The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Podcast

If you're looking for a visually creative way to market your business, then look no further than Pinterest. Pinterest offers a visually rich platform that appeals to customers in a way that blogging or other text mediums do not. It's also a fantastic way to build brand awareness as well as a personality for your company. With a little patience and common sense, you can find that Pinterest offers another playing field to not only reach your audience, but also to position yourself to get more traffic through Google and other search engines. Tina Gammon uses her Pinterest expertise to appeal to her customers - in this day and age of instant information gratification - and she does it with visuals. Her savvy and creative pins allow her customers to use them like a catalog that they can flip through to find just what they're looking for. And if you give your customers what they're looking for, they'll keep coming back. www.theagentsofchange.com/174

If you're looking for a way to really focus your time on the social media activity for your business, you may need to limit the number of platforms that you're on. Using a few key tactics and strategies - such as interviews and surveys - can help you choose the best one or two platforms to concentrate on that can really help your business grow and drive more traffic back to your website. Beth Hayden is an author and marketing expert who uses her expertise to help businesses create and implement online marketing systems that work to increase traffic and leads. www.theagentsofchange.com/173

With organic reach shrinking across the board, content marketers are scrambling for answers. See what media company Social Media Examiner has done to overcome the lack of reach and what you can learn from the steps they took. Michael Stelzer is a social media expert, and a leading authority on the topics of writing and marketing white papers. He knows the secrets to helping businesses navigate the various social channels available today with strategies and tactics that translate to success. www.agentsofchangecon.com/172

How can a small business with limited resources ever compete with the business giants when it comes to SEO? Fortunately, it's not just about volume these days. Things like inbound links and a nice library of good content will determine the winner. And those are odds even a non betting person can get behind. Concentrating on things like keyword research, link building, and on-page optimization will allow your business to build a marketing plan around specific keywords and phrases, that will in turn help you improve the quality and value of the content you're creating. Jennifer Christensen and Suzette Bergeron are the brains behind Bulletin Brands. Together they have honed a mostly organic approach to how they use SEO to build their business and can testify that approximately 95% of their new business comes from organic search alone. www.agentsofchangecon.com/171

How many times have you hit that fork in the road when trying to solve a business decision? Are you worried you're not reaching the precise audience that's right for your business? Have you ever envisioned what your one, ideal audience member would look like if you put a face and backstory to them? Creating an avatar of your one, perfect listener allows you to narrow your niche to the most precise audience member that you're trying to reach. Your avatar is your targeted demographic that allows you to focus exactly on the people that benefit most from your message. Once you know who that person is, it allows your business to find its direction and become a magnet that people are drawn to. John Lee Dumas is the Entrepreneur On Fire, whose podcast was recognized as Best Of iTunes in 2013. John's podcasts aim to teach upcoming entrepreneurs to take their leap towards success by hearing the stories of failures and lessons learned from other well-known entrepreneurs. www.agentsofchangecon.com/170

It's fair to say that the marketing goal of most businesses is to attract, nurture and convert their leads all the way down through the sales funnel. But what's the most efficient way to do that? When you send the right messages to the right people you peak their interest, and marketing automation allows organizations to more effectively streamline their marketing efforts on multiple channels - such as email, websites, social media - and to automate repetitive tasks. If your goal is to increase your organization's operational efficiency and grow revenue faster, then look no further than marketing automation. With over 17 years of experience in business development and strategic sales, Charles Chadwick uses his expertise at SharpSpring to develop effective and streamlined marketing solutions that drive business growth and bring immediate value to organizations. www.agentsofchangecon.com/169

I can't believe we're TWO DAYS from the Agents of Change conference. There's STILL so much to get done it's crazy! So, I hope you can forgive me that instead of a typical interview, or me reading a chapter of my upcoming book, I'm instead sharing with you my presentation from last year, Digital Marketing in an Hour a Day. I've also posted the full video from last year's presentation at the show notes if you'd prefer to watch this week instead of listen. www.agentsofchangecon.com/168

There are certain things that every business website needs. In this podcast I want to talk about a few things that you just can't do without… www.agentsofchangecon.com/167

With the population's growing addiction to their mobile devices these days, you want to make sure you reach your audience where they're hanging out. And with a community of over 500 million, Instagram is one of the world's largest mobile ad platforms and a perfect place to reach your ideal customer. Small businesses are especially ideal candidates for Instagram advertising, as it allows users to dip into Facebook's enormous data and target specific audiences, as well as nurture audience engagement. So as long as you know your target audience and how to reach them - when done right - Instagram ads have almost unparalleled potential to increase brand awareness and conversion rates for your business. Morgan Sutton loves helping small businesses meet their business goals by assisting them with their operations logistics, including educating them on social media automation systems and how to effectively advertise on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. www.agentsofchangecon.com/166

All good business decisions are based on crucial data. Knowing exactly what data will help you make the best business decisions is the key. But that sounds like a lot of work developing time consuming reports, right? Wrong. Google Analytics takes the guesswork out of it and can actually save you time and advertising dollars. Google Analytics can easily tell you who is visiting your site, how they're getting to your site, what they're doing on your site, and if they are actually converting. By simply setting up your Analytics with a few key bits of information, you can find out all of this crucial data, and more. In essence, Google does the math for you, ensuring you more successful marketing campaigns and accurate measurability of what's working and what's not. Andy Crestodina is a content marketing and Google Analytics savant. His knowledge, tips and advice on the topics of content strategy, search and analytics have made him one of the most passionate and sought after teachers in the marketing industry. www.agentsofchangecon.com/164

By now everyone knows that your email list is gold, as far as your business is concerned. Unlike social media sites such as Facebook, where you're basically just "renting space", your email list is your very own property, as well as an invaluable business commodity. But in this ever changing and evolving world of mobile marketing, finding a way to mesh the two together is key. . In order to stay on top in the mobile marketing era, you need to balance keeping your email marketing efforts relevant in this age of social media. Keeping in mind how much time the average person spends on their smartphones these days - and reaching out to them there - will help to keep your business front of mind, authentic, and open up other creative opportunities for your business to engage with your audience. Heather Jackson has more than 20 years experience helping businesses with their online and offline marketing strategies. She loves speaking and presenting at seminars and conferences on the topics of digital, social and email marketing, as well as best practices to help businesses grow using available online tools. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/164

With all of the live streaming platform options out there, Facebook decided to throw their hat in the ring, too. And the result is pretty impressive. If you're a small business and you aren't currently taking advantage of this shiny new toy, then you need to check it out. Because if you're not using it, your competition surely is. Facebook Live allows users to share their experiences and content with their followers via real-time video on their timeline. It's also pretty versatile, allowing access from both a smartphone and a computer. And as of now, Facebook's algorithm is currently set to be extremely favorable to those going Live. So without much in the way of expensive equipment needed, Facebook Live is a great way to connect and interact with your audience, as well as create evergreen content that you can then share to other platforms. Ian Anderson Gray is a social media coach, trainer and consultant who loves to teach business owners how to leverage Facebook Live to engage and connect with their audience, all while creating valuable content to attract and retain viewers and customers. www.agentsofchangecon.com/163

One of the first things I do when sitting down with a client for SEO, is to ask them two questions: What do you think are some of the phrases that your ideal customer would search for to find a product, service, or company like yours? What do you want to rank well for? These questions might start a brainstorming session, but really they're not enough. Too many of us have spent too much time in our own industry. We're not thinking about the questions that a brand new customer--someone not familiar with our industry--might ask. One of the exercises I recommend is to try and brainstorm keywords using five perspectives. www.agentsofchangecon.com/162

With so many social platforms to choose from, how do you know which ones work best for your business? And once you find those two or three that let you really engage with your audience, what kind of content do you need to put out there to keep them interested and engaged? The key is to find your audience where they hang out, get them to trust you and find value in what you have to offer, and then keep them entertained so they'll come back time and time again. Knowing early on that different platforms afford us different opportunities to amplify your brand, your voice and your content is what will translate to business success in the long run. Sue B. Zimmerman has a true passion for Instagram, and through her success there, has created proven tactics and strategies for business growth on other social channels as well. www.agentsofchangecon.com/161

With so many advertising platforms out there, why should you choose Facebook, and what benefits does it offer over the other options? One of the biggest differences with Facebook compared to Google - for example - is that where Google helps you find new customers, Facebook helps new customers find you. Facebook boasts a huge worldwide audience of 1.55 billion active monthly users, and has unrivaled audience enormity. That reach alone makes Facebook appealing. But when you add in the ability to enhance audience targeting, increase reach for your content, awesome tracking of performance and ROI, and only spend as little as you like and still get results, Facebook advertising is a no brainer, especially for small businesses looking to make a big impact. Massimo Chieruzzi loves to talk about using Facebook advertising for small businesses. His business, Ad Espresso, is a leading Facebook Ads optimization platform. Massimo loves helping small businesses get the most from their Facebook advertising while keeping it both simple and affordable. www.agentsofchangecon.com/160

Do you think sponsorships are only for nonprofits or big names and huge companies with a massive following and years of experience in their industry? Then think again. Even if you're just starting out and looking to hold an event, if you have an interested audience then you can find sponsors to help you defray the expenses involved with such an undertaking. Squash the myths that are holding you back. You can go after the big companies, you can land the big bucks, and you can keep them coming back year after year. By building a relationship with them that blends cohesively with your intended audience and giving them the incentive to support you financially, you can be successful at landing big sponsorships whether it's your first time at it or not. Linda Hollander knows how to attract big sponsors both for herself and her clients. Her thoughtful and compelling strategies for landing big names and big dollars are sure to help skyrocket your next business venture. www.agentsofchangecon.com/159

We all know by now that Pinterest has proven itself as more than a wedding planning and DIY platform. More and more businesses are seeing the power of using Pinterest to market and grow. By following a few basic "rules", you can effectively locate and market to your audience using Pinterest. Making sure you know your audience, create visually appealing content - both original and curated - make sure your boards really show who you are and you are categorizing them well, pin with some amount of frequency/regularity, and most importantly look to other pinners for inspiration. These are the "commandments", if you will, to successful Pinterest marketing that will help you grow your small business in a steady way. Kate Ahl is a Pinterest pro, turning what started as a personal interest in Pinterest into a business where she helps take the mystery out of Pinterest marketing, and allows her clients to sit back and relax as she puts into place strategies to grow followers and increase page views. www.agentsofchangecon.com/158

When people think about SEO, they often think of it as a cumbersome and laborious task, but it's actually less complex than a lot of marketers make it sound. It is, however, a mandatory marketing tactic if you want to increase visibility and take your business to the next level. Certainly you can - and in some cases should - hire a SEO pro, but there are some fairly simple strategies and techniques - even free tools - that a novice can use to make all the difference. It all starts with content, of course, but making sure you're choosing your keywords carefully, testing them out, and measuring their effectiveness makes all the difference. And don't forget to check out your competition, learn from their triumphs and failures, too. With over 8 years of experience and a true passion for web marketing, Nicki Hicks loves to help businesses reach their ideal target audience and increase their online presence with smart SEO. www.agentsofchangecon.com/157

By now you already know the importance of having a strong email list. It's more than just numbers, you need to find the exact people that will engage with you, read your content, and buy your products and services. So where do you find them and how do you keep them? Facebook ads can be an important and valuable way to find that audience, for a relatively inexpensive option. Facebook ads offer concise options for targeting - and retargeting - as well as pretty cool analytics to help you track who's clicking your links and who isn't. Amy Porterfield is a social media strategy consultant who has helped countless entrepreneurs and small businesses establish strategies to boost the success of their online marketing efforts. www.agentsofchangecon.com/156

Looking to reboot your business's marketing strategy? Maybe you're wanting to try something different to give your business's voice a kick in the pants. Perhaps you're looking for a way to engage more intimately and directly with your audience. Well look no further, live video is here and easier than ever! Keeping your audience and customers engaged can be a constant challenge. Providing them with compelling content is just one way to keep them coming back. But creatively getting it to them and mixing it up is another great way to do that, and live video offers an exciting and more engaging way to connect with your audience, and lets them have in on the fun, too. Lou Mongello is proof that live video engagement can be an effective and creative tool for keeping your audience interested - and more importantly - coming back to you time and again. Live video is just one of the ways he has helped build his business and brand by keeping his content fresh and engaging. www.agentsofchangecon.com/155

Are you having trouble getting people to fill out your online forms? Sometimes it's as simple as offering some motivation to influence your users. No, you don't have to offer a free Ferrari to anyone who fills out your form, but there are other - less extreme - ways. Paying attention to your analytics can make all the difference in finding out things like at which point your potential customers may be consistently abandoning your form, or how effective your forms actual are in converting customers. With a few tweaks, hacks and tips, you can optimize your forms and turn them into powerful, lead capturing goldmines! Marcus Taylor knows that forms separate your leads from non-leads, and he understands that they are one of the highest points of leverage that an online business has. His "Form Optimization Pyramid" framework outlines the different stages of how likely someone is to convert using a form, and can be used to help you optimize your business's online forms. www.agentsofchangecon.com/154

Just what the heck is Google Display Network (GDN), and how can you make it work for your business? With so many ad platforms out there, what makes this one special and how can your business best benefit from using it? GDN allows businesses to advertise images and videos on websites of their choice, so you have the ability to get pretty niche here if you choose to. Plus, think of all ways that can help your online branding! You have the ability to find and reach customers that otherwise might have been missed through other advertising platforms. Lisa Raehsler is about as "expert" as you can get on the topics of PPC, display, retargeting, and social media ad campaigns. Her strategy and program development for countless businesses over the last 17 years has shown quick, proven results. www.agentsofchangecon.com/153

So maybe your website isn't quite performing as well as you'd like. Maybe you're just not seeing much conversion, or at least the conversion rates you're hoping to reach. How do you go about figuring out where you may need to start tweaking things to improve on that? A/B split testing is a great way to test a few different variations and see what jives better with your audience. But where do you start? For a website with a large number of pages, that can be a pretty daunting task if you start testing variations of every page. Your best bet is to first see what individual pages - and aspects of each page - are performing and converting well as is, and then start working on those that need help. Chris Dayley is the founder of Dayley Conversion, where he uses his expertise and knowledge of using scientific, data-driven testing to help businesses improve their customer's user experiences. www.agentsofchangecon.com/152

For business owners, it's been pounded into our heads that we need to build our email lists. Build your list and email your audience with content, information and special offers. Sure, email is great, but do you realize the average person that owns a smartphone has it in their hand almost every 7 minutes? So doesn't it make sense to hit them up where they're hanging out? Texting isn't just a convenient way to chat with our family and friends, it's also a powerful mobile marketing tool. If you're doing it in a purely opt in way, and offering some form of attractive incentive, texting can offer you benefits over other forms of marketing. Texting is quick, interactive and pretty inexpensive. It's also a great way to send out time sensitive information, whereas if you were to send an email, that may not be opened by the intended recipient until the next time they log into their laptop or PC. Brian Mikes completely immersed himself in the world marketing, learning online marketing, email marketing, SEO and online advertising. Now he teaches the benefits and profitability of text message marketing. www.agentsofchangecon.com/151

The world of marketing is ever changing and you need to keep evolving with the changing times in order to not only just keep up, but to also succeed. What worked 10 or even 5 years ago is almost obsolete now. What can you do to entice your audience to make you stand out from your competitors? Some people will tell you that you need to be everywhere that your audience is, and although that's a fairly industrious undertaking, it just may not be possible depending on the size of your business and the manpower you have to dedicate to that. Remember that movie Field Of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come"? Well, the same is true for digital marketing. If you create something great, they will come to your channel, regardless of what that may be for you. It really does boil down to the content you create and send out. And that doesn't necessarily equate to quantity. Try quality over quantity to differentiate yourself from the masses. For over 20 years, Robert Rose has been helping businesses tell their stories more effectively through digital media. His expert strategic marketing advice has boosted both small and global brands and assisted them in creating experiences that their consumers fall in love with. www.agentsofchangecon.com/150

So you've got yourself a blog, and like everyone else with a blog, you're looking for ways to use it to increase traffic and generate leads for your business. Naturally, you keep pumping out new content and sending it out to your email list and other social channels. But is that really enough? It's true, new content is important. But what happens to the older posts you've written, do you just let them collect dust and keep moving forward? The answer is "no!" By revisiting and carefully optimizing your older posts, you're taking advantage of the content that might still be generating traffic by invigorating new life into it, while at the same time providing great search results by updating information that very possibly has changed since it was originally written. Pamela Vaughan is HubSpot's blog optimization expert. Over the last year she has helped HubSpot double their conversion rates by optimizing their historical (older) posts. Her creative and innovative ideas on the topic can help your business's blog do the same thing. www.agentsofchangecon.com/149

Maybe you're an entrepreneur looking to start selling yourproducts or services online, or maybe you already have a brick andmortar store but are looking to expand your business online.Ecommerce offers many advantages, especially if you follow a fewsmart tips.Ecommerce is more than just slapping some pictures of yourproducts online. Smart and precise advertising is key, you need toknow who to target and how to drive that traffic to your products.So is gaining your potential customer's trust, prove to them thatyou're the one they want to buy from. And what do you do if theytake their shopping cart to the checkout but never follow through?There are ways to save that sale!Steve Chou followed his dream of entrepreneurship and startedhis own successful ecommerce business. Through trial and error, aswell as some pretty cool tricks, he has built a successfulecommerce business that has grown steadily since he started it in2007. www.agentsofchangecon.com/148

Does the thought of putting on a live webinar scare you? Or maybe you've been hosting some live webinars but just aren't getting the attendance or conversion rates that you're hoping for. Don't give up, maybe your structure just needs a little tweaking. By just following a few key tips and utilizing some handy tools - from platform selection, to creating valuable content, to follow up after the event - it can help you to better navigate the ever evolving world of webcasting. Your goal should be to create valuable and interesting conversations that convert to sales, all while respecting your audience's valuable time. James Hilliard counts Fortune 500 companies as just some of the clients that he has helped in all aspects of webcasting, assisting them in delivering compelling presentations that audiences appreciate. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/147

When it comes to writing web copy, you probably thank your lucky stars you can hire a copywriter to do it for you. But if you can’t afford that luxury, or are just determined to do it yourself, you may have sorely underestimated how difficult it can be. The first thing you need to remember is that you’re speaking as your brand, product or service, not yourself. And although there may be some overlap there, don’t fall victim to the rookie mistake of forgetting how to talk to your audience in the voice of your product, while still sounding human. And then once you get your words on paper, you need to be able to edit that sucker within an inch of its life without getting attached to your own writing. It’s not as easy as you may think. Beth Dunn is passionate about good writing and offers her tips and tricks to writing and editing persuasive copy that speaks to your audience in a language they trust, understand and respect. www.agentsofchangecon.com/146

If you asked yourself to name one thing that all successful companies have in common, you might answer, “marketing”. But even before that, they spent a great deal of time on their branding. Branding - in essence - is developing an image, with the results to back it up. And this certainly doesn’t just apply to businesses, there are plenty of personal brands making their mark in the world as well. Unfortunately, all too often not enough time is spent on branding before the marketing starts. But to truly have a successful marketing strategy, you need to have a solid foundation in place with your branding, and that’s more than just a cool logo. By following five key elements to build and define your brand platform, you will have a strong foundation to work with. Adrion Porter is a leading authority on brand building and personal brand development. His popular podcast, Gen X Amplified, empowers and inspires people to be leaders both in business and in life. www.agentsofchangecon.com/145

A common misconception surrounding Google AdWords is that people think no one ever really clicks those ads that show up on the right hand side of the search page. But whether you personally do or not, someone sure is, as those ads account for 90% of Google’s revenue from advertising as a direct result of people clicking those exact ads. In order to get in on the action, your business needs to navigate the many choices and options offered by AdWords to best work with your specific business campaign’s goal. Quality is going to go a long way here, so making sure you are on point with your target audience will translate huge. Knowing where your audience is, attracting them with concise and helpful ad copy - think strong and concise keywords - as well as refining your targeting strategy (beware the automatic default settings), will all help you win big in the end. Ross Kaplan-Winn loves helping businesses learn, test and implement online strategies, and has been managing PPC accounts since 2008. His knowledge and expertise is continually evolving as he stays up to date in the ever changing world of paid advertising. www.agentsofchangecon.com/144

This is a special announcement for AOC listeners! Make sure you head on over to http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/register to take advantage today!

It is possible to build a business around your passion, people are doing it everyday. But aside from passion and commitment, what separates the successes from the failures? Making sure you are not a carbon copy of other businesses in your niche is a great first step. Think about how you can differentiate yourself, even if that is just by taking a different angle or “spin” on the same topics as your competitors. Other tips such as maintaining an editorial calendar and making sure that you are doing your research will go far in helping you reach your goals. By taking what he was truly passionate about, Scott Niswander was able to earn an income, and amass a large following with his YouTube videos, all originating from his love of the comic book genre. www.agentsofchangecon.com/143

Do you know who the influencers in your business, industry or niche are? Do you know where to find them? These are the thought leaders that have built trust and credibility among their audiences through their products or services by creating great value. When you connect and engage with these influencers, you can begin to increase awareness of your own brand and increase your own reputation in the process. But learning how to properly connect in a way that’s mutually beneficial to you both is the key to creating and nurturing a lasting relationship. Fabienne Raphael is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build their businesses. Her knowledge and expertise at creating and nurturing influencer relationships - as well as her mantra, “Connect, Build, Automate” - has helped her to successfully land big name guests for her podcast, “Marketing To Crush Your Competition." www.agentsofchangecon.com/142

Almost any business can benefit from using Reddit as a marketing tool. Afterall, it calls itself the “Front Page of the Internet”, which is more than appropriate with it’s fascinating mix of interesting links, conversations, news and social commentary. It’s a community for sharing content and ideas and pieces of information that you find useful. If you’re new to Reddit it can seem overwhelming at first. With the sheer volume of subReddits alone, Reddit is a neverending information buffet. The key is to just get in there and watch what’s going on. Search the topic of your business audience’s interest and see what people are saying. Reddit is a fantastic tool to gather ideas for things like content creation, blogs, podcasts, email newsletters and more. It will take your broad topic and niche it down into different related avenues - or subReddits - that your ideal audience is also interested in. Jon Quinton loves talking SEO and coffee. He has also achieved success both for his own agency as well as that of his client’s by using Reddit as an effective and creative marketing tool. www.agentsofchangecon.com/141/

Thanks to all of the digital marketing and social media platforms available to us today, businesses have the availability to reach their customers on a global scale. But what if you’re looking to concentrate on a more local level? Learning to expand your local footprint using these same platforms can be very important, too. Once you figure out the best digital market action plan that works for your particular business, you can begin to use the abundance of tools that these various platforms offer to niche down and target exactly the people you need to reach for your business’s success. By following the four main elements of a successful marketing framework - attraction, engagement, conversion and measurement - you can then pull in the different tools or channels that make the most sense for you based on your business and your audience, and you will find success. Rich Brooks is the founder and president of flyte new media, a web design and marketing firm in Portland, Maine. A thought leader in his industry, he has helped countless small businesses on the topics of search, social and mobile marketing as well as how to reach your ideal audience. His Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference has brought together top notch experts in the industry giving you their valuable tips on leveraging the digital marketing channels available to businesses today. www.agentsofchangecon.com/140

If you’re looking for a way to up the ante with your marketing repertoire, why not add video to the mix? It can be a great way to build brand trust and loyalty with your audience, as well as add another level to your marketing strategy.You don’t have to have a lot of experience in front of the camera to make great videos, you just need to follow a few simple rules and be willing to tweak things as needed. Shooting a video is more than just reading a script on camera. To make the biggest impact, you need to share great content and pay attention to small but important things such as lighting and audio. And of course once you have the finished product you need to know how to use it and share it to make the biggest impact and get the most exposure.Patrick Allmond knows how to help businesses use video to make the most impact with their audiences. He proves that you don’t need fancy, expensive equipment to make great videos that take your marketing strategy up a notch to help differentiate you from your competition. www.agentsofchangecon.com/139

You can put a lot of time and effort into your Facebook ads, but if no one is reading or clicking on them, then what good are they? Every Facebook ad you create should be about results. And to get the results you want you need to stay ahead of the curve and pay more attention to the content you’re putting out, as well as understand how it’s being perceived by your target audience. Facebook ads are a bit different than, say, Google ads. With Google, your potential customer is seeing ads based on a specific search they’re typing in. With Facebook ads, you need to find out first who your target audience is based on their search behavior and where they’re hanging out in order to get in front of them. It can be tricky, but with careful research and testing, Facebook ads can give you a good amount of bang for your buck. If you hone in and really target your audience, provide them with great content that answers their needs, make the ads aesthetically eye catching and test them regularly for the best response, you’ll find Facebook ads are a great option to increase conversion rates and grow your business. Julie Lowe creates social media strategies for businesses looking to increase leads, sales and create a successful plan for future business growth. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/138

If you own any kind of business, you already know the importance of receiving customer reviews. For better or worse, it’s a way to gauge if you’re providing the kind of service your customers are expecting. Even more important, they can dictate whether a potential customer even decides to give your business a try just based on other’s opinions of you. So the challenge now becomes getting those customers who had positive experiences with you to leave an online review. But how do you actually go about it and is there a “polite” way to do this? And what do you do if you receive a negative review? The goal now is to develop a review strategy, take control of your reviewing platforms, encourage your customers to leave reviews and turn them into your brand ambassadors. Jason Baumann is the Chief Digital Strategist at Boxless Media, inventor of ReviCards and expert on online reviews. His passion for and understanding of the importance of online reviews has helped businesses grow using digital and social media while also encouraging them to embrace the online reviewing process. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/137

Being part of a startup is an exciting time. There’s a reason why people compare it to a rollercoaster ride! The ups: You’re filled with passion about creating something that will bring value to others. There’s a certain energy that fuels your dreams--no, that’s not the Red Bull--and allows you to take on new challenges that you might have felt impossible before. The downs: However, there are many hurdles ahead of you. You lack visibility, credibility, and leads. You have few or no customers. No one knows who you are. You’re on a shoestring budget. Maybe you think that social media is some sort of silver bullet, but you’re about to get a rude awakening. Take Facebook, for instance: you’re competing for the attention of your ideal customers against other startups, established businesses, local and national companies, news organizations, the PTA, mothers-in-law, college buddies, friends and family. But don’t get frustrated. Although social media isn’t the easy game it was just a few years ago, there is a method to grow your credibility, audience, and startup using digital marketing. agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/136

Marketers are always looking for advice on their email campaigns. How often should they send out emails, how can they improve open and click through rates? Segmenting is an often overlooked and misunderstood tactic, but a very important one. Too often marketers are concerned more with quantity over quality when it comes to their email lists. But realizing that your audience is made up of different types of consumers in various stages of the sales cycle and making sure you’re emailing them content based on their needs is the key. Learning to effectively segment your audience while keeping that in mind can help you both improve your reputation and yield better results. Stephan Hovnanian is an email marketer and web strategist who works with B2B brands helping them revitalize their email marketing efforts by revive and stimulate their relationships with their audiences. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/135

Almost out of nowhere, live mobile video streaming has seemingly become the newest craze. But is it a fad or is there really some benefit to it? With multiple platforms and apps offering this option, could this be the new frontier in social marketing? Streaming content online isn’t a new concept, but more and more businesses are seeing the benefits of mobile live streaming as it allows them to connect with their audience in a way that makes them appear more relatable in a "live event" type setting. In return, businesses are getting better brand exposure and better interaction with customers. By using live streaming to boost live events, host interviews, giving a “behind the scenes” look and many other options, it gives businesses an opportunity to engage with their audience in real time. Vincenzo Landino’s expertise and forward thinking in the areas of social and content marketing has helped countless businesses boost their brands and command attention with their audiences and customers. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/134

Facebook has an incredible global reach of more than 1 billion active users, so it makes perfect sense why businesses - both large and small - are flocking to Facebook Advertising to reach their audiences. With a variety of platforms and options to choose from, Facebook makes it almost too easy to target exactly the audience demographic that you want, even allowing you to niche down to the most finite of audiences. Once you choose your objective, Facebook gives you the power to segment and optimize your ads in innumerable ways, including placement and even posting it to Instagram. But it doesn’t end there, Facebook also helps you to track your results, allowing you to tweak - if need be - as you go along to ensure your success. Katrina Crowell is the Digital Marketing Consultant and Strategist, as well as an SEO guru at flyte new media. Her sharp marketing skills - as well as a few learned tips and tricks - have made her both successful and effective while utilizing Facebook’s advertising platform, not only for flyte, but for their clients as well. http://www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/133

Building an audience to ensure your podcast is successful is a no brainer. But how you choose to go about that can make all the difference between getting a few random downloads or getting a dedicated audience of listeners waiting with baited breath for each new episode that they loyally download and listen to from start to finish every time. Your goal should be to find those dedicated listeners that you know will anticipate every new episode - and hopefully - are excited enough to engage with you in the form of feedback. But how do you build that trust and loyalty within your audience? You start by providing them with the most valuable content you can, and then initiate and foster a sense of community and reciprocity where they feel inclined to offer the same to you. Cliff Ravenscraft is the "Podcast Answer Man," a highly respected podcasting consultant and coach at the top of his game. The best and biggest names in podcasting have studied and learned under Cliff’s tutelage and gone on to become some of the most respected and revered names in podcasting today. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/132

Hopefully by now we all know that Pinterest is more than wedding dresses, cupcakes and DIY projects. It can actually be a pretty powerful marketing tool used to drive business, if you follow a few key tips. Like with any platform, you should never just throw money behind a campaign for promotion unless organically it’s got some legs on it already. So, learning what content to pin - and what your audience is interested in - is vital to your success. Pinterest is an excellent way to promote your brand, and their “promoted pins” takes things a step further and increases visibility, so you get the right audience at the right time. Alisa Meredith is a Pinterest-obsessed content strategist and marketer. If you value more traffic, leads and customers, then Alisa’s tips and advice using Pinterest’s promoted pins will be a valuable addition to your current marketing strategy. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/131

Most businesses come up with all of their products and services first, and then go out and try to market them. But what about developing those things with your audience, in a collaborative fashion? Sort of like taking a "find them first and see what they need" approach. The key to any good marketing strategy is to market to the key audience that wants what you have, but what’s the most effective way? And if you find one platform or channel that works, should you just stick with that or add others to your repertoire? Try concentrating on your strengths and what is already working and then simply building upon that. A strong foundation is a great starting point, then slowly try casting your net deeper versus wider. John Jantsch is the marketing guy to look to if you're a small business trying to grow. His simple and effective approach to marketing can turn even the hardest cynics into believers once they start seeing real results from his effective marketing strategies. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/130

You’ve got yourself a website and a blog, but how do you get people to notice you? You can’t just post a few blog entries, sit back, and wait for the traffic to come. So how do you get noticed, find an audience and keep them? There’s more to content creation than just writing a few articles. Learning how to write effectively to reach the people searching for your topics will be your key to success. And there are a lot of tools out there to help you, you just need to invest the time and take advantage them. Things like guest blogging, backlinks, utilizing and reading your Google Analytics reports and learning how to find the most effective keywords, not only in your posts but in the titles, can mean all the difference when it comes to beating your competition in the search rankings. Rich Brooks - SEO savant and owner of Flyte New Media - answers your questions on how to do all of this and more in this latest “Mailbag” episode of The Agents of Change Podcast. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/129

You cannot truly learn anything until you have to teach it to somebody else. And with so many platforms out there – blogs, podcasts, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, etc – how do you find the most effective way to reach and advertise to your audience? But more important than knowing where your audience hangs out, you need to find out how your personal voice can lend a different perspective and spin on some of the same information that is and has already been presented and published on the same topic. Mitch Joel is a content marketing gangster and the guy that Google turns to when they want to explain innovation and marketing to some of the top brands in the world. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/128

When Snapchat first came on the scene, it was widely known as the “sexting platform”, where teens and millennials ruled the demographic. But like many social media platforms, marketers began to see it’s potential for businesses as a powerful marketing tool, making it the fastest growing social network to date. One of the aspects that sets Snapchat apart from its competing platforms, is that these posts - or “snaps” - either videos or pictures, don’t just sit around and get lost in a user’s timeline, once they are opened. They are only around for 1-10 seconds before they disappear, allowing you to have your audience’s undivided attention once they open your snap. So make sure you get creative and offer extremely valuable content. You are giving your audience a unique opportunity to really engage with your brand in real time, so get savvy and create stories they can relate to. Nick Cicero knows social media platforms inside and out, and is a leading authority on how to get the most out of your marketing initiatives. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/127

Creating customer loyalty is the very backbone of many small businesses. But creating customer loyalty doesn’t just happen overnight, sometimes your customers need a little nudge to encourage them to keep coming back. And what better way to encourage them than by making it as easy for them as possible. The key is in connecting the transaction to the loyalty aspect for your customers. The philosophy behind customer loyalty programs is really quite simple; mobile payment apps provide both the merchant and the customer a faster transaction, repeat customers are rewarded, and the businesses sales increase. In today’s world of consumer savviness, businesses recognize mobile payment apps enhance the guest experience as well as help extend their brand, therefore making it crucial for brands to enhance their offerings, and loyalty programs top the list. Chris Munz’s mobile marketing technology expertise has helped countless national brands better understand their marketing needs, and helped them implement mobile strategies to succeed in business. www.agentsofchangecon.com/podcasts/126