Spark Live presented by Spark Marketer

On this episode of Spark Live, Carter and Taylor were back answering your questions!

They covered:

1. "When everything is equal, what sets you (your business) apart?"
2. "Is everyone (seasonal businesses heavy in fall and winter) slowing down?"
3. "What can we cut back on to save money during slow times?" (And no marketing isn't one of them!)
4. "What is AIO?"

Thanks for listening!

P.S. If you enjoy Spark Live, please consider leaving us a review! It means we're delivering the right value to you as a listener and helps us identify where we need to improve. For other comments, questions, or ideas for topics, please reach us at [email protected].

On this episode of Spark Live, we're bringing back our resident ads expert, Dave Scribani, to talk about Google Ads (with a little Facebook ads talk) and what you need to know in 2023. We cover answers to these questions:

• "The phones aren't ringing, should we run Google Ads?"
• "How do I know if I am ready to dive into the ads world?"
• "I want to run ads but my business is not doing well. What should I do?"
• "What are some great things Google Ads (and Facebook ads) can do for my business?"

As well as getting his recommendation for display ads vs search ads.

You won't want to miss it!

P.S. If you enjoy Spark Live, please consider leaving us a review! It means we're delivering the right value to you as a listener and helps us identify where we need to improve. For other comments, questions, or ideas for topics, please reach us at [email protected].

Like most questions in the marketing world, the answer is "it depends."

But we swear this isn't a cop-out answer!

SEO isn't something as black and white as, say, your business' P&L statement or balance sheet.

There are many factors that determine how fast you can see SEO results.

Taylor and Carter talk about:

• Your goals and expectations
• Your starting point
• Where you're located
• The competition in the area
• BONUS: What's the first thing to do if you are in need of a quick win to drum up business?

Thanks for listening!

P.S. For comments, questions, or ideas for topics, please reach us at [email protected].

It's easy to get caught up in all the hype and buzz surrounding new technologies.

But is that shiny new piece of technology helping you to solve an actual problem?

Or is it just a bunch of bells and whistles with no actual substance to do anything useful?

On this episode of Spark Live, Taylor and Carter talk about 5 points to consider when you're looking at adding new technology to your business.

They covered:

1. How to make sure the technology solves an actual problem
2. KISS - Keep It (the technology) Simple Stupid
3. How to make sure the technology is versatile
4. Do they (the people involved) actually understand your industry?
5. What type of support is available?

Thanks for listening!

P.S. If you enjoy Spark Live, please consider leaving us a review! It means we're delivering the right value to you as a listener and helps us identify where we need to improve. For other comments, questions, or ideas for topics, please reach us at [email protected].

At this time of year, there's a renewed focus on goals, resolutions, and intentions.

Truth is, the story we tell ourselves gets forgotten. So what's your story for 2023? We've all got one we tell ourselves. It's being written each day, month, and year.

But is it helping you or holding you back?

In this episode of Spark Live, Taylor talks about ways to self-identify your story and how it gets reflected in your business.

Happy New Year! December 2022's Q&A is here.

Questions/topics we covered: 1. "How do I know if I'm doing the right things with my marketing?"

Compare your numbers (revenue, sales, and other KPIs you've set for your business) to 2019, not 2020/2021. The mindset was different in those years than now.

2. "How do I create a more secure password?"

Carter goes over the proven password formula we've used here to keep our logins more secure. NOTE: to see the password formula Carter talks about, check out the timestamped YouTube video: https://youtu.be/4nj6LvrOEPQ?t=806

Thanks for listening!

What's new with Facebook and Facebook ads? We're glad you asked!

In this episode we've got a special guest - our very own Facebook expert, Dave Scribani.

We talked with him about Facebook ads (and organic) and what you need to know going into 2023.

We covered:

• What's the difference between Facebook ads and Facebook organic content?
• How many people actually see your organic Facebook and Instagram content
• Is organic reach declining?
• How much do Facebook ads cost? And is the cost increasing?
• And more!

For questions or suggestions for future shows, email us at [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

P.S. Check out our Resource Center for info on other marketing topics: https://resources.sparkmarketer.com/

Photos and videos are useful for attracting attention. They work especially great if you're in a visual industry, like fashion or travel.

But how can you use visual marketing for a home service business? Listen to this episode to find out!

We cover:

• How many businesses are investing in visuals
• What we mean by 'multimedia' and the scale from simple to complex examples
• What YellowPages has to do with today's marketing
• How to approach content creation
• And the ROI for visual marketing strategies

Thanks for listening!

For other marketing resources for home service businesses, check out resources.sparkmarketer.com!

If you search "SEO Advice for small businesses" you'll get around 25,000,000 results.

With this much info out there, it can be difficult to know what's true and what's BS.

Lucky for you, we're breaking down some bad advice around SEO on the Internet you can ignore (and what you should do instead).

We'll talk about:

👵 What to do with old content on your website

📜 How the length of a page impacts its rank

✍️ If you should put keywords in every page heading

🏞️ How alt text in images should actually be used

☠️ How much you should worry about "toxic" links

After this Spark Live, you'll know the correct way to deal with these 5 pieces of bad SEO advice.

In this episode of Spark Live, we caught up a bit on some housekeeping notes, announcements, and answers to some questions!

First off, congratulations to Taylor for becoming a Business Made Simple Certified Coach. 👏🎉

Second, our Customer Engine software is now going to be called CustomerMatic. Everything else is the same! Just a name change. Carter shares the story in this episode.

Taylor also goes into things to keep in mind with how different business owners think about their business and how they see marketing specifically. How does marketing fit in with your business? Is it something you nurture or neglect?

Thanks for listening!

-Taylor and Carter P.S. If you enjoy Spark Live, please consider leaving us a review! It means we're delivering the right value to you as a listener and helps us identify where we need to improve. For comments, questions, or ideas for topics, please reach us at [email protected].