impacted her. She also shares her experience of writing her book, Be About Something, which will be releasing in June of this year. 

We talk about:

• What Maggie’s done in her career as a copywriter and writing coach
• How she’s found her own voice in her business
• Why it became important for Maggie to pivot to this in her business
• Her belief about finding your voice and your big idea
• The wrestling match between what you should do and what you want to do
• Her advice on how to start finding your voice
• How she’s overcome imposter syndrome and her inner mean girl
• Giving power to the feelings that you have
• How finding her voice has impacted her personally and professionally
• Maggie’s book process and what it’s going to be about

About Maggie Frank-Hsu:

I’m Maggie Frank-Hsu, an email strategist and copywriter who works with moms who are entrepreneurs. I’ve spent my career helping my employers and my clients seize the attention of their audiences and move them to action via the written word. I’ve always been a writer, and I received my Master’s degree from Columbia School of Journalism and worked for national magazines like Gourmet, Martha Stewart and ESPN the Magazine. Then I spent the next 10 years building online audiences that grew to over a million visitors a month. 

I combine those two sides of my expertise—writing and strategy—to help business owners turn their subscribers into people who love to get marketing emails.

Connect with Maggie:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The...

Admit it. Google Analytics has you excited about data and nerdy stuff. It's ok! You're in good company. Today we are wrapping up our Geeking Out series on Google Analytics to walk through a few more ninja moves you can do and glean from with advanced reports, goals and conversions.

But first... Analytics vs Reporting. What's the difference? Our brains glaze over when we start thinking about data because we consider it from a reporting perspective. Reporting spits out facts. Analytics tell us what happened and how much so we can use our brains to figure out what happens next. Our brains must explain why it happened so we can decide what we’ve learned and make a plan for how to get more of that activity. So let's look at some advanced reports to help that analytical side of you.

These use to be the go-to reports on Google Analytics back in the day because you could find out the keywords you were being found by on Google. And then they took them away and crushed every SEO consultant’s job and made it way harder. So, these reports are honestly a lot less useful, but you can still get some good insights if you set up Search Console on your website. Without search console set up, if you click google/organic and drill down to keyword reports, you’ll see 90% of the keywords are hidden behind 'not provided'. So how do you get something useful? One of the most useful reports for keywords right now is found by looking at the landing pages on your site to see where your traffic is going from organic search on your site. You can get there by going to > Acquisition > Channels > Google/Organic > Keyword > Landing Page I can see people are finding my home page, podcast and specific podcast episodes through organic search -- which tells me what to make sure my SEO is set up well on. The other report that will help are Search Console Reports can give you some insights by looking at the Queries Report (which is a fancy term for the keywords people are finding you through). Step one is to make sure you have Search Console turned on for your site. If you haven’t set it up before, it will prompt you to set it up on your site in the Admin section.

One thing you'll want to be aware of is that Google only keeps the data for 90 days in the Search Console so you'll want to download it every quarter for historical purposes if that kind of information is important to you.

This report answers the questions: Is our social media strategy working? How does social impact people coming to my website and how does it impact my marketing goals? 

This is the second caveat on this topic but, these reports aren't as useful as they used to be because they haven't been updated by Google in a long time. Looking at the overview for social reports will tell you how many conversions were happening on your page (if you set up goals) and how many were from social media. The section for Social Network will show you all the social channels in one place, and you'll also be able to see what landing pages are driving social media activity back to your site.

One way to measure content engagement on your site is to look at how your visitors are interacting with the content on your page, the flow of content throughout your site and what your content is asking them to do.

Site Search If you have a lot of content, make sure you set up the site search function so that visitors can search your content to find exactly what they are looking for. If you have this turned on, this report will tell you the exact phrase your visitors were searching for, how long they searched, what pages they were searching on, etc. -- which is helpful for you to know what's working on your page, where people may be getting stuck or what they're coming for. Site ContentThe second report for...