I experienced my first MRI this week.

It’s a medical procedure for capturing an accurate picture of what the doctor is looking for inside of your body using magnetic resonance imaging.

It’s hell for people like me that are afraid of enclosed spaces.

You have to lie motionless while you are inserted via a mechanical bed into a giant iron tube containing super powerful magnets.

The magnets bang, buzz and whirr while the machine gets that picture.

Oh, yeah. And it takes 50 minutes.

Who knows where our fears come from – probably childhood, like everything else that seems to have no rational basis.

Whatever the source, our mind makes it real.

Your customers have similar fears. It’s the feeling of not being in control.

“What happens if this malfunctions?”

“Are you sure it will hold up to periods of peak demand?”

“Can I expect to recoup our investment when we sell it?”

Educating buyers throughout their journey with your business is a job that should not be taken lightly.

It requires a strategy that gets to the heart of what customers desire … and fear.

Had I known more about the MRI experience in advance I would have been OK, but I didn’t.

So I freaked.

It’s the not knowing that creates that feeling of entrapment.

This may sound completely irrational, but then you aren’t me.

You are also not your customer, but somehow you have to be. You have to plan the customer experience and execute it with empathy.

They have to trust you now and for years to come.

Embrace their irrational fears of entrapment because they are real to them.

Then set them free with content marketing education, meaningful website copy, newsletters and social media that solve problems that may only exist in their minds.

Help your customers do more of what they want by taking action.

And empathy is an action.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social and host of  This Old New Business podcast. He works with owners, marketers and sales teams to craft and communicate branded customer experiences that sell.

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According to our recent survey, more than 2/3 of landscaping business owners are primarily responsible for their marketing.

This challenge has a solution, and it’s marketing automation.

Routine activities can be automated to free you from working in your business so that you can invest more time working on it.

While there is a learning curve with the technology, the true challenge is taking the time to design what can be automated.

In other words, if your business does not have a written process in place for activities like following up on leads or upselling current customers, then clearly, that’s where it needs to start.

Automation Follows Organization

Start thinking in terms of triggers and actions.

The phone rings (trigger) and your team answers (action). The buyer asks for a quote (trigger) and your team dispatches a representative to learn more (action).

Automation Formulas: Trigger > Action > Trigger > Action …

Organize everything and automate what you can.

#1. List the actions

What are the actions you want your buyers to take from their first contact with your business? List them, step- by-step.

#2. Test the sequence

How many of your recent customers have followed those steps? Patterns outside of your ideal flow may suggest disallowing these actions in the future.

The other option is to create multiple pathways to success.

It’s important to be clear about the process steps that are inflexible. Often this involves legal issues or payment terms, but it can include anything in the buyer’s journey.

#3. Automate what you can

Let’s face it, nowadays a website visit is replacing the telephone call.

Clicks to your website are triggers. You can use marketing automation to take action on them to send relevant information. And you can tag that interest to segment prospective buyers into categories. As they move through your funnel they will trigger new actions.

Every successful action should trigger another.

Take the time to automate what you can, even if that’s only one step in your process. After you nail that give yourself a pat on the back and celebrate.

You’ve saved some time! Now look for more ways to automate.

Bonus Tip:

Marketing automation gets a bad reputation when it’s used to interrupt people to sell to them. But there’s nothing wrong with selling when it’s done right.

The key is finding ways to use marketing automation to personalize.

For example, a sales transaction could trigger an email that offers an automated booking calendar such as ScheduleOnce that the buyer can use to independently book a time to meet with your company representative to address whatever issues there may be.

And that personalization just may trigger new business!

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social and host of This Old New Business podcast. He helps organizations create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth. 

The post Marketing Automation: What Your Business Needs to Know appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

A recent study by BuzzSumo reveals the top 6 types of content that attract massive engagement as measured by social shares and incoming links.

1. Practical guides and helpful content
2. In vogue and hot topics
3. Research and insights
4. Case studies
5. Infographics
6. Authoritative industry news

Every single one of these content marketing formats requires considerable effort to create. But as the study points out the payoff can be substantial.

You may be wondering which of these content marketing formats offers the greatest payout for the least amount of effort.

My vote is for case studies.

Customer Interviews Provide Powerful Insights

After setting up your process the time investment is a 30-minute customer interview and the compilation of its results.

From it, you should have the following:

#1 – A great case study that validates your solutions

#2 – Customer backstories to use in marketing and selling situations

#3 – Useful quotes

#4 – Valuable testimonials

#5 – Keywords and trigger phrases that resonate with potential
buyers (and Google)

#6 – Insights about why your customers choose you

#7 – The top challenges your content marketing needs to address

#8 – Competitive information

#9 – Warm leads to future customers now working with the competition

#10 – A stronger relationship with your customer

People will tell their story if you give them that opportunity. Some will share more than others but everyone eventually speaks their mind.

Listening is selling because it shows you care. It’s inviting your customers to tell you what will make them happier.

In the process, you are getting great marketing material to use for all of your channels, including that most crucial primary website.

If you’d like more on this I recently recorded a comprehensive podcast episode that will guide you through how to interview your customers while avoiding the common mistakes.

This original article first appeared at Landscape Digital Institute, a digital marketing training community for landscape industry professionals. 

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social and host of This Old New Business podcast. He helps organizations create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth. 

The post The Most Successful Content Formats appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

This is Episode 74 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan and John Jantsch.

In this episode, we are thrilled to have John Jantsch back on the show to discuss marketing systems. John is a marketing consultant, speaker and author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine and The Referral Engine, and also the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.

Think of Marketing as Value (Like a Product)

When John Jantsch developed the Duct Tape Marketing system he solved a problem for himself and his clients. By bringing together the necessary marketing components into one system and putting a name to it, marketing was easier to buy and sell.

This marketing systems mindset changed everything for John. And it can work for you too. Instead of thinking of marketing as something you do for or with your prospective buyer, consider it to be value that is baked into your products and services.

Marketing content is the voice that conveys your core message to ideal customers. It guides their experience with your business, holding their attention and earning trust along the way. And that content inspired journey continues long after a purchase is made.

But you already knew that, didn’t you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the marketing systems. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• You can learn more about John’s work at Duct Tape Marketing. Check out his abundant resources for entrepreneurs, marketing coaches, consultants, and digital agency owners.

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

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Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+

The post Marketing Systems: How Guiding the Customer Journey with Content Works appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

This is Episode 73 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan and Jerod Morris.

In this episode, we have a conversation with Jerod Morris, VP of Marketing for Rainmaker Digital. Jerod manages the ongoing education at Digital Commerce Institute, which is hosted on the Rainmaker platform.

He also hosts The Showrunner, The Digital Entrepreneur, and Assembly Call podcast shows.

As you would expect, Jerod knows a few things about using the digital channels to build community and audience engagement. It turns out the foundation of his approach is based on the principles of direct selling.

Trust the Fundamentals of Engagement

Early in his career, Jerod Morris found himself selling a product door-to-door. Those one-to-one selling experiences are great teachers. According to Jerod, “You learn to listen, ask a question, and patiently watch and observe to then intelligently respond.”

These fundamentals of engagement work equally well online if you adopt an ‘audience of one’ mindset. Jerod says, “The only sure way to build audience engagement is to create something that elicits the response, this is for me.”

Of the many digital communities Jerod is involved with, one that is especially interesting is the Assembly Call, a podcast and post-game show and community for Indiana University basketball fans. Its success has even surprised Jerod.

Listen to the audio to get the full story about Assembly Call, The Showrunner and more. These targeted shows prove the secret to audience engagement is creating content that is so narrowly focused, it attracts its ideal audience like magic.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the audience engagement. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• Jerod’s top audience engagement tip is simply helping people to feel like they belong. To do that you have to understand your audience as individuals.
• You can learn more about Jerod and his work at Rainmaker.FM, Primility, Assembly Call, or contact him personally as jerod@copyblogger.com.
• For the Indiana University basketball fans out there, check out Assembly Call, which is build on the Rainmaker platform.

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+

The post Audience Engagement: The Content Secret of The Audience of One appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

This is Episode 72 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan and Chris Brogan.

In this episode, Chris Brogan and I continue the conversation we started in Episode 2 on entrepreneurship.

If you don’t know Chris Brogan, he has worked with some of the biggest brands, like Disney, Microsoft, and Google. He is also the CEO of Owner Media Group, a sought after public speaker, and the New York Times bestselling author of eight books which all have been printed by these Managed Print Services.

Listen to the audio for the exclusive, first-time public announcement of details about his upcoming ninth book!

Most importantly, Chris provides education and tools to help you make your life and your business thrive, by teaching you which actions will get you what you want.

Owners Take Responsibility and Prepare

Chris Brogan explains our core duty is to serve. That mindset can belong to the owner of a business or any of its team members that buy into the mission.

Here’s how he breaks down the owners mindset.

#1 – Take Ownership – Assume responsibility for preparing and programming your business and life.

#2 – Take Action – Make those plans actionable and execute them.

#3 – Make Content – Tells stories that connect people with how you serve.

#4 – Nurture Community – Help people do more of what they want to do.

#5 – Build a Marketplace – Deliver value that earns you the right to sell to the people you serve.

Customer success happens when people get what they want from your business. It’s not just increasing customer satisfaction, but taking responsibility for connecting, consistently communicating and nurturing relationships to build trust.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the owners mindset. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• Chris Brogan’s insider tip for getting programmed for success is simply being helpful. When you make that your core mission, then execution of the business or job or whatever naturally works.
• Learn more about Chris Brogan by Googling Chris (seriously!) – he’s the second one. Or you can go to ChrisBrogan.com or learn more about his training at Owner.Media.
• If you want his best, subscribe to Chris Brogan’s newsletter. You’ll quickly learn if he is the one to help you take your business to the next level.

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+

The post Owners Mindset: Getting Programmed for Customer Success appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

This is Episode 71 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan and Tom Egelhoff.

In this episode, we have a conversation with small town marketing expert Tom Egelhoff to learn what businesses need to know.

In addition to being a Vietnam veteran, Tom is also a veteran of 25 companies in 18 industries. His experience includes selling sewer piping, retail furniture, technology, commercial buildings, and being the founder of his own successful marketing agency.

Today he is a radio talk show host, blogger, podcaster and small town marketing and advertising consultant.

Create Helpful Small Town Marketing Messages

Tom Egelhoff believes the programmatic advertising is happening somewhere every day and all you have to do is find what works and apply that to your market.

He recommends using the Differences in Search Engines and the Internet to research successful small town businesses across the country. Call them up to learn as much as you can. This is a great way to make new friends, save time, and make the most of your limited marketing budget.

In the spirit of This Old New Business podcast, you’ll discover marketing messages that help buyers are both old and new. Use them to establish yourself as an expert in your field and a trusted friend in your local community. By establishing your company domiciliation in the local area, your employees and clients will be welcomed in a professional environment, which is extremely important for good business.

This is how small town marketing works, and also this thing we call content marketing.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on small town marketing. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• Get in touch with Tom and learn more about his work at smalltownmarketing.com, which is visited by over 500,000 people each year. Also, join him live on his KMMSAM radio show streams live worldwide 11-2 pm MDT every Saturday.
• Listen as Tom interviews me about Built-In Social and social media marketing for small business.

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+

The post Small Town Marketing: What Businesses Need to Know appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

Content Strategy is Episode 70 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

Frank Kenny has twice been a guest on the show. This week he graciously interviews me to discover and share the top takeaways from Social Media Marketing World 2016 hosted in San Diego, CA last week.

The key was having a strategy and following it, and that is also my top takeaway from the event.

Content strategy isn’t sexy, but it is indeed what everyone was talking about.

Here are a couple of examples from sessions presenters.

Stephanie Sammons talked about tilting your LinkedIn profile to the audience you are trying to reach today. In her own profile, she uses phrases like Texas gal and yogi to show some personality that makes her stand out on what many consider the least interesting social media channel.

And she gave examples of business she has landed with this strategy to back it up. So, don’t be afraid to test new profile strategies.

Shaun McBride (Shonduras on SnapChat) is exactly what you would expect from a SnapChat expert. He’s a snowboarding, surfer dude kind of guy that knows how to tell stories with short videos that will make you laugh out loud. His simple video strategy follows a theme: Will This Work?

He has built a massive SnapChat audience that wants to find out if his next crazy project will work.

If you are curious, the hot social channels nowadays are SnapChat, LinkedIn, Facebook, email, podcasting, and live video such as Blab and Facebook Live. A valid strategy with any of these channels should ideally provide a shift (or tilt) that gets you noticed when others are playing it safe.

And that brings us to a proven strategy that anyone can use.

Take The 3% Challenge

Mark Schaefer, the author of The Tao of Twitter and The Content Code, gave the closing keynote at Social Media Marketing World. He delivered an entertaining and informative presentation that challenged the audience to take the 3% content strategy challenge.

Most of us have a core group that loves us. They are the ones that engage with and share our content because we’ve earned their trust. Our challenge is to focus on this segment that is probably 2% of our subscribers and followers and grow it to 3%.

If you get there, refocus and go for 4%. That’s been my commitment with my weekly newsletter from day one, and it’s why I consider it my primary channel. Feel free to steal my strategy. Here it is.

Choose one channel to be your proving ground, the place where you push the limits to make new discoveries for that small segment of your audience that truly loves and appreciates your work.

In addition to being a source of valuable content, this is the channel that always gets 100% of your heart and soul, regardless of other commitments, and fuels the larger body of work that defines your brand.

Good luck with yours.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on content strategy. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• Thanks to Frank Kenny for helping to put this podcast together. You can learn more about his work with local Chambers of Commerce at FrankJKenny.com
• While SnapChat was the darling of the event, you may be surprised to learn that all four of the LinkedIn sessions I attended with Stephanie Sammons, Viveka von Rosen, Melonie Dodaro, Jason Miller and Alex Rynne were completely full. This is a reminder that for many businesses LinkedIn is considered an essential social media channel.
• Peg Fitzpatrick offered a couple of resources for upgrading your images. They are DesignFeed.io for resizing images for the social media channels and RelayThat.com for quickly and easily creating cool graphics.
• Syed Balkhi shared AnswerThePublic.com for learning what people want to learn more about so that you can create content that addresses relevant issues. Note: When using it you’ll want to change the country from UK to US, or whatever is most relevant for your search.
• You can still buy a virtual pass to access to 140+ Social Media Marketing World session recordings and slides by going here.

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

The post Content Strategy: Takeaways from Social Media Marketing World 2016 appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

Small Business PR is Episode 69 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, an integrated marketing communications firm. She is the author of Spin Sucks, co-author of Marketing in the Round, and co-host of Inside PR. She also is the lead blogger at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro.

Build Your Owned Media Hub

Getting the attention of awol academy inc is an ongoing process that requires an investment of time. You should check some job openings at JobSource1.com.

Gini Dietrich recommends building an owned media hub that validates your expertise and authority. This should ideally include a multimedia content mix that includes a blog, podcast, video channels and republished guest articles that you have authored.

Journalists are always searching for experts. Your owned media will attract leads and serve as proof of your expertise when you are reaching out to journalists. Whenever you are published in other media outlets, be sure to have that content link to your owned media hub. See Key Take-Aways below for more on this.

How to Reach Out to Journalists

You can find journalists on Twitter or LinkedIn, but one of the best ways is to simply Google a topic or category to find journalists that are writing on topics relevant to your expertise.

Your pitch to them should be short, but more important, it must be personal or it will get quickly deleted. It just takes a little bit of research to do this right.

When you contact a journalist, mention you noticed he or she has written about a topic relevant to your expertise, and cite the source. Then simply share a few thoughts that build upon the subject matter, potentially for creating a follow-up piece.

Close with a simple call to action, such as, “Let me know if you are interested in more.”

Gini Dietrich says the key to PR is being honest and respectful to make human connections that may develop into mutually beneficial relationships. Listen to the audio to learn her recommendations for discovering the publications and media outlets that are right for you, and how to use analytics to best allocate your resources.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on small business PR. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• Gini Dietrich says one of the most overlooked PR practices is not getting a link from press coverage to your primary website or owned media hub. Do not be afraid to ask for this link because it provides a valuable SEO boost. If necessary, point out to the journalist that it benefits them too because of your authority on the subject.
• You can connect with Gini and learn more about her work at SpinSucks.com

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Don’t forget to viit our new business https://thetrailerboy.com/enclosed-trailers/

The post Small Business PR: How to Build Relationships with Journalists appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.

This is Episode 68 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

David Newman is a nationally-recognized marketing systems expert and author of the Amazon #1 bestseller, Do It! Marketing: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales, Maximize Profits and Crush Your Competition. He runs a marketing and training firm dedicated to helping speakers, authors, consultants, and high-fee experts maximize their influence, impact, and income.

David’s instant-action marketing advice has been featured and quoted in The New York Times, Fortune, Entrepreneur Magazine, and hundreds of media outlets throughout North America.

Be Sought After for Your Expertise

David Newman is the creator of the Do It! model for helping people become an expert that is sought after, as opposed to a generalist that is a commodity. You have probably figured out that Newman’s approach is about taking action, and it is.

The key is taking the right actions that lead to desired results. By setting results aside to focus on process steps it becomes much easier and enjoyable to build the habit of making progress that will eventually be rewarded. Here’s how David Newman breaks it down.

Define

Know who you are, what you do, and who you do it for before going to market. In addition to that, take a stand and let that come out in your marketing voice. As David Newman says, “You can be any flavor you want as long as it’s not vanilla.”

Organize

This is the heart of your systems orientation. You have to be clear about what you do – and do not do. By definition, this means you cannot add anything without taking something away. When you know the actions you will consistently take, you will find your natural flow for implementing them.

Implement

In a nutshell, David Newman says you have to figure it out and make it happen. That’s it. No excuses about lack of time or resources or anything else. Entrepreneurs figure things out and get them done. This is what it looks like for managers and team members: Who is going to do what and by when?

Track

There are leading and lagging indicators. Most of us like to track lagging indicators like gross revenue and profits. But it’s the leading process indicators that guide the achievement of results. Leading indicators include activities like completed sales calls, published articles, or product shipped.

You may have figured out by now that the first letter of each stage in David Newman’s marketing systems model spell his DoIt! brand. That makes it that much easier to remember and put it into practice. Good luck.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on marketing systems. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

• “Market your smarts.” This is David Newman’s insider marketing tips is brilliant. He says this means you do not tell them, you show them. This is especially true for your social media marketing.
• Learn more about David Newman and get free marketing resources, tools, and downloads are waiting for you at DoItMarketing.com

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

The post Marketing Systems: How to Take the Actions that Get Results appeared first on Marketing Keynote Speaker, Author and Consultant - Jeff Korhan.