It’s you versus your inbox. Over a thousand emails you’ve neglected just waiting to be read are piling up daily. Face it, your Gmail has become unmanageable and it is now a suffocating mess of a nightmare!

Today on another episode of Omnicast Podcast, Tyler of Omnifonic and Susan of Hive Marketing discuss the many possibilities and perils when it comes to using email. And that’s not all!

You will learn the tips and tricks of turning your cluttered email account into a savvy tool for sales and marketing!

A great recipe for being at odds with your email account is by combining both business and personal email communications into one account. If you are someone that does this, you can benefit by setting up some guidelines or a Rules of Email for your inbox.

Are you an organized email user or is “doing email” a total chore that you have to tackle everyday? If you are dreading the backup in the inboxes, it’s time to start organizing all of your folders! Oh, and remember to check every folder daily. Out of sight and out of mind means you could miss out on important messages or opportunities.

Here are a few links to get you started on the right path to organizing your folders:

* Gmail* Outlook* Yahoo * iCloud* AOL

Email As A To-Do List?

A great practice among business professionals is ensuring that “Email Inbox as a To Do List” is a task that must be attended to every day..

However, Natalie Lambert, CMO of Instart wrote an article for Entrepreneur.com that treating email as a task manager is inefficient and the wrong tool for the job. Keeping your email open all day allows for distractions and hampers productivity.

Duda Bardavid of Dragapp.com is a strong supporter of doing email as a to-do list and states “In our business lives, regardless of the nature of our tasks, most of the time they start and end as emails.” She believes it keeps everything organized in a centralized space.

What side of the discussion do you land on?Susan and Tyler both agree setting up email as a to-do list works as it is an easy way to stay organized and not let important email tasks get lost in the chaotic daily hustle.

They both read their emails and if it needs an action that they cannot get to right away, they will mark it as unread to remind them this is an action item. You can easily customize settings in your inbox to see unread at the top, here are a few quick links.

Listen to this week’s discussion expanding on how Commercial Strategy came to be and how it can benefit your organizations.

Tyler Jacobson of Omnifonic DIgital Marketing and Susan Barry of Hive Marketing dig into Commerical Strategies with Mike Medsker co-Founder & President of Focal Revenue Solutions.

Are you being bogged down by unproductive meetings while the rest of your industry is keeping up with rapidly evolving changes? Does your business constantly miss the mark? Mike Medsker shows the independent hospitality industry commercial strategies using Focal Revenue Solutions to keep the momentum of their company going even when there are dramatic changes in the market.

What is a Commercial Strategy?

A commercial strategy is a way businesses can approach the disciplines of sales, marketing, and pricing objectives to improve the ability to execute campaigns. By removing the silos between each discipline, decisions are can be made using the same set of data and criteria.Sales needs to be working with marketing to drive those marketing qualified leads and then from there, take those marketing qualified leads and convert them at the highest rate as possible into sales qualified leads and then customers.

What happens when you do not have a Commercial Strategy?

You spend more time in meetings talking about data than executing your company campaigns and being strategic in a dynamic market. Don’t waste valuable hours staring at data, ask Impact Questions to get the answer from the data. Now spend those days saved by focusing on deploying better, more effective sales and marketing strategies than in meetings.

4 Ways To Implement A Commercial Strategy

* Democratize Your Data.Identify a common analytics language that everybody can operate around in order to align the strategic priorities and then let them go execute.* Think Beyond The ReportFocus on insights rather than reports. Using these insights allows you to take action based on reports.* Enable Different Teams to CollaborateInstead of just waiting to provide a forum for teams to engage between regular meetings* Flywheel MomentumFocusing on both the needs of the customer and of the business, allows them to gain valuable insight to provide a win-win solution.

Don’t miss out on the big picture and be stuck in reactionary mode by not deploying a commercial strategy approach, your company will lose impact whether it is a cost in investment or investment in time.

Tool of the Week – Education

Focal Revenue Solutions provides an 8-week course on Fundamentals of Commerical Strategy

You connect with Mike Medsker through

Have you ever wondered how you can incorporate TikTok into your social media strategy?

Tyler Jacobson of Omnifonic Digital Marketing and Susan Barry of Hive Marketing gain some valuable insights on this from guest Jason Dominy of Marbury Creative Group (formerly of Krystal).

Drawing from his 20 years of experience in marketing and social media strategy (13 of those years with prestigious companies like Salesforce, Coca-Cola, and Chick-Fil-A) Jason discusses with the Omnicast team his findings and predictions when it comes to the mega-popular app, TikTok.

Formerly known as the lip-syncing app Musical.ly, TikTok gained momentum when The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon started encouraging viewers to take part in challenges using the TikTok app. The simplicity of the app and the fact that it encourages everyday users to creatively express and share their passions with everyone helped to propel TikTok into the ranks of other social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Now, with over 800 million users, the rising popularity of people creating act-out memes and short-form videos on TikTok has made it a platform that is impossible to ignore.

5 TikTok Statistics

* 800 Million Users Worldwide (Influencer Marketing Hub)* 41% are between the ages of 16-24 (Salman Aslam of Omnicore Agency)* Adult usage has grown by 5.5 times in the past 18 months (Maryam Moshin of Oberlo)* Users spend an average of 52 minutes a day on the platform (

In this episode, Tyler and Susan opine on their forbidden drinks of choice and then dive into the nitty-gritty details of Google Analytics emailed monthly snapshot reports.

Susan Barry of Hive Marketing has a burning question that she needs answered: “What do those snapshot email reports from Google Analytics even mean?”

By reviewing her Monthly Performance report in Google Analytics, Tyler Jacobson of Omnifonic Digital Marketing is able to concisely break down why month-over-month reporting can sometimes present a misleading picture. While these reports can offer valuable statistics such as sessions, users, and conversion rates, the data is fairly limited in its scope. Instead, each email should be treated like an alert to check on the deeper details as to how your site is performing. When gleaning these emails you will also need to take into account several factors such as seasonality or underperforming campaigns. This will require some research on your end, and the following free tools and resources will help you identify any issues that your site might be having:

Free Tools & Resources for Businesses using Google Analytics

* First, if you have not done so already, set up a Google Analytics account as this will allow you to analyze in fine detail the traffic and visitors to your site. Unsure how to do set up Google Analytics? No sweat, we have you covered with our guide The right way to set up Google Analytics.* Google Data Studio is a free interactive dashboard that pulls together data from over 150 sources, including Google Analytics, into easy-to-read reports using data visualization.* Google Search Console is another free service offered by Google that lets you find out a great wealth of information about how Google sees your site. This includes measuring your sites search traffic, discovering high traffic queries/pages on your site, and various other insights on how to improve your site’s visibility and presence in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP)* Be sure to subscribe and keep updated on SEO Blogs such as SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Search Engine Journal. A great SEO starting point would be one of our gems: What is SEO? A philosophical take.* Update Blog Posts to increase traffic and leads while ensuring that you are not getting rid of the queries and keywords that are still effective like in Susan’s Hive Marketing DBR

Don’t have the time to set up Google Analytics for monthly snapshot reports, but you know that you’re ready to take your site and your business to the next level? Schedule a FREE Consultation

Transcript

[Intro] This is the Omnicast Sales and Marketing Podcast for leaders that are ready to grow their businesses. With your hosts, Tyler Jacobson and Susan Barry.

[Tyler] Welcome to the Omnicast Sales and Marketing Podcast.

Tyler and Susan are sharing their insights and experience to silence the inner critic that lives inside most of us. Tyler of Omnifonic Digital Marketing reveals how choking during an interview with overthinking triggered a need to examine why this was happening and what resources were needed to conquer his inner critic. Tyler shares an office building with a therapist/psychologist and in the common area was a Psychology Today magazine which serendipitously had a cover story on how to silence your inner critic. Since this question was on the front of Tyler’s mind he researched further and found a YouTube video by Russ Ruffio – Clients on Demand that helped answer this. One of the lessons learned was this;When experiencing an insecure feeling, it means that you are feeling like you are not equipped for the situation – but the other people in the room feel like you are. This is a red flag to signal that you are about to level up your knowledge and skills.

Susan of Hive Marketing was looking into the subject of fear and the inner critic after reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert She concluded that fear exists to protect us but can sometimes stop us from moving onto the next step.

Fear can manifest in the Imposter Syndrome where you doubt your accomplishments and feel like a fraud. To overcome this, one needs to start making the case for why we believe we are equipped and good enough to mount the tasks that we are charged with.

5 Tips for Silencing Your Inner Critic

* Recognize when you’re doing a massive disservice to yourself by entertaining your inner critic.* Remember that the only reason you’re feeling this is that you’re about to embark on something significant and you’re getting ready to level up.* Prepare and practice before any important meeting or interview.* Listen to empowering songs before a big meeting or call.Have a playlist of songs that you only listen to when you need an energy boost or need to feel like pumped up or excited. Check out Omnicast Season One episode with a conversation on Steely Dan * Write down and evaluate affirmations about the qualities you are working on having. Write them down and evaluate them every single day.

What tools were mentioned in this episode?

Tyler recommends hashtagify.me, a freemium tool you can get access to right now. This research tool shows hashtags and influencers associated with any hashtag or word you enter.

Susan recommends Canva, used by millions to create stunning graphics from templates. A free version is available and you can take your branded templates to the next level with the paid Pro version.

Create designs without having to hire a graphic designer with easy to use templates for digital and print.

Transcript

In light of COVID-19 and the ‘Rona, you’re probably one of three kinds of people – 1.) Unemployed and stressed out, 2.) Employed and stressed out, or 3.) A billionaire. This world is being flipped upside down and inside out and virtually no one (including us) truly knows what a post-corona virus world looks like. But, we’re making some pretty safe predictions about where the world is headed in the short-term and what opportunities those shifts will create.

Susan and Tyler hope this episode, at least, offers some comfort and, at most, sparks some creativity and positive energy for you.

Think we’ve got it all wrong? Do you have a prediction that we didn’t address? Leave us a comment below.

Our Short-Term Predictions:

* Discretionary purchases will be on hold, with the exception of home goods.Even those people who aren’t feeling the economic impact of COVID-19 will slow or stop discretionary purchases in reaction to the recession and in anticipation of a second wave of the pandemic.  This includes things like travel, clothes, expensive personal care products, upgrading electronics, etc.The exception to this will be home goods that add to the “one-stop shop” entertainment complex that our houses have become.  Examples are plants, gardening equipment, outdoor furniture, small appliances like air fryers.* Office space is going to be a luxury and/or headache.The upside is that there will be cheap commercial real estate, while creating a demand for bigger residential homes.* The most successful marketing messaging won’t just target consumers desires in the hopes of capturing pent-up demand.Messaging – especially for gathering places like movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, etc. – will have to work to overcome fear and build consumer confidence.The winners will be brands that don’t just talk about cleanliness and sanitation, but those that can do so in a novel way.  Humor is tough right now, but if a brand can hit the right note of humor that isn’t tone-deaf, it will be collectively cathartic.* Restaurants and bars will also become more of a luxury than something we do 4x a week.This presents an opportunity for in-home delivery services, pick up. Without the need for dining rooms, restaurants may be able to have better profit margins and it may make room for more players.* As cleanliness and sanitation grow more precise and more dangerous, those jobs will require higher levels of skill, which should translate into higher wages and higher levels of respect.Because the cost of experiences such as hotel stays are predicated on low wages for less skilled labor, a rise in skill level will translate into a rise in the cost of those experiences.* Brand building is going to get really important.I buy my groceries online through an app now. How is a new consumer packaged good supposed to earn my consideration, simply by being on a shelf when I’m no longer looking at shelves? Can they pay a premium to supermarkets to be the alternative choice when a major brand is out of stock? * With travelers already expressing that they feel significantly safer in their personal cars than on flights or train trips, drive-market leisure travel will dominate the travel landscape for at least the remainder of 2020 and potentially until a COVID-19 vaccine is discovered.Low gas prices and perception of relative safety will make the road trip the only trip for the vast majority of travelers.* Home services are going to go crazy.My floors are creaky and it drives me nuts – well, this is now my home office AND my vacation destination AND where my dining happens. I will want to upgrade things. Also, more use of the house likely means more potential for plumbing problems and better installation and maybe soundproo...

In the second part of this two-part episode, we may finally answer the question that started this whole thing: How do you know when it’s time to start paid advertising Make sure you subscribe to get the full conversation!

It may seem like a simple question, but as we unravel why the question was being asked it became apparent that we were opening a can of social media and marketing worms. Join us down the rabbit hole that spans two full episodes. Make sure you subscribe to get the full conversation!

Susan wanted to have a public argument about a band that she loves and that Tyler hates – but this is a marketing podcast and – well – everything is marketing. So, how can their opinions about this particular band result in actionable marketing lessons? Somehow, someway, Tyler and Susan tie this back to some great ideas about how to increase engagement and build brand loyalty.

Give the episode a listen, pick a side and weigh-in in the comments below!

AI Generated Transcript:

TYLER: You’re listening to the Omnicast . Thanks for joining us. I’m your host Tyler Jacobson with frequent guest Susan Berry of Hive Marketing. SUSAN: Hello. Tyler Jacobson and thank you once again for having me. This is the most exciting podcast episode in the history of time. Here’s your adrenaline going. I’m beside myself with excitement. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat. I’m drinking a beer to calm myself down. TYLER: Oh man you know I’ve got alcohol in here as well. Maybe I should have some.

Susan remind everybody of what it is that you do. SUSAN: Well my company is Hive Marketing and we help hotel owners management companies and brands improve topline revenue results. So if there are sales marketing and revenue strategy problems in your hotel I would love to help you fix them. TYLER: Wonderful. All right. This episode is going to be by the way. I don’t know. This could also be the worst episode of any podcast ever. It could be the best but it could. It could easily be the worst because I’m not even fully engaged on where I’m heading with this but I know. So really what. I don’t even want to give it away yet. I don’t know if we’ll just hold on onto it for a moment and we’ll we’ll we’ll reveal what this episode is about. Slowly but that is all to say that I am not prepared for this and I might come out on the other end in a completely different spot. SUSAN: Now. Interesting. TYLER: I’m not saying no I mean with the core the core opinion probably is not going to change. SUSAN: Well tell you what. TYLER: No no no no no no. You bet. But it’s my core opinion of all of this probably. It’s definitely not going to change. But in trying to apply it to marketing there’s going to be there’s going. SUSAN: I might I might be I might find a new respect but let me I will find a new respect for you if you can apply this topic to marketing because I’m not sure that I’m ready to do that. Everything is Mark. I am ready to talk. TYLER: That’s maybe the case that we have to make on this episode is that everything is marketing and that this this battle royale where they’re only only one of us will remain standing. It has to take place. But the challenge is having it take place in the context of a marketing of a marketing storyline. And and what are the gifts and what are the what are the problems everybody. Interesting I want I want I last time on the last episode that you’re on. I asked you to just visualize a funnel and we were going to we are going to now. Now I want you to visualize something else and close my eyes when I’m doing this year’s 1972. TYLER: The Vietnam War is raging. We have a we’re entering a recession right. Because isn’t that the malaise of the 70s. TYLER: Right. TYLER: There’s really a whole lot about the American story that that any artists can can take a lot from and really kind of hold the mirror up to us and show us who we are. And a couple of middle class white douchebags decide that they’re going to hold up that ma...

Tyler and Susan start by talking about the marketing funnel but quickly end up breaking apart a campaign that isn’t getting the expected results. By focusing on the messages, offers, and personas at each stage of the funnel, Tyler and Susan find next steps to capture more leads. Find out how to instantly make your efforts improve by simply applying the buyer’s funnel to your own marketing actions.

What tools were mentioned on this episode?HotjarHive Marketing’s Recession Readiness Tool for HotelsSchedule A Free Consultation with Omnifonic