In this episode, I talk about three key metrics you should be tracking about your website: bounce rate, pages per visit, and time on site.  I define exactly what those are, how you can track them, and why they're important.

A marketing kit is one of the most powerful and versatile pieces of educational content you can produce for your business, but most businesses don't have anything like it.  In today's episode, I explain what exactly it is, and how you can use it to project a professional image for your brand. 

My very special guest for this episode of the show is none other than the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing system, John Jantsch.  In my interview with John, we discussed his original motivation for creating Duct Tape Marketing, as well as his thoughts on the future of small business marketing and his vision for the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant network.  You can learn more about the consultant network at http://www.DuctTapeMarketingConsultant.com.

Sometimes, people who come into contact with your business aren't quite ready to purchase your products or services--but they might be very soon.  It's important to keep in contact with theses people so that your company stays top-of-mind--otherwise, when they ARE ready to buy, they might forget about your company and go to Google to search for a provider.  In today's episode, I talk about three different types of lead nurturing activities--things that you can do to help your business stay top-of-mind for weeks, months, or even years.

Many small business have Facebook pages, but not many are taking advantage of the advertising opportunities Facebook offers.  In todays episode, I share two big benefits of advertising your small business on Facebook--the ability to narrowly define your audience, and the ability to reach people earlier in the sales cycle.

Landing pages are one-page websites that serve a very specific purpose--getting visitors to that page to take some type of action that identifies them to you in some way, shape or form so that you can beging marketing to them.  If you're doing any form of online advertising, landing pages are a must, but they can also be used with off-line advertising to help track results.  Today, I talk about how to integrate landing pages into your marketing strategy, and recommend two tools--unbounce.com and leadpages.com--to help you create good landing pages.

One great piece of educational content you can use in your marketing is an assessment, quiz, or calculator that demonstrates to your prospective customers why your products or services are the best fit for them (if, in fact they are).  In today's episode, I give a few examples of how you can use a tool like this to build trust and qualify leads.

If you've been listening to the show for any length of time, you've heard me talk about the concept of your "ideal customer" as it relates to marketing strategy.  In today's episode, I talk about the importance of recognizing your "non-ideal" customer as well, so that you can weed them out before they drag down your business.

Increasing your lead conversion rate is the easist way to grow your business quickly, and today I give you a very easy and effective way to do that.  It's something that has been proven to increase close ratio by a factor of 10, but that only about 11% of salespeople do consistenly.  Listen to today's episode to find out what it is, and why most people don't do it. 

In this digital age, direct mail marketing is an often-overlooked but still very effective way for a local business to generate leads.  However, in order to be effective, you must send your direct mail campaign to a very target list.  In today's episode, I tell you about three resources I've personally used to build lists for direct mail campaigns.