In today’s digital landscape, photo and video are the two main driving forces behind modern marketing campaigns. No matter how good the copy is, supplemental photos and video will always play a huge role.

Many business owners and entrepreneurs believe they can cut costs by doing their own photography, either by investing in a nice DSLR camera or just using the HD cameras that come equipped on high-end smartphones.

In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss specific situations where a DIY approach works and others where hiring a professional is the right move.

They go into detail about the differences between a professional job and an amateur job to help you decide if hiring a professional makes sense for the marketing piece you're working on.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make when working on marketing is worrying too much about what they like and not enough about what their customers or prospects will respond to.

When creating a marketing strategy, it’s imperative to put yourself in the head of the client, and realize that your wants and needs are a distant second to the wants and needs of the people you're trying to reach.

In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss the ways that companies often fail by crafting a marketing strategy based more around what they want instead of what the customer needs.

Boasting open rates that approach 100% and action rates nearly 20x higher than email, text message (SMS) marketing is a much more efficient way to communicate with highly-engaged customers and prospects.

Strict opt-in controls coupled with simple and effective opt-out mechanisms are currently keeping the medium from being watered down the way email has become.

In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert of Searles Graphics discuss the success they’ve seen implementing text message marketing for their own clients. They go over what makes this service so much more successful than a traditional email list, some of the initial skepticism their clients had, and how the service ended up exceeding their expectations.

 We’ve noticed a trend that a lot of businesses believe customer service is an easy place to save on costs.

Customer service is one of the primary areas in your business that needs to be invested in, not an opportunity to cut costs to the bone. 

On this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert of Searles Graphics discuss the things companies do that make or break customer service, with real world examples of customer service is done right … and wrong. 

The upfront costs to expand customer service resources will always be outmatched by the value of customer satisfaction, referrals, and return visits. 

Many small businesses make the mistake of either looking at the wrong metrics when analyzing their social media platforms or outsourcing their social media altogether with the expectation that they can just be hands-off and having any presence on social media is better than none at all.

On this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert of Searles Graphics discuss the ways that you construct your own social media strategy by setting meaningful goals and then determining who is best equipped to handle the content and management of your social media platforms with those goals in mind.

In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert address the issue of measuring whether you’re getting a return out of the investment you’re making in the marketing efforts for your business or non-profit.

Deciding what your marketing will look like and where you'll place it is only half the battle. Without a detailed plan for measuring the results of your efforts, it’s impossible to make the appropriate adjustments necessary for long-term success.

This episode discusses specific details about the difference between brand marketing and direct marketing (including why they should be measured differently), and provides recommendations on how to measure your own efforts.

The print buying process can be confusing for new business owners or new marketers. Chris and Rob spent some time on the latest episode of The Messengers podcast talking through some of the more common questions clients have when they don’t have a lot of experience in buying printing to help ensure you end up with a piece that works for you. 

The most successful companies aren’t the ones that take any business that walks through the door, but ones that know their ideal customer and have the courage to say no to customers that aren’t right for them.

In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss understanding your market and the power of saying no.

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New co-host Rob Seifert joins Chris Searles for the first time to discuss Valentine's Day promotions and ways to identify under-served and under-represented markets throughout the year.

John and Chris discuss how to track the return on your social media investment; what big brands and businesses are doing well and where they're falling short, and what small businesses and marketers can do to make sure they're investing their money wisely.